Centurions are always good people in the New Testament. They have incredible faith and are generous in giving to Israel. I would like to venture a guess that part of their job was to win the hearts of the local people. It would have been tough to do because the soldiers were the exact opposite and forced service upon and abused the locals. So to win the locals' hearts, Centurions gave and it worked more for them than for the army itself because the people liked the Centurions but did not like the soldiers.
In Luke 7 a Centurion sent Jewish leaders to Jesus to request healing for his sick servant. The Jewish leaders pled with Jesus on behalf of the Centurion telling Jesus that the Roman built a synagogue for them and therefore deserved this healing. The same kind of language was used in Acts with the Centurion who gave alms to the people of Israel.
Jesus started his journey to the Centurion's house, but the Centurion sent friends to Jesus, saying, "Lord, do not trouble Yourself, for I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof. Therefore I did not even think myself worthy to come to You. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man placed under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."
Jesus was impressed by the Centurion's faith and healed the servant.
So what does this have to do with money? The Centurion had money and he used it to help others. We will see that in the book of Luke, the Centurion did what was needed for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. He gave generously and he had faith.
No comments:
Post a Comment