A man of faith whom Jesus even marvels
[Matthew 8:5-13]
Are you walking by faith or by sight? In 2 Corinthians 5:7, the Bible tells us: “for we walk by faith, not by sight.” But in reality, even though we try to live by faith, many times when we look back at ourselves, we realize that we are living by sight rather than by faith. In other words, we are sensitive to what we see rather than living day by day with faith in the invisible God. Why do we live like that? The reason is because our faith is weak. However, it is not only us who are weak in faith. In the Bible, Jesus said this about the faith of his disciples: “You of little faith!” (Mt.6:30; 8:26; 16:8; Lk.12:28), “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” (Mt.14:31), “Because of the littleness of your faith” (17:20), “Where is your faith?” (Lk.8:25), “Do you still have no faith?” (Mk.4:40), “He reproached them for their unbelief and hardness of heart” (16:14), “do not be unbelieving, but believing” (Jn.20:27). Looking at these Bible verses, we can see that Jesus did not praise the faith of his disciples. Rather, Jesus rebuked the disciples for their faith. Isn't it surprising that even the disciples of Jesus who witnessed the miracles performed by Jesus rebuked them because they had little faith and lived as those without faith? If so, have you ever thought about it this way? ‘Is Jesus rebuking you weak faith or lack of faith?’
However, in today's text, Matthew 8:5-13, we find a man of faith that Jesus was also marveled at. This man of faith was none other than a centurion who led 100 Roman troops living in Capernaum (v. 5). Look at Matthew 8:10 – “Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who were following, "Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel.” Today, as I meditate on the faith of this Roman centurion, whose faith that Jesus was also marveled, in two ways, I want to receive the lessons the Lord gives us. Therefore, I hope and pray that we all become people of faith like the centurion whose faith that Jesus is also marveled.
First, the man of faith whom Jesus even marvel asks God and receives answers to his prayer.
Look at Matthew 8:5-7: “And when Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, imploring Him, and saying, ‘Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, fearfully tormented.’ Jesus said to him, ‘I will come and heal him.’” The Roman army centurion living in this Capernaum had an earnest prayer request. That earnest prayer request was for his servant who was suffering from paralysis to be healed. Why would this Roman centurion so desperately want his paralyzed servant to be healed? To find the answer, we have to look at Luke 7:1-10, which is similar to today's text Matthew 8:5-13, especially Luke 7:2 – “And a centurion's slave, who was highly regarded by him, was sick and about to die.” The reason why the Roman army centurion desperately wanted his paralyzed servant, who was on the verge of death, to be healed is because he loved that servant. Perhaps this servant was a Jew. The reason I think so is because in Luke 7:5, when the Roman army centurion heard the news of Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to Jesus (v. 3) to ask Jesus earnestly and this was what the Jewish elders said to Jesus: “for he loves our nation and it was he who built us our synagogue” (v. 5). In other words, these Jewish elders said that the Roman army centurion even though he was a Roman, loved the Jewish people and even built a synagogue for them. The centurion who loved the Jews so much, when the author Luke used to describe the sick and dying servant who worked as his servant in his house as “a centurion’s slave, who was highly regarded,” we can imagine that the slave was a Jew. When we think of this Roman centurion, don't we remember the fifth word of blessing among Jesus' eight words of blessing that we have already meditated on, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy"? (Mt. 5:7) The Roman army centurion who shared suffering with his beloved servant when he was sick and about to die due to paralysis and was merciful to his servant who was of a lower rank than himself and could leave him alone to die. He was good to his servant. The centurion, having compassion on his servant, not only sought Jesus to save him from disease and death, but also asked Jesus to heal his servant. If this is not what mercy is, what would it be?
When I think of this Roman centurion who showed mercy to the Jews, I was reminded of the movie "Schindler's List" that I saw long time ago. Directed by the famous Steven Spielberg in 1993, this inspiring war-human drama film tells the story of Oskar Schindler, an opportunist German businessman who pursues his own success on the bandwagon in a German-occupied Polish town during World War II by taking over the bowl factory. He uses all sorts of methods, including becoming a Nazi member and bribing German troops to take over the factory. However, Schindler, a ruthless opportunist, begins to hear his conscience over the brutal genocide of the Jews as he becomes acquainted with Stern, a Jewish accountant. And finally, he is determined to rescue the Jews who will be taken to concentration camps to die. He plans to rescue Jews by bribing German officers for the number of people they pull out, and together with Stern, he creates a list of Jews to be rescued, the so-called Schindler's List. And he finally saves 1,100 Jews (Internet). I remember at that time, after the movie was over, there was actually a scene interviewing Jews who were actually included in Schindler's List and survived. Watching that scene, I wondered how grateful those surviving Jews would be to Schindler, a German who had already died. Isn't it ironic that another German rescued them from the point of view of the Jews who suffered and were killed by German troops in war? Why did a German named Schindler rescue 1,100 Jews? Why did Schindler, a German businessman who was a success-seeking opportunist, change his mind and risk saving the Jews rather than earning money? The centurion in today's text, Matthew 8, was a Roman, but he loved the Jewish people, the people of the country conquered and ruled by Rome. This fact was also known and acknowledged by the Jewish elders (Lk.7:5). Because the Roman army centurion loved his servant who was sick and was about to die (v. 2), he heard the news of Jesus and sent some Jewish elders to Jesus, earnestly asking him to heal his servant (v. 3). Hearing the petition, Jesus said, “I will come and heal him” (Mt.8:7). In the end, this Roman army centurion received Jesus' answer to his plea.
Like this Roman army centurion, have you ever seen a loved one suffering from a disease and prayed earnestly to God for healing? Even when a loved one of your family died of a disease, didn’t you cry out earnestly to God for help? What was the voice of the Lord that we longed for as we cried out to Heavenly Father at that time? Wasn't it "I will come and heal him”? (v. 7) At that time, when our loved one seem to be getting better from their diseases, we think that God hears our prayers and heals us. So we fell good and give thanks to God. But if our loved one’s health seems to be deteriorating, we get discourage, thinking that God is not healing our loved on. When we are so discouraged, we remember the words of Jesus in Luke 18 where we should always pray and not lose heart (Lk. 18:1), and like the widow in the parable, we should pray to our Father God persistently without giving up, even to the point of bothering Him. And yet, how did we feel when things didn't go as we had hoped and prayed for, and a loved one of our family died? In the midst of sorrow and despair, our hearts are so troubled that we weep and weep. How should we respond when the loved one of our family dies due to suffering from an illness despite our earnest praying to God? Maybe we can blame God. And we may even think that God hates us and takes the one we love so much. However, some people are thankful to God because they experience God's amazing love even in the midst of a great crisis in their lives. Through the death of the loved one, there are those who come to understand a little bit more about the heart of God the Father who experienced the death of his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Isn't it a little ironic that we come to understand God's love more deeply and broadly through the death of our loved one?
There are three things we should keep in mind when we earnestly pray to God for the loved one who suffers from an illness: (1) We should focus our prayers on God, the object of our prayers, not on the content of our prayers, our loved one suffering from disease. Look at the first half of Hebrews 12:2 in the Bible: “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, ….” Although we know that when we pray, we should look to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, many times we tend to see our loved one suffering from disease before us rather than looking to the Lord, the object of our prayers. But we must overcome our tendency to do so by looking and praying only to the Lord and perfecter of our faith. (2) When we pray, we should pray with faith, not with our eyes. Look at 2 Corinthians 5:7 – “for we walk by faith, not by sight.” Even though we have heard this verse many times and know it well, when we see a loved one suffering from a disease every day, there are countless times when we are led by the circumstance we see rather than praying to God in faith. Then, when things seem to be getting better, we feel happy and thankful. But when things seem to be getting worse, we often feel anxious and have a hard time in discouragement. Therefore, we need to focus on God and ask in faith, knowing and believing that God is God. (3) When we pray to God for the loved one who suffers from disease, we should pray for the glory of God to be manifested. Look at 1 Corinthians 10:31 – “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” When we pray to God, we often seek the Lord's will. But our concern is that the loved one is suffering from a disease or is even dying, and we have no way of knowing whether the Lord's will is for him to live or die. Therefore, when we ask God, we should pray for God's glory to be manifested rather than praying for the Lord's will. The reason is because the Bible says, “Whether we eat or drink or whatever we do, do it all for the glory of God” (v. 31). I think the word “whatever we do” here means to pray for the glory of God, even if the one we love is dying from a disease. What are the prayer topics that you earnestly pray to Heavenly Father? Are you earnestly praying for a loved one who is suffering from an illness? Are you earnestly praying for the salvation of the souls of your loved ones? Hopefully, like the centurion in today's text, I hope and pray in the name of Jesus that you will receive answers to your prayers by asking God in faith.
Second and last, the man of faith whom Jesus even marvels is he who believes in the power of the Word of God.
Look at today’s text Matthew 8:8 – “But the centurion said, "Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed.” This word of the centurion was what he said to Jesus (v. 8) after Jesus heard the news of the centurion's servant and said, "I will come and heal him" (v. 7). In Luke 7:6-7, which is similar to today's text Matthew 8:8, the author Luke says: “Now Jesus started on His way with them; and when He was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to Him, ‘Lord, do not trouble Yourself further, for I am not worthy for You to come under my roof; for this reason I did not even consider myself worthy to come to You, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed.’” Matthew records that the centurion spoke to Jesus directly, whereas Luke records that he spoke to Jesus through his friends whom he sent by to Jesus. What is important here is not whether the centurion spoke to Jesus himself or through his friends, but what he said. The centurion said that he was not worthy of Jesus coming into his house (Mt. 8:8a). What did he mean? Why did the centurion say that he was not worthy of Jesus coming into his house? According to Pastor John MacArthur, the reason was because the Roman army centurion knew the Jewish tradition that when a Jew entered a Gentile's house, was consciously defiled, and he was afraid that Jesus might think that the Gentiles would feel uncomfortable because of him (MacArthur). I think this is a reasonable interpretation. But I think the reason the centurion said to Jesus, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come into my house” was because he did not think he was worthy to have the Lord in his house. How can we know that? In today’s text verse 8, the Bible says, “I am not worthy ….” In fact, if we look at the original Greek, it means ‘I do not fit’ or ‘I am not worthy’ (Friberg). In fact, looking at the first half of Luke 7:7, Luke wrote: “for this reason I did not even consider myself worthy to come to You ….” What does it mean? It means that the centurion does not even have the right to have Jesus in his house. Another occurrence of this word is in John 1:27 – “It is He who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” What does it mean? Doesn't it mean that John the Baptist has neither the right to untie the laces of Jesus' shoes? When I think of this centurion's word, I think the third of the blessing of Jesus that we have already meditated on comes to mind: “Blessed are the meek… ” (Mt. 5:5). In other words, the centurion who said to Jesus, ‘Lord, I am not worthy that you come into my house’ is a meek man and a humble man. That is, I think he was a man who knew who he was before the Lord. That's why he said, " Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof” (8:8). He claimed to be a lowly person who could not face Jesus personally (Lk. 7:7) (Park).
Are we worthy? Do we deserve to have Jesus in our house? I personally like 2 Corinthians 3:5 – “Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God.” When my heart is heavy as I ponder over why God made me the head of a family and the pastor of a church, even though I do not have the qualifications myself, I am very lacking. But when I think about this 2 Corinthians 3:5, I gain strength again. The reason is because even if I lack qualifications and lack everything, only God can make up for my shortcomings. That is why I pray that I will humbly rely on the Lord and carry on my family and church ministry. The second thing the centurion said to Jesus was that his servant would be healed if Jesus just say the word (Mt. 8:8b). Although this centurion had clearly received the answer to his prayer, “I will come and heal him” (v. 7), he could not afford Jesus to come into his house, and he did not want Jesus to trouble himself more (Lk. 7:6) He believed that his servant would be healed of a deathly disease if he just spoke the word (v. 7). When Jesus heard the centurion's words, he was marveled. Why did Jesus marvel? It was because of the centurion's faith. Why is the centurion's faith amazing? The reason was that he believed in the power of the Word of God. He believed that if Jesus just spoke, his servant would be healed of his sickness. This centurion acknowledged the authority of the Lord's Word and submitted himself under it. So he said this in today's text Matthew 8:9 – “For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, 'Go!' and he goes, and to another, 'Come!' and he comes, and to my slave, 'Do this!' and he does it.” What does it mean? Even the Roman army centurion had a higher rank than him, a commander of thousands, but he also had 100 soldiers below him, so if he gave orders to them, they would obey him. In the end, the key point that the centurion wanted to tell Jesus here is that he believes that if Jesus only commands (words), anything will surely be accomplished (Park). It is a sign of faith that, if the Lord speaks, his servant will be healed of a dying disease. And according to his conviction and faith, when the Lord said, “Go, it shall be done for you as you have believed,” the servant was healed that very moment (v. 13).
At least once in our lives, we've all seen a loved one suffer from an illness. At that time, didn't our compassion for our loved one ignite when they were afflicted with disease and suffering? At that time, we humbly knelt on our knees and prayed to God that our loved one would be healed (Jam. 5:16). At that time, we prayed to God, who is in charge of life and death, for the person we love, and while we prayed to leave the results to God, we earnestly prayed that God would heal and save the loved one rather than die of disease. As a result, there are some people who have loved ones who have been healed (or some who have had their lives extended) as their prayers have been answered, but there are also those who have died. I think of two people I personally love with Christ’s love. One is my first baby, Charis. She eventually fell asleep in my arms. I really wanted to go to church and worship together with her, and to hear her crying. So I earnestly prayed to God. But she ended up dead. At that time, even though my wife and I cried, we experienced the love of the Lord who died on the cross for a sinner like me through the death of our baby Charis more deeply and more broadly. I couldn't help but praise with an overflowing heart how wonderful and amazing His saving love was. Another is my father-in-law. What I still remember is that during a sabbatical month, while staying at my father-in-law and mother-in-law's house for a week, I took the two of them to the hospital and checked my father-in-law’s health. I remember him being diagnosed with lung cancer and being told by the doctor that he would only have about 6 months to live. At that time, I sang a hymn to my father-in-law lying in bed, and while reading the Bible, I remember asking him a question: 'Father, aren't you afraid of death?' At that time, my father-in-law said that he was not afraid. Instead, when he praised, read, and especially prayed, he said “Amen” vigorously when I prayed for the Lord's grace for salvation, lifelong gratitude, and thanks in all circumstances. Even after, sometimes, when my mother-in-law calls me and asks me to pray for my father-in-law on the phone, I pray the same prayer, and my father-in-law says “Amen”. Even my father-in-law has been diagnosed with lung cancer and has been living with an extension of 3 years after hearing the doctor's word that he will only have 6 months to live. Let's ask God for the sake of those we love who are in sickness and suffering. Let us all pray in faith. Let's pray to God with complete trust and dependence on God. Let's all entrust all the results of prayer answers to God and pray to Him with faith in the power of God's Word. Let's all pray to God in faith so that only God's glory can be manifested.