Speak the Word

After Jesus finished the Sermon on the Mount, Luke tells us a very instructive story about simple faith. The Synagogue leaders in Capernaum went to Jesus on behalf of a Roman Centurion. They asked Jesus to come and heal his servant. They pleaded that the man deserves to have you do this because he loves our nation and he built our synagogue (Luke 7:3-5). The Jewish leaders must have really been impressed with this soldier because they usually didn’t do anyone’s bidding.

Jesus consented to their request and was going to the centurion’s house when another delegation arrived from the centurion. They delivered this message:  "Lord, don't trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof” (Luke 7:6). I think the centurion sent the second group because he felt he had been misrepresented by the Jewish leaders’ words. I say that because he clearly disputes their claim that he is worthy to have Jesus come.

Once, I was misrepresented to others by a friend whom I had taken a trip with when he told them I prayed at 2:00 in the morning, and he told my wife how lucky she was to have me. I corrected his words by telling them that I was praying at 2:00, but only because he woke me up with his snoring. Secondly, it’s not my wife who is lucky, but it’s me to have her. My friend’s words made me feel uncomfortable, and I wanted to correct the record, and that’s what the centurion did. He knew himself and what’s more, he knew Jesus, and he wanted to be honest with the Lord.

This centurion had understood himself as he really was. Few of us have seen and comprehend what we are capable of. We all have proclivities to think negatively and to do bad from our earliest days on this earth. He had, however, seen Jesus and come to understand that Jesus was God and that he could do anything. I don’t know if he had heard about the time he expelled the demons from the boy who was possessed or the occasion he spoke to the winds and the waves and they obeyed him, but he knew something about Jesus.

His faith was very simple, and it was founded on what he had observed or heard about Jesus. If Jesus had power over demons and sickness, then he could expel the sickness from his servant as well. He demonstrated his understanding with these words: “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" (Luke 7:8). He had said to Jesus don’t bother to come to my house because I am not worthy, but just speak the word and my servant will be healed (Luke 7:6).

Jesus’ response was one of amazement, "I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel."  Luke also tells us “Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well” (Luke 7:10).

There is something valuable to learn from this centurion, and that is that we are not worthy to demand God to do for us what we want, but we can ask. We can ask knowing that Jesus has all authority—he only has to speak the word, and it will be done.