Stories of Jesus: Luke 7:1-10: The Man Who Astonished Jesus

Probably we all have disappointed Jesus, maybe many times. But do you know that it’s also possible to pleasantly surprise Jesus too? In Luke we have the story of a man who astonished Jesus, and that man is an example for all of us.

LUKE 7:1-10: THE MAN WHO ASTONISHED JESUS

INTRODUCTION

When I was in Korea serving in the artillery during the Korean War, the captain of our battery was a man we called “The Hook.” I don’t remember his real name, but we always called him “The Hook,” because he was so mean. Of course, he never knew we called him that; if we ever had occasion to address him, it was always “Sir” or “Captain.” But we hardly ever had occasion to speak to him because we avoided him whenever possible. If we saw the captain approaching we would walk behind a tent or change our direction to avoid him.
Maybe our captain believed he was obliged to behave in this harsh, abusive way because we were a bunch of draftees who hated the army and all it stood for and only longed to go home and be away from the war and the army.
I should add that not all battery commanders were cruel. We had another one who was considerate, and we appreciated him. But he was unusual.
In the story from the gospel that I am going to read to you the hero is a Roman centurion. A centurion was the commander of 100 troops. He had the same responsibility as our battery commander or a captain in the infantry.

Read Luke 7:1-10

I. Notice how unusual this centurion was.

A. The first thing we notice about the centurion is that he was kind. He loved his slave.

My version says he “had a slave who was dear to him.”
Some translations read he “had a slave who was valuable to him.”
The Greek word can mean “honored” or “respected,” or it can mean “precious” or “valuable.”
We might suppose that this slave had some special skill that made his master prize him. Maybe he was good at keeping accounts or repairing armor.
But I think my translation is the right one. I believe that the centurion loved his slave.
Everything we read about this military man is positive, and the fact that Jesus responded to him so warmly convinces me that he was the kind of master who loved his servants.
And the slave evidently loved his master, and that made him valuable to him.

B. The second thing we notice is that he is God-fearing.

Most Gentiles didn’t like Jews. They considered Jews “different.” I don’t know just why Jews were disliked; maybe it was because they were so different.
They had odd customs. They ate different food. They refused to take part in the pagan festivals. They were clannish. They tried to avoid having anything to do with Gentiles unless it was absolutely necessary.
There were certain foods the Jews were forbidden to eat. The effect of their dietary laws was to keep the Jews separate from the Gentiles. They couldn’t eat with Gentiles because then they would have been obliged them to eat pork or other foods that were forbidden. Jews didn’t even enter the homes of Gentiles.

But some Greeks and Romans were attracted to Jewish ways. They were disgusted with the vice and immorality of their pagan society. They understood the beauty of holy living as taught in the Old Testament.
Without becoming Jews themselves, these Romans or Greeks would go to the synagogues and learn about the God of Israel and try to follow the Jewish way of life that was so much superior to the idolatrous ways of their own people.
They were called “God fearers.” We meet some of these God fearers in the book of Acts. Cornelius was one. Lydia was another. Often the most eager converts to Christianity in those early days were these God fearing Gentiles. They already knew the Old Testament stories and they were ready to believe that Jesus was the Promised Savior.

C. The third thing we notice about this man is that he was loved by the people of the city.

This was unusual for a Roman military man to be loved by Jews in a land the Romans were occupying. Jews generally hated the Roman conquerors. When a Jew came upon a Roman in the street, he might spit on the ground to show his contempt.
Jewish terrorists would murder Roman soldiers if they could get away with it.
But when this centurion’s servant was dying, the Jewish elders of the city went to Jesus to intercede for the centurion.

D. The fourth thing we notice about the centurion is his generosity.

So this Centurion’s generosity combined with his piety to led him to use his own funds to build a meeting house—a synagogue—in the important city where he and his soldiers were stationed, Capernaum.

The elders tell Jesus, “He is worthy to have you do this for him, for he loves our nation, and he built us our synagogue.”
Love and generosity always go together. You can’t love without being generous if it is in your power to do something for the one you love.

This centurion reminds me of a story Viktor Frankl tells in his book Man’s Search for Meaning. Frankl was a Jew and was an inmate in a concentration camp during World War 2.
The camp was a cruel place and most of the prisoners died. But Frankl survived.
Frankl tells about the SS commander of the camp he was in just before the liberation.
This man was a Nazi, but unknown to all of the camp inmates except the Jewish doctor, this Nazi had been using his own money to buy medicine for the treatment of sick prisoners.
At the end of the war the prisoners learned of his kindness, and three Hungarian Jews hid the Nazi in the Bavarian woods. Then they went to the American commander, who was very anxious to capture the man. The Hungarian Jews told the American general that they would tell where this Nazi was, but only if he would promise that absolutely no harm would come to the man.
After a while, the general promised the young Jews that the SS commander would be kept safe from harm. And he kept his word.
A surprising story? Not more surprising than the story of a Roman centurion who loved and helped the conquered people his army was there to subdue.

II. Two other things stand out about this Roman that make him unique in the stories of Jesus. And these are the point of the story.

A. First of all, his humility. Military commanders are not noted for their humility. It isn’t a trait that helps they get ahead.

The Jewish elders told Jesus, “He is worthy to have you do this for him, for he loves our nation, and has built us a synagogue.”

But when Jesus set out to come to him, the centurion sent this message to Jesus: “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof…”

Did you know that in the time of Jesus pagans didn’t think of humility as a virtue?
One of the things the pagan philosophers held against Christianity was that it welcomed slaves and poor people and uneducated and uncultured people. They thought that these humble Christians must have no self-respect.
Celsus was a second century pagan who wrote books attacking the Christians. To him the story of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet was utterly blasphemous. It was one of the things he held against Christians that they were so low minded as to picture God, not only as crucified, but also washing people’s dirty feet.

But the centurion had learned from the Hebrew scriptures that he was unworthy of God’s mercy.

There was another reason why the centurion discouraged Jesus from coming to his house.
The Jews believed that it was offensive to enter a Gentile house, just as it would have been offensive to invite a Gentile into one of their houses.
The centurion knew that if Jesus entered his house, Jesus would have been criticized.
It was his sensitivity and his courtesy to Jesus that led him to send his friends to urge Jesus just to say the word of healing and not come into his house.

B. But what really surprised and amazed and pleased Jesus was the man’s faith.

We read of only one other time that Jesus was amazed. It was when he visited his hometown of Nazareth, and, we read, “he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. And he was amazed at their unbelief” (Mark 6:5-6). If anyone should have been able to believe in Jesus, it seems that it would be those who knew him best.

This godly centurion had a deep insight into the ways of God that Jesus’s Jewish listeners lacked.
He said, “Say the word, and let my servant be healed. For I am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, ’Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.’”

He had figured out that God was Lord of heaven and earth. And he had figured out that in this man Jesus, God was personally present and active.
So he drew the connection between the delegated authority he exercised in commanding his soldiers and the authority God had given Jesus to do these wonderful works.
And that was the faith that amazed Jesus.

Jesus was used to rewarding the faith of people who had a very low-grade kind of faith. Remember the woman who crept up behind Jesus because she said, “If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.”
Her faith was a sort of superstitious faith, but Jesus honored it. In that case, Jesus singled her out and made sure that she understood that it was her faith that healed her and not some kind of magic that came from his clothes.
He said, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease” (Mark 5:34).

But the centurion had the most shining, splendid faith; he invited Jesus to cure his slave at a distance.
And Jesus marveled. He said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.”

CONCLUSION

This centurion is an example to us.
He was humble. He knew he didn’t deserve anything.
He was loving and generous—beyond what anyone could have reasonably expected of him.
And especially he believed.

Faith is not optimism. Faith is not hoping hard. Faith is believing God.

I can’t tell you how to get faith.
The only thing I know is that the more I pray, and reflect on God’s Word, and the more I try to please God in what I do, the stronger my faith becomes.

My prayer for myself and for you is that God will give us strong faith, faith so strong and real that God is as real to us as the person sitting beside us.

I doubt that we will ever amaze God with our faith, but wouldn’t it be wonderful if we did?