“Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully.”
He said to him, “I will come and cure him.”
Upon hearing the response of Jesus the centurion realized that he had been too bold. He himself could imagine how the answer to his request would look to the those Jews who were already critical of Jesus. Here was one who seemed to represent everything that a military messiah might come to oppose, an embodiment of the military strength of the empire that ruled over Israel. It must have seemed presumptuous on his part, to be sure, but also shocking as a reversal. One who seemed to have earthly power acknowledged the true power of the one who seemed to be without it.
Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof;
The Jewish people had been given "instruction" or "Torah", the wisdom found on the LORD's mountain, learned in the LORD's house, to prepare them for the coming of the Messiah, who himself said he was "sent only to the lost sheep of Israel" (see Matthew 15:24). Even if this man Jesus was the Messiah of the Jewish people what claim did the centurion, a Gentile, have on his assistance? He realized that he ought not ask Jesus to come himself, that is was perhaps still not the time for the Gospel to go forth to all nations. But somehow he had come to such a faith in Jesus that even all of this did not present a problem.
only say the word and my servant will be healed.
Most others surrounding Jesus seemed to have more of a magical conception his abilities rather than a spiritual one. They imaged that he would need to be nearby, perhaps to say the right words, and to make the correct gestures in order to compel others- angels? God?- to do the healing. But Jesus did not need such external formalities, because the power he exercised was within his own authority, given to him by his Father.
For I too am a man subject to authority,
with soldiers subject to me.
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.”
By his faith in Jesus this Gentile centurion demonstrated that he was more ready for the promise of the Messiah than many in Israel who had not yet gone so far in what they were willing to believe about Jesus. The faith of the centurion might not have made explicit the fact that Jesus was God incarnate. But it drove closer to that point than any had done so far. For this reason we hear, for the only time in the Gospel of Matthew, that Jesus was "amazed". The Gentile recognized in Jesus a power that was not constrained by the limitations of the physical world, that indeed must stand utterly above it if a word from a distance could do what he believed it could.
“Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith.
I say to you, many will come from the east and the west,
and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
at the banquet in the Kingdom of heaven.”
It faith such as this that Jesus came to seek. When the mountain of the LORD's house was established as the highest mountain, the nations would have access to it by faith. Indeed, the banquet would only admit those of faith, whether Jew or Gentile. It was a promise that began with the faith of Abraham and his true descendents were those who shared that faith. It was this perspective that transformed blessings that seemed to be for the nation of Israel only into blessings for all nations and many peoples. We can easily imagine how the spread of this faith would inevitably bring peace in its wake, if even the centurions of armed oppressors came to believe it.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks;
One nation shall not raise the sword against another,
nor shall they train for war again.
Is our own faith like that of the centurion? Or do we tend to think of the power of Jesus as more like magic, requiring certain rituals of us in order to receive certain results from him? We are instead invited to remember that all of the many things we might do in prayer and in our relationship with him are not designed to persuade someone to use their limited power for our personal goals. Instead, the power of Jesus is limitless and ready for all things. What he asks of us is for us. His apparent hesitation is not from any lack of authority on his part, but rather an occasion for humility and belief on ours.
Because of the house of the LORD, our God,
I will pray for your good.
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