“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.” Luke 7:2-3 ESV
Reflection: how did the centurion know Jesus was the Son of God?
Matthew, Luke and John all cover this story of the centurion, the Roman officer of Capernaum, who had a sick servant and asked Jesus to heal him. You might have read or heard the story before. But let’s stop and consider a couple points today, to perhaps gain some new insights.
First, even Jesus marveled at his faith. Here was a man with a lot of power and wealth, part of the occupying Roman military. But we learn how he is using his position, his wealth and power. Even the Jewish elders said of him that he “loved the people”, and had built the synagogue for them. And when one of his servants got ill, he did everything in his power to help him, even asking the elders to go ask Jesus to heal him. But he recognized his own unworthiness to be in the presence of Jesus. So he asked Jesus to just “speak the word”, to “command” the sickness to be gone. Amazing. This man truly lived by faith. All he did was by faith,
A living faith.
But the one thing that really struck me today was about his knowledge of who Jesus was. How in the world did he know? I mean, the religious leaders couldn’t (or wouldn’t) figure it out. Most of the people of Israel didn’t figure it out, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”Matthew 16:14 ESV. And when Jesus point blank asks the disciples, “But who do you say that I am?””Matthew 16:15 ESV. Peter finally declared “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”” Matthew 16:16 ESV. In this exchange with the disciples, notice what Jesus says next to Peter:
“Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 16:17b ESV.
It was revealed to Peter, by God. Could that also be the case for the centurion? That God somehow had revealed Himself to him? Paul deals with this topic in his letter to the Corinthians: “Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written,
“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”
— these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.” 1 Corinthians 2:6-10 ESV. Did you see that? We get the secret revealed here of why the centurion knew who Jesus was, and knew of his power. Because
…he loved God. He loved his neighbor.
And the same is true for you and I. God will only reveal Himself to us, if we love Him. If we love our neighbor as ourselves. Paul goes on saying “For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.” 1 Corinthians 2:11-13 ESV.
God doesn’t care about our nationality, our race or skin color, our denomination or position. He cares about our hearts.