After he had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. 2 Now a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him. 3 When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his servant. 4 And when they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly, saying, “He is worthy to have you do this for him, 5 for he loves our nation, and he is the one who built us our synagogue.” 6 And Jesus went with them. When he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to him, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. 7 Therefore I did not presume to come to you. But say the word, and let my servant be healed. 8 For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me: and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 9 When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” 10 And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well.

Luke 7:1-10

Introduction

What gives a person worth? Is it the money he makes? Is it her elite college education? Is it how ‘hot’ she is? Is it his powerful position in life? Is it the luxury car that he drives? The expensive sneakers that the kid wears? The latest cell phone that he has stood on line overnight to obtain? What makes a person worth something? What gives him value? What makes him significant to the world, but perhaps even far more important, to himself? Listen to 17-year old Chloe who is pursuing this worth:

Dieting made me feel I was in control of something. It was one thing I knew I could change on my own. I would diet and get positive feedback and feel really good. So I wouldn’t eat for a few days at a time. …You compare yourself to other people. Each of my friends was vying to be better than the other. I was in a restaurant with my boyfriend and a girl walked in who was really pretty and much thinner than me. I saw him glance at her. I went into the bathroom and cried.…[Boys are] constantly comparing women to each other: ‘That girl is really hot; she’s so much hotter than her friends.’ So we compete to be the hotter friend. Some days it makes you feel fat. On particularly bad days, I can look at children and think that when I’m older, that little 3-year-old girl is going to steal my husband. Hara E. Marano, “The Skinny Sweep-stakes”, Psychology Today (January-February 2008), pp. 89-95

Some of us here can relate to Chloe. All of us can relate to her desire for worth and value, and though we might not be seeking it in our physical appearance perhaps, we are seeking it. In fact, we were created to seek it. Our desire for worth is what drives us, what motivates us, what causes us to make certain decisions. Our inability to find worth also can destroy us, can depress us, can cause us to be ‘lazy bums,’ slowly sapping our motivations and desires. The fact of the matter is, we were created to desire worth, glory, value, satisfaction.

Paul Tripp makes this observation:

You were hardwired by your Creator for a glory orientation. It is inescapable. It’s in your genes. The groundhogs don’t compete for who has made the most glorious underground den. Or, as my brother Tedd says, the penguins don’t score one another as they dive off the ice into the frigid sea…But we’re different…We were simply made for glory, but not just the shadow glories of the created world. We were made for the one glory that is transcendent—the glory of God. When you grasp this, your life begins to make a difference. (Paul Tripp, A Quest for More, 18-19)

Luke 7:1-10 looks to demonstrate this truth. In this story, we see three main characters, a Roman centurion, the Jewish elders, and Jesus and all three are making a statement about human worth, intimating the question, “What makes one worthy,” or “What makes one worth something, that is, valuable?” I’d like to look at all three perspectives and hopefully, you’ll agree along with me that only one perspective gives us a true picture of human worth.

He Is Worthy: What makes him worthy? (the Jewish elder perspective) (vv. 1-5)

Let’s first look at the Jewish elder perspective in verses 1-5: “After he had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. 2 Now a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him. 3 When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his servant. 4 And when they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly, saying, “He is worthy to have you do this for him, 5 for he loves our nation, and he is the one who built us our synagogue.” So what can we ascertain about the centurion from the text? A centurion was a commander of 100 soldiers. Centurions were paid well and hence, this centurion happened to have a servant who we see is very ill. We also see from the story that the centurion was well-respected by the Jewish community since they were eager to plead his case before Jesus. Most likely, the centurion much like Cornelius the centurion in Acts 10, was probably a God-fearer who had some affinity for the Jewish culture and especially for the worship of Yahweh. Also, this man seems to be a compassionate man. A servant in Jesus’ day was a slave. They were people who had no rights, who could potentially be treated no better than the household pet. But this centurion “highly valued him,” probably not just for his skills because he could always purchase a slave, but rather for the relationship he had with his servant.

We also can’t underestimate the significance of this man’s relationship with the Jewish leaders. The fact that they viewed this Gentile so highly is somewhat surprising, especially considering the way Jewish leaders often viewed Gentiles. So why do the leaders favor this man so much? The answer is that he is worthy. So what makes him worthy?

1. He loves our nation (v. 5)

I wonder what made the Jewish elders believe that he loved their nation. He probably had good relationships with many of them. He could have been kind to the Jewish people. He could even expressed in words much admiration for the Jewish people and for the God they worshipped. One can never underestimate how significant it is to belong, to fit in, to have identity. This centurion identified with the Jews, empathized perhaps with their condition, and as a result, they favored him. There was a visible expression of his love. There was a reciprocity of love. He loved them, so they at least felt compelled to love him (or at least respected him) in response.

And isn’t this one of the key ways we determine someone’s value and worth in our eyes, “Does this person love me, bless me, accept me, give gifts to me, cherish me, care for me, have a relationship with me?” Have you ever thought negatively of a person, only to have them send you an email of encouragement or give you a gift? Suddenly, your value of the person changes. You find that person who once only had your disdain was now worthy of your affection. We need to ask ourselves, “Do we appreciate people in our lives for simply who they are or rather, what they can do for us or give to us?” Our determination of someone’s worth too often rests on reciprocity. We are prone to think, “If he loves me, only then will I love him back.”

But this type of worth based on reciprocity will always fall short. The reality is that there will come a time when another will stop caring, stop giving, and perhaps stop loving. The sad and tragic realities of sin will either lead to apathy, conflict, sickness, and death that will eventually break even the strongest bonds. What happens when you’re Robertson McQuilkin whose wife Muriel was struck with Alzheimer’s, and you have to care for her for 13 years where she no longer responds to you or even knows your name? Does she have any worth or value at all in your eyes? She is not worthy because she can love back. If worth and value is only determined by one’s ability to initiate love, then boy am I in trouble, are we all in trouble before God. Does a child have any worth or value because he or she is not out of the womb, because he can’t talk or play?

Praise God that He doesn’t love us or value us in this way. You see, Romans 5:8 tells us: “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God didn’t love us once we loved Him. He loved us before we ever desired Him at all. He loved us when we were still sinners and objects of His wrath. God’s love is not like ours. The Jewish leaders loved the centurion because he loved their nation. And because of this, they deemed him worthy and deserving of Jesus’ healing miracle. But praise God that Jesus loves us simply because He has chosen to do so regardless of our lack of reciprocal love for Him. Listen to this grand statement of God’s gracious love in Ephesians 2:1-5:

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.

We were sons and daughters of disobedience. Even when we were dead in trespasses, Christ saved us. In other words, every one of us wanted nothing to do with God, much like our family members, friends, co-workers, and neighbors who want nothing to do with God. We were no different, whether you went to church your whole life, or have recently come to church. We all at one time had no love for God.

2. He built our synagogue (v. 5)

Also, the Jewish elders tell Jesus that what makes him worthy is that he has done something for God, he has built the synagogue. How significant this is. He probably donated not just his money but perhaps even his time and energy in making sure that the building project went up. If someone came into this room today and decided to make a ten million dollar donation to Wellspring so that we could build a church building, how easy it would be to think of this man as a worthy man, worthy of our blessing and our appreciation. But look at what we and the Jewish leaders are using as the criteria to determine someone’s value and worth: money, influence, power. But may I say that every one of us is guilty of determining another’s worth based on external criteria. We are inherently biased in the way we show favor and value in others.

James talks about this in James 2:1-4:

My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. 2 For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, 3 and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” 4 have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

Do you see that James calls those who show favoritism based on external criteria as judges with evil thoughts? In other words, when a person determines someone’s worth and value on the basis of the clothing they wear, the college they graduated from, the amount of money she has in her account, the jewelry and accessories she has, the car he drives, how well he plays basketball, whether he’s married or not, that person is becoming a judge with evil thoughts. We can also do this to ourselves. When we are determined to shape our worth and value by our outer appearance alone, we are becoming a judge with evil thoughts, and sometimes this can even lead to our physical death. This week, a woman died who hoarded her clothing died when her many suitcases of clothing fell on top of her. The British newspaper Daily Mail reported:

Joan Cunnane, 77, owned 300 scarves as well as thousands of trinkets and valuables. They took up so much space in her bungalow that she had only a 2ft-wide path to get around them, and her car and garage were packed with other goods. After she was reported missing earlier this week, it took police searching her home two days to sift through her possessions.

Jesus makes it clear regarding possessions and its value: “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” (Luke 12:15) This woman is just an extreme example of the tragic reality that so many of us struggle with, we determine our worth by what we own. The Jewish elders believed that the centurion was worthy because he had done so much for them. He deserved to be healed. And this is how sinful human beings naturally operate, if you do something well, you deserve to be rewarded. And when you’re not rewarded, suddenly we become angry, frustrated, depressed. Remember the story of Cain and Abel? Cain’s sacrifice was not from the genuineness from his heart and God saw through his trickery. But Abel’s sacrifice was out of his joy and delight. Cain was so angry and jealous over God’s response over Abel’s response, that he rose up and killed him. Genesis 4:5-7 record what happened next:

So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. 6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.

Sin is always crouching at the door of hearts when we feel we don’t get what we deserve, when we feel we’re not rewarded for what we feel entitled to. And so we become angry, and frustrated, and depressed. We become judges of others, critical in spirit, putting others down. We become embittered and unforgiving. We start comparing ourselves to others and finding others wanting. This is the sin that is crouching.

But this isn’t how it is supposed to be. There should be humility in response to pride. Puritan pastor Richard Baxter comments:

Self-idolizing pride causes men to glory in their supposed greatness, when the greatness of God should show them their contemptible vileness. It causes them to magnify themselves when they ought to be magnifying their Maker. It makes the strong man glory in his strength, and the rich man in his wealth, and the conqueror in his victories. (Richard Baxter quoted in Lou Priolo, Pleasing People, 62)

And even though the Jewish elders believed the centurion to be great, verses 6-8 tell us that the centurion saw himself as vile before the greatness of God.

I Am Not Worthy: What makes him unworthy?(The centurion’s perspective)(v. 6-8)

Let’s look at verses 6-8: “And Jesus went with them. When he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to him, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. 7 Therefore I did not presume to come to you. But say the word, and let my servant be healed. 8 For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me: and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” The centurion sends a second delegation to Jesus, this time telling him not to come. But look at the contrast of what he tells Jesus versus the Jewish elders, “I am not worthy.” What should lead the centurion to utter such a statement? I think Richard Baxter’s observation is truly at work here. He saw Jesus as the Messiah, someone truly beyond the centurion’s dignity and worth, and therefore, he felt as though he didn’t deserve to have Jesus even step foot in His home. Furthermore, the centurion is so humbled by considering who Jesus is that He doesn’t even believe he should have the privilege of even going to Jesus, and as one who commands others, this man understands authority and power. Thus, Jesus simply needs to ‘say the word.’

Do you see this man’s humility? Even though the Jewish elders deemed him worthy because of the power he has and what he has done for them, the centurion actually uses his power as an illustration of how unworthy he is before Jesus. And this is where we need to be in order to see Jesus as He is, Savior and Lord. Without a constant dealing with the darkness of our hearts and the reality of sin, we won’t see the blessedness of Jesus. We simply will not humble ourselves before Him, as the centurion did.

I have often received the question, “How can I grow in the Lord?” We wonder to ourselves why we are ‘not on fire for Jesus.’ The answer that we see in the centurion is that perhaps we actually deem ourselves too well, too highly, and we don’t see our sins as putrid and disgusting enough to think we need a Savior. But when we humble ourselves, God promises that He will lift us up (1 Peter 5:6). Proverbs 15:33 teaches us: “The fear of the Lord is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor.” We simply will not be blessed by God apart from humility. And this blessing comes not in the applause of man, but rather in God’s favor as we see in the centurion.

He Is Worthy: What makes him worthy? (Jesus’ perspective) (vv. 9-10)

Finally, we see that in Jesus’ perspective, even though the centurion did not see himself as worthy, Jesus deems him so in verses 9-10: “When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” 10 And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well.” There are only two texts in all of the Bible where Jesus ‘marvels.’ (Mark 6:6; Mathew 8:10) Jesus is so struck that he decides to use this time as a teaching moment. So what is Jesus amazed by? He’s amazed by the faith that this man had in Jesus, not just to heal the servant, but to believe that Jesus didn’t even need to be close by to do so. This centurion trusted not in what Jesus could do for him, but rather the authority and power that Jesus had to heal. And when this man examined himself in light of such power, he was humbled.

Conclusion

And this leads us to my opening question, “What gives people worth?” Our world tells us that worth comes in money, fame, power, physical appearance, etc. The Jewish elders believed this to be true. But for the centurion who had it all, he realized that his worth was not in such things. The Jews had a hard time believing Jesus’ claim to be Savior and Lord, many false disciples would eventually decide to leave Jesus, because He would not give them what they wanted, which was a kingdom as in the time of David. And this is the problem with so many perhaps this is your challenge as well. Are you looking to Jesus to provide you what you think you need to be happy, to be worthwhile, to be satisfied, or are you willing to trust Jesus in His words, that when you remain in Him (trust Him), you can ask whatever you wish and it will be give you (John 15:7)? The problem is not that Jesus will not provide, the problem is that we want to determine how Jesus should provide for us.

The centurion understood what the elders could not. His worth was not placed in anything that belonged to this world, but rather his worth was dependent on how God viewed Him. And this he saw through His Son, Jesus Christ. Tim Keller is right when he says:

Through the person and work of Jesus Christ, God fully accomplishes salvation for us, rescuing us from judgment for sin into fellowship with him, and then restores the creation in which we can enjoy our new life together with him forever. (Tim Keller, “The Gospel In All Its Forms” (Leadership Journal, Spring 2008)

The end goal is not that we look thinner, or that we have a nice nest egg, or that our family is healthy, or that the church serves our every need. This is not Christianity. This is a program for self-help. But Christianity is about enjoying life with Him together and forever. If I can more about this than anything else in this world, then how free I am to think and experience and grow and forgive and love my enemies. How free I will be to face ridicule or discomfort for the sake of Christ because nothing can take away from me the fact that Christ saved me, the worst of sinners. Nothing can take away the firm reality that I can see the Father face to face because of the split blood of His Son covering me and washing every sin away. Nothing can take away the truth that you and I are not just saved sinners, but co-heirs with Christ and sons and daughters fully righteous. Your worth and value has nothing to do with what you can do for Him because what you can do for Him or others will always pale in comparison to the vastness of our sins against Him. No matter how much we try to love others or build things and do things for God, Isaiah 64:6 and Romans 3:23 reminds us that such ‘good works’ always fall short. But the centurion is absolutely right. We are not worthy, but Christ is worthy and He makes us worthy and Revelation 5:9-10 gives us one great reason why He is worthy:

And they sang a new song, saying, ‘Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation,10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.

Jesus paid a hefty price to be the slain Lamb. He is now worthy because of His payment for your sins to make you worthy eternally to be with the Father. This is the good news of the Gospel. And this is why the centurion responded, “I am not worthy, but only say the word and my servant will be healed.”