Devotional Day 53

Scripture

Luke 7:1-10

After he had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. 2 Now a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him. 3 When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his servant. 4 And when they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly, saying, “He is worthy to have you do this for him, 5 for he loves our nation, and he is the one who built us our synagogue.” 6 And Jesus went with them. When he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to him, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. 7 Therefore I did not presume to come to you. But say the word, and let my servant be healed. 8 For I too am a man set under authority, with 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.” 9 When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” 10 And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well.

Devotional

When it comes to receiving healing from the Lord, in my experience, a lot of people struggle with feelings of unworthiness. They don’t necessarily struggle to believe that God can or does heal other people, but rather struggle with the thought that God would look their way and want to heal them. I myself struggle with this, although I have seen many other people healed by Jesus, and have no contentions about Jesus’ compassion for them - when it comes to myself, it’s a little bit of a different story. He has healed my brain, and my heart many times, and a headache or cold here and there, but I have issues that have needed healing for a long time and am yet to be healed. I too struggle with the self worth to really have faith to be healed.

At first glance, if you struggle with this too, then Jesus’ healing of the centurion’s servant can be initially discouraging. As it appears as though Jesus decides to heal the man’s servant because he was ‘worthy’. For when the Jewish leaders came to Jesus, they made a case as to why Jesus should go out of his way to heal the centurion’s servant by saying: “He is worthy to have you do this for him…” After which they actually make a pretty good case for why the centurian is worthy of Jesus’ help. It then seems as though Jesus agrees and goes with them. At this point, we can tend to feel discouraged, thinking - “I’m not worthy of Jesus healing me, or looking my way, so I guess I’ll have to continue in my suffering” We can get really down on ourselves, because we do not yet have a personal revelation of the Lord’s extravagant, personal love for us.

I think the Lord wanted to make a very specific point in this passage about why he heals people, and surprisingly, it has nothing to do with our ‘worthiness’.

When Jesus was close to the house, the centurion himself sent out some friends to Jesus with a message from him, contrasted with the Jewish leaders said - the centurion began: “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof.” In reality, the unnamed centurion did not send for Jesus because he considered himself worthy of help at all, in fact it was rather the opposite. He believed that he wasn’t even worthy of Jesus stepping into his house. The truth is, the centurion knew that he wasn’t worthy, but he also knew that this didn’t matter. Even though he was a Gentile Roman and not a Jew he had heard about Jesus’ compassion and power to heal, and with humility and honour he simply had faith that Jesus could, and would, heal his servant not because of who he was, but because of who Jesus was.

Jesus marveled at this man’s faith. for this centurion had more accurately seen who Jesus is and what he is able to do than anyone in Israel at the time.

This story teaches us something so powerful about Jesus’ heart to heal. It’s got nothing to do with whether we consider ourselves worthy or not. Jesus healed those who were sinners, rebels, and others who were unable to contribute anything. He also healed people who contributed much - Jesus’ compassion is not prejudiced, none of us are really worthy in ourselves to be entitled to God’s love or help, no matter how much we do for him.

Take heart today, and don’t despair. You are not overlooked, you are not forgotten and you are not unimportant to God. Jesus doesn’t help people based on their worthiness, but based on grace! If you need Jesus’ help today, then no matter how you feel, come to him in humility and faith and make your requests known to him - for he loves you.

Prayer

Jesus, I am not worthy of your love, I have not earned anything, but I do know that you love me. Jesus, based on who you are - endless in compassion, mercy and faithfulness, please heal me today. I believe that you can.