By 
This sermon was preached for Capital Pres Fairfax on Sunday, October 26, 2025, as a part of our Fall sermon series titled “Jesus Meets Us.” During his ministry on earth, Jesus encountered a variety of people from different walks and stations of life. As we explore how Jesus engaged with different people, we’ll see that Jesus continues to meet us in all our areas of need—covering us with his abundant grace and sending us in his name to minister to others. We looked at Luke 7:1-10 together. A recording of this sermon will be available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
After he had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. Now a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him. When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his servant. And when they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly, saying, “He is worthy to have you do this for him, for he loves our nation, and he is the one who built us our synagogue.” 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. Therefore I did not presume to come to you. But say the word, and let my servant be healed. 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.” 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.” And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well. (Lk 7:1-10)
Let’s start with a question: How do you define success? I don’t mean “Give me a dictionary definition,” I mean “What would success look like for you?” What would it take for you to wake up one morning, look in the mirror, and say “I’ve arrived at success”?
Wealth? Accolades and degrees? Influence? Maybe for you, it’s not things you’d put on your resumé. It’s more relational: popularity, a partner or spouse who loves you, a good reputation? What is it for you?
Try thinking about it another way: who comes to mind when you think of someone who’s “getting it right in life”? Who is someone you think really embodies success? Our passage this morning shows us an encounter between a man, who by all measures has achieved success, and the Lord Jesus. We’ll spend some time unpacking this encounter to help us see three things:
- Where success fails us
- What true success looks like
- What difference it makes for us
Where success fails us
Come back to Luke 7 with me. The centurion is clearly “getting it right in life” but his success can’t guarantee the life he longs for. First, let’s look at all the ways he’s succeeding. We’re told he’s a centurion, which mean he’s a commanding officer in the Roman army. That’s no small achievement. That took more than a decade or two of successful combat experience, so he’s a decorated veteran.
But he’s not just a good fighter. The Roman historian Polybius writes this about the qualifications for a Centurion: “natural leaders, of a steady and sedate spirit. They do not desire them so much to be men who will initiate attacks and open the battle, but men who will hold their ground when worsted and hard-pressed and be ready to die at their posts.”1 This guy also has strong character as a steady leader. All that comes with good compensation. Other Romans sources tell us that Centurions received as much as thirty times the wages of a regular soldier, so he’s financially well-off, doing well enough to afford servants.2
Now if you know anything about Roman-Jewish relations in the time of Jesus, you might think this guy would be hated by the locals. But it turns out even here he’s succeeding! Jewish leaders come to Jesus vouching for this guy, see verse 5 “he loves our nation and he is the one who built us our synagogue!”
So all around, this dude is winning at life: powerful military commander, strong leader, good character, loved by the community. And yet, despite all that success, he still can’t guarantee the life he longs for. Again, look at verse 2: one of his servants, someone he “highly values”—not just as a servant, later when he sends friends to Jesus the word in Greek he uses for servant can also be interpreted “my child,”—this person he loves like family has become deathly sick. And he can do nothing about it. For all his success in life, he’s reached the limits of what it can offer.
Does that sound familiar to you? Northern Virginia friends, DC friends, let’s think about our own context. We live in a highly successful and success-driven culture, but our success can’t guarantee the life we long for either. If you wanna talk about success as wealth, influence, and accolades, we have them all. Five of the top ten wealthiest counties in America are here in the DC area (Fairfax is 5; Fairfax City is 23 at a measly $109k median household income).3 Northern Virginia has more Masters degrees or higher of anywhere in the country by far (in Falls Church city literally half of every resident has at least a Masters degree, in Fairfax it’s one-third).4 We work on Capitol Hill and in the White House, we’re well acquainted with the halls of power; we’ve got high-ranking officers and executive-level businessmen. You might be thinking, “Patrick, I’m just a low-level employee” or “I’m just a high schooler.” That may be true, but all of us have influence over some circle in our lives—either that, or we desire influence.
Even if you have all these—wealth, accolades, and influence—these things are no indicator of success in other areas of life. More than that, though, success in all areas of life cannot guarantee the life you long for. A promotion at work doesn’t guarantee a happy marriage. A terminal degree won’t prevent a terminal illness. Think of someone like Michael Phelps, the winningest Olympic athlete in history, and he struggled deeply with depression. Or Steve Jobs, a wildly successful CEO and founder of one of the most profitable companies in the world, but it didn’t lead to a healthy family or cure his pancreatic cancer.
Personal success has its limits, and when we try to push past those limits, it ends up failing us. Let me try to illustrate that for you. I’ve got my checkbook in my pocket, let’s say I come up to you after the service. Let’s use my friend Brady as an example. I say “Hey Brady, I like you, I think you’re a pretty nice guy. I’m gonna write you a check for $100,000,000.” How do you think that’d make Brady feel? Maybe good on a superficial level, but the reality is, Brady knows there is no way I have the money in the bank to back up that check.
Friends, that is exactly the offer the idolatry of success makes each of us. We’re led to believe that the scales of the universe keep the balance, that you can store up all your good works and your accomplishments to get what you want, but if it ever comes time to pull from that credit, you realize it’s worthless. It can’t heal your sick friend, I won’t cure your anxiety or save you from depression, it will always leave you longing for “just a little more.” You know who said that? John D. Rockefeller, Sr., one of the richest men in history, was once asked how much money it takes to make a man happy. Rockefeller’s famous reply was, “just a little bit more.”
The idolatry of success is writing you a very big check, but if you ever try to cash it, it will bounce.
So what? Well, ask yourself this: Where have you run into the limits of your success? Where in life have you realized success can’t deliver on what you hoped it would? If you’re still bought into the idolatry of success, how many examples of its failure will it take to break the illusion? That’s where success fails us.
What true success looks like
Lets now look at what true success looks like. Come back to Luke 7 with me, we’ll see the centurion continue to “get it right.” And that should surprise us! Lots of the people we’ve seen meet with Jesus this sermon series don’t get it right when they come to Jesus. His own disciples are constantly getting it wrong. The religious elite of his day, the people who should know the Old Testament and should recognize the messiah better than anyone, constantly get it wrong. But of all people, this Roman centurion gets it right. Verse 3 “When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his servant.”
Now look, we’re a church, we believe going to Jesus is always the right answer. But look at how this man seeks out Jesus. Two observations here. First, look at his humility. Remember, this dude is a commanding officer of the occupying Imperial army. He could have sent out his 100 soldiers and have Jesus brought to him by force. He could have gone out to meet Jesus himself and pull rank: “Hey Jesus, I’m a pretty big deal.” Instead, who does he send? Jewish elders—he resorts to asking for help from Jesus’ own people.
Then, when he learns that Jesus is coming into town and probably into his home, he humbles himself even more. Look again at verses 6-7, here’s a few things to highlight. Again, he doesn’t send soldier, he sends friends. He actually displays a deep knowledge and respect for Jewish customs. Jews at this time would have been considered unclean if they entered the home of a Gentile, so the centurion doesn’t want to put any undue pressure on Jesus to break a social norm.
What stands out most to me though is the contrast between what the elders say about him and what he says about himself. Do you see that? The contrast between “he is worthy” and “I am not worthy.” There’s more to this comment than just social norms. This speaks to a deeper spiritual reality—the same one you and I face today—which is the fact that our personal success can never merit God’s favor.
We have this innate intuition that God’s favor and our success go hand-in-hand. Either our success is evidence of God’s favor—you might even hear an atheist say, “If there is a God, he must be happy with me because look at all I’ve done! Good job, great family, healthy savings, life’s going up and to the right.” Or we appeal to our success as if that can merit God’s favor when we want something, like Santa. Again, even a non-religious person might find themselves in a crisis saying prayers like “God, if you’re out there, you know I’ve been a good boy this year. Please give me this one thing.”
This passage helps us see that intuition is actually wrong. Sometimes the wicked prosper, and sometimes God lets the people he loves go through terrible things (check out last week’s sermon if you want to hear more on that). Sure, it’s generally true that if you live an upright life marked by love and charity and honesty like the Bible teaches, you’ll probably be better off than if you lie, cheat, and steal your way to the top. But that’s not really what we’re talking about here.
Again, we can assume this Centurion was living that kind of upright life, but he admits “Lord, I am not worthy.” That helps us see that even the best of us—the most morally upright, kind, loving people we know—are still not right before God.
The Bible calls this reality “sin.” You may have heard that term before, normally when people talk about “sins” they mean doing bad things like murder or lying. But sin is more than that; sin also includes doing the right things for the wrong reasons. In fact, sin is a disposition of the heart that sets us at odds with God; sin is the origin of that innate intuition that believes God owes us for our success, and sin is what fools us into thinking we’ve actually been good enough to merit God’s favor. If you read our prelude quote this morning, it speaks directly to this—I was convicted this week when I read it, let me read it again for us:
Faith is an exercise in reality. He who sees clearly, and not merely as he would like to see, is on safe ground. Do you see yourself as deserving of Christ’s grace, as the elders saw the centurion? Do you inwardly think that because you are a lover of the church, and even more, a giver of your money, you are worthy of God’s care? Have you secretly internalized others’ good opinions of yourself, so that despite the persistent teaching of God’s Word that salvation comes through faith and is a gift of God, you imagine that you will somehow make it into the kingdom by your personal virtue?5
The centurion sees reality clearly. In sending his friends to Jesus, he’s essentially saying “Look, I know I’m a pretty good person, I try to do the right thing most of the time, but God, you are perfect, and if that’s the standard you hold us to, I am far from that. I haven’t earned this, I don’t deserve you to do anything for me, I have no reason to expect you to heal my servant…outside of your own compassion and mercy.”
That brings us to the second component of what true success looks like. Look at his faith. When the centurion hears about Jesus, he immediately recognizes “here’s someone who can help my servant.” But the text suggests he sees even more in Jesus. Look again at verse 6, how does he address Jesus? “Lord.”
In ancient times, this would have been the normal polite way to address someone above you, like saying “Sir” today. But this guy’s a God-fearing man who understands the Jews’ religion, when he says “Lord” he’s recognizing Jesus as the God of Israel. After all, who else would be able to heal the sick or raise the dead or teach with the wisdom Jesus has? So already he approaches Jesus with faith, but then look at what he says in verses 8-9.
What we see is remarkable: his success has actually taught him something which helps him know Jesus; namely, the power of authority. He can command troops and they have to listen because of who he is and the nature of their relationship. He sees who Jesus is (Lord) and understands the nature of his relationship to creation (Creator). Jesus is executing authority over life because he is the Living God and the Author of Life. Jesus is executing authority over the servant as a human because he is God, the one whose in whose image that servant was made. Because he understands this, he has a deep faith that Jesus can heal with a simple word.
So that’s what true success looks like in the eyes of Jesus: humility and faith. Instead of wielding his authority for personal gain or assuming his personal success garnered favor from God, this centurion humbly asks Jesus to heal his servant relying solely on Jesus’ compassion. And look how Jesus responds, verse 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.”
Friends, I don’t know how you defined success for yourself earlier, but I can’t imagine any greater mark of success in life than Jesus marveling at me! Imagine that! The true holy and righteous God—your own Creator, worthy of all our praise—praising you! One commentary I read this week offered this reflection:
“Faith—the combination of humility (“Lord, I am not worthy”) and confidence (“Say the word and make my servant well”) exhibited by the centurion—is a greater miracle than even physical healing. Faith is found in unexpected quarters—in Gentile centurions, in alien Samaritans, in desolate widows. But wherever it is found, it results in the joy of the incarnation.”6
So, Jesus commends the centurion, he heals his servant, they all live happily ever after. That’s great for them, but what does this mean for you and me?
What difference it makes for us
Two quick closing thoughts. First, it changes the way we relate to God. Because of sin we naturally want to prove ourselves worthy of God. But the beauty of the gospel is the fact that God goes to great lengths to show us he is worthy of our faith. If we jump ahead to the book of Revelation, we’re given a picture of God’s throne room. Rev 5:11-12 describes “the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, ‘Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!’”
What makes Jesus worthy? The cross. In his death Jesus embodied humility for you. You want to think about success in terms of power or wealth or influence? No one’s got more of that than God! But Jesus was willing to lay all of that down, to face the failure and defeat of the cross in your place, taking all the penalty of sin upon himself, so that you might share in the victory of his life. Philippians 2 puts it this way.
though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Php 2:6-11)
What difference does this make? You don’t have to impress God with your success—in fact, you can’t. Instead, God invites you to see the beauty of his humility, to trust that God loves you, to have faith in who he is. The gospel frees us to live out both humility and faith.
Second, it changes the way we relate to our own success. Know the limits of your success. Our success can’t guarantee the life we long for. View your success as a gift. Scripture tells us that every good and perfect gift is from God; whatever success you have in life is a blessing. When you view your success as your own accomplishments, it’s a lot easier for your life to be marked by entitlement (which always leads to discontentment). When, in humility, you view your success as a gift, your life is marked by gratitude (which always leads to contentment).
Finally, look for ways your success can help you meet Jesus. For the centurion, his experience of authority informed his faith in who Jesus was and what he could do. What might that look like for you? Is your success pushing you away from Jesus or preparing you to meet with Jesus with humility and faith? I hope you get the chance to chat about that over lunch with a friend. For now, let’s close praising the God who is worthy.
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1 Polybius, Histories 6.24.8-9, https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Polybius/6*.html
2 “Salary in Ancient Rome” https://imperiumromanum.pl/en/roman-society/salary-in-ancient-rome/
3 “List of highest-income counties in the United States” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-income_counties_in_the_United_States
4 “What Counties in the U.S. Are the Most Educated?” https://overflowdata.com/demographic-data/national-data/county-level-analysis/county-educ-22/
5 R. Kent Hughes, Luke: That You May Know the Truth, Preaching the Word Series. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014).
6 James R Edwards. The Gospel According to Luke. Grand Rapids, Michigan: IVP, 2015.
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