A Study In Luke - Day 15

DAY 15 - Luke 7:1-10
 
7 When Jesus had finished saying all this to the people, he returned to Capernaum. 2 At that time the highly valued slave of a Roman officer was sick and near death. 3 When the officer heard about Jesus, he sent some respected Jewish elders to ask him to come and heal his slave. 4 So they earnestly begged Jesus to help the man. “If anyone deserves your help, he does,” they said, 5 “for he loves the Jewish people and even built a synagogue for us.”
6 So Jesus went with them. But just before they arrived at the house, the officer sent some friends to say, “Lord, don’t trouble yourself by coming to my home, for I am not worthy of such an honor. 7 I am not even worthy to come and meet you. Just say the word from where you are, and my servant will be healed. 8 I know this because I am under the authority of my superior officers, and I have authority over my soldiers. I only need to say, ‘Go,’ and they go, or ‘Come,’ and they come. And if I say to my slaves, ‘Do this,’ they do it.”
9 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed. Turning to the crowd that was following him, he said, “I tell you, I haven’t seen faith like this in all Israel!” 10 And when the officer’s friends returned to his house, they found the slave completely healed.

“The Christian church is the only society in the world in which membership is based upon the qualification that the candidate shall be unworthy of membership.”
—Charles C. Morrison

Chapter 7 introduces how Jesus seemed to screen people for admission into the Kingdom of God. Have you noticed that Jesus seemed to search for people who did not meet the qualifications to become part of the Jewish temple worship of his day?
 
The people that Jesus included were not just without qualifications, but they were outcasts, gentiles, the sick, the needy, and those who had been cast aside by the religious elite of the day. They were people who needed help by the cause, rather than those who could help the cause. They were often seen as worthless, as less than, and as deeply flawed. Sinners shamelessly showed their love, knowing forgiveness was their only hope in life. Jesus set up no qualifications people like this had to meet for membership. He showed compassion to those society scorned, and then bade them come follow him.

As teaching time was over, it was time for some renewed action on the part of Jesus. This is when Jesus would heal, and Jesus would forgive. The question, of course, is whether or not his actions would prove his words to be true. So he returned to his ministry center, the city of Capernaum.
 
Capernaum was a busy business center that required Roman soldiers for two reasons: to guard the populace against criminal activities and to be taken advantage of by illegal business practices, as well as to collect customs from traders who crossed the borders into Palestine. 
Of course, daily gossip would have brought the centurion news of Jesus. They would not have been inured to the trappings of and stories of what was happening through this extraordinary man. When finally in need enough, the centurion called in some capitol and influence and asked the Jewish elders to help him. They, of all people, relayed his message to Jesus. Used to issuing commands, the centurion phrased the message pretty bluntly: Come! Cure!

The Jewish elders, who would normally hold Jesus at an arms distance wanted to, at least, make some headway with this Roman leader, so they relayed the message, begging Jesus to come and cure the man’s servant. But they didn’t want Jesus to defile himself, and they simply asked him to “say the words” and the man would be healed.

Luke did not report how Jesus cured the servant, as this was not the point of the story. Jesus responded to the centurion’s words in the same way the crowds responded to his miracles—in amazement. Jesus was blown away by the faith that his centurion showed. It, was, in fact, a unique kind of faith—a faith far beyond the Jewish elders who knew Jesus could heal but still refused to follow him. There was not a faith like this in all of Israel, and Jesus let them know.
Jesus never met the centurion. He never had to bend rabbinic purity rules to effect a cure, although I think he would have. The friends returned, and the servant was healed. Why? Because of faith in Jesus from this Gentile centurion.

1. Was Jesus right in simply answering the centurion’s request? 
2. Do you think Jesus would have gone to this man’s house if the need made it necessary? 
3. Have you ever met someone who had this kind of faith, even if they didn’t call themselves Christian?