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THE FAITH OF THE CENTURION
THE FAITH OF THE CENTURION Matthew 8:1-17 Key Verses: 8:10-11 "When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.'" In chapters 5 through 7, Jesus taught the Golden Rules, or the constitution of the kingdom of God, in His Sermon on the Mount. In chapters 8 and 9, Jesus focuses on healing the sick and planting faith in his young disciples. In Ch. 8:1-17, we get a glimpse of Jesus’ healing ministry. Jesus heals all kinds of sick people. Jesus heals a man with disgusting leprosy (1-4). Then Jesus heals a centurion's servant based on his absolute faith in the power of Jesus’ word(5-13). Jesus heals Peter's mother-in-law who shows us how we should respond to his healing (14,15). Finally Jesus heals many who were brought to the doors at sunset (16,17). Matthew prayerfully records Jesus' healing ministry, emphasizing the healing power of Jesus' word. Worldly kings have wounded and killed so many people, but King Jesus heals and makes men whole with his word. Matthew, a wretched man who was very sick with sin, heard Jesus' word to him, "Follow me," and was healed and made whole by Jesus. Since Matthew was healed, he became the man who wrote the Sermon on the Mount. He became a man who loved Jesus the most. In today's passage, a Roman centurion astonishes Jesus with his faith in Jesus' word. May God bless us to learn the faith of the centurion and believe that Jesus' word has the power to heal and to save. First, Jesus heals the man with leprosy (1-4). Look at verse 1. "When he came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him." Why did they follow Jesus? If you look at the end of chapter 7 you will see that many of these people followed Jesus because he taught with authority and not like the teachers of the law. However when we read the four gospels as a whole, we learn that many of these people were sick people, and that they wanted to be healed. In fact, if you read John chapter 6, when Jesus gave a very hard teaching on the bread of life, all but the twelve chosen disciples left Jesus. Jesus’ teaching does have authority, but when it gets tough we must accept it and not turn away. What did Jesus do for these people? Matthew tells us that Jesus first focused on one individual person. Who was he? He was a man with leprosy. There is deep spiritual meaning to why Jesus cared for a man with leprosy, of all the people. In Jesus’ time, leprosy was known as an incurable disease. Moreover, lepers were known as cursed by God. Leprosy makes a man look wretched. Humans enjoys looking in the mirror to appreciate his or her own beauty, but people with leprosy could not enjoy their own beauty, for their faces were covered with ulcers. Many of them had also lost fingers and toes and broken some of their limbs with no one to take care of them and straighten them out. Many of their voices sounded ghastly hoarse, and they wheezed in breathing. They were cast out of society and completely isolated from ordinary people. They had to live in "no man's land." They were lonely, sorrowful people despised by normal people. They say that people with leprosy lose the feeling in their bodies and they gradually lose their fingers and toes from their hands and feet because they can’t feel them to protect them. In this respect, leprosy is comparable to sin-sickness. Sin paralyzes a person’s conscience. Sin also makes a person lose spiritual feeling and their body and soul deteriorates. Sin leads to more sin as a person loses their spiritual feeling. Eventually, like leprosy, it leads to death, but this death is far more severe. It is eternal death, cut off from God forever. In Jesus’ time, people with leprosy had a terrible fate because of their leprosy. They were complete social outcasts. They had to cry out, "Unclean! Unclean!" covering the lower part of their faces whenever they happened to pass by a normal person. As soon as people discovered lepers, they ran away from them, throwing stones at them as a means of self-defense. A person with leprosy could not do anything but sorrow over himself because of his ill-fate as a leper. This man with leprosy could not dare to come to Jesus, because he was ashamed of his outward appearance and because of the social customs of the time. In fact, just to approach Jesus carried considerable risk. Those around Jesus might have picked up stones to throw at the man just to keep him away. This man risked everything just to get to Jesus. Look at verse 2. "A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, 'Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.'" As I said this man with leprosy was a social outcast. He did not deserve to come to Jesus, either legally or personally, but he came to Jesus, believing that Jesus could make him clean. At that time, everybody knew that leprosy was incurable, but this man had faith that Jesus could make him clean. Of course, the man with leprosy knew that he did not deserve the mercy of the Messiah – he probably thought, like everyone else, that he had been cursed by God. However, he knelt down before Jesus and begged for his mercy, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean." This was his true act of faith. What did Jesus do for him? Look at verse 3. "Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. 'I am willing,' he said. 'Be clean!' Immediately he was cured of his leprosy." This one verse shows us that Jesus is the Son of God who came to this world to save men from their sins. First, "Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man." As we will see, Jesus did not need to touch this man in order to heal him, but this is the exact expression of God's mercy. God's mercy is greater than men's sins. Jesus knew that no one would ever touch this man and Jesus knew the sorrow that this brought to the man. Jesus first reached out his hand and touched the man. Nobody wanted to come close to this man, but Jesus not only came close to him he touched him. Nobody wanted to be touched by a leper, but Jesus was willing to reach out and touch him. Nobody was willing to help him, but Jesus was willing. Everybody believed that leprosy was incurable, but Jesus said, "Be clean!" Immediately he was cured of his leprosy. Jesus had absolute compassion for this man. He touched him to heal his loneliness and his broken heart. Jesus touched this man to show him that he was loved – that God loved him just as he was. God is a God of endless compassion. God accepts sinners that come to him begging for His love. We must come to Jesus just as we are. Many of us are even more spiritually disgusting than this man was physically. We may think that Jesus wouldn’t want to reach out and touch us as we are. However, if we come to Jesus by faith like this man and fall down on our knees before Jesus and ask for his cleansing, Jesus is willing to cleanse us. Read verse 4. "Then Jesus said to him, 'See that you don't tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.'" Jesus was not afraid of infection, much less of violating the law, which said not to approach within 16 feet of a leper. Jesus reached out his hand and touched him because he had healing power over leprosy. Jesus not only has the healing power over leprosy, he also has the healing power over those who are sick with sin. Jesus' healing the leper reminds us of Isaiah 53:4a. "Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows...." "He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows" sounds poetic and seems not so difficult to practice, but when we examine our sinful nature, we see that Jesus’ messianic work is beyond our human ability. We are not like Jesus. For example, we like to see those who look good, but we can't even bear to talk with people we don't like. Jesus, however, carried all people’s infirmities and diseases, despite what they may have looked like. Jesus will carry yours as well, if you go to Him by faith. Second, Jesus heals a centurion's servant (5-13). Look at verse 5. "When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help." Centurions were the core of the Roman army. They were generally hard, ruthless men, but there are many beautiful stories about centurions in the gospels. At that time, a slave had no legal rights whatsoever. The owner of a slave was free to treat him as he wished and they were often treated very badly. This centurion was different from other slave owners. This centurion was grieved when his servant became ill. It seems as if this centurion saw his servant as his own son. Because of this, he did not hold on to his pride of being a Roman centurion. He was willing to curb his pride and ignore his prestige if only he could help his servant. This centurion had noble humanity within him. The centurion's real greatness lies in his faith in the word of Jesus. Look at verses 7 and 8. "Jesus said to him, 'I will go and heal him.' The centurion replied, 'Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed.'" Through this brief conversation we can see that, regardless of his servant's terrible condition, the centurion put his faith in the absolute power of Jesus' word. Jesus said to him, "I will go and heal him," but the centurion thought he did not deserve to have Jesus come to his house. As a roman centurion he had absolute power over the Jews. In a sense, he was their lord, but he called Jesus Lord, and didn’t even think that he was worthy to have Jesus enter his house. This is really amazing. Jesus must have looked like nobody to him, but he had a sense of who Jesus really was. This centurion seems to have known that Jesus was King of kings and Lord of lords and therefore he knew that he was unworthy to have Jesus enter his house. What’s more, he believed that Jesus' word had absolute healing power. The centurion had faith in Jesus' word. He seems to have had “creation faith;” i.e. when God speaks things turn out as God says. The centurion believed that when Jesus spoke things would be exactly as Jesus said. We need this kind of faith. We must believe that Jesus can heal us with just his word. We must believe that Jesus can heal all anyone when they believe in his words. Look at verse 10. "When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, 'I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.'" Jesus was never amazed by anything or anybody, but he was amazed by the centurion's faith in his word and said, "I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith." There are many kinds of faith, but the faith that Jesus admires is faith in his word. Jesus was happy because of the centurion's faith. At the same time, Jesus was sorry about his own chosen people's unbelief in his word, and because they did not have membership in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus went on to say, "I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness..." (11,12). The Roman centurion shows us that anyone can have faith that pleases God, not just his chosen people the Jews. We also can have faith that pleases God if we have absolute faith in the power of Jesus’ word. Look at verse 13. "Then Jesus said to the centurion, 'Go! It will be done just as you believed it would.' And his servant was healed at that very hour." The servant was healed because of the centurion's faith that believed in Jesus' word. Here we learn that we must have faith in Jesus' word if we are to help others. Peter was a man who was very hard to change because of his political ambition and pride. He was sick with many worldly desires, but he was changed by the word of Jesus and said in 1 Peter 1:23, "For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God." Third, Jesus heals many (14-17). Look at verses 14 &15. “When Jesus came into Peter’s house, he saw Peter’s mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him. Verse 15 is a verse too many Christians overlook. What did Peter’s mother-in-law do when Jesus healed her? She immediately got up and began to wait on him or serve him. This reminds me of Zachariah’s song in Luke chapter 1. Speaking of the Messiah, Zachariah said, “to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.” In these verses you can think of the “hand of our enemies” as our sins. Jesus came to save us from our sins so that we can serve him and others in holiness and without fear. Too many Christians forget about the serving part. They just want to enjoy the salvation that Jesus offers and serve him or others. Peter’s mother-in-law clearly demonstrates why Jesus heals us. So if you’ve been healed by Jesus it is now time to start serving him and others. Jesus wasn’t finished. When evening came, many demon possessed and sick people came to Jesus for healing. These were exactly the type of people most of us want to avoid, but Jesus didn’t avoid them. He accepted them, drove out the evil spirits and healed them from all their sicknesses. Jesus had compassion on everyone who came to him. (16). Jesus came into this world to heal all our sin-sicknesses. Isaiah spoke of this: "He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases" (Isa 53:4). Too often when we see men and women with all kinds of infirmities, we are disgusted. We don't like anyone who burdens us, but Jesus came into this world to take up all our infirmities. Jesus came to this world to carry our diseases and in this way to heal us. Matthew sees Jesus in the light of the Old Testament prophecies as the Messiah, King of kings and Lord of lords. However, Jesus did not exercise worldly authority over men. Jesus used his divine power to heal all our sin-sicknesses. Jesus himself and took up our infirmities and carried our diseases. Our Lord Jesus is our Shepherd and our spiritual King, the Messiah who loves us and cleanses us from all our dirty sins. In this chapter we learn that Jesus has authority to heal and restore sin-sick mankind. Jesus was sorry that God's chosen people were unbelieving, but Jesus had hope and vision that the Gentiles would believe and enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore we must have the faith of the centurion and come to Jesus for healing and salvation through faith in his word. |
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