The Faith Of The Roman Centurion
THE FAITH OF THE ROMAN CENTURION
LUKE 7:1-10
Following on from chapter 6, Luke now gives us an example of faith in practice.
The centurion was a Roman seconded for special duty in a sphere of Herod Antipas’ administration. It is a notable fact that the Roman officers who find mention in the New Testament are, all five of them, men of standing and visible integrity. Palestine was a turbulent province. Rome was seeking to hold it with a garrison of 3,000 men, which, as the ultimate disaster of the Great Rebellion was to prove, was totally inadequate. Hence Rome’s cultivation of the Herodian house, and the collaborating priesthood and aristocracy. Hence, too, the obvious fact that officers picked for duty in Palestine were men of character and strength. It is not strange to find an officer of this type attracted to Judaism, whose lofty view of God, and stern standards of moral conduct, appealed to many pagans who found the religions of the Greek and Roman world unsatisfying.
It is also clear that the centurion was a man of insight who could see past the obtuse religious leaders, proud, bound by their own legalism, and suspicious of Christ. He saw the worth and wonder of the Lord, and came to seek him with courtesy, reverence and faith. It was inevitable that he should conceive God in the forms and terminology of his own soldier’s profession. So it happens with every believer. An astronomer will think of God as a great mathematician, a poet will see his glory woven into simple things, and the common bush aflame with him. The infinite Creator is infinitely varied, and each believer has his own contribution of understanding to make. But supremely, God would have us see him in the face of Christ. Here is his grace, his love, his ultimate revelation (John 1:18).
When Luke wrote his Gospel, much of the career of Paul was already over. Peter’s dramatic meeting with Cornelius, the centurion of Caesarea, was more than twenty years behind. The door was open to the Gentiles, but there were those in the church, the heirs of the carping Pharisees, who still resisted the gift of the gospel to the world.
Luke was pleased to tell the story of a Gentile’s faith, for it revealed in Christ’s own experience and purpose that which Paul had woven into his world-wide ministry. In Christ was neither Jew nor Gentile, just as in him there is neither black nor white.
Notes 7:3: “elders of the Jews”—the leaders of the local synagogue, who ministered its affairs under the “ruler” (Luke 8:41). 7:9: note how this is expanded in Matthew 8:11-13.