Jesus Heals the Centurion’s Servant | Week 21

So, good morning. My name is Joshua Francis Franco. Francis. So the only reason why I said that, because my mom is sitting over there, she gave me the name shout out mom. Let’s go visiting. But we’ve been in a sermon series that we’ve been calling the Ministry of Jesus. So last week we covered the entire Sermon on the Mount. So that’s found in Matthew five through seven. And it’s the most famous sermon by Jesus where he describes what true discipleship looks like in great detail. Today we’re going to be looking at a story about a centurion soldier. So he’s going through a situation and he has this person who’s near and dear to him that’s actually sick and is about to die. So the story has many things that we’ll be able to pull away from it. But for today, I want us to focus on answering this question: what should our posture be towards God in the worst times of our life? That’s what we’re going to get to. But before we get there, we need to cover a bunch of context. So stick with me as I teach a little bit about this awesome story.

So there are two accounts of the story. One of them is early on in Matthew chapter eight, and then the other is in Luke chapter seven. So Luke chapter seven is the account that we’re going to be covering today. So you can go ahead and start turning there in your Bibles or scrolling there or swiping there or however you get there. So if not, then this passage is going to be on the screen. But just so you know, I lead the campus ministry here at the Broward Church. So we’re focused on NSU and Broward College, and we’re just trying to help students out there just have better relationships with Jesus. And so something that we do during our devotionals is when we’re going to a passage, I’ll ask like, hey, when you get there, make a noise and it’ll be weird. It’s just random. So now when you get there, I just want you to say, wow. All right, so if you’re already there, hey, cool. So here in Luke chapter seven, we’re going to see Jesus enter Capernia. This is a place that’s become very familiar throughout his ministry operations. But if you were here last week, then you remember that Tony used this analogy about cherries.

And so the centurion in this story is much like a live analogy for the Sermon on the Mount that we covered. Given the large group that heard that sermon, someone who practically embodies what Jesus had just spoken to them about. So at this point, again, Jesus had thousands of people following him. This group was fairly diverse. So there were people who were really committed to Jesus, people like the twelve disciples, people just following him and really committed to what he’s doing and know that he’s Lord. And then there were people who are curious, and then you have people in between that are just trying to figure out what’s going on here. So with this multitude following him, Jesus turns to them and he’s explaining what a real disciple is, the Sermon on the Mount. Not just one who’s following physically. It’s not just one walking around and hearing what Jesus is saying, but it’s someone in their heart who will humble themselves to God. And that leaves us here at Luke, chapter seven. We’re going to read it all together, and then we’ll take some time to break it down. So when Jesus had finished saying all these things, all this to the people who were listening, he entered Capernaum.

There, a centurion servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him. This man deserves to have you do this because he loved our nation and has built our synagogue. So Jesus went with him. He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him, lord, do not trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. That is why I did not consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word and my servant will be healed, for I myself and a man am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, Go. And he goes, I tell this one, Come. And he comes. I say to my servant, do this, and he does it. When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him. And turning to the crowd following him, he said, I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel. Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well.

So now the story has been strategically placed right after the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus spoke about the heart of a disciple. And this is to differentiate the difference between a true disciple and what’s going on in the crowds. But let’s go ahead and start breaking everything down. So when Jesus had finished saying all this to the people who were listening, he entered Capernaum, there a centurion servant whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. Within these first couple of verses, we have a few connections that are made for us. The first gives us understanding of the time frame that this is happening during. So this is immediately after the Sermon on the Mount. Secondly, we gain understanding of the setting. So it took place a short walk from Capernaum. Capernaum is the main city, the main area for these operations of Jesus ministry. And now he’s back with a growing group of people with him. And thirdly, we have an issue. A centurion has a highly valued servant that is sick and about to die. So a little bit of background on this centurion. A centurion is a man of status in the nation of Rome.

So they were seen as like the backbone of the Roman army. Men who can command, men who are steady in action, men who are reliable. Commentaries that I read highlighted the idea that they’re not over anxious, they’re not people who rush into a fight. But when they are hard pressed, they’d be ready to hold their ground and die at their post. They receive their rank by being battle tested, men who could lead verbally, but more importantly, by example. A centurion needed to be a man amongst men to be able to hold his post. If we were to compare this position to something in our military, it’d be like a captain in the army. These soldiers were primarily placed to collect, tax and keep peace. An interesting thing about how this particular centurion is described here in these opening verses is that he highly valued his servant. The reason why that’s interesting is because servants to people of this kind of stature were seen as a tool. They were treated like equipment. So I read a commentary that mentioned centurions would do annual checks on their equipment, on the tools that they owned, and if anything wasn’t functioning the way that it was supposed to, they would throw it out and replace it.

And along with that would be the slaves. So if a slave had grown old, if a slave isn’t able to do the jobs that they were doing before, they’d be thrown out and replaced. But this centurion highly valued the one that was sick when others would just get a new one and let that one die. The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him. This man deserves to have you do this. The extent of his care for this servant has led him to Jesus. Someone told him about Jesus and it seems to have been an in depth conversation. We know that everywhere around Galilee, that area news of Jesus was pretty much spreading more and more as he did more and he taught more. But this man knows enough about Jesus to refer to him as Lord. He sent some Jewish elders to Jesus. The account in Matthew says the centurion asked Jesus to heal his servant. But Luke has a little bit more attention to historical details and shows how exactly he asked.

He didn’t ask directly. Instead, he sent some Jewish elders. These Jewish elders were like leaders in their community. They administered public affairs, they helped administer justice. And it wasn’t normal for a Jewish elder to do a favor for someone that’s part of the army that conquered their land. Yet we see this group of elders are being asked by centurion to go and ask for a miracle favor. And they don’t do it begrudgingly, they actually beg Jesus to come and heal this man’s servant. In fact, they go as far as letting Jesus know that they believe the centurion deserves to have Jesus do this for Him. These Jewish men consider the centurion worthy of a miracle. And quick insight to the Jewish theology, they were very heavily focused on this concept of worthiness. If you do a good thing, then you get good things. The centurion did good things, so we think that you should do what he’s asking for because he’s worthy. The Jewish system was all about merit and worthiness. The thought was personal worth earned you the right to getting what you want from God. So picture this. They come to Jesus and however they view him, whether they saw him as a servant of God or a prophet, they come to him and say, this centurion deserves that you do a miracle for him.

Why? What did he do to deserve this? When they came to Jesus, they pleaded with Him, this man deserves to have you do this because he loves our nation and has built our synagogues. They thought he was deserving because he loved their nation. They thought he was deserving because he built them a synagogue, a whole synagogue. This is amazing. This centurion was not just known to be in good standing with just a couple of Jews, but he was known for his love for an entire nation of them. And when you take time to think about the historical standing between these two groups, the Jews and the Romans, you’d understand why it’s crazy. So Jews hated Romans, and the Romans thought that the Jews were a filthy race. They thought Jews were haters of humanity. Despite the culture of hatred between these two, it becomes clear that the centurion’s character was countercultural, a living analogy of the Sermon on the Mount. When the Jews who approached Jesus talked about the centurion’s love for the people of Israel, they use this word, agapao, to dearly love, to be fond of. This is a high, noble and rich form of love in the Greek language.

This is the love of the will. This is not a love of passion or emotion. This is the same word used in John 316, God so loved the world. So we’re learning more about the centurion and how beautifully placed the story is in scriptures. He’s a man who counterculturally loves his slaves. He’s a man who counterculturally loves those who would be considered his enemy. He’s a man of generosity. He’s built in a synagogue, a place for people to worship and teach about God. And now I want to be clear. Throughout the Roman Empire, roman leaders encouraged people to be committed to religious beliefs, whatever they may be. They knew that if they encouraged it, then more people would be held in check. The thought was, since religions come with different moral boundaries, that would lead to reduced criminal activity. Even Augustus gave approval for synagogues to be built whenever Jews asked for it. But this particular response from the Jews shows that this centurion’s motives were different. He wasn’t building synagogues out of cynicism, but they saw from his actions that he truly loved and cared for them and their nation. Agapao. Despite what is culturally appropriate between these groups, the centurion has loved the Jews well, and the love is caused and appreciation from the Jews towards him.

Look at how Jesus responds to the Jews’ plea. So Jesus went with them. He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to him. Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you under my roof. That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the Word, and My servant will be healed. After the request of the Jewish elders, Jesus goes with them, no questions asked. The large multitudes of people who were there for the Sermon on the Mount are now following Jesus to a place where the servant lays sick. When they’re on the way, the centurion sends friends to Jesus with a message letting Jesus know that he’s not worthy to have him come under his roof. We’re starting to see more of this man’s heart. We see his humility and how he speaks about himself, and we see his faith and how he trusts and the fact that Jesus is able. Just say the Word, and My servant will be healed. He believes Jesus at his word. He has great confidence that all Jesus needs to do is speak, and it will be so.

This man is showing that he understands and believes in Jesus, that he believes Jesus has authority over life and death. But there’s a significant contrast here that each of us need to recognize. Did you catch it? Do you remember when the Jewish elders were telling Jesus about this man earlier? That he deserves what he’s asking for? He deserves to have his servant healed because he’s done good things? Now this interior has a chance to speak for himself and look at the words. He says, lord, I don’t deserve to have you under my roof. I’m unworthy to even walk to where you are to ask for this favor in person. Humility. So at that point, he sends his friends out to stop Jesus from coming any closer. He’s like, Jesus, you can’t come here because I’m not worthy. The contrast of how the Jews communicate with Jesus and how the centurion communicates with Jesus is key for us to learn. When emotions get involved in our circumstances, the value of having humility and faithfulness takes a backseat, and it shouldn’t be so. The centurion here reminds me of Peter’s response to Jesus in Luke five, verse eight, where Jesus shows him a miracle about all these fish and Peter comes to him and says, Lord, go away from me, for I’m a sinful man. He knew. These are great examples of humility and faithfulness being connected, but I think most of us know what it feels like to be on the opposite side of this. We relate to this group of Jews. I believe we’d all agree we’ve had moments where we felt we’re deserving of a reward because we’ve done something good. We feel because we’ve done good things, we should be eventually paid for it, that we should get something in return. And while I was thinking about this portion of Luke seven, I started to think about a time where I’m most related with the Jews posture in the story by thinking that I was worthy. Some of you may know the story, but in May 2019, I moved here from Claremont. I was going to intern with the teens for the summer. And so after about two weeks being here, I get a call that my dad’s in the hospital, the intensive care unit, he’d fallen backwards down a set of concrete stairs, and right outside of his apartment, he had hit the back of his head.

So I got a ride from one of the amazing brothers here up to Orlando to the hospital he was staying at the night that I found out about the situation. I walked into the hospital, and I see my dad connected to the EKG, so a bunch of wires on his head and different machines on him. And when I walked in and saw that, that’s when I realized, okay, this isn’t a regular bump to the head. This isn’t, Hey, go to the hospital. Let’s just make sure you’re good. But you probably are. This is bad. So hemorrhaging. His brain swollen, and he was unconscious. While in the hospital. I’m watching my family. They’re crying. My family’s freaking out about my dad’s health. And compared to them, I was just composed. I was focused. I was just focused on being faithful. God is good. My dad is a tough, boricua dude. He has all these tough stories about being from New York. There’s no way that a fall is something that he’s not going to be able to get through. And because of that, I thought we’ll leave the hospital very soon and he’ll be on the road to recovery.

This was the most difficult situation that I have gone through since I became a disciple in 2013. But also it felt like the most faithful I’ve ever been to God that he would come through. So a week and some change pass by in the whole time in the hospital, faithful. I was telling my family, be faithful. Telling them, guys, look, this God that changed my whole life for, he’s going to work it out. The one that I stopped stealing for, the one that I stopped smoking for, the one that I chose to start really respecting women because of, the one that I gave up my job for team ministry for, this God that I surrendered my plans to, the one that I learned to forgive others from, the one who healed my relationship with my mom after years of being disrespectful verbally and emotionally abusive to her. The one who helped me to learn how to love my brother after I tried to neglect him for so many years just to impress middle school and high school friends. The God that I say no to, my sinful desires for, the God that I submit my life to, the God that has forgiven me of terrible things.

This God will come through and my dad’s going to be fine. Why? He has to come through, I’ve given him everything and this would be an amazing testimony for my family to see that he can do this. And maybe somewhere deep down inside I felt like I deserved it. I’ve been good. I think I’ve been faithful. I think I’ve been a servant and maybe that makes me worthy because I’ve done a lot of things that he’s asked me. And after a week and some change in the hospital, the doctors let my brother and I know that my dad was pretty much brain dead. So the only part of his brain that was working was the stem. So I think the doctor mentioned that the only thing that he can actually do with that part of his brain working is breathe, but nothing else. So shortly after that news, my brother, my uncle’s on my dad’s side, we decided to pull the plug. And as a family, we watched my dad take his last breath. A few days in the hospital and they didn’t end the way I felt I deserved. The reason why I share that story is because I know many of us feel or have been through things like this.

You’ve been faithful to God. He hasn’t answered your prayers about your child becoming a disciple. You’ve been faithful to God and haven’t gotten the spouse you’ve been praying for. You’ve been faithful to God and you haven’t gotten the opportunity to give birth the way that you want. You’ve been faithful. You’ve been praying through illness. You’ve been praying through plenty of different things and it just hasn’t happened. And we can sympathize with that. But here in this account we see a man with a man who even the most religious people thought deserved it. And his attitude is what eternally is highlighted in the Scriptures. The centurion was an example of the Sermon on the Mount way of living. When emotions were high, he lived with Humility and faithfulness. Faithfulness says that I’ll stick with you, God, and believe that you can do anything. Humility says, yet I don’t deserve any of that. I deserve is an attitude of pride. When my dad passed away, I felt like the supply of Humility that I had died with him. I didn’t want anything from God. I didn’t want anything from no one, especially him. I did my best Jonah impression and I ran because I thought my way of doing things was better.

Because I didn’t get my way based on merit or my actions that I felt I deserved. That’s why I ran. Last week we broke down the Beatitudes in Matthew, chapter five. I just wanted to say them really quickly again. Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers. This is humility. And these are the things we see from the centurion in the story. And these were also the things that showed me that my faith wasn’t humble. My faith at that time wasn’t actually for God. It was for me to get my miracle. I thought I could use a few good works as currency to get God to do a miracle for me. While the centurion also believed Jesus could heal his sick loved one, he remained humble, knowing that nothing he’s done has brought him to the point of deserving a miracle. The centurion gave the thing he desired most to the will of Jesus. For Jesus’s will to be done. Yes, he really wanted that servant to be healed, but he trusted Jesus to make the decision on the thing that he wanted most.

Again, this is an example of faithfulness and Humility working together. He put Jesus in the proper place over his desires. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, Go, and he goes and that one Come and he comes. I say to my servant, do this and he does it. The centurion sends his friends to deliver this message that shows the centurion’s understanding of being under higher Roman authority, but also familiar with having authority over others. And he uses that illustration for his relationship with Jesus. He gets what it’s like to speak and things happen, but he knows Christ has more authority. The centurion has authority over hundreds of soldiers, 100 or so soldiers. But the words of Jesus created everything. The centurion puts himself in his proper place. With Jesus’s words, diseases disappear, storms stop, and demons are removed. And because of that knowledge, we see him humbled in heart before Jesus. And look at how Jesus responds to his humility. When Jesus heard this, he was amazed, amazed at Him and turning to the crowd following him, he said, I tell you, I have not found such great faith, even in Israel.

Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found his servant well. When Jesus heard this, he was amazed. Jesus knows everything, but was amazed at this interaction. And in this moment, he turns to the multitude and says, not even in Israel has Jesus found anyone with this kind of faith, this humble faith, the Sermon on the Mount kind of faith. The people who knew the Word of God the longest didn’t have this kind of faith. The people who knew the Word of God the best didn’t have this kind of faith. How is that possible, that in all of Israel, no one could get to the point of having this kind of faith throughout Israel? They lacked humility. Jesus turned to the crowd of thousands following him and says, I don’t see this kind of faith in any of you. I don’t see this in the apostles right now. I don’t see this in the other loyal followers, and I don’t see this in the curious. Jesus preaches the Sermon on the Mount and then takes the multitude following him to go see a man who lives this out. So let’s go back to the question from earlier.

What do we do when we’re facing the worst times? What should our posture be? We need to be rooted in faithful humility. Jesus doing miracles after an example of faith doesn’t show us that being faithful puts God in debt to us. I’ll say that one more time. Jesus doing miracles after an example of faith doesn’t show us that being faithful puts God in debt to us. It shows us that God is able. We are the ones with the debt, though. Romans chapter six shows us the only thing that we’ve earned is death because of our sins. That’s the only thing that we’re deserving of. But eternal life is a gift from God. Every answered prayer is a gift. Someone overcoming sickness in your family, you getting married, you getting a job, you having a baby, your family becoming disciples, everything you could be praying for. If that happens, it’s a gift from God. You never deserve it, and you never will. We deserve death. That’s sobering. The goal of keeping that in mind is to help us be humble before God. Regardless of our good deeds, we need Him. As we wrap up, I just want to clarify a couple of things.

Expecting is different than deserving, and believing is different than demanding. The Scriptures tell us to pray expectantly in Psalm five, verse three. But as you pray, remember what you deserve. And believing God can do something is good, but demanding that he do it for you moves you away from the posture of humility that he wants to keep us in. Church, if we keep humility and faith connected, I believe we’ll get through the lowest lows with opportunities to amaze Jesus with our faith, much like the centurion. And we will walk through our highest highs understanding they are amazing gifts from God that we don’t deserve. As we take communion, let’s think about the greatest gifts we’ve received. Jesus giving his life for us to have a real relationship with Him, to have real justification and to be able to make it to spend time with Him eventually. Let’s go to God and prayer. Father, thank you so much for how intentional your scriptures are. God, I’ve read the Sermon on the Mountain many times and read past it and I’ve just glossed over the story of the centurion. But this is crucial. God, the world is doing everything to get us to think that we have power, that there’s no need to be humble, that we need to do things for ourselves that we need to accomplish, that we deserve things because we’ve worked hard.

God and your scriptures are so different. God, help us to fight against the evil that pride is. Help us to fight against the ways that it’s trying to build itself up to cause a wedge between a real relationship with you, God. Help us to really work through if we have those emotions of I deserve this from you. God, help us to really work through that with you, not try to figure out our own way through it the way that I remember doing when my dad passed. God but to be right by your side, to learn more about humility from you, to see that this example of the centurion shows us we can do this. Throughout this whole series we’ve been trying to make sure we don’t take the posture of thinking that we are Jesus in a story. We are the people being healed, we are the people being rebuked. We are the people being helped. We are the people being reassured. We are those. And God, we can be like the centurion or we can be like the Jews and continue to think that we earned it, that we deserve it. God, thank you for being gracious with us.

Thank you for being patient with us even when we have these kinds of thoughts and we act out on these kinds of thoughts. God, thank you for your love and I thank you for your son. Thank you for the gift that he was him dying for us and giving us an opportunity to keep growing closer to you and learning how to do that better. God, thank you for your scriptures. Thank you for this time. I pray all this in your Son’s precious name. Amen.