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What do you do when you read an account in one gospel and then read the same story in
a different gospel and find that the accounts differ?
Sometimes these differences can be minor and can be easily explained, but other times these
differences are more difficult to reconcile.
So what are we to do with these differences?
Do we, like some, conclude that these differences prove that the Bible is merely the word of
man and not the word of God?
Of course not.
But do we hastily try to explain away these differences by offering merely a plausible
explanation to answer the objection?
This is tempting, and it’s important for us to have answers for these perceived contradictions.
But it’s important that we don’t just stop at giving a reason for why it’s not a contradiction.
We should go one step further.
We need to remember that the gospels were written by different authors who are either
eyewitnesses themselves or who based their writings off of eyewitness accounts.
As we have all heard many times, these eyewitnesses saw the events from different angles and different
perspectives and thus they emphasized different details and they saw different aspects of
the same event.
Now many times these perceived differences can be explained by this shift in perspective.
But other times it’s not just that there’s a difference in how the eyewitness saw the
event.
There is a difference in the emphasis that the gospel writer is trying to place upon
the event.
And in our short passage this evening that we just read, we have a story where at first
glance one might think that there’s a contradiction between the accountant Luke and the accountant
Matthew.
Now the differences in these two passages in Matthew 8 verses 5 and Luke 7 verse 1-10
are easily explained.
And I will address this later.
However, it’s important to note this now because the differences between these two passages
give us a key insight into the purpose, the reason why Luke recorded this story.
As we will see, Luke, I believe, is contrasting the words of the Jews that we find and the
words of the centurion that we find regarding the centurion.
And he is teaching us what true faith looks like.
What the faith of a man who sets his faith on the foundation of a rock looks like.
This is the faith that Jesus speaks about at the very end of the Sermon on the Mount
at the very end of Luke chapter 6 from 46 through 49.
And that rock is Jesus.
Our passage this evening is calling you to humble yourself and to put your trust in Christ,
the one who is worthy and who has all authority.
Luke teaches this to us by contrasting two men.
There are two men that he contrasts in today’s story.
The first is the unworthy centurion and the second is the worthy savior.
And this will be the outline of today’s sermon.
The first is the unworthy centurion and the second is the worthy savior.
Let us first consider the unworthy centurion.
At the beginning of our story we are introduced to two parties.
The Jewish elders and the centurion.
Now as many of you may well know a centurion was a mid-level officer in the Roman army.
Typically he would have been over the command of about 80 to 100 soldiers.
And this centurion as we learned in our passage had a servant who he loved deeply who was
ill and about to die.
And he heard that Jesus who had healing powers had come to town.
He had come to his town and therefore as the text says he sent the Jewish elders to come
to Jesus to ask for help.
Let’s read that portion again here from verses two through five.
Now a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death who was highly valued
by him.
When the centurion heard about Jesus he sent to him elders of the Jews asking him to come
and heal his servant.
And when they came to Jesus they pleaded with him earnestly saying he is worthy to have
you do this for him for he loves our nation and he is the one who built us our synagogue.
Now there are several curious things that we should notice about this story in the interaction
between the Jews and Jesus.
It’s almost as though Luke has flipped the script of everything that we learn about the
first century Jewish context.
First this Roman centurion was actually kind and he was loving towards his slave.
Secondly the Jewish leaders were kind and loving towards this Roman centurion and they
were actually wanting to help him.
And lastly the Jewish leaders who were usually antagonistic to Christ were actually coming
to him for help.
They weren’t trying to come and cause him to stumble.
So the Jews came to Jesus and said to him that the centurion had earned his right to
have Christ come and heal his servant.
They said quote that he is worthy of Christ coming.
Why?
According to them it’s because the centurion loved the Jews and he built them he even built
them a synagogue to worship in.
Now clearly this centurion was very different from many of the other Roman leaders that
we read about in the New Testament.
He was a loving and kind man.
He cared deeply for his own slaves and he even went out of his way to try and save him.
He loved a people who his own country had conquered and he even seems to have at least
respected the religion and the God of the Jews as it says that he built them a synagogue.
So as a sign of gratitude these Jewish elders came to Jesus on his behalf to ask for help.
The text says that when Jesus learned of this man that he followed the Jewish elders towards
the man’s house.
But before they made it to his house it says that the centurion set out another group of
men but this time they did not speak their own words but they spoke the words.
Let us read verses six through eight.
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 therefore I do not presume to come to you but say the word and let my servant
be healed 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.
Notice the stark difference between the centurion’s words and the Jewish elders words.
The Jewish leaders argued that the centurion was worthy because of all the things that
they had done for them and because of his love for them.
But the centurion emphatically insists otherwise.
He says that he was unworthy.
This centurion who had such great power he has the power to tell soldiers to go and just
by the words of his mouth men will move.
He had great authority and even the Jews who he ruled over and conquered loved him.
He of all people says that he was not worthy to have Christ even come under his roof.
Now as I mentioned at the beginning there is a seeming contradiction between Luke’s
record and Matthew’s and we’re going to look at that right now.
Please turn with me briefly, just briefly to Matthew chapter 8 and we will read just
verses 5 through 8, Matthew 8 verses 5 through 8.
When he had entered Capernaum a centurion came forward to him appealing to him, Lord
my servant is lying paralyzed at home suffering terribly and he said to him I will come and
heal him.
But the centurion replied, Lord I am not worthy to have you come under my roof but only say
the word and my servant will be healed.
So Matthew records that the centurion himself came to Jesus but Luke says that it was not
the centurion that came but the centurion’s friends and those friends relayed to Jesus
what the centurion wanted them to say.
So which is correct?
Is Matthew correct or is Luke correct?
And the answer is that they are both correct.
Matthew is treating the representatives as though they were the centurion himself.
As some of you may know in first century Rome it was customary in both Jewish and Roman
cultures to view the one sent as having the very authority of the one who sent him.
We get a hint of this in our text this evening if you turn back to Luke, back to Luke chapter
7, this is what the friends say, Lord I am not worthy to have you.
They do not say Lord our master is not worthy to have you, they say Lord I am not worthy
to have you come under my roof.
In other words they were speaking as though they were the centurion himself.
So when Matthew records it he is speaking of the representatives of the centurion as
though they were the centurion himself.
And Luke is a little bit more meticulous and he does so to prove a point, to make a point.
Now this is the easy part, the easy part is understanding why it is not a contradiction.
Why does Luke underscore the fact that it was the Jewish elders that came first and
then the friends that came later and instead of Matthew who just says that the centurion
came and it is because there is a different emphasis in the story.
In Matthew, Matthew’s emphasis is the spread of the gospel to the gentiles and Luke’s emphasis
is on the faith of the centurion.
So naturally when we read Luke’s story the emphasis in our focus should turn to the opposing
assessments, the two assessments of the centurion, the first made by the Jewish elders and the
second made by the friends of the centurion.
And in these assessments the centurion shows that he understands his own condition much
better than the Jewish elders did even though they had the law and the prophets.
The Jewish elders wanted to lay out all these good things that he had done as the basis
for Jesus helping him.
But he understood that before God he had nothing to offer.
Humanly speaking he had much to offer.
He had much to be called worthy and yet before the creator of the universe he understood
that he had nothing to call worthy.
And thus this Roman centurion grasped this reality and confessed it publicly and emphatically.
This is true humility and this is a true biblical understanding of our human condition.
Now are you like the Jews who point to the accomplishment of the centurion or are you
like the centurion who openly admits his own unworthiness?
What do you use as the basis for why God should save you?
When you seek for salvation do you lay out all the things that you have done?
Lord I have gone to church every week for years.
I have helped the poor and the homeless.
I have provided for my family consistently.
I have been in ministry and served the church for decades.
What is your foundation?
Or is your foundation Jesus?
Does your trust lie in the one who died for you?
Do you look to the one who is worthy that is our Savior Jesus Christ?
And this brings us to our second point, the worthy Savior.
This centurion does not just profess his own unworthiness.
In our passage he also implicitly professes the worthiness of Christ and the authority
that Christ has.
Let us turn back to the words of the centurion in verse 6.
The centurion says Lord do not trouble yourself for I am not worthy to have you come under
my roof.
The fact that the centurion believed that he was unworthy means that he believed that
Christ was worthy.
But worthy of what?
He believed that Christ was worthy of honor and praise and worthy of his trust.
Why would a centurion who was a Roman seek out a teacher of a different religion, a religion
of the people he had conquered?
Why would he seek him out to come and heal his slave?
And why would he, why would he believe that he was not worthy to have Christ even come
into his house?
And this is perhaps what is most baffling about our story this evening.
Even you were a pagan general in a military and had conquered a nation.
This nation was a nation of a different religion.
Your nation had ruled them for some time and had oppressed them in many ways.
One day you find out that one of their teachers who has the power to heal man from their sickness
comes to your town.
At that very moment one of your dear family members happens to be sick to the point of
death and you desperately need help.
At that moment you have been convicted by the spirit that this man who is greater than
you is greater than you and you know that you are not worthy to be in this man’s presence.
What would you do?
Would you send men to tell him how unworthy you were?
No, you would probably send men to try to convince him that he should come and heal
your servant.
Maybe you would send gifts to entice him to try to come.
And maybe if you were really desperate, if you were a centurion who is over many men,
you would send men to force him to come and heal your slave.
You certainly wouldn’t tell him, Lord, I’m not even worthy to have you come into my house.
And this is the key.
The centurion knew who Christ was and still is.
The centurion knew that Christ is loving and merciful.
He knew that despite him being unworthy, Christ was cared for him and for his slave.
He understood that Christ was worthy of his trust in him.
And therefore the centurion boldly came to Jesus and professed to him his own unworthiness.
And despite that, he asked for Christ to save his servant.
The centurion does not just profess Christ’s own worthiness.
He professes his authority.
Let us read verses seven and eight once again.
Verse seven and eight.
Therefore I did not presume to come to you, but say the word and let my servant be healed.
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.
Who has the authority to heal a man who is close to death just by the word of his mouth?
Who has the authority to do so from far away?
Only God.
Only the creator of the universe, the almighty God, could do such a thing.
This miracle is perhaps one of the greatest miracles recorded for us in the Gospels, because
it implies several different things about Jesus.
First, it implies that Christ is omniscient, because he’s never met this man.
He doesn’t know who this servant is, and yet he knows which servant it is that he is supposed
to heal.
Second, it shows that he is all-powerful, because he has the authority and the power
to heal a man completely, in an instant, by just the word of his mouth.
And who do we know with these characteristics?
Only God.
And the centurion assumed this.
He knew this about God.
Maybe not in all the details that we do, but he understood that Christ had the authority
of God.
And he believed that Jesus, just by the word of his mouth, could take away his slave’s
illness.
And again, here, we see the centurion’s humility.
He has all this great authority, as we see in verse 8.
He has the authority and power to move men with just his words, yet he understands that
he does not have the authority that Jesus does.
Centurion does not have the authority over illness or death, and he does not have authority
aside from a receiving authority from the one above him.
But he believes that Christ does have all authority, and he believes that if he comes
to Christ, that Christ would be merciful and gracious to him, and that he would save his
servant.
This is the faith that Jesus commends in verse 9.
The faith that he has not even seen in Israel.
This centurion understood and professed the worthiness and the authority of Christ, entrusted
in his mercy and grace, and thus despite his unworthiness, despite knowing that he was
not worth coming into his presence, he came to Christ and asked for his help.
This centurion understood something that we often forget.
Jesus Christ is the creator of the universe.
Even now, Jesus maintains and he sustains all things.
As the author of Hebrew puts it, he is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact
imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.
That same God man who walked the earth 2,000 years ago and showed mercy to that man, that
who now sits at the right hand of the Father and intercedes on your behalf.
Whatever troubles and trials that we have, no matter how difficult things are, we must
never forget who our Saviour is.
He is worthy of your praise and your honour.
As the psalmist says, great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is
unsearchable.
While we are not worthy of these things and we have nothing to bring before him, he still
loves us.
And if you confess your unworthiness and lay down your life before him, he is able to save
you and he will save you by the word of his mouth.
And most importantly, Christ is able to save you from your sin.
How do you see yourself?
How do you see Christ?
Do you see yourself as having something to offer him?
Often as Christians, we lose sight of who Christ is.
We remember important gospel truths, like that we are saved by grace alone, through
faith alone.
But sometimes these truths can become stale in our lives.
What we need to do is be reminded, we need to remind ourselves who Christ is.
Paul gives us just a taste of who Christ is in Colossians 1.
Let’s turn there now.
Colossians 1, we will be reading from verses 15 through 20.
Colossians 1, verses 15 through 20.
Colossians 1, verses 15 through 20.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for by him all
things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or
dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him.
And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
And he is the head of the body, the church.
He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead.
But in everything he might be preeminent, for in him all the fullness of God was pleased
to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether they’re on earth
or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
What a majestic description of our Lord.
These truths often escape us.
Jesus is God, and by him and through him and for him all things were created.
He is before all things, and he upholds all that exists.
The second person of the Trinity stepped down from heaven, and he took on human flesh.
He humbled himself and took the form of a man, and suffered a death of a criminal.
Why is this?
Paul continues in verse 21, and you who were once alienated and hostile in mind, doing
evil deeds, he is now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present
you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.
If indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope
of the gospel that you have heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven,
and of which I, Paul, became a minister.
He did this because of who that centurion was and who we are.
We are unworthy.
We were once alienated, and we were hostile in mind, and we were doing evil deeds, and
God chose to save us from our own wickedness.
This is the love of God, that while we were yet sinners, he sent his Son to die on the
cross for our sins.
This is the same Savior that sits at the right hand of the Father even this day, in all his
majesty and glory, and with all love and mercy.
So come this day to him, confess your own unworthiness, confess his worthiness, and
seek salvation.
Let us pray.
Lord, we thank you that you have not left us in our unworthy state.
You have looked upon us.
You have seen our sin and our vileness, and you did not leave us in our state.
Instead, you came to this earth, and you lived a perfect life, and you died for us.
You died so that we would no longer have to live in our vile state, in our unworthy state.
You died so that we would not have to face the punishment that was due us, and you died
so that once again we could have a right relationship with you.
We thank you, O Lord, that this day we can come before you and give praise to you, that
we can learn of you, and that we can pray to you, O Lord, our Father, because of what
Christ has done for us.
We thank you, O Lord, that like the centurion, we could come before you and bring our petitions
that we could come before you and ask for salvation.
You are a just and you are a loving God, and you will do so.
You promise that you will care for us, that you will protect us, and that one day you
will bring us home to yourself.
I pray, O Lord, that as we go forth this week, that we would remember these gospel truths,
that we would not just live them out in our own lives, but that we would proclaim them
to others, that others may find the freedom that exists only in Christ.
In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.