"He deserves to have you do this for him,
for he loves our nation and he built the synagogue for us."
He may have been a centurion, someone who would be a typical target for the hatred of the Jews, but his good deeds followed him, and his love covered whatever may have been his own multitude of sins.
“Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!” (see Revelations 14:13).
Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins (see First Peter 4:8).
The intercession he requested of his friends whom he made by way of love opened a door at which he might not otherwise have knocked.
Lord, do not trouble yourself,
for I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof.
In spite of his good deeds, as it were, speaking for him, he did not consider himself worthy to have Jesus come so near as to enter into his house and under his roof. Neither because of the power and pride of his position nor because of the virtue he had demonstrated and good deeds he had done did he presume upon Jesus. He was like the man who stood at a distance and beat his breast, asking for mercy upon he, a sinner (see Luke 18:13).
Therefore, I did not consider myself worthy to come to you;
The humility of the centurion was not the problematic sort of humility that we sometimes demonstrate, a humility so extreme that it prevents Jesus from doing anything on our behalf. The centurion recognized that he could not in fact earn what he was asking of Jesus. He recognized that he and his house were unfit for Jesus, seeing in him by that fact a holiness that was more than many of the masses around him saw. But he saw that even his own unworthiness need not present an obstacle to Jesus. Jesus could touch his situation with healing power without being in any way tainted.
but say the word and let my servant be healed.
The faith of this centurion was truly profound. It made him able to look beyond a sense of deserving, and even beyond a sense of humility, to see the authority of Jesus himself. So too is our faith meant to do. It is meant to help us to see beyond both our strengths and our weaknesses and to establish a trust in Jesus that is dependent on neither one. Let us pray that our own faith increase to be more like that of the centurion, who recognized that there was no limit on the power of the word of Jesus.
And I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes;
and to another, 'Come here,' and he comes;
and to my slave, 'Do this,' and he does it."
When we remember that Jesus does not have to work or exert himself in order to help us, that his power does not depend on anything in an earthly sense, but only on his will to exercise it, we can more freely ask what we need of him. How else would we dare to approach the altar for Holy Communion? For it is there above all else that we rely on his power and goodness to provide for us what we could never earn or think to ask on our own.
"This is my Body that is for you.
Do this in remembrance of me."
In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying,
"This cup is the new covenant in my Blood.
Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me."
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