A CENTURION AND A WIDOW
Luke 7: 1-17
GMB It has been helpfully suggested (C A Coates, Outline of Luke (vol 10) p 97pp) that these two sections illustrate what Simeon saw in chapter 2 of this gospel; the centurion representing “a light for revelation of the Gentiles” (v 32), and then the widow at the gates of Nain “the glory of thy people Israel”, v 33. It might be an example, of the way that Luke writes with method and the two incidents going together may bring out the extent of the new wine and new skins which we read of at the end of chapter 5: what the Lord had brought could not be limited to Israel but extended to the whole world.
In relation to this centurion’s bondman, I was wondering whether he continued a theme we have seen so far in the book, where the Lord’s activities are to restore persons to service. We saw that with the mother-in-law who had a fever (chap 4: 38), and then the man with the withered hand (chap 6: 6), and here specifically it is not the centurion himself but his bondman that the Lord acts in relation to, on the faith of the centurion. We say that Mark is the servant’s gospel but service seems to be in mind here in Luke also.
DAB I find all that interesting: it is helpful to suggest that we just focus on these two narratives and put them together because we get a bit closer into the detail of them. One thing that struck me as the passage was being read is that what is highlighted with the first case, the centurion, is his faith - he comes to Jesus; whereas when we come to the gate of Nain, neither the widow nor the considerable crowd make any appeal to the Lord - they do not seem to recognise that there is a power there that could meet the situation they are in, and the Lord acts unprompted. I know He is prompted by His own feelings, His own compassions, but I thought that was a rather interesting contrast: in one section there is a response to faith, and in the other section nothing is brought to attention except the need. I like what you say about restoration to service, but there is also the restoration of relationships; the son was given to his mother. It was the only relationship she had; so she had been left without any relationship at all, and that is restored.
GMB And the bondman is restored to his master. It is interesting what you say about the distinction between the two cases. There are two sides of the gospel in that; there is the drawing power that is answered in faith, but then we must remember that the gospel has only come out to us because He has drawn near Himself, without anything to call forth that drawing near on our part.
DAB The bondman reminds me of Onesimus. Paul says he is not now a bondman only “but above a bondman, a beloved brother”, Philem 16. I am not suggesting that the centurion would have given this bondman any special treatment, necessarily, but he could not have looked at him without thinking he had asked Jesus for this man, and it would establish a second line of relationship with him which was on the line you are speaking of?
GMB I was thinking of that verse; Paul says, “once unserviceable to thee, but now serviceable to thee and to me”, Philem 11. More was brought in as a result of what occurred here than had been lost to this centurion.
DAB So Luke may be making more than a medical point in saying that he was “in good health”. He was able to fulfil his position in manhood in a way that bore the imprint of what the Lord Jesus had done in him.
DAB-w The note to “save” is ‘make perfectly well’ (note a) which perhaps links on to what you have been saying.
DAB That is another feature we see in Matthew’s gospel; they were mending their nets (chap 4: 21); they were making them whole, I think that is what the word means there, see note to 1 Cor 1: 10.
GMB The reference to ‘make perfectly well’ is striking in this chapter, and then the account of the healing of the woman with the flux of blood in the next chapter, v 47. We are not given the history prior to this point, but there was evidently a work that had proceeded with both of them before this, that this centurion should be conscious that this was One who could cure, or make his bondman perfectly well. There is a hidden work preceding these incidents in Luke.
DAB-w I do not think that it is without significance that this account comes immediately after the Lord speaks about the house built on the rock and the one built upon the sand, chap 6: 48,49. Do you think the centurion would represent one whose house was built upon the rock? The winds and the streams had come. He had this concern, but his faith was founded in One who would be able to make perfectly well.
DAB And the widow’s house was on the sand? I am not suggesting it was because she made bad decisions, but everything around her had crumbled in adversity.
DAB-w Even the whole context of that paragraph, even all those around speak about “A great prophet has been raised up amongst us”; but they had still not come to the rock. I was thinking of the woman in John 4; she starts with a prophet (v 19), but the Lord leads her on. These people, this company, never seem to get further than the sand.
GMB The occupation of the centurion was with the Person, “begging him that he might come”. Those at the gates of Nain were occupied with what was according to nature and was terminating in death. This seems to go further than anything we have seen in the prior chapters in Luke. We have seen that the Lord brings in conviction, cleansing, healing, forgiveness, restoration of health, but this is death itself that is met here - the termination of every natural hope - that the Lord Jesus is able to meet. A hope bounded by death is built on sand.
GEW I was wondering whether there was something seen of the kingdom of God here. Without knowing much of history, it has been said before that it was an unusual aspect that there was a centurion who cared. This centurion clearly cared. I have found it helpful to see that something that marks the current dispensation is kindness; it prevails in this dark and evil world. Kindness may no longer be known, I understand, when the saints and the Spirit are gone. Here we see one who is a man of war, yet there is something of care shown. I wondered about what you have said about the hidden work.
GMB I wonder if what you are suggesting might indicate that there was something of new wine and new skins here. As to what you are saying as to kindness, we are in the time when “the kindness and love to man of our Saviour God appeared”, Titus 3: 4. Mr Coates makes a remark as to this book that it is ‘the divine disclosure of the personal charm of Jesus’ (CAC Outline of Luke’s Gospel, page 74). Scripture tells us, “The charm of a man is his kindness”, Prov 19: 22. There is something seen in the centurion here that was kindred to the spirit of Christ Himself.
DAB-w Historically it would be right to say that the Roman civilisation was marked by cruelty: in one way, it was very civil, very ordered, but it was marked by cruelty. A centurion was of significant rank in this system. To have kindness was altogether different from the system he represented, that side of what he had been brought up in and presumably once was.
GEW We know that even in the world around us. I am thinking of employment, how persons gain any form of promotion. The centurion had perhaps been through several promotions, but it would not have been because of his kindness. As you are saying, in that system - and man’s system today is the same - it is not kindness that men are demanding; there is a certain ruthless character that is necessary to promote their interests. It is helpful what has been brought in as to the charm of a man. God has made Himself known in a Man, the great wonder of God’s love being made known in such a way, and the centurion values that.
SMW Linking with what has been said before, he was really occupied with the Person; he comes to it, “I am not worthy”. I am thinking of what has been said; he had this place in man’s system, but really he was occupied with the Man later described in Philippians 2: 5-11.
GMB Mary said earlier in this book, God “exalted the lowly”, chap 1: 52. We have an example of that here, do we?
I wondered whether we could get some help as to why it says that this centurion, “loves our nation, and himself has built the synagogue for us”. It was not just that he loved the bondman. I do not know whether the bondman was Jewish, but perhaps that is indicated.
ILB I suppose in a general way it showed that he loved what belonged to God, because they were His people; they still are His people; but I wondered whether it indicated that he obviously knew of the Lord Jesus and the power to heal. Luke earlier had said, “the Lord’s power was there to heal them” (chap 5: 17); you could write it across this gospel. The centurion had also come to love what belonged to God. I was thinking of what has been said as to being unworthy: the elders of the Jews say, “He is worthy”; they were still on that line of what we are, but quite clearly the centurion realised his own unworthiness. In a general way I would say that he loved what God loved.
DAB It is notable that he does not plead these works; he does not ask the Lord to reward him for building the synagogue. At the same time, referring to what has been said about Philippians 2, there are features of manhood according to God that He is pleased to identify. We have here a man who loves his bondman, “a certain centurion’s bondman who was dear to him”; that is a feature of manhood according to God. It is not necessary in the world to love your staff, but it is a feature of manhood according to God. And then he devoted himself to the Lord’s interests and the Lord’s people. It does not say whether he paid for the synagogue - I am not sure that is what was meant, but if he helped with the building of it, that was a considerable undertaking. It showed that he had spent a lot of his time devoted to God’s people. Those are features of manhood according to God. Then his faith is another feature. They do not exactly qualify him, but they do attract the Lord’s interest.
ILB It says, “And Jesus went with them”, and even after these elders of the Jews had said that he is worthy, “Jesus went with them”. It aroused the interest of the Lord, speaking reverently, to help this man, but what comes to light is, as the Lord again says, “Not even in Israel have I found so great faith”. Luke, as a Gentile too, would be in accord with this. It is interesting in the gospel that persons who showed great faith were not of the Jewish people but of the Gentiles; it must be God’s work alone.
GMB I wondered if what has been said is helpful in bringing out the way that these two sections go together, because if we apply the widow at the gates of Nain to Israel, the thought of resurrection and death being overcome in relation to Israel really awaits a future day, but that gives this first passage a particular bearing on this dispensation. What has been brought out is that there is a recognition that we are worthy of nothing and the only ground on which the centurion is brought in is faith. I wondered whether that would link with this dispensation in a particular way. This centurion knew that he was among those who were, “aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise” (Eph 2: 12); he had no claim, and did not even count himself worthy to come to Him, let alone for the Lord to come to the centurion. And yet the ground on which he is taken up is “so great faith”.
DAB-w I was wondering if this man would represent one of many of whom the Lord later said, “they who have not seen and have believed”, John 20: 29? There are others that the Lord heals, and it is often that belief is consequent upon the healing, but he believed before any healing came in.
GMB I certainly think he would be in that class; that is true in this dispensation. I was interested in the thought that was brought in as to the way that his faith is credited here, because we get that in relation to the woman later in this chapter, “Her many sins are forgiven; for she loved much”, v 47. It is not that his faith was the cause of the bondman’s salvation, or the love of the woman the cause of her sins being forgiven, but there is something that the Lord Jesus finds in those that He secures. The Lord is able to point to these features as ‘justifying’ Him in having taken up their case.
ILB Faith is the gift of God. The Lord would have recognised that. What he says recalls the word, “My Father worketh hitherto and I work”, John 5: 17. This man recognised that the Lord was under authority. Do you think the Lord would have appreciated that, and was moved by the work of the Father that had gone on ahead?
DAB-w Could the scripture, “They were thine, and thou gavest them me” (John 17: 6) extend to this man then, not just His disciples?
ILB That would apply to all who belong to Him, would it not?
DAB-w He recognised that they belonged to the Father, which would have been something really that drew Him to them.
DAB What the centurion is really saying is, ‘Do not come because I call you, only come if the Father sends you’.
GMB The reference to the Father having worked hitherto is interesting because Simeon says, “a light for revelation of the Gentiles”, and this centurion had extraordinary light in that he recognises that the Lord Jesus was acting under the authority of Another and subject to the will of Another.
DAB But that does not cause the centurion to doubt. There is no ‘if’ here. Faith sees the way that God has come out, and faith understands the power of God, but it also recognises the will of God. What the centurion says is, “say by a word and my servant shall be healed”; he neither doubted the power nor the will to heal him; he recognises that all is under the direction of God, but God will act in this way.
GEW That is a great exercise and test each day. Mr Eric Burr said many years ago that a diplomat who had been stationed in a certain country for a certain period of time was sometimes in danger that he would ‘go native’, whereas a person with that responsibility should always take their bearings from the country they are from. I suppose this man, as many centurions would, would take his bearings from Rome; that would be how he would think of things. I was thinking of what has been brought in as to the Lord’s direction from the Father, how remarkable this is that here is one not looking to Rome, but looking to heaven itself. What a work of God! That is for every believer, and that is why it is a challenge: do I, in every aspect of my practical life, take bearings from heaven?
DAB These references to Rome are interesting because even the governor would have to refer to Rome for some things, and wait ages for an answer with no means of guessing what the answer would be; and an informed emperor would act on the spur of the moment. But here we have faith that is certain about the way God will act, as faith sees the heart of God; but nevertheless the centurion does not want to take the credit for this. It is like someone saying it is not because a convert heard my preaching, but because God acted; and how much greater and how much more rock-like that is.
GEW Our brother referred in his thanksgiving this morning to unchanging love. There would be caprice with the emperor, as we find in any man, but this centurion would know that there was that which was unchanging.
GMB He would not invite the Lord to do anything outside the will of the Father, would he? You need to know the Father’s heart for that. It was Satan who tempted the Lord to do something outside the will of the Father: the centurion was not going to do that, but he knew the Father’s heart and could have confidence.
DAB I was just reading an unpublished comment of Mr Darby, that Satan might point out the word of God to you, but he will never help you do the will of God.
ILB I would speak carefully, but what he says of himself here, as he relates it to the Lord, is remarkable, “I say to this one, Go, and he goes”. Speaking reverently, if the Father said ‘Go’, the Lord Jesus went. And then, “to another, Come, and he comes; and to my bondman, Do this, and he does it”. I trust I am speaking reverently but that could relate to the Father and the Son.
DAB That forms a couple of thoughts: firstly in John 11 when Lazarus was ill, the Lord waited for a word and Lazarus died. I am just applying this to what has been said about these two sections; it says here that “Jesus went with them”, that is with those the centurion sent; so we could say that the Father had said to the Lord in this first paragraph, ‘Go’. But then, in the second paragraph, the Father said to the Lord, ‘Come’, and it says He came to the city of Nain. So He went to those who were a far off and to those who were nigh, Eph 2: 17. I do not know whether this is an interesting application of this passage? With the centurion, the Lord is ready to go, and at the gate of Nain He comes. What has been pointed out is that all that is under divine direction, and authority.
DAB-w In verse 9 the Father had said, “Do this, and he does it”.
DAB It might be a word or it might be a touch. How the Father enters into all the details of this is very blessed.
GMB It draws out in that way that the Lord Jesus was here as One that serves. You would have thought that the centurion would have said, ‘I also am a man who has authority’, but he says, “I also am a man placed under authority”. The light here is extraordinary: he saw the place that the Lord Jesus had taken as coming into manhood - going back to Philippians 2 again, it says, “taking a bondman’s form”, v 7.
DAB I was thinking about that form of a bondman; that was not an afterthought of God’s; it was not to fit in with the emerging situation, but manhood according to God serves. So the form the Lord Jesus took was determined to shed light upon the character of manhood seen in the Person whose form it was, and what He had come to do, and also His relationship with God would come out, even in the form He took.
FMcK I was wondering if there was anything in who the centurion sends? Initially it is the elders, who we have talked a bit about, but then it is his friends. Was that a more spontaneous thought, do you think? They would just be those who were with him at the time, but maybe he had to send for the elders - and what they say adds to his thought. With the friends, it was a truer representation of what he was thinking.
GMB What strikes me is that the elders knew what the centurion had done, but the friends of the centurion knew what type of man he was. It is an intimate thought; it is not just a question of what he had done for the nation in building the synagogue, but the friends knew that he was one who did not consider himself worthy.
DAB It is sad how the elders managed to turn this thing around on themselves, “has built the synagogue for us”. How easily we put ourselves in the central place, which a friend does not do: the friend is thinking about the person on whose behalf they have come.
DAB-w The friends begin with, “Lord”. The elders thought of “us”, but the friends come and own the authority of the One whom they are approaching.
GMB It may suggest that this centurion was not alone in having these feelings; that there were others who recognised the power and the heart of the One whom they approached.
DAB-w It is a flavour of what Peter is going to find when he comes to the centurion in the beginning of Acts, part of that sheet out of heaven. He was with a company in the house, Acts 10: 23.
JTC It is a great picture of faith operating even when the Lord was literally on the earth. It does not appear that there was actually contact made at this point between the Lord Jesus and the centurion or the bondman, yet such restoration was brought about as a result of faith.
GMB I wonder whether there is an indication in that of the distance at which the Gentile was, “that ye were at that time without Christ, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world”, but that distance is overcome here.
JTC I thought it was affecting that this was brought about as a result of faith. It was faith operating, literally. The Lord had touched many that He came in contact with to heal and to cure, but this man is restored to good health by the power of the Lord Jesus in response to faith.
ILB “Blessed they who have not seen and have believed” (John 20: 29); this man believed beyond any doubt. There is no record of him seeing the Lord physically but he knew the Lord in his own heart. He knew the heart of God really, and he knew the Lord, which again maybe links with this being the Gentile, “light for revelation of the Gentiles” because in the broad bearing of things the Gentiles are the ones who have not seen and yet believe.
GMB What has been said made me think of John 10, “And I have other sheep which are not of this fold: those also I must bring”, v 16. He had to go out to them to bring them in.
DAB How wonderful; although there is a sense to which His mission was to Israel, it was never limited to the Jew. We read about the Syrophenician woman (Mark 7: 26); God had to act for that woman because of her faith. Faith in that sense is a universal principle; it does not observe the national boundaries that the Jew valued.
DAB-w How far can we take that thought? It says in the beginning of Acts, “the Lord added to the assembly daily those that were to be saved” (chap 2: 47), which I take to mean those of the remnant of Israel. Then we might think of the eunuch: Philip went out to gather him, Acts 8. Would that have its broad bearing that the Lord’s servants have gone out to collect them?
DAB I wondered. The centurion says, “I say to this one, Go”; and the Lord says to Paul, “Go, for I will send thee to the nations afar off”, Acts 22: 21. That is an assertion on God’s part to bring the gospel and its healing power to people like me.
DAB-w Paul was someone who was sent. Peter’s mission was to the people of Israel, and he remained in Jerusalem, at least by record, but Paul travelled far and wide.
DAB It is a very simple word, we have it in Acts 10, “go with them”, v 20. The Spirit says to go, and that was to Gentiles.
ILB In one sense, we are not invited: we are compelled to come in. There were those who were invited and they all had excuses, but then it says, “Go out into the ways and fences and compel to come in”, Luke 14: 23. The Gentiles are compelled to come in.
DAB-w That is helpful because these were the lame, the sick, the waifs and strays, the wanderers, that is the Gentiles; that is who we are but we are still compelled to come in, unworthy like this centurion was.
GEW The Lord could say to the woman, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when ye shall neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father”, John 4: 21. I was thinking of all the boundaries that had been there and what persons were occupied with. She had said earlier, “Art thou greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well” (v 12); it was occupation with themselves, as we had earlier as to the synagogue, “he … has built the synagogue for us”; now the Lord is bringing them into something that is far greater, the worship of the Father.
DAB This adds to what has been said, “he must needs pass through Samaria”, John 4: 4. We could say, very carefully, it is not just the Gentile that is compelled but God’s grace compels Him as well. I was thinking that the earlier part of this book is taken up with persons who can be brought to Jesus to be healed, but I do not think it is going too far to say that this man was probably incapable of being brought - why not bring him if you could? It reminds me of the man at the gate of the temple called Beautiful; he had never walked, Acts 3: 2. That is a sign of what is now proclaimed in the gospel, that where there is no power the Lord’s coming has brought what was needed which is available to faith.
GMB That links with the way that Matthew ends, where you might have thought that the focus would have been on Israel, the Lord says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations”, chap 28: 19. It is the disciples continuing what the Lord was doing here.
DAB They were under authority, and the Name that they are sent in conveys that authority.
ILB So if we think of this second section as referring to the Lord’s Jewish people, it says He was, “moved with compassion”. Speaking carefully, He is going to be moved with compassion in relation to them again, because they will be brought to the most helpless state possible and He will be “moved with compassion” in relation to them.
GMB We were referring after the reading on Wednesday to the reference in Romans 11: 15: “what their reception but life from among the dead?”. It awaits a future day; it will be as it were the third rank in the first resurrection, the first fruits are Christ, then those who are His at His coming; and then the Jews are brought in again, 1 Cor 15: 23. As well as the bearing on Israel it also brings out that there is nothing that the Lord could not overcome. Death had not yet been overcome in Luke’s gospel, but Mr Coates says as to this verse that ‘we know of no instance in which death was in His presence without being despoiled of its prey’, CAC vol 10, Outline of Luke’s Gospel, p 99.
ILB The hymn writer says:
Disease, and death, and demon,
All fled before Thy word
(Hymn 189).
It was impossible that such could not be met.
DAB-w At the time of the rapture all the works of the power of death in the believer will be undone, right back to Adam. Another has said, there will be a moment upon the earth when every saint in Christ will be alive, the power of death undone, and there will be a moment when everyone who is in Christ will be alive upon the earth.
GMB We can say that at that point there will be evidence that death has been despoiled, but it already has been. The fact that that He Himself has been into death means that death has been overcome already.
ILB “He touched the bier”; the Lord of life and glory actually touched the bier. He went into death Himself; it is a remarkable thing that the One in whom life is intrinsically, in this instance touched the bier, but really He tasted death for everything.
GEW And the bier did not go any further, “he touched the bier, and the bearers stopped”. No other could have done this. He tasted death for everything, and how great a matter that this procession here, formed because of death, did not continue; no other had such moral power to do this.
DAB The provisions of God are a very fine thing. There is no reference to the elders in Nain; presumably there were some, but they were well out of the way. The only service that could be rendered to this young man was to carry him to the grave, and no one was able to help the widow at all; and yet the love of God is available. How touching that is: in a sense it is the nation, and maybe the unbeliever - maybe even one of us in moments of doubt we wonder if anything or anyone can help - but there is always One who will meet the situation out of the compassion of His own heart.
GMB He sent forth “the crushed delivered” (Luke 4: 18) here, did He not?
ILB In one sense it is the gospel, “you, being dead in your offences and sins” (Eph 2: 1), the word in the gospel is, “Wake up”. Again, He alone is able to do that; the most eloquent preacher will not wake the lost soul up; it is only the Word of God penetrating into the heart that will wake a person up, Heb 4:12.
DAB It is very striking that there are occasions when the Lord Jesus speaks to deaf people, who hear; here He speaks to a dead person who hears. It is remarkable: “when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that have heard shall live”, John 5: 25.
DAB-w Are we to learn anything from the fact that this youth seems to do more than Lazarus does? He sits up and begins to speak; Lazarus came forth bound and others loose him, John 11: 44.
ILB I do not think that there is anything recorded of what Lazarus says at all.
DAB-w Neither of them lose this title of being dead, “the dead sat up and began to speak”. It struck me, linking it to the gospel, the power in the gospel, “Wake up”, and then he is able to sit up and then able to speak. The gospel does not just save us, it sets us forward; it establishes us in Christ, and it enables us to bear responsibility, all under the power of the Spirit. That is really a full gospel.
ILB In Luke 15 it says the father received the younger son back, “safe and well”, v 27. The previous man here was “in good health”. God is desirous that persons are found here in good health, not only saved, by putting our faith in the Person and the blood of the Lord Jesus but well. We may be safe, but He would have us well.
GMB The testimonial aspect referred to might be confirmed by the fact that the consequence of this is that, “fear seized on all, and they glorified God”. As to the distinction you draw with Lazarus, I think the next thing we hear of Lazarus is that he was sitting at table with Jesus, John 12: 2. It seems more a personal thought as to his portion on the other side of death, but here there is one who can sit up and begin to speak and can be given to his mother. This fear that seized upon all is not the fear of the bondage of death any more.
ILB Elsewhere it says, “they shall call his name Emmanuel … ‘God with us’”, Matt 1: 23. They say here, “God has visited his people”.
Sidcup
1st September 2024
List of Initials (local unless otherwise shown):
D A Barlow, Sunbury; G M Barlow; I L Barlow; D A Burr; J T Campbell; F McKay, Glasgow; G E Wallace; S M Webster