NOTEWORTHY FAITH

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, asking for help. "Lord," he said, "my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering."
Jesus said to him, "I will go and heal him."
The centurion replied, "Lord, I do not deserve to have You come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and that one, 'Come,' and he comes. I say to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."
When Jesus heard this, He was astonished and said to those following him, "I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
Then Jesus said to the centurion, "Go! It will be done just as you believed it would." And his servant was healed at that very hour.
Matthew 8:5-13

When Jesus had finished saying all this to the people who were listening, He entered Capernaum. There a centurion’s servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to Him, asking Him to come and heal his servant. When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with Him, “This man deserves to have you do this, because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.” So Jesus went with them.

He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to Him: “Lord, don’t trouble Yourself, for I do not deserve to have You come under my roof. That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to You. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

When Jesus heard this, He was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following Him, He said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.” Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well.

Luke 7:1-10

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Faith.
Where would we be without it?
Well, lost and feeling defeated for starters and I think we all can relate to those times when we allowed life’s circumstances to make us feel helpless and maybe even hopeless. Surely, if Satan wants to launch an attack on any of God’s people, he surely knows where to start. All he needs to do is chip away at breaking down their faith and he’s made the necessary headway to start having his way.
As we look at today’s scripture passages, we find a centurion dealing with a matter that could have easily taken him to a point of giving up and surrendering to what he might have seen as irreversible. At the center of his anguish was one of his servants who was at “home paralyzed and in terrible suffering”, “sick and about to die”. No doubt after hearing news of how Jesus had miraculously healed the afflicted, the centurion contacted Him after He “had entered Capernaum”, asking for help.

You’ll notice that the two Gospel accounts hold different versions of how Jesus was approached. Matthew’s account has the centurion going directly to Jesus while Luke contains far more detail, the Jewish elders first being sent by the centurion followed by the centurion’s friends with no mention of a direct encounter between Jesus and the Roman military leader. It’s believed that Matthew, who was known to write more abbreviated event descriptions, wrote out the elders and friends and inserted the centurion as it was his messages the elders and friends were bringing. In other words, the elders and friends were simply spokespeople for the Roman and the request was identical in both passages.
So looking at these passages from the perspective of the centurion, we can see how he displayed great faith simply by bringing the petition to Jesus, the same great faith that we saw in the leper in yesterday’s devotion. Both had preconceived expectations that Jesus could perform miraculous, powerful acts of healing before they even approached Him.
Interestingly enough, Jesus must have sensed the centurion’s faith in Him for we see Him answer the request to go to the centurion’s home quickly and with little to no deliberation saying:

“I will go and heal him."

It was easy as that. Jesus, the willing Savior, recognized the great faith of the Roman centurion and honored that faith with action, traveling until He was not far from the centurion’s home. It was there that Jesus receives another message, this time from the centurion’s friends:

“Lord, don’t trouble Yourself, for I do not deserve to have You come under my roof. That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to You. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

Through his words, we know the centurion was all too aware of what it was like to have authority. He was in command over many soldiers, between 80 and 100. But the authority the centurion held paled in comparison to the power in Jesus and the centurion was well aware of it.
How do we know this?
Because the centurion knew that Jesus could heal his servant by just giving a command, only the command of Jesus would be far greater than any the Roman military leader had ever given. The centurion had so much faith in Jesus that he believed mere spoken words would be enough to heal his beloved servant. Further, notice the incredible humility the centurion displayed, realizing his sinfulness and Jesus’ holiness, a humility that led a mighty military man to confess himself unworthy of being in the presence of Jesus’ holiness. And so because of these two beliefs, there was no need for Jesus to travel all the way to the centurion’s home.  
Friends, do you get the connection here?
Humility breeds faith. For unless we adopt an humble attitude and see ourselves unworthy of having Jesus enter into our sinful homes, we will never fully realize our reliance and dependence on Him and thus our need for faith in all that He is and all that He can do.
The centurion can serve as a role model for all of us for he believed that a miracle could and would be done by sheer words spoken by Jesus. The centurion didn’t need to be an eyewitness to Jesus touching and healing his servant before he would believe. He knew it would happen because He had a steadfast faith and trust in his Lord.
Back to the scriptures, for when Jesus heard the words of the centurion, we read where “He was astonished” so much so that He said to those following Him:

"I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.”

And with that, He told the centurion:

“Go! It will be done just as you believed it would”

And that’s what happened for the scriptures tells us the “servant was healed at that very hour.”

The centurion’s faith had not only been great but it had been noteworthy, noteworthy enough for Jesus to praise it in the presence of those following Him. Now consider that the Roman was a Gentile and considered not only unworthy of salvation by the Jews but hated because of the oppression the Roman government had brought on the Israelites, and you will see how much of a major proclamation this was. Jesus said He had not seen the level of faith shown by the centurion in all of Israel and surely He was using the Roman’s incredible showing of faith to further teach His disciples.
As I close, a few questions:

How strong is your faith in the One through which all things are possible? Would Jesus single you out and use you as a role model for faith as He did the centurion?
Are you like Thomas who would not believe He was looking at the resurrected Jesus unless he could place his fingers where the nails had pierced Christ’s hands and put his hand in Christ’s side? (John 20:24-29)
Or

Are you like the centurion who knew and believed in the awesome power of Jesus, trusting that just the mere words of His mouth could bring about healing and renewal?
Through His words, Jesus has shown us His authority over afflictions. He has also proclaimed the kind of faith He favors and admires, the noteworthy faith of a Roman centurion, the kind of faith our Savior wants us all to have.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
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