Luke 7:4-9

THREE ESTIMATES OF CHARACTER

‘He was worthy.… I am not worthy.… I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.’

Luke 7:4

I. The elders’ estimate of the centurion.—The ‘elders of the Jews’ besought the Lord for this centurion, saying that ‘he was worthy for whom He should do this.’ The four Roman centurions mentioned in the New Testament are a great contrast to the Roman governors. The centurion in charge of the Crucifixion when he had seen it all said, ‘Truly this Man was the Son of God.’ Cornelius, mentioned in Acts 10, was a ‘just man, and one that feareth God.’ Julius (Acts 27) ‘courteously entreated Paul, and gave him liberty.’ The centurion in our text was one of the most lovable men in the New Testament. A citizen of the great Roman Empire, an officer in the all-victorious army, he is clothed with humility, and puts on charity.

II. The centurion’s estimate of himself.—‘I am not worthy … but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed.’ A sense of our own unworthiness and a sense of the preciousness of Christ always go together, and are never separated. Those who have the highest views of Christ have the lowest views of themselves. Put yourself very low, then Christ will be very high.

III. The Lord’s estimate of the centurion.—The Lord’s estimate of this man was, that his faith was a finer flower of human trust than He had seen in Israel. Then our Lord added, ‘And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west,’ from heathen lands, ‘and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the Kingdom of Heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness.’

—Rev. F. Harper.

Illustrations

(1) ‘Professor Stalker said he had often been struck by the fact that, while among soldiers the proportion of religious men is not large, yet the quality of those who are Christians is exceptionally good, there being a downrightness and cleanness about their profession of the Gospel, if they make it at all, which is rare among other classes of the community. He once asked a soldier what was the reason of this, and he had no difficulty in answering: “In the Army,” he said, “if a man intends to be religious, he must be so out-and-out; if he is not, his comrades will soon, either by ridicule or cajolery, drive religion out of him; but they respect a man who knows his own mind and sticks to what he has professed.” ’

(2) ‘In his Private Devotions Bishop Andrewes says: “I need more grief, O God; I plainly need it. I can sin much, but I cannot correspondingly repent. O Lord, give me a molten heart. Give me tears; give me a fountain of tears. Give me the grace of tears. Drop down, ye heavens, and bedew the dryness of my heart. Give me, O Lord, this saving grace. No grace of all the graces were more welcome to me. If I may not water my couch with my tears, nor wash Thy Feet with my tears, at least give me one or two little tears that Thou mayest put into Thy bottle and write in Thy book!” ’