The story of Jesus' encounter with the centurion from Capernaum is retold in all four gospels: Luke 7:1-10, Matthew 8:5-13, John 4:46-5 and Mark 2:1; 7:30. The four versions contradict each other in details but they all tell the same story of a Centurion who asks Jesus to heal a sick person in his household (for instance, Luke reports that the centurion sent Jewish elders as emissaries to Jesus, but Matthew says that the Centurion came to Jesus himself, and John describes the boy slave as the centurion's son, etc.) In Luke's version, the centurion sends Jewish elders as emissaries to ask Jesus to heal his precious boy slave, because he is "not worthy to have you come under his roof". Jesus is amazed at the centurion and says "I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith." A closer look at the specific words in Luke's version reveals that centurion was engaged in pederasty, and the sick boy slave was the centurion's catamite. Pederasty is a form of homosexuality that condemned in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 and 1 Timothy 1:9-10, and is similar to the sex trafficking industry today, and is completely unlike other homosexual practices common today such as same-sex marriage.  (Read my article "The Clobber Verses: Six scriptures cited at gays, lesbians, same-sex relationships, and the LGBTQ+" for more information on the discussion of pederasty in these two verses). 

What are the clues that lead to this conclusion? Luke refers to the sick person as a slave "doúlos" several times (Luke 7:2,3,4,10) and in Luke's version, the centurion calls the sick slave a boy "pais" (Luke 7:7), indicating the sick person was a boy slave. Additionally the boy slave is precious "entimos" (Luke 7:2) to the centurion, indicating an intimate relationship between the centurion and his boy slave. Additionally, Luke refers to catamites "malakos" (Luke 7:25) in king's courts within the same chapter, and this is the same word used to describe pederasty in 1 Corinthians 6:9. We know from history, that pederasty was commonly practiced by ruling officials such as Roman centurions during the times of Jesus' ministry. So the conjunction of these Greek terms in Luke 7 with the common practice of pederasty by Roman centurions indicates that the centurion's sick boy slave was his catamite, who he was engaged in act of pederasty. The insight that the Centurion was a homosexual engaged in pederasty, and his boy servant was his catamite, better explains why the centurion said he was unworthy to have Jesus come into his house.

The story of the centurion does not provide a general ethic of homosexuality either positively or negative, and pederasty is one particular form of homosexuality that is unlike other homosexual relationships commonly practiced today. The insight that is helpful, is to remember that the person who Jesus marveled at for having the greatest faith was a homosexual that asked Jesus to heal his boy sex slave that he had acquired for pederasty through the slave and sex trafficking industry.  

Luke 7:1-10 (NRSV) 7 After Jesus had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. 2 A centurion there had a slave whom he valued highly, and who was ill and close to death. 3 When he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, asking him to come and heal his slave. 4 When they came to Jesus, they appealed to him earnestly, saying, “He is worthy of having you do this for him, 5 for he loves our people, and it is he who built our synagogue for us.” 6 And Jesus went with them, but when he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to say to him, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; 7 therefore I did not presume to come to you. But only speak the word, and let my servant be healed. 8 For I also 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 slave, ‘Do this,’ and the slave does it.” 9 When Jesus heard this he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, he said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” 10 When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health.

Update: 4 July, 2018

Sadly, this article has received a firestorm of protest, and most of the criticism has been ad hominem. I'd like to remind everyone, that if you do not like a theological argument that does not make it eisogesis! Epistemologically speaking, the best interpretation of the scriptures is the one that explains all of the details of the text (whether we like it or not). Many scholars on both sides of the debate about homosexual ethics have concluded that the centurion was a homosexual (i.e. he was a pederast and the boy slave was his catamite), and I learned this conclusion from them, and find it the best explanation of all the details of the text collectively. 

Typically, I include a scholarly quote with my blog posts to demonstrate my point, but I did not in the original publication of this article as an experiment. So here is one example of a scholar (Tom M. Horner) who has come to a similar conclusion about the centurion. And I'll add that Stanley J. Grenz recognizes Horner's argument in his book Welcoming But Not Affirming (p61).

In Jonathan Loved David, Tom M. Horner writes:

The first is the possible homosexual motif in the story of the healing of the centurion's servant (Matthew 8:5-13 and Luke 7:1-10). It has always seemed to me that it was more than an ordinary concern that this Roman official displayed in this case for a mere slave. Luke uses here the word doúlos, which is the ordinary Greek word for slave, but Matthew uses the word pais, "boy" or, in this particular context, "servant boy." Pais is the same word, however, that any older man in Greek culture would use to refer to a younger friend—or lover. Matthew, being closer to the Aramaic language of Palestine, has most likely recorded the nearest Greek equivalent of whatever was originally said in this context; but Luke, being a Greek and more aware of how it might sound to his Hellenistic readers, three times here interposes doúlos, "slave." This has not at all the same connotation as in Matthew. In either case, however, Jesus made no note of it, which means that if the homosexual element were present, he was not disturbed by it. Instead, he was overwhelmed by the man's faith, which is clearly the paramount element in the story. 

Sources:

Tom M. Horner, Jonathan Loved David, (Westminster Press, Philadelphia: 1978), p122.