Luke 7:6-10 - Such great faith

7:6-8

Matthew’s account has the centurion himself speaking to Jesus. There is no irreconcilable difference. Matthew sometimes gives a much more abbreviated account than Luke or Mark, and he is emphasising the faith and nationality of the man. Luke is more concerned with the humility of the man. The three synoptic gospels recount many of the same incidents in Jesus’ life, but they are looking at things from different angles and with slightly different purposes.

The centurion did not have an inflated opinion of himself. It is a very human characteristic to treat any position of authority as an excuse to exalt ourselves, or to find some self-worth in that position. This centurion did no such thing. He had also learnt from his time as a man under authority. If we want to be people who have authority and exercise it aright we need to be people who know how to live under authority. It was because he was under authority that he could give commands to soldiers and they would obey him.

He recognised Jesus as one living under authority, the authority of His Father, so he reasoned that of Jesus commanded his servant to be well, then his servant would be healed. Our attitudes in everyday life can be helpful or unhelpful to our knowing and believing God. If we have good attitudes then we are more likely to hear God, to believe God and to understand God.

7:9,10

Jesus was amazed. This indicates the reality of the humanity of Jesus and His relationship with us. Jesus responds to faith. Jesus also turned to the crowd to highlight the depth and quality of faith demonstrated by the centurion. Israel was meant to be God’s nation and they should have demonstrated similar faith, but had never done so. Luke would be keen to demonstrate to his Gentile readers that Jesus fully accepts faith from non-Jews. Note also that faith was demonstrated in a real life situation. Faith is not demonstrated just by believing the creeds, though these are important. Our response to God in real life situations will often demonstrate the true nature of our faith. This and the doctrinal side go together and can feed each other.

The actual healing of the servant is presented in a very matter of fact way. The ability of Jesus to heal is not the question, our trust in Him is.