THE CENTURION (AGAIN)
We learn a couple of new details in Luke’s version of this event.
- The Centurion loves the Jewish people and even payed for a synagogue to be built.
- He “highly valued” this servant.
A Roman centurion is not going to sponsor the building of a synagogue unless he knows what a synagogue is for and agrees with it and supports the purpose completely.
A synagogue is for the gathering of the Jews to read and study scripture.
The people tell Jesus that he “loves our nation.” So this centurion has publicly expressed his love and admiration for them (and likely also) their God.
Gentiles who believed in the God of Israel were called “God-fearers.” If they went so far as to join the Jewish community they were called “proselytes.” This is man of noble character trying to find light in the darkness and he recognizes the God of Israel (in some way) and is doing practical things to show his reverence.
And… he owned slaves.
(Flaming HOT take coming in 3…2…1…)🔥
Our society has come to a point where the conversation around slavery in world history is a powder keg magazine with a bunch of emotionally high strung people dancing around in it with torches. One little spark and…🧨BOOM!💥
According to them (the people who went to college to learn to “think” with their emotions instead of looking up actual facts), any person in history who ever owned a slave, or who lived in a society that practiced slavery and didn’t immediately BURN IT ALL DOWN – those historical figures are irredeemable brutes. We don’t need to investigate or look at facts. They were ALL cruel, privileged, misogynist tyrants. Period. There are NO exceptions to this.
Were there horrible misogynistic brutes who raped their slave girls, beat the men, and treated them all as sub-human? Yes. There absolutely were (and still are, wakey wakey) and they will face the unfiltered wrath of God if they did not repent and believe the Gospel. These types may even describe the vast majority.
But what about benevolent men like the centurion? It’s unfair to lump him and others like him in with the tyrants. He cares deeply for this servant. And before someone says…
👨🏼🎤 “Of course he ‘values’ him. He probably paid a bunch of money for him and doesn’t want his investment to die. That’s the only reason he asks Jesus to help.”
There’s a perfectly good Greek word to describe something that is “dear” because it is “costly”; (poluteles). And Luke doesn’t use that word. He uses a word that combines IN and HONOR.
He (the “master”) holds this man who works for him in honor. The centurion respects his slave. If he “honors” this man he cannot view him as property or even of less value than himself.
I would even go so far as to suggest we can see a kind of picture of Christ Himself in this centurion. He holds this slave (Greek: doulos [doo-los]) as precious. Look what Jesus thinks of His douloi (plural of doulos).
“There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me.”
John 15:13-15 NLT
We see the same esteem for obedience in Christ as we do the centurion.
- “You are my friends if you do what I command.” – Jesus
- “If I say to my slaves, ‘Do this,’ they do it.” – Centurion
The apostles often called themselves “the doulos of Christ.”
- James (the brother of Jesus), Jas. 1:1
- Jude (the brother of Jesus), Jude 1:1
- Peter, 2 Pet. 1:1
- Paul, Rom. 1:1, Tit. 1:1,
- Timothy, Phil 1:1
Jesus missed a perfectly good opportunity to lecture the centurion on the evils of slavery and tell him what a horrible person he was for having a slave and commanding him to set the man free. Instead, Jesus praises the centurion’s faith and holds him up as an example surpassing the faith of anyone among His own people.
Christians have lived and honored God in all kinds of cultural settings over the centuries. Some settings are MUCH easier than others. But we need to be careful of a kind of thinking that would shove an honorable, caring, God-fearing man of great faith like the centurion into the same category as a brutal tyrannical dictator.
🚒 🚨📢
👨🏻🚒🧯💨🔥
👨🏻🚒 We got it put out. I’d advise you to stay away from hot topics in the future, Ma’am.
JESUS CRASHES A FUNERAL
My Bible study group did an interesting thing a few years ago. We went through the whole Bible and looked at every instance of the terms “gate, door, entrance, opening.”
Some pretty important things happened at gates and doors, including judgments and miracles.
- God shut the door of Noah’s Ark
- The blood on the doorpost saved Israel in Egypt
- Israel was instructed to write God’s word on their doorposts and gates
- Samson carried away the gates of a city
- Boaz redeemed Ruth at the city gate
- Elijah asked the widow to make him a cake at the city gate. She did and her food supply was miraculously sustained.
- The lame man in Acts 3 was healed at the gate of the temple.
Jesus went to the town of Nain.
Nain wasn’t too far from Shunem. They were both at the foot of Mount Moreh. Shunem is where Elisha used to stay with a woman who invited him into her home and furnished a little guest room for him. Elisha had prophesied that the woman would have a son. Her husband was old and they had no children. Without a son to take care of her in her old age she would be dependent on charity. And then her son dies. Elisha goes to her and raises the child from the dead.
The widow of Nain is in a very similar situation. She will be provided for by her son who is still a rather young man; probably a teen or young adult. And then her son dies.
Jesus initiates this miracle. He has compassion on this woman. It is for her sake that He raises the son. He just stops the funeral procession and raises the young man to life.
No wonder they call Jesus “a great prophet.” He’s doing Elijah and Elisha stuff.
MESSENGERS FROM JOHN THE BAPTIST
“And when the men had come to him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?’”
Luke 7:20 ESV
This question from John the Baptist has been interpreted as :
- John is discouraged and loosing faith
- John is questioning his own ministry, “Did I miss it?”
- John is getting impatient and wondering why Jesus hasn’t taken over the world yet
And there may have been a little of all of the above. John was still human after all. But there is one other possibility that I think is worth considering.
If you recall from reading the many OT prophecies about the promised Messiah, they came in two flavors:
- The conquering King
- The suffering Servant
Daniel foretold that the Messiah would be “cut off” (killed) while Isaiah said both that Messiah would be smitten and stricken AND live and reign forever.
The big theological puzzle of the time was, Is there one Messiah who will do all this in two different times or ministries? OR, are there two Messiahs? They even had names for both of them:
- Messiah ben David (the Son of David) was the title of the conquering king.
- Messiah ben Joseph (the son of Joseph) was the title of the suffering servant.
Remember how Joseph (the son of Jacob) was envied, betrayed, and sold by his own brothers? And falsely accused? And thrown in prison? And then forgotten? Presumed DEAD by his father? He is a prophetic picture of Messiah ben Joseph.
What were the crowds calling Jesus?
“Son of DAVID.”
Put yourself in their shoes.
Forget for a moment that you know anything about the rest of the New Testament.
They aren’t a truly free people and haven’t been for centuries. They are a vassal state of the Roman Empire. They are allowed to operate the temple under a fragile peace.
Then this miracle-working prophet shows up. He casts out demons. He raises the dead. He multiplies food and commands the sea to be calm. He’s wildly popular. People are coming from all over to hear him. He could be their conquering king. He is IN FACT a descendant of David.
So why hasn’t He made His move yet?
He’s clearly not hiding out in the desert. He is publicly doing miracles.
I wonder if John is asking if Jesus is the one Messiah who will come, or will there be a second one as well? Is there a Messiah ben Jospeh?
Jesus’ response is to list what He is doing and tell John “blessed are those who do not get tripped up or stumble over Me.”
It’s as if Jesus is telling John, “Don’t get tripped up over how this unfolds. It will all happen as the LORD has said. That’s His concern. You don’t have to understand all the details. Even if it doesn’t look exactly the way you thought it would, don’t lose faith.”
It’s a good reminder as we consider prophecy unfolding in our lifetimes too.
When Jesus came the first time,
everyone was looking for a LION
and they got a LAMB.
Now, everyone is looking for a LAMB,
and when Jesus returns,
they are going to get a LION.
Jesus wouldn’t “dance to the tune” played by that generation. He answers to no one.
“He is not a tame lion.” (C.S. Lewis)
THE ALABASTER JAR
This incident in Luke 7 is NOT to be confused with the time that Mary of Bethany anoints Jesus’ head before he goes to the cross. In this account, a sinful woman anoints Jesus feet and weeps over them. This is a unique event not recorded in the other gospels.
We aren’t told what kind of sin this woman had been engaged in. People tend to assume sexual sin (adultery, fornication, prostitution), but the text doesn’t say this. She could’ve been into witchcraft for all we know. In the very next chapter Luke will name Mary of Magdala who Jesus had delivered from 7 demons. We KNOW from the Gospels that she became a grateful, loyal follower from then on. I wouldn’t be surprised if this woman who did the weeping over Jesus’ feet was none other than Mary Magdalene.
Let’s clarify something. There is no alabaster “box.” There is an alabastron. This thingy:
Alabastrons were perfume bottles. They weren’t “boxes” in the way we use the word “box” today. They were originally made of carved stone and clay but by the 1st century in the Roman Empire they could be made of stone, clay, metal or, very popularly – glass.
These were 8-10 inches (19-24cm) tall. The perfume oil would be sealed inside it.
Whatever the container was made of, it contained fragrant oil and this unnamed, but VERY grateful woman, poured it on Jesus’ feet.
When Jesus entered the home of this Pharisee, common courtesy for guests was to
- welcome them with the kiss of greeting on the side of the face
- Provide water (and usually a servant) to wash their feet
- Anoint their head with a bit of olive oil
None of that was done. It was rudeness on the level of refusing to shake someone’s offered hand. This Pharisee has intentionally disrespected Jesus.
And then this woman does all of the three things. And Jesus uses it as an example of the degree of love and appreciation having to do with the amount of sin which has been forgiven.
I would like to slightly qualify that statement.
I do not believe that one must go out and wallow in the filth of sin before one can be truly grateful for salvation. But I think that a revelation of the seriousness of our sin is one of the things that will absolutely transform our worship.
Let me unpack that.
For those of us goody-two-shoes kind of kids that grew up in church, came to faith at an early age, and never wandered off into a lifestyle of sin, it can be a little hard to grasp that we truly were bound for hell.
But the more we learn of God’s INSANE, incomprehensible level of holiness and righteous perfection, the better we understand how offensive even the smallest act of selfishness is to Him. The tiniest shading of the truth, the little indulgences of the flesh that aren’t effecting the state of the nation- these are the same thing as the big sins. They just haven’t grown up yet.
Sin is like cancer. Whether it’s a tiny cluster of only a few cancerous cells, or a full-blown tumor, it’s still cancer. It’s the same thing. It’s only a difference of how long it was allowed to grow unchecked.
We have been forgiven of MUCH more than we realize. May the Lord show us more clearly what He has done for us so we may appreciate, honor, and LOVE Him as He deserves.
To The Reader 