When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, requesting him to come and save the life of his servant. When they reached Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly, saying, “He is worthy for you to grant this, because he loves our nation and has built us a synagogue.” Jesus went with them, and when he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to tell him, “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, since I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. That is why I didn’t even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. (7:3-7)
Who is really worthy? In this story, the centurion is lauded for his humility because he did not see himself as worthy but believed Jesus could heal his servant with just a word. Jesus does heal his servant and Jesus congratulates him on his great faith. However, what I want to focus on here is not the miracle or even the faith of this Centurion, but instead the definition of worthy. Worthy is often a term that is culturally defined. Different people have different standards for what they consider to be exceptional behavior and what makes one worthy of God’s favor. In this particular story, this Gentile (who was considered unclean by all the Jews) was lifted up to Jesus as being worthy of His favor. He was worthy, in the eyes of his Jewish neighbors, because he did exactly what they needed him to do. “He loves our nation and has built us a synagogue,” they said. They loved him and they declared him worthy because of the kindness he had shown them.
He does sound like an extraordinarily good man to me and unique for his time. Yet, I see this all the time on the mission field. People love you when you do everything they want and give them what they need. They love you when you fit easily into the box (or category) they have made for you. Yet, when you don’t live up to their expectations, or when you choose to obey God instead of them, things can often change and they don’t love you quite as much. The definition of “worthy” in the social media age is even more ludicrous. People crave likes on their social media account and many people’s self-worth is bound up in the number of followers they have. People will follow you, tag you, like you, retweet you, etc. as long as you agree with them. Yet, once you differ with them, then you are no longer considered “worthy.”
Let’s just be gut-level honest here. No one is worthy. This Centurion was not worthy of Jesus’ blessing because he loved the nation or built a synagogue. The people around Jesus were not worthy, and regardless of how many followers you or I have, we are not worthy either. Only Jesus is worthy! The bible says exactly that, the Lamb of God alone is worthy to receive the honor, praise, and glory. (See Rev. 5) We don’t receive the blessing of God or anything else from God because we are worthy; we receive it because of His grace and lovingkindness. He doesn’t have to do anything for us; we don’t deserve for Him to do anything for us. The centurion didn’t deserve the aid of Jesus that day. Jesus didn’t do anything because of the goodness of man; He did what He did because of the goodness of God, and He is God. Thank God that He loves us because of who He is and not because of our worth.
