In our daily devotions, we are looking at the supernatural acts of the Lord Jesus. Today, we come to the healing of a centurion's servant. Only two times across all four Gospels did Jesus compliment people for their faith, and both times, it was Gentiles (non-Jews) who received His praise. The first instance is in Matthew 15:28, when a Canaanite woman approached Jesus with a daughter afflicted by a demon. Her words to Jesus demonstrated her unwavering faith. The second person appears in Luke 7, where we find the story of a Roman centurion whose servant was ill:
1When He had completed all His discourse in the hearing of the people, He went to Capernaum. 2And a centurion’s slave, who was highly regarded by him, was sick and about to die. 3When he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders asking Him to come and save the life of his slave. 4When they came to Jesus, they earnestly implored Him, saying, “He is worthy for You to grant this to him; 5for he loves our nation and it was he who built us our synagogue.” 6Now Jesus started on His way with them; and when He was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to Him, “Lord, do not trouble Yourself further, for I am not worthy for You to come under my roof; 7for this reason I did not even consider myself worthy to come to You, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 8“For I also am a man placed under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.” 9Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled at him, and turned and said to the crowd that was following Him, “I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such great faith.” 10When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health (Luke 7:1-10).
This servant endeared himself to his master so much that when the centurion saw his servant slipping away into death, he spent his relational capital with the Jewish elders by asking them to mediate with Jesus to heal his servant. When the centurion learned that the Lord was on His way to his house, he sent someone else to stop Christ before He arrived. His actions demonstrated his faith.
Faith Expressed Through Action: Christ was astonished by the centurion’s faith in taking the bold step of asking Jesus to heal his servant from afar. The centurion understood that Jesus possessed the authority to heal illnesses without needing to enter his home. He recognized that for a Jew to step into the home of a Gentile would render him ceremonially unclean, so the centurion acted in faith and requested Jesus to heal his servant from a distance. Indeed, it was daring for the centurion to approach Jesus during his journey, but this reveals the nature of the faith that delights the Lord. The centurion respected Jewish purity laws. He demonstrated his trust in Christ's healing power without requiring the Lord to enter his house and lay hands on his servant. Faith expressed through action is pleasing to God. Let me illustrate this kind of faith with a story from Africa:
It hadn’t rained in a long time, and things were becoming desperate. The ministers decided to call a prayer meeting. They said, "We want the entire town to attend the prayer meeting and bring their religious symbols." So, everyone showed up for the prayer meeting, bringing crosses and Bibles; the Catholics brought their rosaries, and they all cried out to God. They concluded the prayer meeting with no rain in sight and headed home. The next day, a little boy arrived in the town square where the meeting had taken place. He began praying alone. "Oh, God, we need rain. God, show Your power, and give us rain." As he prayed, a rumbling was heard, and it started raining heavily. What was it about this little boy? He offered the same kind of prayers that everyone else had said the day before, but when the young boy came, and the clouds grew dark, he lifted the symbol he had brought: an umbrella. He expected it to rain. When the weatherman tells you on the news that it will rain the next day, we believe his word, and most of us take our umbrellas. Why is it that when it comes to God, who is never wrong, we hesitate to believe His Word and act on it? Keith Thomas
Taken from the study in the Gospel of Luke, Study 14. The Faith of the Centurion. Found in the All Studies box on the Home Page.
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[1]Tony Evans, Tony Evans Book of Illustrations, Printed by Moody Publishers, 2009, Page 98.