Anchor My Faith

The Centurion’s Faith

Scripture: Matthew 8:10-13; Luke 7:6-8

Our previous lesson was primarily a time of travel for Jesus to get back to Capernaum from an extended time of teaching. Once arriving in Capernaum he is requested to come to the home of a centurion to heal a critically sick and dying servant. We ended that lesson with Jesus being intercepted by friends of the centurion with a message. That message was: ^{Lk 7:6} “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 say the word, and let my servant be healed. ⁸ 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 comparing himself to Jesus, the centurion felt unworthy to be in his presence. First, he sent elders of the Jews to ask him to come and heal his sick and dying servant and now, he sends friends to prevent Jesus from coming into his home and into his presence. In addition to demonstrating his humility and unworthiness, the centurion demonstrates his faith in Jesus by requesting Jesus to simply speak the words of healing. He didn’t need Jesus to come and actually touch his servant in order to provide healing.

The centurion speaks of his authority over the soldiers under them. Since his soldiers respond to his authority, then how much more will his servant respond to the authority of Jesus in response to a command to be healed. I think of Jesus, as the Son of God, giving the commands at the time of creation. Surely, he could command this servant to be healed.

The friends of the centurion deliver the message and ^{Mt 8:10} “When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. ¹¹ I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, ¹² while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”’

The message delivered to Jesus demonstrated that the centurion understood what no one in Israel seemed to understand, that Jesus was the long awaited Messiah. Jesus marveled at such faith and commended the centurion for his exemplary faith and then censures Israel for its lack of faith. Those people who respond to the message Jesus is bringing from his Father, will join the patriarchs at the end-time messianic banquet in the kingdom of heaven, fulfilling God’s promise to Abraham. But the sons of the kingdom (a Semitic term for national Israel) will be unable to enter the kingdom unless they follow the centurion’s example of faith. Those rejected by their lack of faith will experience terrible suffering.

In response to the message of faith, Jesus gives a command to the friends: ^{Mt 8:13} “’Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.’ And the servant was healed at that very moment.” The centurion’s faith made a connection with the words “let it be done” and the servant was healed.

Prayer

Father, such faith that the centurion demonstrated is rare today here in the west. Because of our ability to satisfy our needs, even our desires, we find satisfaction and as a result we haven’t practiced developing a faith that could provide so much more depth in the spiritual realm. Being satisfied with what the world has to offer, we fail to obtain the riches available to us from God by faith through his grace.