Wherefore neither did I count myself worthy to come to thee. But say by a word and my servant shall be healed.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
For *I* also am a man placed under authority, having under myself soldiers, and I say to this [one], Go, and he goes; and to another, Come, and he comes; and to my bondman, Do this, and he does [it].
A Roman officer's servant is dying, and he sends word to Jesus that there is no need to come any further. He explains why in the only language he knows well: the chain of command he lives inside every day.
The centurion does not put himself on Christ's level. He reasons upward: from what his own word can do, to what a word from Christ can do.
His faith recognized that Jesus had the very same power, and indeed more. He himself was only a man under authority. Jesus, the perfectly dependent and obedient Man, could command all, always to the glory of God the Father. Even though he was under authority, he still had authority himself to order this man and that one, above all his own servant. All things were but servants to Jesus — all served God's glory through Him. He had only to speak the word: disease itself must obey.
How much authority did he actually hold? Not much — and that is part of the force of his reasoning.
He says, "I am a man" — not in, but under authority. He was a Roman captain over 200 men. He was a long way from being the head of the Imperial army. Even so, he had this power to order the soldiers under him. There is something very sweet about that. His argument is that the Lord had all the authority in Himself.
How can one Person be both under authority and over all? The centurion's own place in the army gave him the picture.
The centurion reasoned like this. He was himself a man subject to authority, yet he had authority over all those under him, and they would obey his commands. So he recognized the Lord as the One truly subject to the will of God, and yet the One who holds authority over creation. Even sickness would obey His command at once.
An officer's order does not need him to be standing there. That is what the centurion trusted, and his faith touches ours, because Christ is no longer here in person.
It was this that drew our Lord's commendation — his confidence in the power of His word when He was personally absent. Here is a principle that is vital to us at this present hour. Christ is not here; He has gone up to the Father's throne. But His Word is with us; in the Scriptures we may at all times hear His living voice.
What makes faith great in His eyes?
Some faith simply takes Him at His word, without reasonings, feelings or experiences. Our Lord calls that "great faith".
How did a Roman soldier come to know God better than those who had the Scriptures?
People read and heard the word of God in the synagogue. It taught the centurion God's nature and ways. The Jews who listened learned nothing of the kind: they had no such sense of need, and claimed God's word as their own private possession. Not even in Israel, the Lord said, had He found so great faith.
The verse also describes the soldier who takes the order. One writer sets that soldier beside Jonah.
This centurion understood authority through and through. If he said "Go!" there was no question about it: the soldier went. But when the Lord said "Go!" to Jonah, Jonah decided he would not go. The soldier did not dream of complaining that the way was too long, or too rough, or too dangerous, or that the time was not convenient. He did not suggest that he did not want to go, or that he was too busy with other work. No, the soldier understood authority, and went. When the Captain says "Go!", he goes.
- Authority reasoned — He argues from small to great. He is under orders, yet his men obey him. So the Lord's word must carry absolute power.
- Authority owned — What he sees in Christ is not rank handed down from above. It is authority held in Himself, by the One perfectly subject to God's will.
- Authority spoken — Christ did not need to be there. Disease obeys a command given at a distance, so the word alone is enough.
- Authority trusted — Faith that rests on what Christ says, and not on feelings or proofs, is what He calls great faith. He found it in an outsider who heard Scripture as a man in need.
- Authority obeyed — The verse cuts both ways. The chain of command that made his faith possible puts us in the soldier's place — the one who hears "Go!" and goes.
And Jesus hearing this wondered at him, and turning to the crowd following him said, I say to you, Not even in Israel have I found so great faith.
A Roman officer sends word that Jesus need not come to his house. A spoken order would be enough. Jesus answers with wonder. Two questions follow. What did Jesus hear in that message? And why was Israel the last place such faith turned up?
Two impossibilities meet in the man's message. He felt unfit to receive Jesus, and unfit to go to Him.
He was not worthy that the Lord should come, and he did not think himself worthy to go to the Lord either. How could mercy flow? Faith finds in every desperate situation the opportunity for grace worthy of God... So the "word," as we regularly find in Luke, holds first place. The turning point is not even the bodily presence of the Messiah, but the word. Jesus was man, but He was the vessel of divine power; He had only to say a word, and the servant would be healed.
Twice the Gospels record that Jesus marvelled, and the two occasions are opposites.
Scripture attributes wonder to the Lord here and in Mark 6:6 — there at unbelief, here at belief.
What He wondered at was not a talent the man produced from himself. The centurion had picked it up where Israel's own crowds heard the same words and gained nothing.
Can we wonder that the gracious Lord wondered? It was faith simple and strong, the fruit of divine grace. The word of God taught the centurion God's nature and ways, for people read it aloud in the synagogue. No Jew who listened learned the same. They felt no such sense of need, and claimed to own it all.
The word Jesus chose is about size. Yet the reason for that size lies outside the man himself.
The Greek word for "great" that the Lord uses here means great in size: this faith was not hemmed in by mere natural thought or feeling. Yet let us remember that the important reason for this was the Object of his faith, the glory of the person of the Son of God.
Nothing in the man's message pointed to himself. He had built a synagogue and loved the nation, yet he named neither. His faith had reached him secondhand, through what people said about Jesus.
He recognised the honour God had put upon His people. Though people despised them and they were failing badly, he still loved the nation and had built them a synagogue. His humility was genuine, for his faith went far beyond the faith of the men he honoured. So he had a very high grasp of the power and glory of Christ's person as divine, reaching far beyond Jewish thoughts... Faith always makes humble, because it exalts the object of faith. And note, his faith came by report, by hearing.
Jesus does not keep the remark to Himself. He turns to the crowd walking behind Him and lets them hear it.
He addressed the crowd with this remark. They learned grace toward the stranger from it, and yet they learned it in one who loved Israel.
This verdict is rare. One other person in the Gospels received it, and those closest to Jesus heard the opposite word.
The Lord called the woman's faith "great" (Matt. 15:25). He described only one other person in the Gospels the same way — the Roman centurion (Matt. 8:10; Luke 7:9). And note this: the same Discerner of hearts who called the faith of these two Gentiles "great" called the faith of the disciples, and of Peter, "little" (Matt. 8:26; Matt. 14:31).
Commentators also read the centurion as a model for anyone outside Israel who comes to Christ.
In this centurion we see a picture of Gentiles today brought into blessing by the pure grace of God. First, he recognised that God had chosen Israel as His special people, and he loves them instead of envying them. Second, he takes a place of complete unworthiness, with no claim on the Lord Jesus. Third, he gave the Lord His true place and honour: Son of Man, obedient to the authority of God, and Son of God with authority over all creation. This beautifully illustrates the right attitude for Gentiles as they receive the blessings of Christianity.
- Heard. His faith came by report, not by sight — he had never met Jesus, only heard of Him, and that was enough to build on.
- Humbled. Faith always makes humble, because it exalts its object. The man never mentioned the synagogue he built — only his unworthiness.
- Enlarged. "Great" means large — faith not fenced in by natural thought, and great because the Object was the Son of God.
- Wondered at. The Lord marvelled twice in the Gospels — once at unbelief, and here at belief in a Roman's message.
- Overheard. He said it out loud to the crowd behind Him. Israel learned grace toward the outsider — from an outsider who loved Israel.