Sunday School Lesson
April 14
Lesson 7 (KJV)
Faith of a Centurion
Devotional Reading: Zechariah 8:18–23
Background Scripture: Luke 7:1–10
Luke 7:1–10
1 Now when he had ended all his sayings in the audience of the people, he entered into Capernaum.
2 And a certain centurion’s servant, who was dear unto him, was sick, and ready to die.
3 And when he heard of Jesus, he sent unto him the elders of the Jews, beseeching him that he would come and heal his servant.
4 And when they came to Jesus, they besought him instantly, saying, That he was worthy for whom he should do this:
5 For he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue.
6 Then Jesus went with them. And when he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself: for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof:
7 Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee: but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed.
8 For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.
9 When Jesus heard these things, he marvelled at him, and turned him about, and said unto the people that followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.
10 And they that were sent, returning to the house, found the servant whole that had been sick.
Key Text
Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee: but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed.—Luke 7:7
Examining Our Faith
Unit II: The Measure of Faith
Lessons 6–9
Lesson Aims After participating in this lesson, each learner will be able to: 1. Identify the reason for Jesus’ amazement.
2. Explain the role of the town of Capernaum in Jesus’ ministry.
3. Brainstorm ways to exhibit faith as analogous to that of the centurion.
How to Say It
Capernaum Kuh-per-nay-um.
centurion sen-ture-ee-un.
Damascus Duh-mass-kus.
Herod Antipas Hair-ud An-tih-pus.
Levi Lee-vye.
Nazareth Naz-uh-reth.
synagogue sin-uh-gog.
tetrarch teh-trark or tee-trark.
Introduction
A. Remote Everything
My first modem-equipped computer allowed me to purchase a small amount of usage time from an Internet service provider, connect to a phone line, and access distant servers. I marveled at what I could do. An exciting moment came when I was able to access the digital catalog of a university library in England, helping me identify a book I had needed for months.
Now we take the Internet for granted. My wife and I have weekly video calls with my grandson and his mother from 1,500 miles away. When I teach online, it is not uncommon for me to have students in several geographically separated areas “attend” class at once.
Physical distance was a challenge to communication in Jesus’ day. Indeed, distance remained a challenge to rapid communication until the year 1844, when the first public telegraph went into operation. We easily see the challenge of distance in today’s lesson. What is more difficult to see is the positive importance physical distance played in communicating with Jesus. We dare not miss it.
B. Lesson Context
The physical context of today’s lesson is the village of Capernaum (see also the parallel account in Matthew 8:5–13). It was located on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee, a freshwater lake in northern Palestine. Bible students are accustomed to thinking of Jesus as being from Bethlehem (John 7:42; etc.) or from Nazareth (Matthew 2:23; etc.). But a case can also be made for the claim that He was “from Capernaum” because the village became something of a headquarters or base of operations for His preaching and teaching tours of Galilee (4:13; Mark 2:1); notice that Matthew 9:1 refers to Capernaum as Jesus’ “own city.”
The importance of Capernaum is seen in the fact that it is mentioned 16 times in the New Testament, in one instance quite negatively (Matthew 11:23 and parallel Luke 10:15). Five of Jesus’ twelve disciples were residents of Capernaum when Jesus called them to follow Him: four fishermen (James, John, Peter, and Andrew; see Matthew 4:18–22) and one tax collector (Matthew, also known as Levi; see Mark 2:14).
Although Capernaum probably did not have more than a few hundred residents, it was a thriving regional hub for at least three reasons. First, the fishing industry provided steady income for many families. The lake was productive, with one account telling of a haul of 153 large fish (John 21:11). Fishing businesses like that of the Zebedee family (Mark 1:19–20) would have caught more fish than could be sold locally. So some fish were preserved with salt and sent to larger cities such as Jerusalem.
Second, Capernaum was situated on the main road from Damascus into the region. This location made it a good place for the Romans to set up points for tax collectors to assess tolls on goods passing into the area. Matthew worked for the Romans this way, maintaining a tax-collecting booth on this road (Luke 5:27). Jewish tax collectors from Jerusalem also operated out of Capernaum to collect the annual temple tax from the Jews of Galilee (Matthew 17:24).
Third, Capernaum was important enough to have had some Roman soldiers stationed there, as today’s lesson reveals (compare Acts 10:1). The need to safeguard the tax money collected may have been the reason. It is possible they were under the authority of Herod Antipas, the Roman client “tetrarch” of the Galilee region from 4 BC to AD 39 (Luke 3:1).
Capernaum has been the site of some remarkable archaeological discoveries over the last hundred years. A lavish synagogue dating from the fourth century AD likely sat on a foundation floor from the time of Jesus. This place could be the location of the synagogue of Capernaum where Jesus taught (Mark 1:21). Also uncovered nearby is a large house that has become a Christian pilgrimage site. Evidence suggests this was the actual house of Simon Peter, a place where Jesus resided while in town (Luke 4:38).
I. Desperate Need
(Luke 7:1–5)
A. Situation in Capernaum (v. 1)
1. Now when he had ended all his sayings in the audience of the people, he entered into Capernaum.
We reach a transition point in the narrative. The teaching (all his sayings) and healing actions of the previous section (Luke 6:17–49) were concluded, so Jesus moved from one place to another. The location of where He moved from is only given as “the plain” (6:17), perhaps referring to a suitably level site on or at the base of the mountainside (6:12). For Jesus to have then entered into Capernaum was probably not a long walk, given His record of movements around that area at the time (see Lesson Context).
B. Request and Endorsement (vv. 2–3)
2. And a certain centurion’s servant, who was dear unto him, was sick, and ready to die.
A centurion was a soldier who commanded a unit known as a “century” in a legion of a Roman army. A Roman legion ideally consisted of 59 centuries organized in 10 cohorts. The second through the tenth cohorts consisted of 6 centuries, each century having 80 men. A legion’s first cohort was an exception. That cohort had only five centuries, but each of those, also commanded by a centurion, was at double strength. The math of all this adds up to 59 centurions in a legion of approximately 5,000 troops. Thus, the centurion in today’s lesson was likely the most important and senior Roman official around Capernaum.
The centurion’s domestic situation in the case at hand is indicated by his having at least one servant in his household. This servant was likely not a hired hand but an enslaved person owned by the centurion. Roman military campaigns often resulted in those people on the losing side being taken into bondage. Also common during this period were children born into slavery as the offspring of women who were themselves enslaved. Legally, Roman slavery laws allowed the owner to use another man “like a piece of property or a domestic animal” (historian Dio Chrysostom; lived AD 40–120). But not all master/slave relationships were brutal or exploitative.
Slavery was not necessarily a lifetime situation among the Romans (compare 1 Corinthians 7:21). Ancient sources indicate that many were freed (manumitted) by age 30, thereby becoming “Libertines” (compare Acts 6:9, lesson 4). In depicting the deathly ill servant as dear to the centurion, Luke uses a word that expresses value and respect (compare the same word’s translation as “precious” in 1 Peter 2:4, 6).
Luke, a physician, does not give us his specific diagnosis of the man’s affliction; Luke gives us only the prognosis: he was sick, and ready to die. Matthew adds more information by noting that the servant was “sick of the palsy, grievously tormented” (Matthew 8:6). In contrast with the situation in Luke 5:18, the servant may have been too ill to be brought to Jesus. Although people in antiquity had a limited understanding of disease and its causes, they could recognize the signs of unlikely recovery and impending death.
3. And when he heard of Jesus, he sent unto him the elders of the Jews, beseeching him that he would come and heal his servant.
The centurion undoubtedly had heard of Jesus in two senses: through general word of mouth (Luke 4:14, 37) and specifically of His return to Capernaum. Perhaps the fact that the centurion sent his healing request via the elders of the Jews reflects an intentional strategy, reasoning that Jesus may respond more positively to fellow Jews than to a Gentile (compare Matthew 10:5–6; 15:21–24).
This verse paints a picture of an intelligent man who recognized and understood the cultural issues of Gentiles interacting with Jews (Acts 10:28; 11:1–3). Rather than risk being spurned in a public, face-to-face meeting with Jesus, the centurion turned to Jewish leaders with whom he had become a friend in the community.
C. Insistent Elders (vv. 4–5)
4–5. And when they came to Jesus, they besought him instantly, saying, That he was worthy for whom he should do this: For he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue.
The elders who came to Jesus were apparently leaders of the synagogue in Capernaum. They did not convey the centurion’s message as reluctant lackeys—they earnestly pled his case.
For some unstated reason, the centurion loved the Jewish nation. The proof of that love is found in an astonishing detail: the centurion had built Capernaum’s synagogue. The expense might have included not only funding for the structure itself but also the interior furnishings: (1) a place to store scrolls for preservation and convenient access (compare Luke 4:17), (2) an elevated platform from which someone reading the Scripture would be visible to all in attendance (compare Nehemiah 8:4–5), (3) lamps for illumination, and (4) adequate seating (Luke 4:20a). We don’t know whether the centurion footed the bill for these, but it is possible.
Synagogues are not mentioned in the Old Testament, except for Psalm 74:8. However, the underlying Hebrew word is also translated “congregations” in that same psalm (Psalm 74:4). Elsewhere, the word occurs very frequently in conjunction with the tabernacle, which was the focus of assembly for worship before the temple was built (examples: Numbers 1:1; 2:2).
The need for synagogues as gathering places for worship and instruction in Scripture arose during the Babylonian exile that began in 586 BC (2 Kings 25). With the temple in Jerusalem destroyed and Jews far from their homeland, the people needed places to congregate; the word synagogue is a Greek word that means “place of assembly.” The return from exile probably modified the function of synagogues to being primarily places of Scripture teaching rather than worship. This transition was because worship in its fullest sense was to take place at the temple (compare 1 Kings 8:29–51; John 4:20; contrast 1 Kings 13:26–30), which had been rebuilt.
Some students believe that the centurion was a Gentile in the category of “one that feared God” (compare Acts 10:2, 22; 13:16, 26). Such Gentiles were not proselytes (converts) to Judaism (contrast Matthew 23:15; Acts 6:5; 13:43) but were devout nonetheless. Therefore, the centurion’s funding of the synagogue was more than a public works project designed to curry favor. Instead, it was rooted in his deep respect for Judaism and its God.
What Do You Think?
In what ways can your congregation act as a go-between in connecting resources to those in need?
Digging Deeper
How can your congregation partner with other congregations in this regard?
Credit Check
When my son was old enough to drive, he saved up his money and bought his first car. I was pleased with how responsible he had become. A few years later, some things started to go wrong with his vehicle, so he decided he wanted a new car. The problem was that he was only 19 and had no credit.
As a character reference, I could vouch for how responsible he was. But that doesn’t cut it in the realm of credit. The only way my assurance would mean anything was if I cosigned the loan—and Proverbs 22:26–27 warns of the dangers of doing so. The only reason I decided to do so was because I knew my son. I had watched him demonstrate his responsibility over the years, and his actions showed me that he deserved this risk I was taking.
The request by the elders of the Jews can be seen as their “cosigning” the centurion’s request for aid. Those elders knew the man’s heart, as evidenced by his actions. For Jewish leaders to vouch for a commander in a Gentile occupying army was astounding! Their reason for so doing even more so.
Jesus said, “Ye shall know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:16). What “fruits” did you produce this past week that would cause others to vouch enthusiastically for your character? —P. L. M.
II. Unmatched Faith
(Luke 7:6–10)
A. Insightful Centurion (vv. 6–8)
6a. Then Jesus went with them. And when he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying unto him.
Capernaum was not a large city. Crossing from one end to the other would not have taken more than 15 minutes. Therefore, the time between when the elders spoke to Jesus and when the friends did so must have been very short.
Since the group was not far from the house of the centurion, the man may have seen Jesus and His entourage approaching before he dispatched delegation number two. These friends may have been either Gentile, Jewish, or both (compare Acts 10:24; 19:31). The message they brought was surprising! This act demonstrated, among other things, knowledge of and respect for Jewish law, customs, and sensibilities on the part of the centurion (compare John 18:28; Acts 10:28).
The parallel in Matthew 8:5 has the centurion himself speaking to Jesus personally. One way to resolve the tension between the accounts is to consider how that first-century culture would have viewed a messenger commissioned to speak on behalf of another person. In other words, when the centurion’s friends talked to Jesus, it was as if Jesus was conversing with the centurion himself since that man had commissioned his friends to do so on his behalf. Matthew’s Gospel, in a way, merely simplifies the account of the interactions.
6b–7. Lord, trouble not thyself: for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof: Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee: but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed.
As the centurion (through his friends) addressed Jesus as Lord, we should not automatically presume that the centurion acknowledged Jesus as the Lord God. The Greek word translated “Lord” occurs more than 700 times in the New Testament, and it is often used as simply a polite address of respect. In such cases, it is equivalent to our modern word sir (examples: Matthew 27:63; John 4:11).
The centurion’s friends brought Jesus the unexpected message we see in the verses before us. Two things should be considered. First is the centurion’s humility in admitting his unworthiness. Other admissions of unworthiness (same Greek word) occur in the parallel passages Matthew 3:11; Mark 1:7; and Luke 3:16. The tension created between the theme of unworthiness here and the theme of worthiness in Luke 7:4–5 is interesting! Second, some students propose that in addition to admitting personal unworthiness, the centurion was demonstrating sensitivity in avoiding a potentially awkward cross-cultural meeting under the roof of a Gentile (compare John 4:9; 18:28; Acts 10:28; 11:3).
What Do You Think?
How will you show humility as you come before God in prayer?
Digging Deeper
In what ways is humility crucial for your formation into Christlikeness? How does James 4:6–10 inform your response?
First Resort or Last Resort?
In 2001, the very first telerobotic surgery was performed. The so-called Lindbergh operation involved a surgeon in New York City performing the surgery on a patient in Strasbourg, France! The ensuing years saw further advances in this technology.
To heal without needing to be in the same room as the patient is certainly a feat worthy of accolades and awards. We wonder how much faith that first patient must have had to agree to such an experiment! One glitch and chaos could have ensued. Would any of us have such faith in this technology? Knowing human nature as we do, it’s easy to envision almost everyone agreeing to undergo such an experiment if (1) there was no other option and (2) the medical condition was quite serious or terminal.
We see both conditions met in the situation of today’s text. But that brings up a question: Do we bring our problems to Jesus in prayer from the beginning or only as a last resort when nothing else works? —P. L. M.
8. For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.
The centurion’s plea was based on a hierarchical view of authority—a view that came from his military experience. See the discussion of the centurion’s status in the commentary on Luke 7:2, above. Earlier in Capernaum, Jesus had commanded a demon to come out of a man (Luke 4:31–37). Those who had witnessed it acknowledged Jesus’ authority and power as a result (4:36). The centurion was undoubtedly aware of this miracle and thereby recognized an analogy to his own authority. Moreover, the statement of the centurion admitted the limitations of his authority. The centurion had authority over his soldiers. However, Jesus has unlimited authority over the world. Regardless of how we perceive the centurion’s words, they emphasize Jesus’ authority over all things—even sickness.
What Do You Think?
How can you use the positions of leadership in which God has placed you to worship and serve Him?
Digging Deeper
How do you discern the limitations of your leadership and use those limitations as an opportunity to depend on God?
B. Astonished Jesus (v. 9)
9. When Jesus heard these things, he marvelled at him, and turned him about, and said unto the people that followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.
The four Gospels do not often speak of Jesus himself being amazed at something or someone. Almost always, it’s the other way around: people marvelled at Jesus or something He did. The two exceptions are the faith of the Gentile centurion (today’s text plus parallel in Matthew 8:10) and the lack of faith of the people of Nazareth (Mark 6:6).
Furthermore, Jesus did not actively seek to minister to Gentiles, only to fellow Jews (compare Matthew 10:5–6 with its parallel in Mark 6:7 and Luke 9:1–2). Even so, Gentiles sought Him out in a few cases (in addition to today’s text, see Matthew 15:28 and John 12:20–21). Jesus’ initiative to the Samaritan (a person who was ethnically half Jewish) in John 4:1–42 is unique. As far as Luke is concerned, the centurion’s faith is the greatest miracle in this passage.
What Do You Think?
How can you demonstrate “great faith” in your neighborhood? your city? your country?
Digging Deeper
What distractions do you need to remove in order to live with “great faith”?
C. Remote Healing (v. 10)
10. And they that were sent, returning to the house, found the servant whole that had been sick.
Jesus’ healing miracles in the Gospels have been categorized in various ways. These include healings by touch (example: Matthew 8:15), command (example: Luke 5:24), and prayer (example: John 11:41–42). One interesting way of healing, not often considered, is miracle healing from a distance. There are three such: the ones involving (1) the Gentile centurion’s servant in today’s text and Matthew 8:5–13, (2) the Gentile woman’s daughter in Matthew 15:21–28 (lesson 9), and (3) the nobleman and his son in John 4:46–54. In all three cases, faith was vindicated.
Conclusion
A. Centurion Faith
When we offer up intercessory prayer for the healing of a friend or family member, are we exercising the faith of the centurion? Without a doubt, any forthcoming healing will be a “remote healing” since Jesus is not here in the flesh, so that is not the issue.
The issue, instead, is one of believing in Jesus’ authority. That’s the essence of what we might call “Centurion Faith.” Our intercessory prayers must have more than a “maybe” or “hope so” tone. When we fix our eyes on Jesus, we demonstrate “Centurion Faith” that God will answer our prayers. When we are distracted from Him and wring our hands in despair, nothing good happens (Matthew 14:25–31). Jesus taught, “Whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive” (21:22).
The centurion’s background speaks loudly. He had cultivated friendships within his community for years. He had treated his neighbors with respect and honor, not pulling his rank as a Roman officer to get his way. In many ways, the significant gap between the Jews and Gentiles of Jesus’ day was bridged on that day in Capernaum. The centurion had used his wealth and influence to protect the Jews and provide a gathering place for their study of Scripture. He played “the long game” in the most sincere and authentic manner possible. When his household was in need, his character and actions were remembered. Can the same be said of ours?
What Do You Think?
How will you have “Centurion Faith” in situations when it seems that God doesn’t answer your prayers in a preferred or expected way?
Digging Deeper
What about in situations when God’s presence seems altogether gone?
B. Prayer
Heavenly Father, our lives constantly need Your support and healing. Our churches and homes need Your presence. May we honor You in all ways and never doubt. May we have a simple faith like the centurion! We pray in the name of Jesus, Your Son. Amen.
C. Thought to Remember
Have “Centurion Faith”!