The centurion's faith vs. the elders of the Jew's ?? uhmm, ... faith ?? ..

Luke 7:
2 And a certain centurion's servant, who was dear unto him, was sick, and ready to die.
3 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.
4 And when they came to Jesus, they besought him instantly, saying, That he was worthy for whom he should do this:
5 For he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue.
6 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:
7 Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee: but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed.
8 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.
9 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.
10 And they that were sent, returning to the house, found the servant whole that had been sick.

(my comments)

I noted when I was reading these scriptures this morning, that the elders of the Jews truly had no faith to believe in Jesus Christ. They rather chose to try to convince Jesus of the centurion's goodness (worthiness). They believed in their hearts that Jesus only answered prayers, not by mere faith, but instead according to one's own righteousness, one's own goodness and tireless efforts to be good. This was because they expended all their energy and resources to display and declare how good they truly believed they were! This showed their hearts were far from God/ they showed this to be so true considering how they paraded themselves around and displayed their righteousness to the oppressed and needy.

They truly did not understand the kingdom of God, nor did they understand the scriptures for which they took much pride in. It says they "besought him instantly, saying, That he was worthy (a good person, a good man) for whom he should do this: (hmmm) for he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue. (good works) : Though Jesus recognized their attempts to control the situation and convince him of this man's worthiness, perhaps Jesus knew something they didn't. Perhaps He knew only of the centurion's faith. Perhaps he saw that the centurion had a love for his servant which was unusual in those days ... Jesus recognized this ... (Much like Jesus Christ who came to save us in our lost condition, he had a love for all whom He died for)

Jesus turned towards the Centurion's house where the servant lay dying. It says friends of the centurion then came to Jesus who was on the way to house. But interestingly, rather than like the attempts of the Pharisees to convince Jesus to heal the servant, these friends declared the opposite, the centurion did not consider himself even worthy for Jesus to come into his house, he was rather a humble man who declared that he was not worthy; he did not depend upon his good works of any sort thorugh this trial. Such was his humility, he had come to recognize who Jesus was and His authority over himself. He recognized in humility that Christ did not need to visit his house, that He could answer by His Word alone and that he should not have troubled Him to come to his house. ( ... Imagine the self righteous jewish elders and pharisees confounded by this whole thing as they stood around about... )

The centurion had gained an understanding of the authority of Jesus Christ on this earth. What a great revelation he had been given of the kingdom of God, through this whole trial of his servant's illness. We often come to a deeper understanding of Christ as we walk through our trials. That is what Christ is after, often, isn't it ? HE IS AFTER THE TRIAL OF OUR FAITH. It is more precious than gold because it is in the TRIAL that we can come to know * trust Him. We can look from the trial and see Jesus, standing in the midst of it. We can know His sovereignty and authority over our lives! Do not beguiled into thinking that we need more faith, no, he is often after the FIERY TRIAL because that is where the revelation can come to us, of who Christ truly is, just as it was in this centurion's trial.

And so, as scripture promises, the Kingdom of God came near unto him. He understood that Jesus' authority was established and there there was no need whatsoever to try to convince Jesus of his own goodness. He knew that was pointless. He did not look at himself, you see, in this trial. Though he desired the healing of his servant, he did not try to control the outcome by determining how good and deserving he was of this miracle ... but the opposite, he rather saw how undeserving he was ... the revelation he had gained was that he had come to know that Jesus Christ was in a position of authority over him and His Word also.

What a wonderful work of the Holy Spirit! Perhaps some of the jewish elders were offended, but maybe some began to glimpse during this miracle and transformation what the Kingdom really was about. How it operated in the opposite of what they had supposed and spent the entire lifetime striving towards; perhaps they realized that the way to come to know the Lord was not as they supposed, to work and strive under the law to achieve a form of goodness and self-righteousness. Perhaps they began to see how far removed that was from the Truth.