“It’s a Miracle: the centurion’s servant”
Luke 7:2-3
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus.
Imagine for a moment that it’s early in the morning in September of 2009, just before dawn. A patrol of American and Afghan forces are on foot, making their way up a narrow valley, heading to a village to meet with the elders, when suddenly, all across the village, the lights go out.
And that’s when it happened. About a mile away, Corporal Dakota Meyer could hear the ambush over the radio. It was as if the whole valley was exploding. Taliban fighters were unleashing a firestorm from the hills, from stone houses, and even from the local school.
Within moments, the patrol was pinned down, taking fire from three sides. Some of the men were already killed or wounded. The rest were surrounded. Four times, Dakota asked for permission to go in, but was denied every time. It wasn’t safe, they said. It was too dangerous, they said. But as one of his high school teachers said, “When you tell Dakota he can’t do something, he’s going to do it.” And as Dakota himself said, “Those were my brothers, and I couldn’t just sit back and watch.”
What he did next would later earn him the Medal of Honor.
Defying orders, he jumped into a Humvee and manned the gun. Then he drove straight into battle, his head and upper body exposed to enemy fire. It was the most intense combat he had ever seen.
Then one by one, he rescued the trapped and wounded soldiers. Five times, he went back, through the bullets, the smoke and the chaos, risking his life. And because of what he did that day in September, thirty-six men are alive today.
Why did he do it? Why did he risk his life in the face of enemy fire?
“Because,” he said, “that’s what you do for a brother.”
In the book of Luke chapter 7, we meet another soldier, a centurion, who did all he could, not for a friend and not for a brother, but for a servant, a slave. He begged for help from Jesus Christ.
Please turn with me in your Bible to the book of Luke chapter 7, found on page 1098. I’ll start at verse 1: “After He had finished all His sayings in the hearing of the people, He entered Capernaum. Now a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him. When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to Him elders of the Jews asking Him to come and heal His servant.”
Let’s stop there for just a moment.
Jesus had already chosen His twelve disciples and He had already begun to teach and heal. And He had just preached the most famous sermon anyone would ever give, the sermon on the Mount, as He said: “Blessed are you who hunger, for you shall be satisfied…and blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.”
Now He came to Capernaum, what would soon become His adopted home town. It’s where He cast out a demon on the Sabbath, and where He healed Peter’s mother-in-law and a man with a withered hand. Now here in verse 2, we hear of a centurion whose servant was sick and about to die.
A centurion? What’s a centurion? A centurion was a commander of a hundred men. He was a high-ranking man, chosen for his ability to lead. He was part of the backbone of the Roman army.
And bear in mind that, in those days, soldiers didn’t hide in a bunker, firing missiles at enemies miles away. They fought face-to-face, hand-to-hand. They were brave, courageous, loyal and strong. You couldn’t be a centurion unless you obeyed your commanding officer in everything and performed your duty without question.
And every time the New Testament speaks of a centurion, it does so with respect. And every time, we hear of their manhood and integrity.
Think of the one who once stood beside Jesus’ cross. He saw the darkness. He felt the earth quake. He heard Him speak. He watched Him die. And he couldn’t help but say, “Surely, this Man was the Son of God.”
And of all things, this centurion, in verse two, “…had a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him.”
A servant who was highly valued? Now that’s strange. No one cared about slaves. Varo, the Roman writer on agriculture, divided tools used in farming into three classes—the articulate comprising the slave, the inarticulate comprising cattle, and the mute comprising vehicles. In other words, the only difference between a slave and an ox and a wagon, he said, was that the slave could talk. Another Roman named Cato wrote that, every year, farmers should examine their tools and throw out the ones that were old and broken, including slaves. And Aristotle wrote: “A master and slave have nothing in common.”
But that’s not how it was for this centurion. In fact, he cared so much, in verse 3, when he heard about Jesus, “he sent to Him elders of the Jews, asking Him to come and heal his servant.”
And that too strikes us as a little strange. We are talking a centurion here, a Roman soldier in occupied territory, a commander of a hundred men. Anyone could have told you that he had every right to command Jesus to appear before him in person, right here, right now. He could have employed threats, imprisonment or any weapon in his arsenal.
But he didn’t do any of that. Instead, he approached Jesus with dignity and respect. He even called Him, “Lord.”
What happened next? Look at verse 6: “And Jesus went with them. And when He was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to Him, ‘Lord, do not trouble Yourself, for I am not worthy to have You come under my roof. Therefore I did not presume to come to You. But say the word, and let my servant be healed.’”
Then what happened? Verse 9: “When Jesus heard these things, He marveled at him, and turning to the crowd that followed Him, said, ‘I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.’ And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well.”
It’s funny if you think about it. Men were always amazed at Jesus. When He stilled a storm on the sea, when He showed power over the wind and the waves, the Bible says the disciples were amazed. They said, “What kind of Man is this that even the wind and the waves obey Him?”
In Matthew chapter 9, Jesus confronted a man possessed by a demon. He was mute, unable to speak. And as Jesus cast it out, the people were amazed. They said, “Never was anything like this seen in Israel.” In Matthew chapter 15, multitudes brought their lame, their blind, and their crippled and laid them at His feet. And He healed them. And as the blind saw and the lame walked, the people were amazed and gave glory to God. And in the book of Luke, the Bible says, “Everyone spoke well of Him and were amazed at the gracious words falling from His lips. They said, ‘Isn’t this Joseph’s son?’”
Everyone was amazed by Jesus, absolutely everyone.
But this is the only time Jesus was amazed at someone else. As He said, “Not even in Israel have I found such faith.”
You know what? I want to be just like that centurion—humble, respectful, trusting, believing—because that’s how Jesus wants every one of us to be. Don’t ever settle for anything less.
One day, Joseph, a Masai warrior, was walking along a hot, dirty, African road, when a missionary shared the gospel with him. And right then and there, by the grace of God, Joseph believed in Jesus as his Savior.
And since he believed, the very first thing he wanted to do was to share the gospel with the members of his own tribe.
So he went door-to-door, telling everyone about the cross and the salvation that it offered, hoping and expecting to see their faces light up just the way his had. But to his amazement, the villagers not only didn’t care, they became violent. His fellow tribesmen grabbed him and held him down to the ground, while the women beat him with strands of barbed wire. Then they dragged him out of the village to die alone in the bush.
Somehow he managed to crawl to a water hole where he, for days, passed in and out of consciousness, until he had the strength to get back up. He thought, “Why do my own people hate the gospel? Maybe I left something out. Maybe I didn’t tell it correctly.” So he went over the message again in his mind, then went back to share his faith once more.
And as he limped back into the circle of huts, he began again to tell them of Jesus. He said, “He died for you, so that you might find forgiveness and come to know the living God.”
But again the men of the village grabbed him and held him down, while the women beat him, re-opening fresh wounds that had just begun to heal. And once more they dragged him out of the village and left him alone to die.
Again, days later, he woke up in the wilderness, bruised, scarred and determined to go back.
But this time, when he returned to his village, they attacked him before he even had a chance to speak. And as they whipped him and beat him for a third time, he witnessed to them about Jesus. “Jesus Christ is Lord,” he said.
But before he passed out for the third and final time, he couldn’t help but see that the women who were beating him began to cry.
Finally, when he woke back up again, this time he found he was in his own bed. The ones who beat him were now trying to save his life and nurse him back to health.
Wonder of wonders, the entire village had come to Christ.
We have a Savior who not only loves us, He forgives us and heals us. Once, a Roman centurion knew that. I hope you know it too.
As hymnwriter William Bathurst once put it so well: “Oh, for a faith that will not shrink, though pressed by many a foe, that will not tremble on the brink of poverty or woe. Lord, give us such a faith as this; and then, whate’er may come, we’ll taste e’en now the hallowed bliss of an eternal home.”
Once, dear Jesus, the faith of a Roman centurion amazed You. Grant us the grace to have that same strong, unrelenting, amazing faith that we may rest, calmly and confidently, in You. This we ask in Your name. Amen