Lord, I Am Not Worthy: The Centurion's Faith

Two messages reach Jesus about the same man on the same afternoon, and they say opposite things.

The first comes from the elders of the Jews. “He is worthy,” they tell the Lord. The second comes from the man’s own friends, carrying his own words: “Lord, I am not worthy.”

The man is a Roman centurion stationed in Capernaum, and his story sits in Luke 7:1-10. He has rank. He has money. He has a hundred soldiers who move when he speaks. He has even won the respect of the Jewish leaders, which no Roman was supposed to be able to do. And when Jesus is nearly at his door, he sends word: don’t come in. I am not worthy to have You under my roof.

“Now when he had ended all his sayings in the audience of the people, he entered into Capernaum. And a certain centurion’s servant, who was dear unto him, was sick, and ready to die. And when he heard of Jesus, he sent unto him the elders of the Jews, beseeching him that he would come and heal his servant.” (Luke 7:1-3)

Beseeching means begging, and begging fervently. You may know this story well. But notice that Jesus did not marvel at this man’s generosity, his rank, or the synagogue he built. He marveled at his faith. And I am convinced that faith grew out of the very words the rest of us find hardest to say.

None of us are worthy

Humility is the quality that lets a person admit what he doesn’t know, and when he doesn’t know it. Real humility builds trust faster than defensive arrogance ever will. And it has become rare. It is rare in society, and, shockingly, it is rare in a lot of churches.

Years ago I served as a prison chaplain. After a worship service I was talking with one inmate when another came over and told me he was worthy of Christ dying for him. I said, “No, you’re not.”

You have to be straight with men in prison. He pushed back, and I said it again. “No, you’re not. None of us are. And if you see yourself as worthy of Christ dying for you, that just tells me how much you really need salvation.”

There was no humility there. There was in the centurion.

So before you read a familiar story like this one and ask, “What can I get out of it?”, stop and turn the question around. Quit thinking in a selfish mode and start thinking in a selfless one. Ask it this way: How can I benefit God after hearing this? That is a very different question. It is the right way to come at this passage, because none of us are worthy.

A Roman centurion had every reason not to ask

This centurion was almost certainly born a pagan, a worshiper of false gods. Being Roman, he likely practiced ancestor worship, which was common among them. He commanded about a hundred soldiers. Living among the Jews, it is possible Judaism made some impression on him, as it did on a few Roman soldiers.

But for the most part the Romans mocked the Jews. They looked at them as a lesser class of people. The Romans were a proud bunch, used to conquering nations. At its height the Roman Empire was gargantuan. It made the British Empire pale in comparison.

Still, this man had heard the reports. The local scuttlebutt about a rabbi who healed the sick had reached even a Roman officer.

So look at what he did. He sent the elders of the Jews. I take that to mean members of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish high council. These were the same men who hated the Lord and the ground He walked on, and this Roman sent them to ask Jesus for a favor. I just smile when I think about that.

But think about what he had to get past inside himself first. What would my commanding officer think if I’m asking after a Jewish rabbi? What would my wife and family think? My peers? The men under my command? The Sanhedrin?

None of it stopped him. He was desperate for his servant, and desperation cleared every hurdle. What hurdles are standing between you and the Lord right now?

“He is worthy” versus “I am not worthy”

When the elders reached Jesus, they made their case:

“And when they came to Jesus, they besought him instantly, saying, That he was worthy for whom he should do this: For he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue.” (Luke 7:4-5)

Isn’t it interesting how people judge worthiness? He has been generous. He has done kind things. Surely God owes him this one.

Jesus went with them. But He already knew what was in this man’s heart. As He got close, the centurion sent a second message:

“Then Jesus went with them. And when he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself: for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof: Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee: but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed.” (Luke 7:6-7)

The Sanhedrin said he was worthy. He said he was not. That matters.

I have thought on this, and I believe the Lord is already handing us the clue to this man’s great faith. It was his great humility. Faith grows by humility before God.

That kind of humility might even be evidence he had already been converted. The Bible doesn’t say either way, so I won’t press it. But for a Roman centurion to declare himself unworthy of a Jewish rabbi, which is how most people knew the Lord then, is huge. He knew what he was to the elders and the townspeople. He also knew what he was compared to the Lord. He was nothing, and God was everything.

It is easy to lose sight of that after you have been saved a number of years. You start thinking you matter. I once preached a message called “God Matters When We Don’t,” and this is what I meant. When we forget how unworthy we are, we become ungrateful and unthankful for what He has done in your life and mine.

Have you ever caught yourself thinking God ought to be blessed that you showed up at church today? Oh my.

We ought to be grateful we have a place to worship at all. A place to hear the Word of God. A place to sing His praises and even jump up and down in the pew singing hallelujah. I watched a room full of preachers at a revival meeting enjoy themselves like that, and I know why. It took them back to the day they got saved. They were leaping for joy because they knew how unworthy they were and how worthy He is.

“Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.” (Revelation 5:12)

Here is the key. The more unworthy you see yourself, the more humility you have. And the more humbly you walk before Him, the more your faith is intensified.

Too often we come the way the elders came

I fear we approach the Lord much less reverently and humbly than we think. We come with the Sanhedrin’s view instead of the centurion’s. We come feeling deserving because of some prior service. We look at our participation in church as doing God a favor. And then we wonder why our prayers go unanswered.

How sad is that?

Six dilapidated pews and a waterfall

When we started the church back in 1999, the building did not look like it does today. We had six dilapidated pews. I cut some supports for the middle of them (me being the carpenter that I am, which is to say not), and they didn’t even fit right. But without them those pews would have folded in half. It worked. That’s all I can tell you.

The carpet was dark brown, and so was the paneling. When it rained, the roof leaked, and we had five big toy tubs sitting on the floor to catch it. Then Nelson rigged a funnel into the ceiling out of garbage bags that sent all the water to one spot. We had our own little waterfall in church.

And we were grateful. Those were precious times, and I will never forget them.

The first time my wife and I walked into this building, there were cobwebs and dust everywhere, and I started smiling. My wife said, “You’re going to put an offer on this, aren’t you?” The owner was willing to sell on contract for deed. I said, “Yep. God will bring the money in.”

We had twelve days to raise ten thousand dollars. Of the thirty-three churches supporting us at the time, eight responded. We didn’t get ten thousand. We got twelve thousand.

We signed the paperwork on Veterans Day of 1999 and had ten days to make the building fit for worship. A pastor from western Kentucky drove all the way here in a U-Haul with a pulpit from a Southern Baptist church that was closing down. There was no reimbursement, nothing. He had told them, “Give me the pulpit. I know someone who can use it.” He brought six bright blue padded pews too. A local man restored that pulpit for me a few years ago. It is a special pulpit.

The building had a flat roof. It looked like something out of the Old West. Folks came out from a church in Sioux Falls, others pitched in, and we scrubbed. My wife and I and the boys were here until two-thirty in the morning. On November 21, 1999, we held our first service.

Just the four of us had done the canvassing. We had no idea whether anyone would come. I stood with my sons that morning, and we prayed together. Four first-time visitors walked through that door.

One car pulled into the lot and just sat there. I walked out and tapped on the window, and they rolled it down. “We’re waiting to see if everybody else shows up,” they said. I said, “Well, you’re here. We’re here. Come on in.” And they did.

Later we put a gabled roof on in two and a half days. At one point the rafters fell while we were at lunch, and we were sure the ceiling was coming down. It didn’t. Praise the Lord.

I tell you all of that for one reason. From that humble beginning, look what God has done. At our birthing service in June of 2006, we hung a banner with our verse on it:

“This is the LORD’s doing; it is marvellous in our eyes.” (Psalms 118:23)

It has never been about me or you. It has always been about Him. Jacob knew it long before the centurion did:

“I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands.” (Genesis 32:10)

The centurion’s humility was not a show

The centurion was not putting on an outward act. This was not “look at me, how spiritual I am.” He was not performing humility.

We had a high wind the other day, and the first thing half of us wanted when we got inside was a mirror. How do I look? I can’t let anybody see me like this. Well, you’re going to have bad hair days. It’s going to happen.

Too often we care so much about what people think of us on the outside that we are not living Christ on the inside. Be real. The image you ought to be magnifying is the image of Christ, not your own.

“Say in a word”

Notice that the centurion never tried to justify why the Lord should heal his servant. He said, in effect, “Lord, I am not worthy. But You can simply say the word.”

A lot of us try to dictate to God how He should do it. Jairus did:

“And besought him greatly, saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death: I pray thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed; and she shall live.” (Mark 5:23)

On the way, a woman with an issue of blood took a different approach:

“For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.” (Mark 5:28)

One faith told the Lord exactly how to do it. The other simply reached for the edge of His clothes. God answered both, and God blessed both. But I believe that if Jairus had thought a little further, he would have seen it. If the Son of God has the power to heal, He has the power to raise the dead. Then word came from his house:

“While he yet spake, there came from the ruler of the synagogue’s house certain which said, Thy daughter is dead: why troublest thou the Master any further? As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, only believe.” (Mark 5:35-36)

When Jesus said the girl was only sleeping, the paid mourners laughed Him to scorn. It is one of the funniest things I read, how quick they could turn off the weeping and start laughing. He put them all out. He took Peter, James, and John, and the mother and father, and went in where the girl lay.

“And he took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her, Talitha cumi; which is, being interpreted, Damsel, I say unto thee, arise.” (Mark 5:41)

She arose and walked, and He told them to give her something to eat.

Yes, He touched her. But if Jairus had a stronger faith, he would have put two and two together. The same Lord who can touch can simply speak. The centurion, who was not even Jewish, knew it: speak the word only.

When was the last time you came to the Lord that way? No sign demanded, no list of reasons you deserve it. Just this: “Lord, I’m trusting Your Word. You said it, and I’m going to believe You and leave it there. Your will be done. Whether You heal, or bless, or provide, I’m grateful. And even if that is not Your will, I am still grateful for who You are.”

A man under authority knows authority when he sees it

“For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.” (Luke 7:8)

The centurion took it as plain fact. He had the power to command his men, and they obeyed him without fail. So he knew the Lord could speak the word from anywhere, and sickness and everything else would answer to it. The Lord is supreme in all authority and all power.

“And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” (Matthew 28:18)

He took back the dominion Adam surrendered. When He defeated death and Satan by the cross and the resurrection, He secured the victory.

Why would Jesus marvel at the centurion’s faith?

“When Jesus heard these things, he marvelled at him, and turned him about, and said unto the people that followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. And they that were sent, returning to the house, found the servant whole that had been sick.” (Luke 7:9-10)

People ask me why the Lord would marvel. He’s God. He knows everything.

Remember that when He left the glory of heaven, He took on a body of flesh, born of a virgin and without sin.

“But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:” (Philippians 2:7)

He chose to set aside the use of many of His divine attributes. He lived and walked a life of faith in the Father, as the supreme example for you and me to follow. Listen to Him pray at Lazarus’s tomb:

“Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.” (John 11:41-42)

He is the one who told us:

“But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26)

He was not caught off guard. I believe He marveled to drive a point home to His people, and ultimately to you. It takes nothing more than this:

“And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” (Matthew 17:20)

You don’t need God to do something spectacular to know He has the power to do what you are asking. And remember this too: what you think you need is not necessarily what God knows you need. You have to trust Him.

Lord, I am not worthy, and that is where great faith begins

So why was the centurion’s faith so strong? He was a man under authority, and he submitted humbly to that authority. He knew how to take an order. He knew how to bow. That is why he recognized the One who could give an order to a fever and be obeyed.

“Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.” (1 Peter 5:5)

Now come back to the question I asked you at the start. Not what you can get out of Luke 7, but how you can benefit God after reading it.

“But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” (James 1:22)

Two messages went ahead of Jesus that day. One said, “He is worthy.” The other said, “I am not worthy.”

Which message are you sending ahead of you when you pray?

Come humble. Take Him at His word.

He is worthy.

Adapted from a message preached from Luke 7:1-10.