Day 14: The Remarkable Faith of a Centurion (Luke 7: 1-10)
The heart of the centurion was breaking. How faithfully his slave had served him. Never once had his servant disrespected him. If the truth were known, the centurion loved him like a son. Truly, he would never again have a servant as lovingly obedient as this one, and now his life was in grave danger. His body lay motionless, and he was tormented by his paralysis. “Oh, please spare him,” the centurion cried out as his tears fell silently to the floor.
Not many days later, the centurion, a Roman military man, heard about Jesus. No one seemed to know how He healed people, only that He had some supernatural authority over diseases and even death. So he sent some Jewish elders to find this Jesus, the ones he had befriended when he built them a synagogue. He stayed behind to care for his servant. Besides, he couldn’t bring this Jewish man to Jesus because he was a Gentile. He felt completely unworthy to come to Him.
The Jewish elders who had great respect for the centurion sought to find Jesus. When they found Him, they pleaded with Him earnestly to come with them to heal their friend’s slave.
Jesus obliged and started out with them, but when they were very close to his house, they were stopped by some other friends of the centurion.
Jesus was surprised, and He marveled at the message sent by the centurion. This man was completely humbled in his words, even though he was a man with great authority. This kind of humility was refreshing to Jesus! This Gentile centurion seemed to know that only a word spoken by Jesus would have the same authority to heal his servant as Jesus coming in person. Amazing! These comments revealed not only his great wisdom, but his great faith as well. As a result of such faith, the centurion’s servant was completely healed in that very moment.
Do you believe that Jesus has been given all authority over heaven and earth? If you do, does He have all authority over you? Can you call Him your LORD if He doesn’t? Does His Word have power over you and your life? Do you obey His commands found in the Word?
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