A Man of Faith

Luke 7:1-10

Can a Roman soldier, who in order to hold that post, had to worship the image of Caesar, can this man actually be called a man of faith? Here is this pagan Roman Centurion, the one I referred to last time as a man of peace. He is sending word to Jesus through the town’s Jewish leaders that his servant is sick and on the verge of death. When Jesus nears his house, he sends other friends to tell Jesus not to bother to come to his house.

The Centurion is not being rude to Jesus, refusing to host this rabbi at his house. Rather he is being polite, not wanting to bother this great teacher, for he senses that Jesus is a man of unusual authority who does not need to come on location to command the sickness to leave his servant. And he may also sense, though the text does not say it, that the rabbi may not wish to defile himself by entering a pagan’s house. If so, what is in evidence is cultural politeness rather than overt humility, though that cultural deference is a true form of humility.

Jesus immediately recognizes in the Centurion a man of outstanding faith. The Centurion is a commanding officer. He understands what it is to order that things be done without having to go and do it himself. So it is not surprising that the Centurion would think in such ordering terms.

But it is very surprising – and rarely found even in circles known for faith – that this pagan should think that Jesus could order death and disease the same way he orders around his human soldiers and local citizens. The Roman recognizes in Jesus a man of great authority over the unseen realms in ways that he himself has authority over people. The Roman is using his own cultural context (the army) to envision what happens in the spiritual world. This is what is called faith – what is it that the Apostle Paul later says? – the evidence or visualization of things unseen.

So without getting near the servant, without even seeing him or his master, Jesus heals the dying man. Matthew’s parallel version of this story has Jesus talking directly to the Centurion. Or so it might seem. But it is just as likely that Matthew can be leaving out the roles of the mediators to streamline the story – as I sometimes tell my kids, “Just get to the point.”

And the point is that the Centurion is a man of amazing faith. Now such faith in and of itself would be remarkable. What puts this faith over the top is that the man of faith in question is not a follower of Yahweh, the God of the Jews and the Bible. This man is a Roman and an officer in the Imperial Army, who is sworn in pagan ritual to Caesar himself. And yet of this very man, Jesus says, “I have not found such great faith even in Israel.”

Some people make distinctions between different kinds of faith here – such as saving faith or healing faith or some other faith. But Jesus makes no such distinction. Does this make this man a believer? Well, he is a man who believes that Jesus has the power to heal his servant without getting near him. One who believes is a believer. Whatever his personal views on the God of the Jews, he recognizes in Jesus something very special that even most of the Jewish believers themselves miss altogether.

I am struck by how often we criticize or judge the faith of others. I do it myself. But Jesus evaluates faith purely on the faith itself. And in this man, Jesus sees a faith unparalleled.

What a statement Luke makes here in this passage, that Jesus was amazed at the Centurion’s faith! It is very hard for us to think of Jesus other than as this placid figure who is beyond human emotion. And yet, here is Jesus being amazed. How does Luke know Jesus was amazed? Luke wasn’t even an eyewitness. He was obviously getting the story from others – we won’t go into all that here, but it was in all likelihood a diversity of sources. And yet, what came through all those sources to Luke was that Jesus was to eyewitnesses noticeably amazed by this Centurion’s faith.

This faith was amazing because the Roman did not need some kind of physical connection between the healer and the sick person. The faith was also amazing because he recognized in this itinerant rabbi known as Jesus a man of great authority, authority even over disease and death. This faith was furthermore amazing because this man of faith was not a Jewish believer.

We make all kinds of distinctions about who can have faith. In the end, the one who can have faith is the one who acts upon the faith they do have.