Luke 7
6…. Lord, trouble not thyself: for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof: 7 Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee: but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed.
I love this verse.
But I think its important because we repeat it at every Mass. Right before we have communion.
The story always comes back to me. Jesus is walking in Capernaum, which is in Galilee and close to His own home. A Centurion, a Roman, a gentile, has a valued servant come ill and he hears about Jesus. So he asks his Jewish friends to ask a favor of Jesus.
Jews were normally not friends with gentiles. Gentiles were unclean and therefore, they were shunned by the Jews. But this man was so good that even the Jews loved him. And they gladly asked Jesus to come to this man's house and cure his servant.
On His part, Jesus gladly accepted. But upon seeing Jesus' coming towards his house, the humble Centurion sent people to stop Him. He did not consider himself worthy even to approach Jesus nor to have Jesus come into his house. Therefore he said, "Lord, I know that you are a person of authority. I myself can say to my men, go do this or go do that. Therefore, say the word and it shall be done."
And Jesus was amazed! Jesus turned to the Jews and said, "I've not seen faith like this anywhere in Israel." And the messengers, when they returned to the Centurion's house, found the servant cured.
That is so beautiful!
I don't think I've ever used that verse in apologetics. But I want to be able to turn to it quickly. So, I just want to remember the reference.
Luke 7:6
Who doesn't think of "Luke Skywalker" when they hear the name, "Luke"? It isn't a very common name, but we recently had a poor fellow named "Luke" come to work with us. And I guess everyone greeted him by saying, "Luke, I am your faaathaaaaa". Which brought peels of laughter from everyone. But the poor guy turned to me and said, "Like I haven't heard that a million times."
So, Luke Skywalker it is. But what about the 7 and 6.
6 = j, ch, sh, g (soft)
7 = k, c (hard), g (hard)
So if the 7 is a k and the 6 is a j or soft g, we have the word, Cage.
And Luke Skywalker is in a cage is an easy thing to visualize. He's using his light saber to cut the bars. And the Centurion with his own sword at his side, is humbling himself before Jesus.
This is how we say it in Mass:
Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.
And this is how it is in the Bible text from memory:
And the Lord went with them. "Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my servant shall be healed."
And the text says:
Luke 7:6
King James Version (KJV)
6… Lord, trouble not thyself: for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof: 7 Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee: but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed.
I am quite happy with that.
Sincerely,
De Maria
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