We now begin to walk with Jesus in his ministry as his disciples, following him, observing what he does, and learning from it. It’s so refreshing and exciting to see Jesus moving through the world, touching people’s lives and changing them in a marvelous way. In this section, Jesus, as the Messiah, is showing his authority and power through the miracles he performs. Matthew selects nine miracles in chapters 8 and 9 to make his point. In effect, what chapters 8 and 9 say is, “I am God. I came from Heaven, and I have all authority.” He reveals his heavenly, supernatural power through a series of amazing miracles that can only be explained by the presence of God among men.
Matthew demonstrates the power and credentials of Jesus through these miracles. From the thousands he performed, Matthew picks nine, with three appearing in chapter 8. Last week, we saw the first one in verses 1-4, where a leper was wonderfully healed. The most despised man in society was a leper. Leprosy was the ugliest, worst imaginable disease, and it was also ceremonially unclean, making it a living illustration of sin.
We now move from the neglected, ugly, poor beggar to our story for today. This is the story of a rich, powerful man. He would also be considered an outcast by the Jews, as he was a Gentile. Worse still, he was a Roman soldier, a member of the occupation army that had invaded and occupied their precious land. Normally, he would be hated, almost as much as a leper, but our Lord heals on his behalf.
Let’s look at verse 5: “And when Jesus had entered Capernaum…” All three of the day’s miracles happened on the same day. Jesus finished the sermon, came down the mountain, and entered Capernaum. Capernaum was a beautiful city on the north side of the Sea of Galilee, a city that no longer exists because Jesus pronounced a curse on it. Today, it is just ruins because Jesus cursed the place. They never rebuilt it, though other cities were built around it. But in that lovely little place, Jesus resided and stayed, perhaps at the house of Peter, who had a house there. The ruins of that house are believed to be there to this day. Jesus spent a lot of time in Capernaum; it was his headquarters and the area from which some of his disciples had come.
“And there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him.” Matthew’s account goes straight to the interaction between the centurion and Jesus because of his purpose. Luke’s Gospel, in chapter 7, gives us more details, telling us that the centurion did not actually go to Jesus himself, but sent some Jewish elders with his message. The centurion felt unworthy to be in the presence of Christ, so he sent these Jews to speak to Jesus for him.
Let’s talk a little about centurions. Every time a centurion appears in the New Testament, he is a good man. The Jews hated Rome and the Romans for occupying their land, ruling over them, and collecting taxes. They despised the tax collectors, like Matthew, and the soldiers who enforced Roman rule and tax collection. The Jews viewed the Romans as foreign occupiers, while the Romans saw the Jews as unpredictable, religious fanatics who were difficult to manage. It’s as if the Lord purposefully chose some of the most hated people in Palestine to illustrate goodness, faith, and saving grace, showing that his kingdom would extend beyond Israel.
While there were many bad centurions, the New Testament features several good ones. We see one here, another at the crucifixion who said, “Truly this was the Son of God,” and in Acts, the Jews realized salvation was also for Gentiles after Peter went to the home of a centurion named Cornelius. One of the first Gentile converts during the ministry of the apostles was this centurion. Later, centurions often protected Paul from being murdered or provided him with military escort. They even saved him during a shipwreck, not killing the prisoners because of Paul.
So, the New Testament mostly presents good centurions. However, the Jews still hated them. Even for Peter, God had to prepare his heart with a dream for him to go to Cornelius’s house. In fact, the other apostles rebuked Peter in Acts 11, saying, “You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.” This is why it is significant that the Lord heals not the centurion himself, but the slave in his house. This act was a slap in the face to the exclusivism that existed at the time, which had no room for a Gentile, especially a Roman soldier.
A centurion was a military leader in the Roman army, with the Greek title ekatonarchos, meaning “commander of a hundred.” He may have been responsible for more than a hundred soldiers, but he was a Roman commander of great significance. It is interesting that there was a centurion at the beginning of Jesus’s public ministry (the one in this story) and another at the end of his ministry, standing by the cross. The centurion at the beginning was used by God to identify Jesus as the Son of God, and the centurion at the end exclaimed, “Truly this was the Son of God!”
This centurion was in Capernaum, a prosperous border town where the government maintained a strong military presence to secure the area, in part for the Roman government. If it wasn’t bad enough to be a Gentile, it was worse to be a Roman soldier, and even worse to be a leader of those soldiers. An additional factor is that the Roman soldiers in occupied territories were not really sent from Rome. They were trained from the local community. History suggests that in Palestine, they recruited non-Jewish people into the Roman army and trained them. Most non-Jews in that area were Samaritans, whom the Jews hated even more than regular Gentiles. It is highly likely that this centurion was a Samaritan. If it was bad to be a Gentile, the worst kind was a Samaritan, who was a half-Jewish person who had intermarried with Gentiles, sacrificing their Jewish heritage. So here we have a man who is a Gentile, likely the worst kind of Gentile (a Samaritan), a member of the Roman occupation forces, and a leader of the oppressors. There must have been a lot of hatred toward him.
But he comes into the presence of Jesus through his Jewish representatives, and this is what he says in verse 6: “Lord, my servant is sick.” He is a paralytic, paralyzed and suffering terribly. The man’s disease was paralysis, a condition that could lead to impending death. The servant was “grievously tormented” or “suffering severely.” Luke’s Gospel uses the word doulos, meaning “bond slave,” to describe the servant.
There is something beautiful about this man that makes him admirable. This is an amazing passage because it gives us a glimpse into the emotional life of Jesus. For the first time in Matthew’s Gospel, we read in verse 10 that Jesus was amazed. The passage shows us the emotional and inner life of our Savior; we are drawn into the very heart of our Lord Jesus Christ, and windows are opened into his soul. We are told not only what he said, but also what he felt and experienced. This man made the Son of God amazed; should we not also be amazed by him?
We see his love for God’s people. Luke tells us that he didn’t come directly but sent Jewish elders. Why in the world would these Jews go to Jesus on behalf of this Gentile? Luke 7:4 is very interesting. When the Jewish elders came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him. They said, “He is worthy for You should do this. He is worthy.” How could a Gentile be worthy? They explained, “He loves our nation, and he built us a synagogue.” This shows his financial support and his love for their nation.
It is remarkable for a Roman centurion to have this affection for a marginalized and subjugated people and to build them a synagogue. He made a huge investment in them, recognizing that they were a covenant people of the living God. The ruins of that synagogue are still believed to exist in Capernaum. This shows that he had an understanding of the truthfulness of their religion. We can guess that perhaps he began by hating these people but, in trying to understand them, read their scriptures. He may have come to believe that the God of Israel was not like other gods and began to love both God and his people. He did not have a false belief; he loved Jehovah so much that he spent a large amount of money to build a synagogue for the Jews. No other Roman had ever done that. It would have been strange for a man of his standing to do such a thing; his own people and party would have been upset.
The more he read, he may have come to understand the prophecies about the coming Messiah. The Holy Spirit may have opened his eyes to look for the Messiah. As a man who kept his finger on the pulse of his region, he began to hear reports about this teacher named Jesus and how he was fulfilling those prophecies. Perhaps he was even in the large crowd at the Sermon on the Mount and saw the leper being healed. All these things were happening in the centurion’s own district. The Holy Spirit was working in his heart to show him that this miracle-working teacher was indeed the Jewish Messiah. When he says “Lord” in verse 6, he means it in the full sense of the word. He calls him “Lord” twice in this passage. He was a God-fearing Gentile like Cornelius. The Jewish elders’ willingness to plead on his behalf shows how highly they regarded him. They knew Jesus could heal, but their hardened hearts would not accept him as the Messiah and Savior. Here was a good Gentile who loved Israel, and we should love Israel too. He loved the nation and built them a synagogue, making it apparent that he was a good Gentile.
Another aspect of his character is his humility. On a strictly human level, it would have been within his rights as the centurion of the Capernaum district to order Jesus to come to him. Jesus was, after all, a citizen of a Roman-occupied territory, and the centurion had the political power and authority to give such an order. Instead, he sought Jesus out and came to him, not as a Gentile directly, but through Jewish elders as his representatives. I believe he did this because he recognized Jesus’s superior authority. He did not feel worthy to even come to Jesus himself. He also did not want Jesus in his house because he knew enough about Jewish ceremonial teaching to know that a Jew was not supposed to go into a Gentile’s house. He wanted to honor these ceremonial traditions, which included the belief that Gentile utensils were unclean and that a Gentile’s house was polluted. The rabbis had invented all sorts of strange beliefs to keep them separate from Gentiles, and yet this centurion wanted to honor even those traditions.
The Roman centurion was a man of great power and authority, yet he approached Jesus with remarkable humility and sensitivity. This is evident in the fact that he pleaded with Jesus to heal his servant, rather than giving a command. This was not a plea for his own needs, but for his servant, a person considered nothing more than a “living tool” in the Roman world. The centurion’s deep compassion and willingness to care for his slave showed the transformative grace of God at work, a grace that enabled him to embody the Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount: being poor in spirit and merciful.
He simply presented the situation to Jesus, not daring to presume a Roman commander was worthy of the Jewish Messiah’s attention. He laid the need before the Lord and accepted His sovereignty. The Jews who were with the centurion, however, demanded Jesus’s help, stating that the centurion was “worthy” due to his generosity to the local synagogue. This starkly contrasts with the centurion’s own humble attitude.
The Unworthy Centurion and a Remarkable Faith
Jesus’s response was a marvel of grace: “I will come and heal him.” This was shocking, as Jewish tradition held that entering a Gentile’s home was ceremonially defiling. However, the centurion, upon hearing this, sent a messenger to stop Jesus. “Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof,” he said, revealing a humility that paralleled Peter’s when he realized Jesus’s divine nature. This was the first step toward understanding the kingdom of God.
The centurion’s faith was even more remarkable. He declared, “Speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.” He understood that Jesus didn’t need to be physically present to heal. He said, “I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me… and my servant does what I command. You are above all authorities, how much more can you just speak a word and it will happen?” The centurion had a profound understanding of Jesus’s supreme authority, acknowledging it was far greater than any earthly power, even that of the Roman emperor.
This confession was particularly dangerous, as Roman law mandated that Caesar alone was “Lord.” Yet, the centurion recognized Jesus’s dignity and power, a confession that other Christians would later die for.
A Faith That Amazed Jesus
When Jesus heard this, He was amazed. It is a powerful testament to the centurion’s faith that it could astonish the Son of God. Jesus declared, “I have not found such great faith, no, not in Israel!” He was not just surprised by the man’s insight but by the divine revelation that must have been given to him by the Heavenly Father.
This story serves as a lesson for us today:
- Do you have this kind of faith? The centurion’s faith produced the fruits of the Spirit—humility, mercy, and love. Do we, in our own pride and arrogance, truly recognize our unworthiness before God?
- Is your faith pathetic or powerful? We have heard so much of Jesus’s words, yet our faith can be so weak. This centurion’s faith was based on the power of a mere word from Christ. Do you trust that Jesus’s authority extends over your life and circumstances?
- Are you positively or negatively amazing Jesus? Jesus marveled twice in the Bible: once at the great faith of this centurion and once at the great unbelief of His own people. Are you living a life that amazes Jesus with your faith or your lack of it?
We are unworthy Gentiles who have been granted access to the covenant by God’s grace. Our relationship with Him is a gift, and we must approach Him with the same humble, reverent, and trusting faith as the centurion. We must recognize His supreme authority over all things and trust that a single word from Him can change our lives.
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 