How Valued Are You?

When Jesus heard this, he was amazed. Turning to the crowd that was following him, he said, “I tell you, I haven’t seen faith like this in all Israel!” And when the officer’s friends returned to his house, they found the slave completely healed.

Luke 7:9-10 

If you read the story of the Centurion's slave in Luke chapter 7, perhaps the first thought you might have is "why is this guy sending Jewish elders to ask Jesus to come heal his servant?  After all, it's ONLY a servant."  Well, that was my thought anyway.  You see, in my own arrogance, I had devalued the human being because of their standing in society!  I had devalued this human being because they were a mere servant.  And I was horribly wrong to do that!

According to Luke, this particular slave was of great value to the Centurion.  Perhaps this slave managed the household, held confidences, or maybe....just maybe, this slave and the Centurion had grown up together and were more like brothers.  Whatever the case, this Centurion cared greatly about this particular person.  And when this valued slave became ill and was dying, the Centurion needed a miracle!

This Centurion knew about Jesus and had heard about Jesus' healing others, so he sent some of the Jewish Elders to go get Jesus and bring Him to heal this valued slave.  The Jewish Elders found Jesus and asked Him to come to heal the Centurion's slave because, and here's were the "church folk" urging was uttered, "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."  That statement and anything like it truly irks me!  All they had to do was ask Jesus to come heal this valued slave, why did they think they had to lay on the extraneous by telling Jesus why He had to go to the Centurion's house?

Anyway, Jesus went with them.  But when Jesus got close to the house, the Centurion sent word that he was not worthy for Jesus to enter his house, which contradicted the Elders' comments, but if Jesus would just say the word where He was, the Centurion KNEW the illness would disappear.  THAT is when Jesus said that in ALL of Israel, He had not seen such faith as this Centurion (a foreigner) had demonstrated. 

When the Elders returned to the house, the valued servant was healed.  Now....if Jesus healed from a distance because of the faith of a foreigner, how much more valuable are YOU to Him?  If Jesus is willing to go to the house of this Centurion, how much more valuable is YOUR heart as a believer?  If Jesus valued this slave so much that He would come heal from a distance, how much more valuable are YOU to Him?  After all, He did sacrifice Himself for you.

Changes In Attitudes

“When you are invited to a wedding feast, don’t sit in the seat of honor. What if someone who is more distinguished than you has also been invited? The host will come and say, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then you will be embarrassed, and you will have to take whatever seat is left at the foot of the table! “Instead, take the lowest place at the foot of the table. Then when your host sees you, he will come and say, ‘Friend, we have a better place for you!’ Then you will be honored in front of all the other guests.
Luke 14:8-10 

Have you ever noticed that Jesus teaches that we should be humble; we should not seek the spotlight; we should honor others more than ourselves; we should remember that we are all equally sinners in need of God's grace and forgiveness?  Yet what are we bombarded with every single day?  We have the message poured into us that we are the only ones who matter and everyone else should be glad if we condescend to acknowledge them. And, sadly, this is the message we pass on to our children.  

Even Jesus taught us that we are not the most important and that we should be servants first and foremost:

     "⁴² So Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. ⁴³ But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, ⁴⁴ and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else. ⁴⁵ For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.” - Mark 10:42-45 

We have been called to be servants!  When we remember that, we will be much better off.  Better it is to be asked to move to a seat of importance than to be asked to move to a seat of disgrace.