Matthew 8.5-13, Luke 7.1-10.
Luke tells this story after Jesus’s sermon on the plain, and Matthew after his
The story begins with Jesus again returning to his home base of Kfar Nahum, and in Matthew encountering the local centurion; in Luke hearing from local elders about this centurion. Y’might know a
What we do know is this particular centurion had a home in town, and an employee who was either suffering greatly, or dying. Luke calls him a slave who was
So the slave’s illness was enough to bring to the attention of a rabbi well-known for curing the sick.
Matthew 8.5-7 KWL - 5 On returning himself to Kfar Nahum,
- a centurion came to Jesus and encouraged him to help him,
- 6 saying, “Master, my servant has been bedridden in my home, paralyzed by terrible suffering.”
- 7 Jesus told him, “I will come cure him.”
Luke 7.1-6 KWL - 1 When Jesus finished putting all his words in the people’s ears,
- he returned to Kfar Nahum.
- 2 A certain centurion’s slave who had an illness was near dying.
- The slave was highly esteemed by the centurion.
- 3 Hearing about Jesus, the centurion sent him Judean elders,
- asking him, since he’d come, if he might cure his slave.
- 4 Those who came to Jesus encouraged him earnestly, saying this:
- “The one for whom you’ll do this is worthy.
- 5 For he loves our people, and built us our synagogue.”
- 6
A Jesus went with them.
In both cases Jesus had no problem with going to the centurion’s house to cure the slave. Now, compare our Lord’s attitude with that of Simon Peter, who admitted he still thought of gentiles as unclean when the centurion Cornelius called him to Caesarea.
Notice how Matthew describes the centurion and Jesus having a personal conversation, but Luke has the centurion send some of the
“Not worthy.”
No doubt the centurion realized that, according to Pharisee custom, entering a gentile home would automatically render you
Many a Christian insists Jesus could never be unclean; that he was so clean he made others clean, like lepers. This interpretation is popular, but wrong: They don’t understand how ritual cleanliness works, and confuse uncleanliness with sin. Of course Jesus never sinned,
So the centurion made it easy on him: You needn’t come.
Matthew 8.8 KWL - In reply the centurion said, “Master, I’m not worthy that you should come under my roof.
- But only say a word and my servant will be cured.”
Luke 7.6-7 KWL - 6 Jesus went with them. When he wasn’t far from the house,
- the centurion sent friends, telling him, “Master, don’t bother.
- I’m not worthy that you should come under my roof.
- 7 Nor am I worthy to come to you.
- But say a word and my servant will be cured.”
Right after the elders told Jesus the centurion was worthy, he sent word he didn’t agree.
And it wasn’t even necessary for Jesus to visit anyway. The centurion believed Jesus could cure his slave from a distance. He didn’t need to be in the building; he just needed to give the word and the illness would go. He knew how giving orders worked.
Matthew 8.9, Luke 7.8 KWL - “For I’m a person under authority, with soldiers placed under myself.
- I say this: ‘Go’ and they go, or ‘Come’ and they come; to my slaves ‘Do this’ and they do.”
Pragmatic guy. Contrast this to a different soldier, Nahamán of Syria, who kinda wanted the prophet Elisha to put on a bit of a show.
2 Kings 5.9-14 KWL - 9 Nahamán came with his chariot and horses, and stood at the door of Elisha’s house.
- 10 Elisha sent an agent to tell him, “Go wash seven times in the Jordan. Your flesh will return to you, and be clean.”
- 11 Nahamán was angry and left.
- He said, “Look, I told myself, ‘He’ll come out, come out;
- he’ll stand, he’ll call his L
ORD God’s name, - he’ll wave his hand over the infected place, he’ll cure the infection.’
- 12 Aren’t Damascus’s rivers—Barada and Awaj—better than all the water in Israel?
- Can’t I wash in them and be clean?” Angrily, he turned to go.
- 13 Nahamán’s slaves approached and spoke to him. They said, “Father, the prophet spoke a great word to you.
- Why not do it? All he told you is, ‘Wash. Be clean.’ ”
- 14 Nahamán went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, following the God’s-man’s word.
- His flesh returned, like flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.
And y’know, sometimes Christians want a bit of a show. We want the pastor and elders of our church to come to our sickbed, anoint us, and pray a series of special healing prayers. We want hands raised and heads bowed. We want fervency. We want ritual. We don’t want remote-control prayers; it’s like they don’t care enough to come visit us.
To quote Jesus from
“Religious people” who don’t trust God all that much.
This centurion’s statement of faith, especially in comparison with
Matthew 8.10 KWL - Hearing this, Jesus was stunned and said to those following him,
- “Amen, I promise you: I’ve found nobody with this faith in Israel.”
Luke 7.9 KWL - Hearing this, Jesus himself was stunned. Turning to the crowd following him,
- he said, “I tell you: I have never found such faith in Israel.”
It’s a little disappointing, too. You’d think some Israelis would trust God better than their gentile neighbors. Yet this was the subpar level of faith Jesus was running into. And I know precisely how Jesus felt: I regularly meet
Matthew includes this prophecy Jesus made to go along with this statement:
Matthew 8.11-12 KWL - 11 “I tell you this: Many from east and west will come and recline at dinner
- with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in heaven’s kingdom,
- 12 and ‘the kingdom’s children’ will be thrown out into the darkness outside,
- where weeping and teeth-gnashing will be.”
Historically Christians have presumed Jesus was talking about the Jews: “The kingdom’s children” referred to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who were previously part of God’s kingdom, groomed to be God’s people, whose rejection of God disqualified them from their own birthright, so God replaced ’em with gentiles. Certainly that’s happened in church history, where the predominantly Jewish church evolved into the now-predominantly gentile church.
But we’d be morons to not recognize history repeats itself. Nor notice how people in “Christian nations” who consider themselves part of God’s kingdom, who grew up Christian but who’ve adopted some very unchristlike attitudes about God and their neighbors, are themselves gonna get replaced by former pagans who will follow Jesus.
This centurion, and people with faith like his, were gonna become the first generation of gentiles God adopted into his kingdom. If we don’t wanna be the last generation, we’d better embrace his level of faith.
Well, time for the happy ending: Of course Jesus cured the guy’s slave. What, did you think he wouldn’t?
Matthew 8.13 KWL - Jesus told the centurion, “Go. What you believed, happened to you.”
- The servant was cured at that hour.
Luke 7.10 KWL - On returning to the house, the friends the centurion sent
- found the slave in good health.
The centurion’s slave and the prince’s son.
I went through
I’ll retell the story from John just ’cause.
John 4.46-53 KWL - 46
B There was a certain prince. His son fell ill in Kfar Nahum. - 47 When this prince heard Jesus came to the Galilee out of Judea, he went to Jesus
- and asked whether Jesus would come down there and heal his son, who was about to die.
- 48 So Jesus told him, “If there are no signs and wonders you people can see, you can’t believe.”
- 49 The prince told him, “Master, come down before my child is dead!”
- 50 Jesus told him, “Off you go. Your son lives.”
- The prince trusted the message which Jesus told him, and went.
- 51 Now before the prince went back down, his slaves came to meet him, saying that his child lived.
- 52 So the prince asked them what hour the boy had recovered.
- So the slaves told him this: “Yesterday, the seventh hour after sunrise, the fever left him.”
- 53 So the father knew this was the hour when Jesus told him, “Your son lives.”
Jn 4.50 - He believed—he and his whole house.
It’s entirely possible that the centurion knew this story, knew Jesus could cure the sick from a distance, and that’s why he had the faith to ask Jesus to do it again. True, it’s slightly less impressive if the centurion didn’t come up with the idea on his own. But it’s still impressive faith.
After all, it surprised Jesus. How many believers can we say that about?
