The Right Faith in the Right Place

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. 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."

I am amazed by the bike handling skills of professional cyclists! I have seen them take out a jacket from their back jersey pocket, put it on and zip it up while riding down a mountain descent at 40 miles per hour. I've seen them grab a feed bag while riding by at 25 mph in the midst of the peloton and shuffle through its contents, keeping what they want and discarding the rest before disposing of the bag itself. And all of this they do with no hands on the handlebars, frequently surrounded by other cyclists, or on unfamiliar terrain. They must have a great deal of confidence in their own bike handling skills or they would never attempt such feats! On the other hand, sometimes their confidence is misplaced, and they rub another rider's wheel with their own or misjudge a corner and a crash results. Unfortunately, those crashes almost always effect many other riders in the peloton, not just the rider who made the mistake.

In Matthew chapter 8 we encounter a man whose confidence is not misplaced. The centurion who comes to Jesus asks the Lord to heal his servant. Jesus immediately recognizes the faith that it took on the part of this Gentile to even make such a request, and agrees to come to his house and heal the servant.

The centurion's response is even more amazing, however. He draws an analogy between his own authority and Jesus', recognizing that just as he is under authority and does exactly what his superiors tell him to do, so he also has soldiers under his authority who carry out his commands. Thus, in complete humility, he confesses his unworthiness for Jesus to come to his house and instead asks Jesus to simply give the command and his servant will be healed.

When you think about the ramifications of this analogy, they are amazing. There was no need for the soldier to mention that he was under authority. He could have simply spoken of his authority over others to assert Jesus' authority to heal just by giving the command. The reason he draws the parallel to being under authority is to demonstrate his faith in Jesus as the Son of God. Jesus himself said, "the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me." (John 14:31) Certainly this Gentile who was not a part of God's chosen people was of the "world" before he came to faith in Jesus. He learned what Jesus wanted him to know, that Jesus is the obedient Son of God who does exactly what His Father commands.

Thus, the Centurion knew that his confidence was not misplaced. He knew that Jesus would not be stumped by his request, or lack authority to act from a distance on behalf of his servant. The kind of faith he demonstrated is amazing, even to Jesus, who says that He has never seen such faith even among all of God's chosen people. The Centurion's was truly the right faith in the right place.

When we put our faith in ourselves, or in other people, we can be sorely disappointed. But if, like this faith-filled Centurion, we put our faith in Jesus Christ, as God's own Son who can meet our every need under any circumstances, we will have put our faith in the right place!