Luke 7:3 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters | Metropolitan Tabernacle

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Luke 7:3

Comments

You read here what the centurion did to try to affect this healing. ‘When he heard of Jesus, he sent unto him the elders of the Jews’, either the elders of the synagogue or perhaps the elders of the city. He sent to Christ via these elders, beseeching him that he would come and heal his servant. He didn't send any old person on this errand, he actually got in touch with people who were his associates, probably the elders of the Jewish synagogue which he had built, and he asked them to go and intercede for him and they did. He approached Jesus through what he thought were the right official channels.‘And when they came to Jesus, they besought him’, they pleaded with him, ‘instantly’, which means urgently, ‘saying, That he was worthy for whom he should do this.’ They pleaded with Jesus Christ as a matter of urgency to come and attend to this man's slave, and they pressed him on the grounds of the centurion’s worthiness. He is worthy they said; he is a good man; ‘he loveth our nation.’ This is a religious sentiment. They are not saying that he loves this ethnic group. They are saying he loves this nation, the Jews, and what we stand for. He isn't a proselyte – they would have mentioned that if he had been – but he is very interested. He thinks that our God, our one God, is much more significant than his Roman many gods. He was thinking. He was evidently becoming disenchanted with Roman paganism. He had become fascinated by the concept of one God, ruler of heaven and earth, maker of all things, this grand and glorious concept of one mighty transcendent God. He loves our nation because this is what our nation is all about, a Jew would say: the one God, the God of holiness, the God who looks after his people and has a destiny for them. Then they added another point about his worthiness: ‘and he hath built us a synagogue.’ This was strong evidence of his kindness and his interest in the Jewish nation. Things he wouldn't have done back home he could afford to do out here at Capernaum. He was a sufficient rank and station to get away with that type of friendly conduct.

Application

But the Jewish elders were absolutely wrong in the way they put this to Jesus Christ. ‘Come and heal his slave, for he is worthy of your help. Do this for him. He is such a good fellow and he is interested in our faith.’ Well of course that was the last thing they should have said to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ had come to help people who realised that they were not worthy of his kindness, that they were not worthy of his help. Christ said that he had come to help those who saw that they were sinners in need of forgiveness. He hadn't come for the righteous; he hadn't come for people who imagine they are worthy, because nobody is worthy. We fool ourselves if we think we are worthy of the goodness and the kindness and the favours of Almighty God. Nobody can please the Holy God. That is why Christ has come, to make a way of salvation for hopeless, sinful people. He came, he suffered and died on Calvary. He took the punishment himself due to all those sinners who he would forgive so that he could come and offer them a free salvation, if only they would repent and bow down and give him their lives. So these elders didn't understand the teaching of Jesus Christ. They obviously didn't feel any personal need as sinners, in need of forgiveness themselves, for them to put this recommendation in this form to Jesus Christ. But Christ ignored their wrong approach, because he knew that the centurion himself had a very different understanding: he saw his unworthiness very clearly, and this soon comes out in the narrative.

Is there somebody who thinks that Christianity teaches that if you are good people then God will favour you with heaven; that if you earn it, then you will, by your good works and helping other people, deserve heaven and be saved and forgiven. No, that is not the teaching of Christianity. The teaching of Christianity is that we all fall so far short, and we need a free pardon and a free forgiveness and only those who can see that will have it. If I'm too proud to see it, I cannot be forgiven by God. If it is beneath me to say, ‘Lord forgive me, I'm nothing but a sinner and a fool’, I can never be forgiven.

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Luke 7:3 Commentary and Bible Study