“And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching Him, and saying, ‘Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.’ And Jesus saith unto him, ‘I will come and heal him.’ The centurion answered and said, ‘Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.’ When Jesus heard it, he marveled, and said to them that followed, ‘Verily I say unto you, i have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ And Jesus said unto the centurion, ‘Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee.’ And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour” (Matt. 8:5-13; emphasis supplied).
What is special about this story? Why did Jesus say that He had not found so great faith even in Israel, not even from among those who professed to be God’s people and were supposed to have such great faith? After all, the man was a Roman, a gentile, and a soldier at that, a leader of fighting men, a mighty man of war. Why did Jesus say he had faith?
Through all the ages, since Adam’s first transgression, man has tried to make himself better. It started with Adam himself when he and Eve tried to cover themselves with leaves and scurried through the garden playing “hide and seek” with God. We still play games with Him sometimes, don’t we? Do we hope somehow to come just close enough to feel good, but not so close that He can actually touch us? We tantalize Him by buying His books, putting His picture on the wall, displaying the cross, while we quietly deny Him by seeking our own way out of a crisis, and thinking only of our own pleasure. We excuse ourselves by saying, “Oh, it’s just a little thing,” or “I’ll do better next time,” but in reality it is a blatant denial of God’s ability to make sense out of our lives, and to order them for good. We need to understand this story of the centurion.
The centurion understood the power of the word of authority. He said, “Speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I [too] am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.” The power of this man’s faith was that he believed that Christ was the living God, that He had the power of God in His word, and that he was willing to depend upon that word to do what it said. And what was the result? it says in verse 13, “His servant was healed in the selfsame hour.”
He said, “Speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.”