Monday, May 17, 2010

Remarkable Faith

Not all Roman soldiers were heartless. A Roman centurion came to Jesus to plead with him to heal his servant. We can only imagine what kind of accident caused his servant to be paralyzed. We do know the man was in severe agony (Mathew 8:5-6).

Jesus said the soldier had greater faith than all of Israel. The centurion had not been a follower of the Jewish religion. His religion had more deities than we could list. There was a deity for every aspect of life. He had doubtless tried any number of remedies. Then he heard about one man, a prophet by the name of Jesus who could heal his servant. He did not waste any time finding him.

We can imagine the crowd as a Roman soldier made his way to Jesus. Most people would have made way for him as quickly as possible, perhaps hiding behind one another to avoid bringing attention to themselves. They knew this man could have anyone slaughtered at a whim and no one would have thought twice about it. He had the authority to arrest Jesus. The crowd must have held their breath as the Centurion approached the Messiah.

Imagine their amazement to hear, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented.”

Jesus did not flinch. He knew why the soldier had come. “I will come and heal him”, he said (Mt 8:7).

Then the words fell from the soldier’s lips that would change the life of the crippled servant and everyone else in that household. “Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed…”

Jesus said, ‘Go your way; and as you have believed so let it be done for you.” God honored the man’s faith in Jesus. As far as we know, the servant’s faith was not involved.

Let’s not blame the sick. Let’s pray for their healing (James 5:14:15).