We left with
Jesus offering to immediately leave and personally attend to the sick servant
Himself. The Centurion, however, states that he feels it won’t be necessary,
just the supreme authority of Jesus speaking it into being is enough. Stop and
read that last sentence over again…think about the sheer intensity of that one
man’s faith in the midst of an unbelieving and pagan culture. This draws my thinking all the back to Genesis
1:3:
And
God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
The Centurion
basically said that if Jesus states, “Let there be healing,” there will be
healing.
He is also revealing
that he understands Jewish tradition about entering a Gentile’s home and how
that will make them unclean; but the deeper and more profound exhibition of the
Centurion is simply his faith. As we saw
earlier, he has accepted Jesus as the Messiah by the fact he addresses Jesus as
Lord, not as teacher or rabbi or “hey you.”
But his
acceptance is not merely in his head, he believes so intently in Jesus that he
risks his reputation to publicly approach Jesus, pleading for the healing of
someone he greatly cares for. That’s a deeply abiding faith; a faith that is
stronger than status, ideology, or culture.
It’s a faith that will withstand trial and tribulation. It’s a faith
that spurs him to action. (For more on faith in action, read the Book of
James.)
Even Jesus
is astounded by it: “When Jesus heard
this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, ‘Truly, I tell you, with
no one in Israel have I found such faith’” (v. 10). Then He goes on to teach in verses 11 and 12
that God’s salvation will be for all people, not just “the sons of the
kingdom (Israel).” This is a significant pre-cursor to the Apostle Paul’s grand proclamation
“that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of
the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (Ephesians 3:6).
This record
closes with Jesus saying to the Centurion, “’Go; let it be done for you as you
have believed.’ And the servant was healed at that moment” (v. 13). We don’t
hear from the Centurion again.
It’s
tempting to say, “Well, that was nice of Jesus to help out like that,” and then
move on with the rest of our day, as if the record was nothing more than a mere
story to tantalize but not to internalize. The same thing happened in Jesus’
day, He performed miracles but the masses were more tantalized by events but
did not internalize the message of the Man.
I think part
of the message of the Centurion is simply that Jesus is real and wants to work
in our lives now. Rather than looking to Him for the next big thing, the
next mass-feeding; look to Him for the even greater miracle of overhauling your
soul. Let Him and His Words fill your being with awe; open your heart and your
thoughts to His work by way of the indwelling Holy Spirit to heal you.
So God hasn’t
reached down and healed my neck, I still have a triple fusion held together by surgical
adhesive and a large titanium plate and I still have aches and muscle spasms;
but does that mean He hasn’t reached into my soul to heal it? Quite the
contrary. Just last night while praying with my bride, I cried out my
discouragement with certain recent events in life. I awoke to find the
circumstances unchanged, but my sense of joy and zest for life was
renewed. That’s healing, my friends. That’s Jesus making His presence effervesce
from deep within my soul.
Faith isn’t
just a surface-level salve for a minor scrape; it is an-ever bubbling fountain,
continually springing up from the depths of a soul saturated in Jesus. This Holy
Spirit infused saturation then cleanses the internal parts of man—the heart,
the soul, and the mind; this births the transformation of a continual renewal in
a person’s life (see Romans 12:1-2). And this continual renewal shapes us to be
more like Jesus right now in our everyday life. Isn’t this what our hearts are
craving, to be like Jesus on this earth right now?
As we ponder this, the lesson of the Centurion becomes internalized in
our soul, it now has relevancy to our lives by prodding us to ask
ourselves, “Do we believe?”
So take some
time to get quiet with God and ask that question, and see what stirs in your
soul.
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