What do you do when your housemaid gets sick? At the most, we may give some financial help for the medical treatment. But here we see a Roman centurion, in whose culture a slave was often treated merely as a “tool,” rushing towards Jesus. Luke says that he had “heard about Jesus” (Lk. 7:3). Hearing led to faith. Perhaps the healing of the royal official’s son at nearby Capernaum (Jn. 4:46–54) had already become the talk of the town and strengthened the centurion’s faith.
With all this background, the centurion sent a delegation of Jewish elders requesting Jesus to heal his slave. They came with a heavy recommendation.
“He is worthy of having you do this for him, for he loves our people, and it is he who built our synagogue for us.” (Luke 7:4–5, NRSV)
The word they repeatedly use is axios. He deserves it. He is worthy. He has earned your intervention because of his good works. He loves our nation. He built a synagogue for us.
The Greek word axios appears elsewhere too.
“The laborer deserves (axios) to be paid.” (Luke 10:7, NRSV)
“Worthy (axios) is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” (Rev. 5:12, NRSV)
The elders evaluated the centurion according to human standards and certified him as worthy.
Jesus was convinced and started walking towards the centurion’s house.
But then everything changes. Before Jesus reached the house, the centurion sent another group with a completely different message. “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof… neither did I consider myself worthy to come to you.” (Luke 7:6–7, NRSV)
Interestingly, the centurion now uses another Greek word: hikanos.
Not axios. Not deserving.
But hikanos. “I am not adequate.” “I am not fit.” “I am not sufficient.” “I am not even worthy to approach you.” This is the language of people who have seen God’s holiness.
Isaiah cried,
“Woe is me! I am lost.” (Isa. 6:5, NRSV)
John the Baptist declared,
“I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals.” (John 1:27, NRSV)
The elders were evaluating the centurion with the yardstick of society. The centurion was evaluating himself with the yardstick of Jesus.
That changes everything.
Hikanos asks a searching question:
Am I adequate to stand before God’s holiness?
The answer is No.
Jesus illustrated this beautifully in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector (Luke 18:9–14). The Pharisee stood confidently before God listing his religious achievements. He assumed that religious activities were equal to intimacy with God and that outward performance was equal to surrender. What a gross mistake!
The tax collector, however,
“…would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!'” (Luke 18:13, NRSV)
The tax collector understood hikanos. He knew he was not adequate.
Then comes another question.
Axios asks:
Have I earned God’s favour?
Again the answer is No.
The rich young ruler illustrates this well (Mark 10:17–22). He had youth, wealth, influence and morality. He came running to Jesus and asked,
“Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Mark 10:17, NRSV)
When Jesus reminded him of the commandments concerning human relationships, he confidently replied,
“Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” (Mark 10:20, NRSV)
He believed that managing his horizontal relationships without surrendering in the vertical relationship made him acceptable before God. What a gross mistake!
Jesus lovingly exposed the real issue. The young ruler had not merely possessed wealth. His wealth possessed him. Money had become his authority. His god. He could not surrender. He went away grieving.
The rich young ruler misunderstood axios. He imagined he had earned what could never be earned. Humility, however, is not the end of the story.
The centurion not only recognised his unworthiness — he also recognised Jesus’ authority.
The two always go together.
The centurion says,
“For I also am a man set under authority…” (Luke 7:8, NRSV)
That little word also is important.
He is saying,
“I live under authority.
You also live under authority.
When I speak, my soldiers obey.
When you speak, sickness obeys.”
He understood authority because he himself lived under authority.
Perhaps that is why he believed Jesus did not even need to enter the house. One word from Jesus was enough.
This is where many of us struggle.
The rich young ruler also struggled here.
Jesus told him,
“Go, sell what you own… then come, follow me.” (Mark 10:21, NRSV)
The issue was never merely money. It was authority. He had already surrendered to another master. The first commandment had quietly been replaced. His possessions ruled him. The centurion teaches us three simple truths. We are not adequate to stand before God’s holiness. We have not earned God’s favour.
Our only hope is to surrender ourselves under the authority of Jesus Christ.
Perhaps that explains why Jesus amazed. Not because the centurion built a synagogue. Not because he loved the Jewish nation. But because he trusted Christ’s authority completely.
So let us ask ourselves:
Am I trying to stand before God because I think I am adequate?
Have I imagined that my good works have earned His favour?
Or have I, like the centurion, surrendered myself completely under the authority of Jesus?
The Pharisees and the lawyers repeatedly rejected God’s purpose for themselves (Luke 7:30). The centurion embraced Christ’s authority.
The remarkable thing is that the gospel does not leave us in our inadequacy.
Paul beautifully echoes the same truth when he writes,
“Not that we are qualified (hikanoi) of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our qualification (hikanotēs) is from God, who has made us qualified (hikanōsen) to be ministers of a new covenant.” (2 Corinthians 3:5–6, NRSV)
What a wonderful reversal!
Like the centurion, we confess, “I am not hikanos.”
Then God declares, “Your hikanotēs comes from Me.”
Our adequacy does not arise from our morality, our ministry, our generosity, or our religious activities. It comes entirely from God’s grace. We are not accepted because we are sufficient. We become sufficient because He makes us so.
C. S. Lewis once wrote, “Die before you die. There is no chance after.”
The centurion had already done that. He laid down every claim to his own worthiness and surrendered to the authority of Christ. Before the holiness of God, our merit counts for nothing. But those who know they are not adequate discover that God himself makes them adequate through Jesus Christ.
Not worthy. Yet welcomed. And by his grace — qualified.
Watson Selvasingh J
References: Luke 7:1–10; John 4:46–54; Isaiah 6:5; Luke 5:8; John 1:27; Luke 18:9–14; Mark 10:17–22; Luke 10:7; Revelation 5:12; 2 Corinthians 3:5–6
Wonderful, Praise the Lord