A Great Faith

“When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.  And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.  But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”  Matthew 8:10-12

Jesus had just been approached by a Roman centurion, a Gentile who was the leader of an army company of 100 soldiers.  He requested of Jesus to heal his servant.  Jesus agreed to go with him to his home where his servant lay very ill, but the centurion felt unworthy for Jesus to enter his humble abode.  He said that Jesus could just utter the word remotely, and his servant would be healed.  Jesus marveled, that is, He was astonished at the amount of faith that this Gentile had.  Jesus had not encountered any man or woman of Israel with this same kind of strong faith in Him and His ability to heal.  The centurion understood what faith was all about.  He explained that all he had to do was to order his soldiers or his servants to do a specific task, and they would do it.  I suppose his men and servants had a great deal of respect for him, or they were scared to death of him, but I believe it was the former because of his concern for his servant’s health.

Jesus continued to speak to the centurion to give the reason for His astonishment at the man’s faith.  Sometimes when we hear about someone doing some greatly honorable deed, we marvel at him or her because, in this day and age, people of high integrity are sometimes hard to find.  I have heard from time to time on television how a loved one of someone who was murdered was able to forgive the killer.  I think folks who do that must be Christians for it seems impossible to forgive in a case like that unless Christ was working through the person.  This centurion was not a follower of Jesus Christ, but he did have a high regard for Jesus.  I like to think that after this encounter with Jesus, the centurion might have become a believer.  Frankly, I don’t know how someone could receive such a blessing from Jesus and not believe in Him.  However, God blesses many folks who don’t give Him the time of day.

Jesus then began to speak to the crowd that had gathered, likely mostly Jews who had been watching His every move.  He spoke concerning how God’s plan of redemption would be open to the Gentiles of all nations.  He said that there would be many who would come from the east and the west and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.  Sometimes I think about heaven and how all of us who have been born again will get to see not only Jesus in person, but people like Paul, David, Daniel, and the three mentioned above.  Some people get excited if they get to meet the President of the U.S., but that is nothing compared to meeting those men and women of the Bible, folks we have read about for years.

Jesus’ statement was likely a shock to the Jews because they had always been taught that “salvation is of the Jews” as Jesus had told the woman at the well (John 4:22).  Notice that Jesus didn’t say that salvation is only for the Jews.  He meant that salvation would come from the Jews because He was born into a Jewish family.  The Jews were to be a light to the rest of the world, a witness of the redeeming power of Christ.  Upon Jesus’ statement, many were surprised, shocked, dismayed, or angered at His words.  If the people had really studied the words of the prophets, they would have not been so surprised, but most did not have their own copies of God’s word.  All that many of them knew were what the religious leaders had taught them.  These leaders didn’t want them to know any more than what they allowed because, as we all know, knowledge is power.  That’s why so many leaders of so many countries outlaw God’s word to the masses because they do not want to lose power over the people.  Folks who depend on God’s word don’t have to be intimidated by the unbelieving world.

The next thing that Jesus said would have really riled them up.  He said, “The children of the kingdom (the Jews) shall be cast into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth”.  Jesus implied that just being born a Jew was no assurance of salvation and a home in heaven.  If they were upset at the thought of Gentiles being accepted by God, they would have been beside themselves to hear that what they had believed about being God’s chosen people didn’t give them a free pass to glory.  We can also apply Jesus’ statement to Gentiles.  Just being born in a Christian family doesn’t make one a Christian, although, being reared in the nurture and admonition of the Lord can give a child a better opportunity of salvation, but it is not a given.

Nicodemus was a Jew who was concerned about eternal life and met with Jesus, but most Jews had no desire to know Jesus.  They were depending upon following the law and the fact that they were God’s chosen people in order to be right before Him.  What they considered their admission ticket into heaven was the very thing keeping them out.  Jesus had told Nicodemus that he must be born again in order to enter the kingdom of heaven (John 3:3), meaning spiritually born through repentance of sin and belief in the Lord Jesus Christ.  That is the requirement for every person that has ever been born whether Jew or Gentile.  The centurion’s servant was healed by Jesus only speaking the word, thus, there were two men that day who experienced a miracle.  Surely, they were both convinced that Jesus was the Son of God and received Him gladly, at least I hope so.