"So many who come to the churches in our land today come with no higher motives than the gratification of self. Rather than challenge these poor motives with convicting and convincing preaching, churches openly cater to it. They put on big stage productions designed to attract these fickle, self-centered people. Then, once they have been attracted, they do nothing to challenge their selfishness. When the party is over, these same people leave, having changed little if any at all."

(Read Luke 7:1-10)

God values faith highly. He rewards those who have it. He rejects those who have none of it. He expects those who are His people to possess it and to increase in it^.(1)  If we are going to grow in faith, we need good examples to challenge us. I can think of no better example than the one we find in this passage, which I've called Faith that Still Turns the Savior's Head.

What was it about this man's faith that caused Jesus to marvel? Surely it would be something above and beyond the typical faith exhibited by the throngs of people crowding in on Jesus for healing. They all believed He could do miracles or they wouldn't have been there. That's nothing extraordinary. They all believed He was someone special. So what stands out above and beyond these things that would amaze the Lord? I want to point out five elements of this man's faith that turned Jesus' head. I suggest first that this Centurion had:

I. Faith that Loves Across Barriers. (2)

One of the amazing things about this man's faith is evident when we consider who he was.

In verse 2, Luke calls this unnamed man, "a certain centurion." From this we immediately know two things about him - neither of which would endear him to a Jewish person: He was a Gentile and he was an officer in the Roman army.

Jews kept aloof from Gentiles. They held them in great disdain, often referring to them as "dogs."⁽³⁾ Of course the hatred went both ways. Many of the Gentiles detested the Jews and resented their condescending attitude. Anti-Semitism, while certainly wrong, is nothing new.

On top of this Jew/Gentile enmity, the Jews also resented the occupation of their land by the Romans. Of course who represented the power and domination of Rome any more intimately to the Jew on the street than the Roman foot-soldier charged with maintaining order and quelling uprising? A centurion, like the man in this story, was captain of a hundred soldiers. He was the next man up the ladder from that foot soldier - the "chief of police" in charge of an often-corrupt force that could be, on occasion, quite brutal. He was a man whom a Jewish Zealot would as soon knife in the back in a dark alley as he would to eat. There was no love lost by the Jews for Roman soldiers.

Yet here is this man - this Gentile Roman officer - who had somehow loved his way through all of this enmity and endeared himself to the Jews who knew him.

(Read v. 3-5)

Did you notice what the Jewish elders said of the centurion in verses 4 and 5? "He is worthy for You to grant this to him; for he loves our nation..."

The centurion enlisted the willing help of these Jewish elders to approach Jesus, fully aware of the typical malevolent feelings of the Jews toward himself and men like him. The elders then took it upon themselves to recommend this Gentile soldier to Jesus as a man worthy of his attention. What's wrong with this picture?

What faith this man must have had to succeed in overcoming all of the prejudice and hatred that separated Jew from Gentile and occupied from occupier!

This man had somehow come to have faith in the God of Heaven who, in his time was primarily the God of the Jews. This faith and love the centurion had for their God caused him to love his way through the social and cultural barriers that separated them. This man had risked prejudice, rejection, and misunderstanding that would come from both sides in order to build a bridge of understanding to the Jews - and he succeeded. No wonder Jesus marveled!

It takes great faith to love beyond the barriers of society. It takes special effort to learn to understand and love those who are different from us. In fact, many of us, I believe to our detriment, never succeed in doing it - ever. It's just too far outside our comfort zone. I have seen otherwise mature believes in Christ absolutely refuse to get involved with people they thought were spiritually or socially inferior to themselves.

How does our faith measure up to the amazing faith of this centurion? Here is a man bucking prejudice, misunderstanding, and racial differences to love people who are very different than himself. Does our faith cause us to do that?

For instance, are we willing to love beyond racial differences? I recently sent some sermons to a man - a new preacher in a Church of Christ in Alabama who called me on the phone because a friend told him about my web page. He seemed like a very humble man. We talked and after awhile what he said really grieved me. He said he was surprised that I, a white man, would be willing to help him, a black man. He implied to me that such things just weren't done in the churches he had been in.

These weren't two Christ-ignorant heathens chatting on the phone. They were two men who are supposed to be leaders in Christ's church! May God help us if that is in any way the norm. May God also help us if any such thing as that resides among us here. Few things anger me more than racial prejudice in the church. The gospel is supposed to deliver us from such things!⁽⁴⁾ When it doesn't I have to wonder if we really have come to understand it at all. Are we willing to love through racial barriers?

Are we willing to love people who are up or down from us on the scale of affluence? Do we treat the poor man differently than we treat the rich man? James had something to say about that.⁽⁵⁾ Do we stand aloof from certain "types"? ("I have nothing to do with that type.") Some churches teach their members to seek out the well-to-do whenever they have a choice in sharing the gospel. I shudder to think of where I would be today if people had held themselves back from me when I first came into the church with my long hair and hippy ways. I didn't dress like them, groom like them, talk like them. I probably didn't even smell like them! Yet they loved me across whatever barriers they perceived.

What about other limits? Jesus was a friend of sinners. He reached out to tax gatherers and prostitutes. Are there some sinners that, in our minds, are just too sinful for the gospel? What if an openly gay man came here among us and wanted to be taught the gospel? Would we be willing to reach out and teach him? Would we show him the same love and concern that we do to those who are more like us?

I fear that some of us have really never faced this test squarely and if we did, we would flunk out of it big time. Yet, let me read you something from God's word.

Matthew 5:46-48 says, "For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax-gatherers do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

We are fond of quoting that part about being "perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect," but do we realize that part of that perfection includes dealing lovingly toward those who are different than we are?

This man had faith that turned Jesus' head because he loved beyond the barriers. He also had:

II. Faith that Gets Excited About God's Work.

This man that amazed Jesus with his faith did so at no small personal cost. Verse 5 says, "it was he who built us our synagogue."

Probably either at his own personal expense, or with permission to use his one hundred soldiers for the work, he single-handedly constructed them a house of study and worship.

It seems to me that had this man merely attended the synagogue it would have been enough to merit Jesus' amazement. After all, most Gentiles didn't attend the worship of God and those who did had to endure both the physical separation between themselves and the Jews and the prejudice and condescending that would be there in spite of the devoutness of the Jewish worshippers.

Yet this man didn't stop at mere attendance. He actually took it upon himself to construct the house of meeting! Either they didn't have a synagogue or the old one needed to be replaced - so he built it!

Today, I'm sorry to say, relatively few people have the kind of faith that makes them love the work of God. They think it is a remarkable thing when they merely attend and benefit from the work of others. What gigantic faith! Some don't even realize or even think about where all the good things they enjoy come from. Does that kind of faith turn the Lord's head in amazement? You don't need me to answer that.

Who built the building you are sitting in today? Somebody did. Who made or bought these benches? Somebody did. Who put out the communion trays and arranged the songbooks for the service this morning? Somebody did. Who planned the order of worship and made sure everyone was here to cover his or her job. Somebody did.

In every church I have ever been in there is a small nucleus of workers who carry the load for a much larger group of others. I don't think that is the kind of faith that turns Jesus' head. Do you? his man also had:

III. Faith that Works for the Good of Others.

Too many today believe they exchange a certain level of faith for a certain level of benefit. ("Tell me what I have to do to get to heaven and I'll do that but nothing more.") If the deal is sweet enough, they just might take it. They come to God because they believe He will make them rich or successful or happy.

This man didn't come to Jesus for any of these things. In fact he didn't come on his own behalf at all.

(Read v. 2)

Matthew tells us in his account of these events that the centurion's servant was "lying paralyzed at home, suffering great pain."⁽⁶⁾

There is a sense of urgency in the centurion's actions. He really cared for his friend and he didn't waste any time trying to get help for him. Yet that, in and of itself, isn't particularly remarkable. You and I help our friends, don't we? It's the social status of the sick man that makes the centurion's actions amazing. He was a slave.

William Barclay writes of the status of slaves in Jesus' day: "In Roman Law a slave was defined as a living tool; he had no rights; a master could ill-treat him or even kill him if he choose. A Roman writer on estate management recommends the farmer to examine his implements every year and to throw out those which are old and broken, and to do the same with his slaves. Normally when a slave was past his work he was thrown out to die. The attitude of this centurion to his slave was quite unusual."⁽⁷⁾ Indeed!

With so many coming to Jesus in that day and in our own day with their hand out, can't we see why this man's faith amazed Jesus so much?

Years later, the Apostle Paul, a key spokesman for Christ in the New Testament, would say,

"Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others."⁽⁸⁾

That's the kind of faith Christ wants to see in us. Though the Law of Moses did give some encouragement to the humane treatment of slaves in Jesus' day, this centurion's faith caused him to go far beyond that. He was fulfilling what Paul would teach long before the passage was even written!

So many who come to the churches in our land today come with no higher motives than the gratification of self. We should expect that from unbelievers. They don't know any better. I'm referring here to people who consider themselves saved. Rather than challenge their poor motives with convicting and convincing preaching and teaching, churches openly cater to them. They put on big stage productions designed to attract these fickle, self-centered people. Then, once they have been attracted, they do nothing to challenge the selfishness - ever. When the party is over, these same people leave, having changed little if any at all.

My quarrel isn't with the stage production, though it would be so nice if people sought truth like they seek entertainment. My objection is when that's all there is. It goes no further than that. Yes, we are taught to "become all things to all men that we might by all means save some,"⁽⁹⁾ but it is supposed to go beyond that. At some point we are to be "teaching them to observe all that [Christ] has commanded,"⁽¹⁰⁾ which includes His teaching on the denial of self⁽¹¹⁾ and concern for others.

Brethren, the faith of Christ teaches us to put the needs of others before our own. It teaches us to seek out and help the lowly and the forgotten among us and around us. Such concern is, sadly, a far cry from the well-healed, fashion conscious, carefully choreographed ego building that goes on too often today in the Name of Christ.

But my concern isn't primarily for those "out there". It's for us "in here". My prayer is that we won't be so blind as to forget that we are here to worship Him, not for Him to worship us. We are to conform ourselves to Him, not the other way around. As our faith grows we should more and more learn to care for and serve others.

I think if Jesus were to meet the centurion's 20th century equivalent today he would still be amazed, don't you? Fourthly, this centurion had:

IV. Faith that Understands and Practices Humility.

This centurion was a man accustomed to command. He held daily the power of life and death over a hundred men. Yet though it must have pained him at times, he respected the social barriers that others had erected which put him, in the presence of a Jewish rabbi, in a place of near humiliation. He carefully respected any sentiments along this line that he suspected Jesus might have.

"Lord, do not trouble Yourself further, for I am not worthy for You to come under my roof."

Interesting to me is the contrast between the evaluation he had earned from the Jews who knew him and his own self-assessment. They said, "he is worthy" (v. 4). He said, "I am not worthy" in verse 6.

Was the centurion a student of the Proverbs? Proverbs 27:2 says, "Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips." He most certainly did this.

People of great faith don't vie for prominence. They are confident and rest in the assurance that if God wants them in a certain position, He is capable of putting them there. Finally, the centurion had:

V. Faith that Shows Extraordinary Confidence in the Power of Christ.

This, of course, is the obvious point of this passage. The centurion had great confidence in Jesus' ability to heal even when not present.

(Read v. 6-9)

What extraordinary confidence he had in Jesus' ability to heal!

"You don't need to actually come to my house. Your authority over sickness is probably much like mine over my soldiers. I just command 'Go!' or 'Come!' and it's done. Just say the word where you are Jesus, and my servant will get well."

That, my friends, is pushing the envelope of faith! As best I could tell, no one had ever declared such confidence in healing from a distance. This man had a degree of confidence in Jesus that even the Jews of Jesus' day did not have.

In preparing this message I read a challenging sermon by a man named Steve Zeisler. I don't know him but in his sermon he gave what I consider an excellent and challenging definition of faith. He wrote: " Faith is a willingness to bet your very life on the promises and character of God. If I were to try to pick a synonym for 'faith', I would choose the word, 'adventure.' Faith is not a dry theological concept bound up in stodgy churchianity. Faith is a risky, adrenaline pumping adventure." ⁽¹²⁾

This centurion bet it all on Jesus' power. To imagine healing without some sort of proximity or even touch seems to me to be difficult for anyone in the centurion's time to imagine. "Risky, adrenaline pumping adventure," no?

Does your faith push any envelopes? Does mine?

I'm not referring her to some of the presumptuous "faith" people profess today. ("God wants me to have a new car He will have it in my driveway before 3 P.M. today. I've named it and now I'll claim it!") That's heretical garbage. We should never demand that God to do anything He hasn't said He will do.

No, I'm referring to a radical, adrenaline pumping, rock solid confidence in the promises God has made. That's where our faith needs to push the envelope.

Conclusion

Footnotes: Use "back" button on your browser to return to your reading spot
1. 2 Peter 1:5-8
2. Thanks to Steve Zeisler for helping me see and understand this point.
3. Matthew 15:26
4. Galatians 3:28
5. James 2:1-9
6. Matthew 8:6
7. William Barclay, THE DAILY BIBLE STUDY SERIES - THE GOSPEL OF LUKE, p. 85.
8. Philippians 2:3-4
9. 1 Corinthians 9:22
10. Matthew 28:20
11. Matthew 16:24
12. SURPRISED BY FAITH, Steve Zeisler,
http://www.pbc.org/dp/zeisler/3752.html
13. Source unknown.

Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.

Copyright © 1996-2008 by The Preacher's Study. Permission is granted to subscribers to use this document in total or in sermon preparation in the context of the local congregation only. Publishing it in a book, on the Internet, or anyplace beyond the local congregation is prohibited.

All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.

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