Goodness, Humility and Confidence

In the town of Capernaum resided a Roman centurion. His duties were to keep the peace in that region and to make sure the Jews paid their taxes to Rome. As such Romans were hated by the Jews because they were forced to pay taxes to a false religious system and to fund a gentile nation that did not revere Jehovah.

It was against Jewish law for a Jew to have a Roman for a friend or even to go into a Romans home (Acts 10:28).

While performing the duties of an official of Rome something surprising happened to the centurion… he came to love the Jewish people and from that love built a synagogue for them out of his own pocket

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I’m assuming the centurion came to love the Jews because they were God’s people and reflected the power of God in their lives. The centurion was probably used to seeing how Romans treated each other (murder, false religiosity, perverse sexuality, extortion and idolatry) and by comparison came to love something imperfect (compared to Christianity) but far better than what he was used to.

In addition, the centurion loved his servants (probably Jewish). Imagine that… his servants weren’t just some tool for him to use and abuse. He loved and cared from them and when one of them got sick and was at the point of death he asked for a favor. He asked the Elders (of the very synagogue he had built) if they would go to Jesus and ask if he would come and heal his beloved servant.

The scriptures reveal for us why he asked the Elders this favor. He did not consider himself worthy to even approach Jesus and didn’t feel worthy for Jesus to even enter his home.

The centurion in his goodness probably did not expect anything in return from the Jews and wasn’t helping the Jews with any expectation of some kind of reward. But sometimes in life the unexpected happens and we find ourselves in a need of a power greater than ourselves.

The formula for the centurion was goodness, humility and confidence in Jesus Christ. That formula still works today