Monday in the First Week of Advent, December 4, 2023

Matthew 8, 5-11

When Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion approached him and appealed to him, saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully.” He said to him, “I will come and cure him.” The centurion said in reply, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man subject to authority, with soldiers subject to me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come here,’ and he comes; and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith. I say to you, many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the banquet in the Kingdom of heaven.”

“When Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion approached him and appealed to him.”  Luke 7, 2 tells that it was the servants of the centurion who came to him.  This may mean that the centurion came with servants and that he remained at a distance while his servants spoke directly with Jesus,  But the event is not significantly altered whatever did happen.  The main point here is that a Gentile — an officer in the Roman army of occupation, no less — has asked the Lord to cure his servant, and the Lord agrees to do so, and even states his desire to go to the servant in the Gentile’s house.  This would have shocked his followers, particularly as this event took place early in the Lord’s ministry when his disciples as yet had little experience with his lack of interest in the things the Pharisees saw as very important.

“Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully.”  This sentence can be literally translated from the Greek as: “Lord, my servant has been placed in my house, a paralytic, tormented vehemently.”  It sounds as though the servant was suffering from an injury.  The verb I have translated as “has been placed” could also indicate that the man suffered a fall.  It does not mean “is lying”.  Evidently he has suffered in this way for several hours or even a few days.  “I will come and cure him.”  We note the Lord’s direct speech.  He does not waste a single word.  He does not make an excuse for not coming or demand that the servant be brought to him — his condition must have been such that transporting him was out of the question, anyway.

“Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed.”  It is possible that the centurion noticed the murmuring of the crowd after Jesus said that he would go to the servant.  But Luke provides a useful detail for us.  He quotes certain bystanders as informing him that, “He loves our nation: and he has built us a synagogue” (Luke 7, 5).  The centurion may have known that a Jew would not enter the house of a Gentile.  This poses a dilemma for which the centurion offers a way out.  It is the sort of simple solution only faith can imagine: “Only say the word and my servant will be healed.”  We have so many seemingly intractable problems in our lives and in our society to which faith would point an answer, but it does not occur to us to appeal to it.

“For I too am a man subject to authority, with soldiers subject to me.”  The centurion sees Jesus in the same terms as he sees himself, as a man “subject to authority” but also having others subject to him.  It is interesting to speculate as to what authority the centurion might have thought Jesus was subject.  Evidently the centurion sensed that Jesus had a special relationship with God in that he took “orders” directly from him.  The words of the centurion help us to think about how we unconsciously picture Jesus, whether as an officer, a father, a boss, a doctor, or anything else.  Knowing that we do this allows us to go beyond the mundane visions we have of him and to begin to see him as he is shown us in the Gospels.  “And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come here,’ and he comes; and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”  The centurion now compares the injury or the illness of his servant to the soldiers and slaves he commands: as he orders them about with every expectation that they will do as he instructs, so he understands that Jesus can command illnesses and injuries.  We are able to peek into this man’s mind and see how he looks at the world.  At the same time, we see him expressing his faith in these terms.  

“When Jesus heard this, he was amazed.”  That is, he registered amazement for the benefit of his disciples.  “Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith.”  Now, we should note here that Jesus is speaking of the centurion’s faith in him and his power to heal, not faith in Judaism or the Law.  The centurion has, in fact, placed himself under the Lord’s command in asking him to heal his servant.  It is a profound act of faith for the Gentile to do this.  Accounting the Gentile as “faithful” and as having faith greater than that of his own disciples must have disturbed and upset a number of them.  The Lord says further: “I say to you, many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the banquet in the Kingdom of heaven.”  The Lord is speaking of Gentiles joining the banquet in heaven after the Resurrection.  By the time Jesus was born there was widespread belief in a resurrection at the time of the Messiah, but that only Jews would enjoy it.  What the Lord does is to imply that there would be a great number of righteous Gentiles in heaven.  Early in his ministry, the Lord Jesus shows that he will be governed by no one’s fantasies about how the Messiah is to act or speak.

We can learn much from the centurion with his simple and solid faith.  He teaches us to obey.