{"id":4865,"date":"2013-12-22T00:05:07","date_gmt":"2013-12-22T08:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=4865"},"modified":"2013-12-21T15:37:38","modified_gmt":"2013-12-21T23:37:38","slug":"undeserved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2013\/12\/22\/undeserved\/","title":{"rendered":"Undeserved"},"content":{"rendered":"

When he had concluded all His sayings in the hearing of the people, He entered Capernaum. A centurion\u2019s slave, who was highly valued by him, was sick and about to die. When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to Him, requesting Him to come and save the life of his slave. When they reached Jesus, they pleaded with Him earnestly, saying, \u201cHe is worthy for You to grant this, because he loves our nation and has built us a synagogue.\u201d Jesus went with them, and when He was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to tell Him, \u201cLord, don\u2019t trouble Yourself, since I am not worthy to have You come under my roof. That is why I didn\u2019t even consider myself worthy to come to You. But say the word, and my servant will be cured. For I too am a man placed under authority, having soldiers under my command. I say to this one, \u2018Go!\u2019 and he goes; and to another, \u2018Come!\u2019 and he comes; and to my slave, \u2018Do this!\u2019 and he does it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tJesus heard this and was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following Him, He said, \u201cI tell you, I have not found so great a faith even in Israel!\u201d When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health. (Luke 7:1\u201310)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. The Centurion didn\u2019t feel deserving, but he asked anyway. In Luke\u2019s presentation of the story of the Centurion with the sick slave, some elders encouraged Jesus to come to the Centurion based on what a good man he was.<\/p>\n

Did Jesus go to heal the Centurion because he was a good man? No. Jesus didn\u2019t heal people based on their goodness. It was only after he healed them that he told them to \u201csin no more.\u201d
\nThe Centurion told Jesus that a word from Jesus would be enough; Jesus didn\u2019t even have to come to him. In Luke\u2019s telling of the tale, Jesus doesn\u2019t even announce the healing. Instead, we only get Jesus\u2019 reaction to the Centurion\u2019s great faith, followed by the news that the slave was, in fact, healed. <\/p>\n

The Centurion didn\u2019t believe himself worthy of Jesus\u2019 presence. But Jesus marveled at his faith. The Centurion, though the builder of a synagogue, remained a Gentile. He had not converted to Judaism. The Centurion\u2019s faith, and Jesus\u2019 healing of his slave, demonstrated that the grace of God was available to the entire human race. The Messiah that was supposed to destroy the Romans healed the slave of a leader in their armed forces. <\/p>\n

Jesus is far more than we think. Jesus reaches beyond where we think he would go. Or could go. Or should go. He is not bound by what binds us. <\/p>\n

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When he had concluded all His sayings in the hearing of the people, He entered Capernaum. A centurion\u2019s slave, who was highly valued by him, was sick and about to die. When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent some … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4865"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4865"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4866,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4865\/revisions\/4866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}