Luke 7:1-10
1 After Jesus had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. 2 A centurion there had a slave whom he valued highly, and who was ill and close to death. 3 When he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, asking him to come and heal his slave. 4 When they came to Jesus, they appealed to him earnestly, saying, "He is worthy of having you do this for him, 5 for he loves our people, and it is he who built our synagogue for us." 6 And Jesus went with them, but when he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to say to him, "Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; 7 therefore I did not presume to come to you. But only speak the word, and let my servant be healed. 8 For I also am a man set 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 the slave does it." 9 When Jesus heard this he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, he said, "I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith." 10 When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health.
Luke
7:1-10 is the story of the healing of the servant of the Centurion. The source
is the material common to Matthew (8:5-13) and Luke. John 4:46-53 is another
related story.[1]
In Luke, this story begins a series of episodes in which Luke highlights the
reception of Jesus by various persons or groups. In this series, a gentile
centurion, the villagers of Nain, all Judea, the disciples of John the Baptist,
sinners, and the women of Galilee will all receive Jesus. The point of Luke in
this story is the worthiness of the faith of the gentile, and not the fact that
he is a gentile.
Luke begins the narrative
in a rather matter-of-fact way. 1
After Jesus had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he
entered Capernaum. To be sure, this prosaic transition does little to
arouse curiosity, but Luke's reference to Capernaum is worth noting. Jesus
himself alluded to this village when he reminded his fellow Nazarenes that in
the past the prophets Elijah and Elisha did not assist Israel's widows and
lepers, but instead two foreigners -- a widow in Sidon and a Syrian leper did
so (Luke 4:22-30, esp. vv. 23, 25-27). Capernaum is also where Jesus cast out
an unclean spirit, healed Simon's mother-in-law, and cured many who were sick,
all of which escalated the reports about him (Luke 4:31-41). 2 A centurion there had a slave
whom he valued highly [oV hn autw entimoV], and who was ill and close to death. Certain
people today have much to dislike about this centurion. He is a soldier, a man
of war. He is part of an occupying army. He owns a slave. I am going to suggest
that Luke offers many reasons for us to soften our attitude toward this man. We
also need to remember that most of human history is full of war. Our technology
allows increasingly few soldiers to do the work of war. In addition, we need to
remember that slavery has been part of human history in every culture. Some
forms of slavery were particularly mild, especially when it came to personal
and household slaves. Such persons had great value to their owners. Their
owners treated them well. Of course, I am not justifying ownership of another human
being, but I am suggesting that we need to broaden our notion of slavery. In
fact, Luke tells us some important things about the relationship between this
centurion and his slave. Regrettably, the NRSV's translation of entimoV as "valued highly" can understandably
stir up deep-seated resentment toward the centurion, especially by all who find
slavery morally reprehensible. At first blush, the expression sounds as if the
centurion cared for the slave, not as a human being endowed with dignity, but
as a commodity whose worth is contingent on the service rendered in the
centurion's household. Nevertheless, such a reading is inappropriate. A better
translation of entimoV is
"esteemed," "honored," or "precious" (cf. I Peter
2:4, 6; Philippians 2:29), a sense the RSV reflects: "Now a centurion had
a slave who was dear to him." We should prefer this latter translation of entimoV. Eventually, the story will justify
this preference. 3 When he
heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, asking him to come and
heal his slave. Arguably, individuals who tend toward a cynical view of
human nature may also be tempted to brand the centurion a sycophant. Seen in
this light, he is an unusually calculating person. Rather than send
some of the soldiers under his command, the centurion sent "Jewish
elders," hoping that they would receive a favorable reception. Through the
lens of cynicism, the centurion appears to honor Jesus and his Jewish heritage,
but in reality, these ambassadors were merely the means to an end -- the
restoration of the "highly valued" slave. Instead of making his
request personally to Jesus, which is the way Matthew relates this encounter (cf.
Matthew 8:5-13), the Lukan centurion sent Jewish envoys to a Jewish rabbi in
order to expedite a desired outcome. 4
When they came to Jesus, they appealed to him earnestly, saying, "He is
worthy of having you do this for him, 5 for he loves our people, and
it is he who built our synagogue for us." Thus, besides delivering the
centurion's request to Jesus, the Jewish elders passed along significant
information about the commander. The Jewish elders in Capernaum saw the Gentile
centurion as a neighbor and wanted to alleviate his suffering by going to
Jesus. Since the Jewish messengers shared Jesus' religious and national
identity, and this particular Roman officer had done a lot for the Jewish
community, Jesus would be hard-pressed to reject the centurion's request. Even
though such a jaded reading is plausible, it is off the mark. In fact, it is an
affront both to Luke's narrative and the centurion's character as the rest of
the passage demonstrates. In the first place, Jesus' reaction suggests that he
had no reservations about the centurion's motives or the request via the Jewish
elders: 6 And Jesus went with
them, but when he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends. The
double delegation in Luke is a literary device he uses to enhance suspense. In
Matthew, the centurion comes personally. He sent the second delegation to say to Jesus, "Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you
come under my roof. First, his
statement contradicts the prior witness of the Jewish elders (i.e., "He is
worthy of having you do this for him" [cf. vv. 4, 6]). This incongruity
suggests that when the Jewish elders made their assertion, they were offering
their opinion and not that of the centurion. Second, the centurion's
self-appraisal reflects a common theme in Luke; namely, human unworthiness. It
resonates with Peter's confession after a miraculous catch of fish -- "Go
away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!" -- and the tax collector who
"standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his
breast and saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!'" (cf. Luke 5:8;
18:13). 7 Therefore, I did not
presume to come to you. The second wave of emissaries or friends deliver
another crucial message concerning his integrity. The commander viewed himself
unworthy to receive Jesus into his home; he also thought it was improper for
him to approach Jesus. But only speak the
word, and let my servant be healed. The centurion does not insist on the
physical proximity of Jesus. His experience as a military commander had given
him a robust understanding of authority. 8
For I also am a man set 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 the slave does it." Jesus' readiness to
respond overwhelms the officer.
Astonished by Jesus' firm confidence, the officer is open to expect
everything from him, even what is apparently impossible. The saying reveals a faith that God acts in
as matter of fact and concrete a way as the officer does in his world. Maybe
one day you will be sitting at a stoplight, and you will read, on the bumper of
the car ahead of you, two words: "Question authority." Questioning
authority has almost become our national pastime. There was a day when cultural
norms universally considered certain individuals worthy of respect, like:
doctors, attorneys, police officers, members of the clergy, even the president
of the United States. Such days are long gone. 9 When Jesus heard this he was amazed at him. Jesus'
surprise shows that faith, when it really occurs, always partakes of the
miraculous. Faith is not simply assent
to a specific doctrine, but expresses itself in vital terms. However, if any doubt about the centurion's
integrity remains, Jesus' response should absolutely remove it. Then, turning to the crowd that followed him, he
said, "I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith."[2]
The allusion to the lack of faith in
Israel provides the point of the story. Jesus uses the example of the centurion
to shame his fellow Israelites. After all, some of them had been ready to cast
Jesus off a cliff outside Nazareth when he reminded them of Elijah's care for
the widow in Sidon and Elisha's healing of Naaman the Syrian (Luke 4:16-30).
The faith referred to here is confidence in his ability to heal.[3]
While others -- who "kept demanding from him a sign from heaven" --
accused Jesus of being in league with Beelzebub (i.e., "Lord of the
flies") when he refused to give them one except the sign of Jonah (Luke
11:14-32). The way Luke tells this story, he anticipates the gentile mission he
will describe in Acts. The story is a warning against the complacency of those
who claim the succession of Abraham, and a praise of those who live their
faith, in the problems and necessities of everyday life. The story shows that faith may indeed be
alive as practical confidence in concrete situations of need, but that it is
also far more than this, that it brings miraculous salvation, and brings it
above all to those who know they have done nothing to deserve it and never can.
10 When those who had been
sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health. Here is
the ultimate corroboration of the exceptional faith of the centurion. At that
moment, both the messengers and Luke's community learned that Jesus had honored
the centurion's request to heal "a slave whom he valued highly."
A
seventeenth-century rabbi, Leona Medina, explained prayer] this way: If you
watch a man out on a boat grab a rope and pull his boat to shore you might
think, if you were confused about weight and motion, that he was really pulling
the shore to his boat. People have much the same confusion about spiritual
weight and motion: In prayer, some believe that you are pulling God closer to
them. In fact, the heartfelt prayer pulls them closer to God.
Most
have prayed in fear and in joy, in crisis and in calm. Of course, we may pray
for specific things. We pray for the desire of our hearts. Yet, at its root,
prayer is a longing for the assurance that regardless of what happens, God will
turn it into that which is good for us, our friends, our church, our nation,
and our world. In that sense, every prayer is a prayer for peace in our world
and in our souls. Every prayer wants to know the pain we experience now is not
empty or void. Prayer hungers to know that we are not alone in our journey.[4]
[1] All
three accounts agree that the cure takes place at a distance. The pronouncement
of Jesus and the cure occur simultaneously. Matthew 8:8-10=Luke 7:6e-9 are
almost word for word the same and form the heart of the Q form.
[2]
Some scholars think that the rejection of Israel is a later addition to the
tradition of the sayings of Jesus, when the emerging church separated from the
newly emerging Judaism.
[3]
Barth, Church Dogmatics, III.1, 35.
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