Proper Esteem

April 5

Deuteronomy 7-8

Psalm 40:11-17

Proverbs 10:12-14

Luke 7:1-23

Proper Esteem

“Now Jesus was going on His way with them; and when He was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to Him, ‘Lord, do not trouble Yourself further, for I am not good enough for You to come under my roof.  For this reason I did not even consider myself worthy to come to You, but just say the word and my servant will be healed.  For I also am a man placed under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this! And he does it.’”  Luke 7:6-8 LSB

This is an interesting story of humility and faith.  The centurion was apparently a prominent man in the community.  He had a position of authority, was most likely wealthy, and he was well thought of by the Jews.  Some of the Jewish elders came to Jesus on behalf of the man asking Him to come heal the man’s slave.  They put in a good word for him saying that He was “worthy for You to grant this to him; for he loves our nation and it was he who built us our synagogue.” (vs. 4-5)  The man also must have been a kind and compassionate man because he cared about his slave enough to seek out Jesus to heal him.  Because of his position, he was accustomed to giving a command and expecting that it would be immediately carried out.  Someone in this position is not typically characterized by humility.  We might expect that this man would send for Jesus and demand that He heal his slave.  But that is not what happened.  The centurion knew his place.  He recognized Jesus’ authority and he recognized his own position.  He humbly requested the Jewish elders to ask Jesus to heal his slave and then when he heard that Jesus was coming to do what he asked, he sent people to tell Jesus he didn’t even feel worthy for Him to come to his house.  He asked that Jesus just speak the word and he trusted that the slave would be healed.  Jesus marveled at him and said, “I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such great faith.”  (vs. 9) There are not very many times in Scripture that we find Jesus amazed by someone’s faith.  Most of the time, he was amazed that they still lacked faith after all they had seen Him do.  But this centurion amazed Jesus. 

            We are not given any information about this man’s background.  He was most likely a Roman citizen but was favorable to the Jews and helped them get a synagogue.  We know that at least a few of the prominent Jews secretly believed in Jesus.  Perhaps he had been in the crowds when Jesus spoke and believed Jesus was the Messiah, too.  His faith was unique, but his humility was just as significant.  A proper recognition of Jesus’ position and authority is essential to faith, but it also must be accompanied by an accurate recognition of our own position.  Until we recognize that we are dead in our sins and are completely hopeless, we cannot understand that He is our only hope.  If we have the idea that we bring anything to the table to offer Him in exchange for His grace and mercy, we are sadly mistaken.  He has all authority, all dominion, and all power.  Like the centurion, our only hope is to come to Jesus in humility giving Him proper esteem.