seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Luke 7:1 When Jesus had finished saying all this to the people who were listening, he entered Capernaum. 2 There a centurion’s servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. 3 The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. 4 When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, “This man deserves to have you do this, 5 because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.” 6 So Jesus went with them.
He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. 7 That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. 8 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.”
9 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.” 10 Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well.
These verses are taught to kids in the Baptist Sunday School at a very early age. I've heard it over and over again. I have learned a few fun facts lately. Here's a link to some fun facts about Centurions in the Bible.First of all, this happened in Capernaum. Capernaum was a fishing town in the days of Jesus. Jesus was in Capernaum when Peter's mom was sick. Jesus healed her and she jumped up and started fixing dinner for them. So, this isn't the first healing in Capernaum.
Matthew and Mark reported that Jesus could heal. But, to make it official, Luke is reporting as a doctor! He has to be fascinated by any healing from afar! Imagine how productive doctors could be if they could diagnose and heal their patients from miles away! Oh wait.... COVID brought that luxury. Now we can dial up a doc on the Web! But they didn't have the internet, phones, or even mopeds for the docs back then. Back then Dr. Luke would have had to walk to the patient, or maybe ride a mule.... but it was not an instant visit by any means. If a doc was going to have to be called, the doc had to be able to get there before the demise of the patient. That was iffy in those days.
One more little fun fact to bring up, the Centurion was probably Roman, and probably not Jewish. Rome had men who were responsible for 100 troops. Oh, for us nonmilitary girls and boys, one person is one troop. So, a Centurion would be in charge of 100 men. In the article I linked above, they were the troops at the front. In war they were the first to attack. And, alas, the lack of troops for the Centurion was one of the causes for Rome to lose battles in the end of their conquest. This guy, though, had 100 men who would die if he ordered them to attack, and they did it without question. He was very Roman and very battle hardened. He had probably been in the army for 15-20 years and worked his way up to the Centurion status in a little Jewish fishing town.
Apparently, this Centurion was smart too. He asked some Jewish elders to talk to Jesus about healing his servant. Wait, did I just say that? This guy used the elders [that really hated Jesus] to get Him to save the servant of a Roman Soldier?!? Boy, the odds were really stacked against the servant. Jesus was Jewish, but the elders really didn't like Him. They were with the Pharisees and the Sadducees who thought Jesus was a magician or a demon or Satan himself. Still, the Centurion couldn't just walk up to Jesus and ask this big favor.
Then the Centurion didn't want Jesus to bother. He didn't think he was worthy of a kind act by Jesus. I bet those elders had something to do with his change of heart. I bet they talked him out of asking Jesus to heal the servant. I would imagine, they might have told him something would be wrong with the servant if he was healed by a magician or a demon. Think Pet Cemetary! Because for some reason the Centurion just give up, thinking himself unworthy. After all, he was a Roman Soldier and Jesus was Jewish in an occupied town.
But.... Jesus doesn't require a blood test to show nationality before a healing. Jesus healed the servant from afar. There were no long-lasting effects of the healing. The servant didn't look near death. Like Simon Peter's mom... he was ready to get back to work. Jesus healed the servant without even seeing him. Now that's a healing!!!!
Check out verse 4.... this Centurion was such a good guy, the elders said he was "deserving" because he built their synagogue. But then again, Charles Manson was "deserving" too. "Deserving" can go both ways. We can "deserve" good, or we can "deserve" bad. Or maybe the servant "deserved" to be healed. Perhaps the servant was Jewish and worked on building the synagogue. Maybe that's it. At any rate, the healing was "deserved", and Jesus did it from "afar", so I think this is a cool story.
This was a tele visit before there were tele visits!
"Deserving"
