Sermon June 14, 1998 Unworthy Faith based on Luke 7:1-10

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

John D. Rockefeller once said, "I believe in the supreme worth of the individual and in his right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." It is good to value other people, so that we do not mistreat them, and perhaps that was what Rockefeller was getting at. Yet, when the worth of an individual is paired with certain rights, such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, we must step back and ask: What really is the worth of an individual? Do we deserve these things? Do we have a right to them because there is some merit or value inside us? In today's Gospel lesson, we learn of a military leader who had a different view on his self-worth.

Our text comes up following Jesus' Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:17-49). This sermon is similar to the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew has the Sermon on the Mount and Luke has the Sermon on the Plain. Following this sermon, Jesus returns to Capernaum, His home base.

There in Capernaum, He was approached with a request for a healing. The servant of a Roman centurion was ill. Our text from Luke is very similar to a situation which is reported in Matthew, chapter 8. There Matthew gives the specific sickness of this centurion's servant, which was paralysis.

Difficulty approaching Jesus

Now a centurion would be a captain in the Roman Army commanding roughly 100 soldiers. He would have been a Gentile, that is, not of Jewish descent or religion. Because of this, he probably felt a certain apprehension about approaching Jesus who was a Jew. Jews and Gentiles didn't mix well. The Jews were not on friendly terms with Gentiles.

On the other hand, this master was mindful of the troubles of his servants, not as some who are unconcerned. The centurion was willing to take extra steps to help his special servant. Perhaps it was a compromise for him to send someone to Jesus as his representative. He was caught between being so bold as to approach a Jew himself and his desire to bring healing to his servant.

Jews gave it their best shot

So, the Jewish elders went to Jesus with the message from the centurion. They asked Jesus to come and heal the slave of the centurion. However, they did not stop with this simple request, but they began to beg him earnestly and added their claim that the centurion was worthy of Jesus coming to heal his slave. These Jews said the centurion was worthy because he loved the Jewish nation of Israel and because he was responsible for the building of a synagogue for the people, which is a public worship area.

The elders first made the request, and then they tried to trump up the reasons for Jesus to come. They tried to encourage Him to come because the one he would be serving was deserving of this treatment. It was attempt to give their best shot at getting Jesus coming to do what they were requesting.

Children are known for type of "turning-up the volume." Them might come to mother with a request for a cookie. If she does not immediately give in to their wishes, it may be raised with comments about how hungry they are, or they haven't had a cookie for the whole day, or what have you. Children want their request fulfilled and they will turn up the volume to get their way.

This is what the Jewish elders seemed to do with Jesus. They begged Him with claims of the centurion's worthiness. This was typical behavior for the Jews, to believe that worthiness of one's works was helpful in making requests of God. They believed that people could make themselves worthy before God's eyes. They had corrupted God's Word of the Old Testament, and understood God to respond to our good works. They believed that: if we are good, then God will reward us. This type of works-righteousness lay behind the Jews' thinking.

However, they may well have been acting in ignorance. Did they know they were approaching God with their request? Would they still have claimed the centurion was worthy to have his servant healed if they knew they were talking to God? It may be that they would be even more inclined, had they realized who Jesus was, to claim worthiness for the centurion.

Works making us worthy?

Notice what they thought made the centurion worthy: his deeds of showing love to Israel and building the people a synagogue. The love to Israel probably meant this Roman was granting favors to the Jews. Do these kind of things make him worthy in God eyes? No, they don't.

God's eyes of Judgment see our violations of His Laws. Our utter and total sinfulness keep us from being worthy. Romans 3:9-12 says, "We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. As it is written: 'There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.'" In God's eyes, we are unable to claim worthiness. We cannot say we deserve anything from Him.

Still, we are all tempted to line up our works and deeds in our own minds. We hope to have enough to satisfy God. We are tempted to give various reasons that we might be worthy. It may have to do with our participation in church-our attendance at worship or service in some capacity. Many hold up baptism as their own work, or confirmation. Often, it will have more to do with morality. People may think that because they are not doing the evil things that others are, then they are worthy. Maybe you don't drink, don't swear, aren't homosexual, don't cheat on your spouse, etc. Does this mean you are worthy in God's eyes? Do we have worth before God because of what we do? The answer is no, of course. As the passage from Romans said, "All have turned away, they have together become worthless."

Unworthy Centurion

The elders of the Jews tried to represent the centurion's worth based on his deeds. Yet how did the centurion feel about this? Perhaps we get a more accurate picture of what the centurion thought of his own worth as the situation progresses.

After the elders asked Jesus to heal the servant, Jesus goes with them. When He had almost reached the centurion's house, a second set of representatives came from the centurion. They are described as his friends. The friends conveyed a different message from the centurion, not of his worthiness, but of his unworthiness. They spoke for the centurion who said he was not worthy to have Jesus come into his house. So, they requested that Jesus just say a word to heal the servant.

Notice the difference here. The centurion is now presented as unworthy. He does not deserve to have Jesus enter his house. This is a true expression of humility. Perhaps the centurion knows he came up short in worth. He may have known he was not obedient to God's laws.

The words of the centurion's friends express the attitude of the Christian. We see ourselves as unworthy before God. We have no deeds or works to credit us with any worth. We deserve nothing. Acknowledging our total lack of worth before God, we are left only able to cling to Christ for salvation. We must count on God's mercy to save us. We depend on the righteousness of Jesus.

Jesus Christ was indeed righteous. He lived a perfect life for us, fully obedient to God's Laws. Then He died as the punishment for our sins. Jesus, thereby, paid the price for the sins we are guilty of committing. Jesus is completely worthy of all glory and honor because of what He did for us. This worth of Christ is then applied to us.

This is the foolishness of the Gospel at work. Those who consider themselves worthy disqualify themselves for salvation. Those who realize that they do not deserve to be saved, who know their unworthiness, are the ones who count on Christ fully, and receive the salvation Christ gives.

A theologian named Edersheim summarized the centurion's approach in this way: "But in this self-acknowledged unfitness lay the real fitness of this good soldier for membership with the true Israel; and in his deep-felt unworthiness the real worthiness for the kingdom and its blessings."

Faith in a word

Another aspect of the centurion's faith was that he understood Jesus did not need to come into the house to do the healing. He requested that Jesus simply speak a word. His faith told him that Jesus could speak with the power of a just a word and it would be done. Word alone does it. No medicine, no touch, no presence are needed.

The Centurion really had asked for a great miracle, a distance-healing. Jesus often healed through means of touch. Whether he was putting mud on the blind man's eyes or having his clothes touch the woman with a bleeding problem, the healing miracles of Jesus were often confined to the means of touch.

This centurion, however, had the example of how his subordinates obey based on a word. He knew that one in authority could command those under him. He must have understood Jesus to have this type of authority over sickness and illness. He could command it to depart. The centurion may well have understood who Jesus really was, truly God, and he may have recognized that the whole universe is under His command. Jesus could do anything He wished with the utterance of a word.

The centurion asks for the deluxe variety of healing in full confession of his unworthiness. He asks Jesus to do something that one can only ask God to do, thus acknowledging Jesus as God. He knows Jesus' power. All this together is the great faith that Jesus praised in our text. It is a faith that said that Christ delivers His gifts, not based on our worthiness, but on love alone.

The centurion made the request of Jesus in great faith. Jesus gave him what he requested. Not because he was worthy, but simply because God is merciful and gracious. Because He loves us.

The next hymn we sing, How Great Thou Art, praises God for being great. Jesus, it says, gladly took on our burden and died to take away our sin. We praise God for His greatness. We do not praise our own greatness. It would have been wrong of the centurion to respond to Jesus' statement about his faith with pride. He would have destroyed that faith by thinking that Jesus chose to heal his servant because of his great faith. True faith will never look in on itself like this. True faith in us will only find ourselves unworthy and Christ the source of our true worth. We pray that you find the source of your true worth in Jesus Christ. Amen.