Sermon Tone Analysis

Banquet of the Kingdom & The Sons of the Kingdom -

The Context

First let’s take a look at what is going on in this passage

In this passage the first thing we see is Jesus entering Capernaum

Now Capernaum as described by many commentators but here I will quote the Lexham Bible Dictionary…

Capernaum was “the epicenter of Jesus’ ministry and location of many of His miracles”

So Jesus enters this place that throughout the rest of His ministry, He frequents, and another party comes into play during this story: A Centurion

Now often times this is a term or role that is familiar but not really known

We recognize it is a Roman, and they are in the military but other than that most of us don’t know too much

A Centurion was a Roman military commander of roughly 80-100 Roman Soldiers

“A centurion’s authority was actually quite extensive because he was the working officer who had direct contact with the men.

He went to the field with them and made spontaneous decisions according to each situation."

“The office of centurion was normally the highest one within reach of the ordinary soldier”

^ Baker’s Encyclopedia ^

The other thing we see is actually in the section directly before our passage

We see Jesus after coming down from the Mount (The Sermon on the Mount) heal a man with leprosy by touching him

Now many of us just go yeah that’s pretty typical of Jesus

Except we don’t see the scandalous nature of that

People with Leprosy were not touched out of fear of “defilement” or “contamination”

They were viewed as dirty and unclean and they were to be avoided

Not only do we see Jesus have a conversation with him but touch him in order to heal him

Elwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. (1988).

Centurion.

In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (Vol. 1, p. 421).

Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.

Elwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. (1988).

Centurion.

In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (Vol. 1, p. 421).

Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.

Carver, A. C. (2016).

Capernaum, Archaeological Overview.

In J. D. Barry, D. Bomar, D. R. Brown, R. Klippenstein, D. Mangum, C. Sinclair Wolcott, … W. Widder (Eds.),

The Lexham Bible Dictionary.

Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

1) Humility, Holiness, & Faith - 8:5-9

We are going to identify 3 profound character traits/postures of the Centurion as to why I would say Jesus is amazed at him

Humility

Holiness (an understanding of Holiness)

Faith

A) Humility - 8:5-6

First let’s look at the humility possessed by the Centurion

We see this in the first two verses here

First we see the Humility of the Centurion to plead with Jesus, a Jew to heal his servant

So think about that for a second, the Jews are under Roman authority/occupation

And like we went over in the context, this is not just a Roman citizen but a man of the military, more than that a man who commanded soldiers in the military

And when his servant is sick, he at his wits end hearing the works of Jesus comes to a Jewish “Rabbi” (as many perceived Him to be) and pleading for healing

Here is the other crazy part we glance over

The Centurion is not pleading for his family member to be healed, he is begging for his servant to be healed

And we may just think “yeah he’s a nice guy”

And we think this without really knowing the culture of the day and the relationship between master’s and servants

But there was something very special about this centurion at Capernaum, and that was his attitude to his servant.

This servant would be a slave, but the centurion was grieved that his servant was ill and was determined to do everything in his power to save him.

That was the reverse of the normal attitude of master to slave.

In the Roman Empire, slaves did not matter.

It was of no importance to anyone if they suffered and whether they lived or died.

Aristotle, talking about the friendships which are possible in life, writes: ‘There can be no friendship nor justice towards inanimate things; indeed, not even towards a horse or an ox, nor yet towards a slave as a slave.

For master and slave have nothing in common: a slave is a living tool, just as a tool is an inanimate slave.’

A slave was no better than a thing.

A slave had no legal rights whatsoever; his master was free to treat him, or maltreat him, as he liked.

Gaius, the Roman legal expert, lays it down in his Institutes: ‘We may note that it is universally accepted that the master possesses the power of life and death over the slave.’

Varro, the Roman writer on agriculture, has a grim passage in which he divides the instruments of agriculture into three classes—the articulate, the inarticulate and the mute, ‘the articulate comprising the slaves, the inarticulate comprising the cattle, and the mute comprising the vehicles’.

The only difference between a slave and an animal or a cart was that the slave could speak.

And yet despite this, we see the Centurion say this:

“But there was something very special about this centurion at Capernaum, and that was his attitude to his servant.

This servant would be a slave, but the centurion was grieved that his servant was ill and was determined to do everything in his power to save him.

That was the reverse of the normal attitude of master to slave.

In the Roman Empire, slaves did not matter.

It was of no importance to anyone if they suffered and whether they lived or died.

Aristotle, talking about the friendships which are possible in life, writes: ‘There can be no friendship nor justice towards inanimate things; indeed, not even towards a horse or an ox, nor yet towards a slave as a slave.

For master and slave have nothing in common: a slave is a living tool, just as a tool is an inanimate slave.’

A slave was no better than a thing.

A slave had no legal rights whatsoever; his master was free to treat him, or maltreat him, as he liked.

Gaius, the Roman legal expert, lays it down in his Institutes: ‘We may note that it is universally accepted that the master possesses the power of life and death over the slave.’

Varro, the Roman writer on agriculture, has a grim passage in which he divides the instruments of agriculture into three classes—the articulate, the inarticulate and the mute, ‘the articulate comprising the slaves, the inarticulate comprising the cattle, and the mute comprising the vehicles’.

The only difference between a slave and an animal or a cart was that the slave could speak.

This Centurion defied all cultural expectations and did not see his servant simply as cattle that could speak, or a tool that could talk

And here is exactly why this is one of the things so astounding to Jesus

We see Jesus here acknowledging the culture norm of how a master was to treat servants and yet Jesus says I don’t treat you that way because I have “made known to you everything I have heard from my Father”

Jesus is seeing the posture that He takes up with His disciples being modeled and played out before His eyes in the Centurion

Let’s move on to the next thing we see:

Barclay, W. (2001).

The Gospel of Matthew (Third Ed., p. 348).

Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press.

B) Holiness - 8:7-8

Jesus asks a question here that we may think we understand the significance of but likely do not

Jesus ask’s “Am I to come and heal him?”

Jesus is aware of the culture subtleties coming into play here

What I mean by that is this, the Jews regarded the houses of Gentile to be “unclean”

Now it is not as though Jesus regarded this to be the case, as in Jesus being unwilling to enter the house of the Centurion

We see this cultural moment played out in Acts

But I think there is something more at play here than just cultural rules that the Centurion is following

Let me show you what I’m talking about in our passage

I think what is going on here is more than just cultural understanding but rather an acknowledgment of the Holiness of Jesus

Just as in the same way when Peter enters Cornelius’ house, Cornelius falls down and Peter lifts him up saying “I’m just a man”

Peter here is keeping Cornelius from a worship of the wrong thing

The Centurion in our passage here keeps Jesus away from his house in recognition of his unworthiness

I argue this is a recognition of his unworthiness in light of who Jesus is (acknowledging the God-ness of Jesus)

Because of our next point, that this is manifested in Faith

C) Faith - 8:9

We see here that is is not just as though the Centurion says I am unworthy to have you under my roof so let me bring my servant to you