Healing of the Centurion’s Servant

The centurion was no Jew, yet he understood Jesus’ power and authority. In the Roman world, hierarchy was everything. The power structure held everything and everyone in their proper place. The centurion, who was part of this hierarchy, understood the ramifications of the power that leaders higher up possessed. He therefore rightly gave Jesus the freedom to not have to exhaust Himself in coming all the way to his home and instead to just speak the word and heal his servant in remote. He had figured out that rather than create a religious event with this Rabbi with divine abilities he could directly ask for Him to unleash His wonder working power in the direction of his servant.

Many times, we who know Jesus personally tend to get religious minded and ritualistic in our meeting with Him when in reality He is closer than we realise and more real than we ever knew! He doesn’t only meet us in formal, corporate gatherings but also in the mundane of our lives. Many times we try and curate a picture perfect, social media worthy set up to meet Him, when we can invite Him instead into every moment of our ordinary unfiltered day in order to stay in His presence.

The centurion must have heard all about Jesus’ miraculous power from his staff and so trusted that He would be able to heal his servant. He says he didn’t feel worthy to invite Him into his home, which shows us that he realised just who Jesus really was and that compared to His majesty and supremacy, his title or accolades meant little. Jesus admires his faith and heals his servant from right where he is!

Isn’t that amazing- a gentile’s faith got Jesus’ attention and moved him to act on his behalf.

Does that move you to get to know Jesus more through His word and His work in people’s lives? When you get to know Him you can’t help but trust Him to do the impossible in your life.