5 When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. 6 “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.” 7 Jesus said to him, “Shall I come 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 amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, 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! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that moment. (Matthew 8:5-13)
A centurion was an officer in the Roman army who was in charge of one hundred soldiers. Here a centurion came to ask the Lord Jesus for healing because his servant was sick. The Lord Jesus was about to go to his house, but he said: “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed.” The Lord Jesus praised his faith, saying that such great faith had not been found in Israel. The centurion was a Gentile. He believed that his servant could be healed with just a word from the Lord Jesus. He believed in the authority of the Lord Jesus, and he believed that the Lord Jesus could command everything. Because of His faith the Lord Jesus spoke a word, and His servant was immediately healed. The parallel passage says:
because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.” (Luke 7:5)
Here we see that the centurion not only had great faith and he also had great love, he was a non-Israelite but he built synagogue for the Israelites. We also saw earlier that he loved his servant and asked the Lord Jesus to heal his servant. Moreover, he was a humble man and felt that he was not worthy for the Lord Jesus to come to his house.
May God bless you and your family 🙏😊
