Jesus Heals the Centurion’s Servant

Take Every Passage to Prayer - Volume 2, The Gospels
^{Tuesday July 02, 2024}

Matthew 8:5-13, Luke 7:1-10

Father, like the centurion, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. If there is any moment when I doubt that, please forgive me, and restore my faith. Father, the servant was healed not because of his faith but because of the faith of the centurion. Does this not mean that non-believers might be healed because I, a believer, pray for them? Father, help me to pray for non-believers so that they will be healed because of my faith. Amen.

Father, Jesus returned to the city of Capernaum after delivering the Sermon on the Mount. A centurion , who most likely lived in or near the city, was distraught. His most faithful and skilled servant, who clearly must have also been a dear friend, was paralyzed and near death from an illness. The servant was also suffering with intense pain or hardship from the illness. The centurion’s heart broke for the suffering and imminent loss of this irreplaceable servant. He wanted this servant to be healed.

The text tells us that the centurion heard about the miracles Jesus was performing. He sent a delegation of elders to find Jesus and to ask Him to heal his servant. The text also tells us that the men pleaded with Jesus, portraying the centurion as a good soldier (“loves our nation, a good citizen”) and a pious man (“built our synagogue, a religious man”) who deserves to have his servant healed. We can assume the centurion was Jewish. The nation he most likely loved was Israel and he was a proponent of the work of the synagogue. The men are saying that the centurion deserves to have his servant healed because the centurion is Jewish. The text tells us that Jesus asked if he should come and heal the man. I do not believe Jesus was seeking permission to heal. I believe Jesus was asking about the preferred location of the healing. “Do you want me to heal him here or do you want me to heal him face-to-face?” Jesus was most likely testing the heart of the centurion. “Does the centurion want a personal relationship with Me, which would come from us meeting face-to-face? Or, does the centurion simply want me to heal his servant but not get to know me face-to-face?” The elders told Jesus that the centurion wanted to see Jesus face-to-face. He went with them.

We can conclude from the text that the centurion believed that Jesus was the Son of God. We can conclude that for two reasons:

1. The centurion believed that Jesus was too holy to come into his corrupt home. He sent messengers to tell Jesus to heal his servant from a distance and not come near his home.
2. The centurion believed Jesus had authority over disease just like he had authority over 100 soldiers. The centurion gives soldiers commands, and the soldiers obey immediately. Similarly, the centurion believes diseases immediately obeyed Jesus, the Son of God, and did what they were told by Him.

Jesus was amazed at the centurion’s faith. In fact, Jesus states unequivocally that He has not found anyone else in the land of Israel with this much faith. Jesus uses this man’s faith as an opportunity to tell the crowd following Him that many will attempt to sit at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in heaven, but they “will be thrown outside where there will be ‘weeping and gnashing of teeth’ (NIV).” Unlike this centurion, such people don’t really believe Jesus is the Son of God.

Jesus then healed the centurion’s servant because the centurion believed Jesus was the Son of God. He instructed the elders to tell the centurion why his servant had been healed. When the elders returned to the man’s house, they found the servant was healed. Amen.