Eternity 116 - Astonishing Faith, Ethnicity And The Kingdom Of Heaven
(Matthew 8:5-13 NKJV) Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion
came to Him, pleading with Him, {6} saying, "Lord, my servant is lying
at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented." {7} And Jesus said to him,
"I will come and heal him." {8} The centurion answered and said,
"Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only
speak a word, and my servant will be healed. {9} "For I also am a man
under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, 'Go,'
and he goes; and to another, 'Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, 'Do
this,' and he does it." {10} When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and
said to those who followed, "Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found
such great faith, not even in Israel! {11} "And I say to you that many
will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
in the kingdom of heaven. {12} "But the sons of the kingdom will be
cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
{13} Then Jesus said to the centurion, "Go your way; and as you have
believed, so let it be done for you." And his servant was healed that
same hour.
This story is one of astonishing faith, faith that caused even Jesus the
Son of God to "marvel". The centurion intuitively understood the
authority of Jesus Christ as Lord, that His authority was spiritual and
verbal and active and living and capable of healing the centurion's servant
even from a distance.
The faith of the centurion was humble "I am unworthy" and practical
"But only speak a word and my servant will be healed". It was
a faith that respectfully expected great things from God.
It was the faith of a Gentile. It was not sourced in heritage, tradition
or answers learned by rote, it was a faith that he would have arrived at
while observing Jesus on his tour of duty of Palestine. As a Roman he probably
originally worshipped Zeus. By now however the centurion was clear that
Jesus was the source of spiritual authority.While there are no profound
theological statements recorded it is clear that he saw Jesus Christ as
Lord, and one as qualified to give orders in the spiritual realm and to
heal disease.
Somewhere along the line the centurion had made a real spiritual discovery
that caused him to truly trust Jesus in a medical emergency. And it was
more than shamanistic dependence on a faith healer. It was real faith, that
understood that Jesus did not have to wave a magic wand or cast a spell
but that a simple word of authority would be sufficient.
This was not the second-hand, book-based faith of the scribes and Pharisees,
the sort of faith that stitches bible verses together but never lives them
out. This was a personal discovery capable of daily application and which
saw answered prayer in the midst of real life. We need to "discover"
what we already know! We need to have a real living operation faith, not
just a set of pat answers to church questions.
The Jews, the natural "sons of the Kingdom" probably knew all
the standard Sunday School answers and the names of the prophets and a few
dozen (or more) key bible verses. But they were headed for outer darkness
where there would be weeping and wailing and the gnashing of teeth. They
had the knowing but not the believing, they knew what to say when asked
but that did not live in them with any power and efficacy. Their servants
were not healed, their world was unchanged, they just went on being religious
without really discovering it and believing it for themselves.
We need to do more than believe that Jesus existed. We need to believe that
He is powerful and authoritative and can command our circumstances to change.
We need to believe that Jesus can really, truly just speak a word and miracles
will happen. Jesus needs to step out of the history books and into the midst
of our lives. And when we can do that we will have the real living faith
that is part and parcel of being in the Kingdom of Heaven.