5 When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help.
6 “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.”
7 Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?”
8 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. 9 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.”
10 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. 11 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. 12 But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that moment.
Jesus presented Himself first to the Jews. He came as their Messiah. He said in John 10:16 "I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd" In this verse, Jesus is referring to bringing sheep from different races, tribes, languages, and people groups into one flock with one shepherd. This centurion is received by Jesus and his request is granted based on faith.
Let us not overlook the fact that the order of this account in Matthew, being immediately after that of the leper, serves to illustrate Jesus’ compassion and acceptance of those deemed as unclean. Commentator Frank Stagg says that “Jesus had touched a leper, an ‘unclean’ Jew, and He had offered to enter the house of an ‘unclean’ Gentile.”
We can share about the racial discrimination, but we find revealed in the New Testament, beginning with Jesus, how the plan of God’s love is for all people who believe. Let me ask you: How do we react when someone comes to us for help or when we see someone in need? Have we drawn lines that we feel too uncomfortable in crossing; or has our society or culture established such lines? Jesus healed people by drawing close enough to them to touch their lives – their dirty, sinful lives I might add – and there are some lines we need to be crossing to meet people where they are.
Warren Wiersbe says, “It would seem that everything about this man would prevent him from coming to Jesus. He was a professional soldier, and Jesus was a Man of peace. He was a Gentile, and Jesus was a Jew. But this soldier had one thing working for him: he was a man of great faith. This centurion understood that Jesus, like himself, was under authority. All Christ had to do was speak the word and the disease would obey Him the way a soldier obeyed his officer.”
In Matthew 26:53, Jesus said, “Do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels?” The centurion was in command of 100 solders, yet Jesus was in command of legions. A legion is a Roman regiment consisting of 6,100 foot-soldiers and 726 horsemen, for a total of 2,826 men. Twelve times that amount would be 33,912 men. But under Jesus’ charge were not mere men. They were angels! I am sure this number is only figurative, as Jesus oversees all the hosts of heaven!
The centurion saw Jesus as having authority and completely believed He could do whatever He willed. He had power and He had authority. Verse 13 “Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” His faith was placed in the person of Jesus, not the miracle. Jesus could do whatever He wanted for whoever He wanted, whenever He wanted. This man believe that and came to Christ like we all must, in humility. It wasn’t because of his earthly position as a commander - he saw himself unworthy requesting healing for a young servant he loved with no reason Jesus should heal his servant other than compassionate grace.
Because of the centurion’s faith he did not have to bring that young man to Jesus. “Just say the word and my servant will be healed.”
And it was so.
