Pentecost 2 (6)

Luke 7:1–10 NIV84

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.

Contrast the idea that we deserve special favors to the statement of the centurion “I did not even consider myself worthy . . .”

A key word in our text is from the statement that the elders of the Jews said to Jesus about the centurion. It is the word “deserve”. What does this mean? What does it mean to say I deserve? deserve, merit, and earn mean to be worthy of something. deserve is used when a person should rightly receive something good or bad because of his or her actions or character. A hard worker deserves to be rewarded. merit is used when someone or something is especially worthy of reward, punishment, or consideration.

The word “deserve” is used 56 times in the NIV translation of the Bible. When Jesus sent out his disciples on a missionary trip he said they should be fed and sheltered because “The worker deserves his wages.” Luke 10:5–7 (NIV84)

5 “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ 6 If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you. 7 Stay in that house, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.

St. Paul also says this regarding the financial support of the elders of the church. 1 Timothy 5:17–18 (NIV84)

17 The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. 18 For the Scripture says, “Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain,” and “The worker deserves his wages.”

This is an age old truism that is still in force today. When you work, you deserve to get paid. (As is noted above.) This uses the word “deserve” in a positive way. You may be surprised then that using the word deserve in a negative way is much more prevalent in the Bible. Those who do wrong deserve to be punished is a constant reference. You may recall what the thief on the cross said. Luke 23:40–41 (NIV84)

40 But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? 41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” In Genesis Joseph states that even though he was innocent, he was in a dungeon which was usually reserved for criminals: Genesis 40:15 (NIV84)

15 For I was forcibly carried off from the land of the Hebrews, and even here I have done nothing to deserve being put in a dungeon.”

In Leviticus God warned that if the Israelites remained hostile toward them, they would be punished as they deserved:

Leviticus 26:21–22 (NIV84)

21 “ ‘If you remain hostile toward me and refuse to listen to me, I will multiply your afflictions seven times over, as your sins deserve. 22 I will send wild animals against you, and they will rob you of your children, destroy your cattle and make you so few in number that your roads will be deserted.

Or we think of David’s pronouncement of what the man in the parable of the sheep deserved. 2 Samuel 12:5–6 (NIV84)

5 David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die! 6 He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”

Or the warning in Hebrews. Hebrews 10:26–31 (NIV84)

26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Earlier in the worship service, we confessed what we deserve: “Holy and merciful Father, I confess that I am by nature sinful, and that I have disobeyed you in my thoughts, words, and actions. I have done what is evil and failed to do what is good. For this I DESERVE your punishment both now and in eternity.

And so it seems that although God does indeed promise to bless and help those who do good and that we deserve his favor if we are good, our own sinfulness and its frequency and severity supersedes what good we could receive so that we are in imminent danger of getting what our sins deserve instead of what good we do. So even though the elders in our story plead with Jesus to help the centurion because he had done good, if Jesus were to treat him fairly based on the whole body of work of this man, he would have refused.

What is true in this incident is also true as a whole. We do indeed deserve God’s temporal and eternal punishment.

But that is not how Jesus acted toward the centurion and that is not how God acts toward us.

The centurion knew he did not deserve help. Luke 7:6–8 (NIV84)

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.”

Without explaining why, the centurion confesses that he does not deserved to even have Jesus come to his house. Nevertheless, he humbly asks Jesus to heal from a distance and is confident in the power of Jesus’ distant command to do so.

Side note: Others may not think God should help them because they deserve it. They think they are either entitled to it because of their race or social standing (like the Jews did at the time of Jesus) or that God is love so he blindly and capriciously helps everyone.

In a society that increasingly emphasizes entitlement and this false notion that God should be good to all because we are “all his children” and a “loving God would never punish anyone”; the stark reality of biblical teaching and historical Christianity is quite frankly that all we deserve from God is punishment.

Some people claim that a loving God would never punish people. Others say that physical death is the fate of the wicked, or that we suffer enough from the troubles of this life. What does the Bible say?

Consider the fact that righteous people also suffer the fate of physical death, and many good people suffer in this life just as much as evil people. If troubles and death are the only punishment for sin, would God be fair to let the righteous suffer like the wicked?

What does the Bible say about the punishment of sinners? In Luke 12:4,5, Jesus said: “Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But … fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell.” Notice that the punishment we should fear is not just the death of the body. Everyone has to die physically. The punishment to be feared is hell after physical death.

What will hell be like? Jesus Himself describes it in Matthew 25:41 as being “everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” Luke 16: 24 tells about a man who suffered similar anguish, and there he pled for just a drop of water on his tongue. He said, “I am tormented in this flame.” Surely these passages describe a horrible fate that all sensible people seek to avoid.

Will this be your fate? It does not need to be. God is a loving God who does not want you to be punished forever. He sent His only Son to die on the cross so you can have eternal life (Romans 6:23; 5:6-9). “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved” – Mark 16:16.

But God is also a just God, so people who reject the sacrifice of Jesus will surely be punished. Jesus will come “in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” – 2 Thessalonians 1:8.

God does not bless us because we deserve it.

God does not bless us because we are entitled.

God does not bless us because he turns a blind eye toward sin.

But God does bless us.

Why? St. Paul teaches on this in Romans 4:4–8 (NIV84)

4 Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. 5 However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. 6 David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: 7 “Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. 8 Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.”

Romans 5:6–11 NIV84

6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

In love for sinful mankind, God determined to send his son in our place so that we get what his good deeds deserve. And instead of punishing us for our sins, God has already punished Jesus in our place. When we trust in Jesus, we receive one blessing after another. Even though the centurion what not yet aware of all this, he showed faith in Jesus’ ability to help those who did not deserve it and rested his assurance on the grace of Jesus and not his own works.

Jesus commended the centurion and healed his servant. Luke 7:9–10 (NIV84)

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.

What does this mean?

We have a God who blesses us by his grace. He has already helped us with our greatest need — salvation.

How does this impact our lesser needs (list)? Romans 8:28–32 (NIV84)

28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. 31 What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

So when you have needs or are aware of the needs of other, do not hesitate to take it to the Lord in prayer and trust that he will bless you.