Matthew 8:5-8, 13
Jesus Heals the Centurion's servant
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When Jesus entered Capernaum, a soldier who had authority over 100 men called a centurion approached and called out to Him saying, 'Lord, my servant is cast down with paralysis at my dwelling; he is terribly tormented.' Jesus said, 'I will come cure (1) him.' The centurion declared, 'Lord, I am not worthy for you to enter under my roof. Just say the word, and my servant will be healed (2). Jesus said to the centurion, 'Go your way. It will be done as you have believed (3).' The young boy was healed (2) that same hour (4)."
(1) therapeúō – to heal, reversing a physical condition to restore a person having an illness (disease, infirmity), as a physician prescribes and applies healing therapy.
(2) iaomai - to physically heal a disease. To cure. To perform healing. To set free. To make whole.
(3) pisteuó (pist-YOO'-o) - from the Greek pístis - to have faith in, put trust in, to be persuaded of, to entrust, to place confidence in.
(4) The implication in the Greek is that the boy was healed by the time the centurion got back to his home.
Notes and thoughts:
In the full story, Jesus marveled at the faith this man had, a gentile who at first glance had no covenant right to healing. He turned to the entourage that was always following Him and declared that He had seen no greater faith in all of Israel and that there would be non-Jews at the feast of Abraham while some, maybe many, Jews would not be there. This would have shocked and angered the religious leaders in the crowd. We, who have a greater covenant with God than the Jews had, are even more guaranteed healing than the centurion's faith received for his servant.
There is much more to this story as expressed in Luke chapter 7. Luke, a doctor, and a stickler for details, describes the servant's condition as "near death". But rather than the centurion approaching Jesus, it was a group of Jewish elders who came asking Jesus to come. They explained that even though this man was a gentile and a Roman soldier, he "..loves our nation and built our synagogue." So he had a favorable relationship with the local Jews, or he himself may have even converted to Judaism. But why come to Jesus? Roman soldiers were everywhere in Jerusalem and Israel. It has to be assumed that the centurion had seen Jesus heal, or had heard through some of the Jews or his own soldiers that Jesus had the authority to heal sickness. Other passages describe Jesus casting out demons with "a word" so if this man had witnessed that, or been told of this, when his servant fell ill, he knew where to go. And because he was a man under authority, and also had authority, he had complete faith that Jesus had authority over the sickness his servant suffered from. We can walk in that same authority.
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