NOTES for Luk 7:1-10

For the elders of Israel who were well disposed toward the centurion, it was important to stress that he cared for the people. This Roman loved the people of Israel conquered by his state and had even built a synagogue; against the background of conquerors’ usual behavior, this could not fail to attract attention. But while the building of the synagogue was a sign of goodwill in the elders’ eyes, for the centurion it proved to be a stage in an inward spiritual search.

Did the centurion consider himself unworthy only because he knew the Jewish rules about impurity and respected local customs? What if he felt his own sinfulness, and his request that Jesus refrain from entering his house was akin to Peter’s plea that He depart from him, “a sinful man”? For some reason the second possibility seems more likely, especially since Jesus, addressing the people, notes that the centurion possesses a faith such as He had not found even in Israel.

The pagan, whose heart had been opened by the law he had only recently come to know, proved more ready to receive Jesus than many Jews who had known the law from childhood. But let us not use this as grounds for exalting ourselves above the Jews of that time. Today too we may encounter both new converts who are open to Christ and long-standing Christians who have grown accustomed to possessing spiritual treasures and therefore forget about them.