For our devotional we looked at Matthew 8:5-13
The Faith of the Centurion
5 When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. 6 “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering.”
7 Jesus said to him, “I will go and heal him.”
8 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. 9 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
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. 11 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. 12 But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
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.
I've read this passage many times before and sort of took it for what it's worth but something about it today really struck me a little bit more deeply than I had before... You know those times where you read something that you've always known but for some reason truths that you already know seem magnified and they really hit you even though it's such simple knowledge and not really anything new per se? I think this is definitely evidence that makes Scripture the "Living Word" of God... anyways I digress...
So all that to say I had that moment today. We were discussing how this passage is so different from many of the miracles and healings Jesus had done previously... why? Typically people ask Jesus to come to them or heal their sick... but in this passage Jesus volunteers to go to a centurion's house. (A Centurion is a Roman commander of 100 soldiers). But what is crazier is the centurion's response. Now with a quick glance it doesn't really seem all that out of the ordinary but you gotta remember Jesus came for his people who could not recognize him... and here is a Roman commander who by his response not only recognizes that Jesus is healer BUT he recognizes Jesus's authority!!! That's something many that had come before the centurion did not grasp. They knew Jesus as healer.. miracle worker... lots of different things but they didn't understand the authority that Jesus carried... no wonder they were so quick to change their minds and opinion of Jesus!
This also explains why Jesus gets so exasperated with the Israelites at times... because they just didn't get it... He wasn't there to just perform miracles and heal the sick... he came for so much more...
This also explains why Jesus responded the way he did to the centurion! Can you imagine being in Jesus' shoes... coming to earth, humbling yourself to be a human.... wanting so much for your own people to open their eyes but over and over they don't understand... and then voila! A Roman commander nonetheless is able to grasp a truth that the Pharisees and the Sadducee could not!! Even though they knew the prophecies of the coming Messiah better than anyone else!
That is some crazy stuff if you think about it! Love when the simple things come alive!
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On a different note: I continued reading past that initial devo and something caught my eye...
16 That evening many demon-possessed people were brought to Jesus. He cast out the evil spirits with a simple command, and he healed all the sick. 17This fulfilled the word of the Lord through the prophet Isaiah, who said,
“He took our sicknesses
and removed our diseases.”[d]
and removed our diseases.”[d]
The last part caught my attention because I know several who are afflicted and man when I find nuggets of truth like this I definitely hold on. There's nothing like using Scripture to pray in faith, power and authority back to the One. It's not a "throwing back in His face" type prayer but it's like God you say your Word is true... and this is something that is written... stay true and faithful to what has been written because I know that you are a God that holds to His word and does not change like shifting sands as I do... And God I thank you so much for that.. for your faithfulness and for your trust! It's incredible that you left something so valuable in the hands of man... Jesus you said yourself that we would go on to do even greater things than you yourself did on this earth! That's crazy!! But that means if Lord you were able to heal the sick how much more have you enabled us to carry out your good works!
Adding to my ammunition.... :)
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