Verse 5:13: “The Faith of the Centurion”

Verse 5:13: “The Faith of the Centurion” (Luke 7:1-10)

Centurion: In Roman army, there were many divisions. A division with 6,000 soldiers was called a legion. Each legion was divided into 10 groups and then into groups of 100 soldiers. The leader of such a group was called Centurion. They were generally Romans. There many centurions listed in NT such as the centurion who guarded our Lord in the cross and the one who saw that our Lord was surely Son of God. Others are:
1. Cornelius, who was the first member of the church. ( Acts 10:22)
2. The centurion who saved Apostle Paul from enemies ( Acts 23;17)
3. The centurion who accompanied apostle Paul when he was transferred to Caesarea ( Acts 23:23)
4. The centurion appointed by Felix to guard Apostle Paul ( Acts 24:23)
5. A centurion named Julius who accompanied Apostles Paul to Rome ( Acts 27:1,31)

They were all Gentiles and were good people. 

The state of slaves in this time was pathetic. They were treated just like animals. The only difference between a domesticated animal and slave was that slaves could talk. It is in this social environment that this a centurion loved his slave and prayed for him to our Lord. So the act of this centurion is really commendable. This might be one aspect that attracted our Lord; for our Lord will care for the ones who care for others.

He saluted our Lord saying (“Lord” or ‘Mor’ in Aramaic). Usually this address is used to salute God in Holy Scriptures. Even though there were Pharisees and Scribes and other Jewish leaders, this centurion was convinced that Jesus was beyond a human. Luke’s Gospel narrates this incident slightly differently. It doesn’t say the centurion came to the Lord in person. But he is described as “He is worthy that You should do this for him. For he loves our nation and he built us our synagogue”. 

When the centurion made the request, our Lord gave a favorable reply. The Jewish law book ‘Misna’ (Mishna) teaches that the houses of Gentiles are unholy. Please note our Lord’s words here. He did not say ‘I will come and see the servant ‘, instead our Lord said, "I will go and heal him”. Lord who came to call up on sinners – who first ignored the restriction to not to touch a leper – now goes to a Gentile’s home and offers to heal a person. There is no restriction whatsoever for our Lord to do goodness. There is also a translation which is like ‘should I come and heal him?’ For the Semitic languages, there was no question mark at that time. It was from the tone of the sentence that classified it as a question or a statement. 

Lord praises the faith of the centurion as great because with his faith, there was complete hope. He had the humility to think that he was just a servant in our Lord’s presence. He had rock solid belief that Lord has the authority over nature and on the disease, too. He inferred that Lord could perform miracle even from far away. In a time, when even His own people did not acknowledge the Glory of God, the centurion acknowledged the Almighty God.