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adapted from an email from CS

The incident captured in Matthew 8 is also recalled in Luke 7, and the discussion below will reference both.

 
Matthew: The Faith of the Centurion

5. When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help.

6. "Lord," he said, "my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering."

7. Jesus said to him, "I will go and heal him."

8. The centurion replied, "Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed.

9. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and that one, 'Come,' and he comes. I say to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."

10. When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, "I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. 

11. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 

12. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

13. Then Jesus said to the centurion, "Go! It will be done just as you believed it would." And his servant was healed at that very hour.

 
Luke: The Faith of the Centurion

1. When Jesus had finished saying all this in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum.

2. There a centurion's servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die.

3. The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant.

4. When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, "This man deserves to have you do this,

5. because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue."

6. So Jesus went with them. He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him "Lord, don't trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof.

7. That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed.

8. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and that one, 'Come,' and he comes. I say to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."

9. When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, "I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel."

10. Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well.

 
Interpretation

As is to be expected, there are a number of ways to interpret this passage.

The regular church interpretation:

Jesus values faith from his people. And sometimes it is the people who are not the people of God who exercise the greater faith. This centurion recognized Jesus' power and realised that Jesus needn't even be physically present to effect the healing of his servant. So he was blessed.

The better interpretation (which incorporates the regular church interpretation but with more):

Context: Luke 7 is part of wider set of texts from Luke 5 onwards. The entire text shows Jesus beginning to challenge the religious orthodoxy of his day. He starts by calling an arrogant uneducated fishermen and then a despised a tax collector (who are viewed a traitors and were extortionists) as his disciples. He goes on to claim that he has the authority to forgive sins, and reinterpret (break) the traditional laws on fasting and Sabbath. 

He then enters into a sermon called the Beatitudes which effectively preaches that the down and out are the ones who are blessed; plus calling his disciples to love their enemies, not judge people unfairly and to recognize that goodness is evidenced by how you live your life and is based on making him the foundation. 

Then the passage goes into the miracles with the centurion, the widow and a reply to John the Baptist and his traditionalist disciples who are wondering if John ended up in prison for nothing since Jesus does not fit the mould they were expecting. 

To top it all off he then allows an immoral woman to let her hair down -- this passage is highly sexually charged which is totally missed by the regular church -- and he rebukes the Pharisee who was present (The book Poets and Peasants by Kenneth Bailey treats this passage well).

Message: Jesus has come to establish a new order that destabilises the existing order and power structures. It is an order that prioritises the rejected, the powerless and the alien over the religious/powerful intelligentsia of the day and he will honor the faith of anyone who is placed on him no matter how rejected he is in the community.

The centurion’s story is interesting because he is not exactly powerless. Further, although he is a foreigner and an occupier he was in good standing with the Jewish community. So at first blush, it does not seem to fit the whole narrative.

However, if you adopt what some other readers of the Bible are saying, then it begins to fit better. 

Why would a centurion be so concerned about his servant? Why would a centurion say to a Jewish teacher that he is undeserving of that teacher coming into his house? Unless of course one begins to wonder if the servant and the centurion had a special relationship which was common in Roman times (i.e. a homosexual relationship). If that is the case then the Jewish elders were using his helpfulness to the community as a justification for why he deserved their help, despite his "unacceptable" relationship with his servant. 

But for Jesus, it is his faith that is important -- not his "unacceptable" relationship or that he was a great guy to the Jewish community. Indeed, gay affirming readers go on to argue that if Jesus had no problem with the centurion’s special relationship, why should anyone else?

When reading Matthew and Luke, there are many parallel passages. It is useful to bear in mind that it is generally accepted that the two books were written for different audiences. Matthew was written for a Jewish audience while Luke was written for a Greek/Roman audience.

That is why when you read the Matthew version, he has this which Luke leaves out (Luke addressing a self-evidently foreign audience "from east and west"): 

10. When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, "I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. 

11. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 

12. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Jesus is saying that many who think of themselves from the family of God will in reality be left out but those who are the "rejected" will come from all over the place and they will sit at the table of Abraham (meaning share in the covenant blessings that God had with Abraham). If we accept that the centurion had some faggotry in him -- then this actually becomes a rather delicious passage!  

Footnotes

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Addenda

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