Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who were following, “Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel.”
– Matthew 8:10
“I haven’t found such great faith with anyone in Israel.” That statement alone is quite a compliment, but for Jesus to be the one saying it must feel like the highest of praise. Think about it. This person’s faith was so great that it made Jesus “marvel.” Let’s do a little exercise. No one will know how well you do except you and me (really I won’t know either). Without looking it up in your Bible, of whom would you say Jesus is speaking? Maybe it could be a scribe or Pharisee who has taken a gracious attitude toward Jesus. That would make sense; they were already considered people of respectable faith. Or, by chance, it could be one of Jesus’ disciples who has caught on to things more quickly than the others. How about Jesus’ cousin John (the baptizer)? His faith must have been remarkable. Do you think we are even getting warm?
Brownie points to you if you already know without looking. The man of whom Jesus is speaking is a centurion. That’s right, a Roman. He is not a disciple, not a Pharisee. He is not even a Jew. In fact, he probably doesn’t have a high opinion of Jews, and almost certainly is not a believer in Israel’s God (at least until now). Yet he drew the highest praise from Jesus. I figure that could have been humbling to the disciples. Here you are, trying your best to show Jesus that you can get with the program, and a Roman steals the spotlight. How in the world did that happen?
As you read the Gospels you will notice something that consistently levels the playing field with people. It is need. Not just any kind of need, but needs that touch us in deep, personal ways. They are needs that make you forget about all other needs. They become the need that you would sacrifice everything else in order to resolve. When we have those needs in common with other people, barriers seem to go away. To borrow the language of Colossians 3:11, there “is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free.” This kind of need is the great leveler. And when we approach Jesus with such needs, we are standing on the same ground as all others who come to him.
The centurion had just such a need. For him it was a servant who was paralyzed with illness. We aren’t told the underlying story, but it is obvious that this unnamed person was dear to the heart of the centurion, so much that the centurion was willing to break the barriers and level the ground by coming to Jesus. There is a fair chance he had prayed to the Roman gods and tried other sources for a cure. Whatever he had tried, nothing had worked. He could have despaired, but there still remained the Jewish rabbi. The centurion may not have been a Jew, but he had been watching what was happening among the Jews, and he had seen enough. When the need is deep, the length to which you will go is great.
How great was the centurion’s faith? Consider that it was a great step of faith just to come to Jesus. As we observed, there were barriers to overcome just to get that far. But the centurion didn’t just dip his toe in the pool of faith; he cannonballed all the way in. When he approached Jesus with his need, Jesus essentially said, “Sure, let’s go heal your servant” (v. 7). But the centurion replied (and I paraphrase v. 8-9), “I am not worthy that you should even come into my house. However, I see the kind of authority you carry, and it is something I understand. As a man of authority myself, I know the power of the spoken command. You can speak the order and it gets done. So Lord, if you would just speak the word, I know my servant will be healed.”
I invite you to go back and read that a second time. Consider that statement coming from the mouth of a Roman speaking to a Jew. And not just a peasant Roman, but one with rank and authority. He had much to swallow to come to a Jew with his need, but he also had so much to gain. So he came, and as you might expect, Jesus responded. Ask, and you shall receive. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and the door shall be opened to you. By all appearances, that invitation knows no barriers. It is effective even for a Roman centurion.
If you are keeping score with the disciples, we are up to at least three now. Three what? Three barriers broken. Three incidents of Jesus coloring outside the acceptable lines. Each of these occasions would have a certain shock value for the well-intentioned Jewish fellows who had agreed to become disciples of Jesus. In Mark 2 we saw Jesus dining in the home of a tax collector. Earlier in Matthew 8 we observed Jesus touching a leper. Now Jesus extends his ministry to a non-Jew, and even indicates that the man’s faith has surpassed that of anyone among the Jews. There is a modern proverb that takes a form something like this: “once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern.” Simon and his friends may be starting to recognize a pattern. I wonder what they will call it when Jesus does it a fourth time?
See you along the winding path.
The Winding Path 