Matthew 8:5-13 A Word of Authority
Have you noticed how many Welsh people are particularly proud to be Welsh? Nigel Owens the retired international rugby referee published an article entitled ‘What it means being Welsh to mo me.’ Her described what he thought the Welsh can take pride in:
“The language, our humour, our caring natures, our togetherness, our awe-inspiring sense of community, our anthem, our flag, our heritage and our passion.”
He could also have added ‘our Welsh cakes, our rugby and our leeks’. The leeks are traditionally associated with St. David who was the bishop of the area who advised their soldiers to wear leeks as a means of identification
David and his monks followed an extremely strict, austere routine. They refrained from eating meat or drinking beer, and ploughed fields by hand rather than using oxen. He was a highly active missionary, founding an estimated 12 monasteries across Wales, southwest England, and Brittany, including the monastery on the River Alun that is now the site of St Davids Cathedral. In his final sermon before his death, he urged his followers with the iconic words:
“Be joyful, keep the faith, and do the little things you have seen me do.”
What are the features that describe a Christian? Matthew describes these in the remarkable encounter of a Roman centurion who came to Jesus for help. He is a most unlikely subject as he was not from Israel, he represented Israel’s enemy. Simply put, he was an outsider. To Jesus’ listeners this must have come as a great shock. This story is surely included because demonstrates the four marks of a true saving faith, the sort of faith that God is looking for.
He has a need
The centurion’s servant had a severe problem. Paralysis associated with severe pain suggests that he may have had a fall and broken his back. Everybody knew then, as they know today, that paralysis due to a damaged spinal cord is incurable. This centurion obviously cared for his servant and went out of his way to try and help him.
“When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. ‘Lord,’ he said, ‘my servant lies at home paralysed, suffering terribly.’” Matthew 8:5-6
No details are given, all we know is that the problem was serious.
There are many today who think that they don’t have any real problems, they and their family don’t have health or other problems. They are swimming through life so think they do not need Jesus. The Pharisees could not understand why Jesus tried to help non-religious people. In the next chapter we read::
“When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ On hearing this, Jesus said, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.’ Matthew 9:11-12
There are those who recognise the value of trying to help the down and out, the drug addicts, those suffering from domestic abuse and the like. They think this is helpful to society and is up-lifting.
However Matthew wants us all to learn that a true saving faith only starts when we recognise the real need we all have.
Physical health checks are on offer widely today to try to pick up problems before they become too advanced. Surely, we need to encourage everybody to have a spiritual heath check, to examine our motives, ambitions and loves to check whether there is a problem. Remember how Jesus began the Sermon on the Mount with the Beatitudes:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.” Matthew 5:3-6
It is only those who have a real spiritual need that Jesus will help.
2. He admits his own unworthiness
When a person wants the help of an expert they will often think of ways to demonstrate how worthy they are to be helped. They will often say, ‘We deserve it because . . .” or ‘My friends are . . .” or ‘What can I give you in return?’. So much of life works on a ‘Quid pro quo’ basis. This literally means ‘Something for something’.
Why should Jesus help this centurion? He was part of the occupying army. Jesus asks him a question:
“Shall I come and heal him?” Matthew 8:7
Asking questions is by far the best way to understand other people. The reply was not one that would be expected, he comes to Jesus with these humbling words:
“Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof.” Matthew 8:8
These words are striking. Most of us would leap at the opportunity of going to a successful man’s home and enjoying his hospitality. It would also be a great privilege for the centurion to have a famous person, such a s Jesus, visit his home. Society gives medals and awards to those it deems to have deserved them through their service. This centurion’s need and his understanding are much deeper that such superficial niceties. There was no pretence in him, he simply wanted help and he knew that Jesus could do the impossible.
3. He recognises Jesus’ authority
The centurion starts the conversation with Jesus using these words:
“Lord, my servant lies at home paralysed, suffering terribly.”
Perhaps he had heard Jesus teaching, what he had said about who he is or possibly he had heard of the other remarkable miracles Jesus had performed. He recognised the authority of Jesus as coming from God and came with a plea for his help. The centurion was an influential man and could doubtless have organised the help of the best doctors around. Yet he comes to Jesus for help. He recognised that Jesus, the Word of God, is sufficient for all needs, even the impossible. What he said next is astounding:
“But just say the word, and my servant will be healed.” Matthew 8:8
He recognised that if Jesus said something it was a s good as done. This was a question of authority and the centurion emphasises this point:
“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.” Matthew 8:9
He had authority over his soldiers and hence many other people around but he recognised that Jesus authority was much wider, it included an authority over the so-called ‘Laws of Nature’. Of course ‘nature’ can never make laws on how the world will work, the Laws of Science or Nature really should be called ‘Laws of God’ since God’s mind and his word instituted them. The centurion knew that if Jesus said something it would be done, he had such confidence in Jesus.
““But just say the word, and my servant will be healed.” Matthew 8:8
We have a problem today with a surfeit of so-called spiritual healers, many claiming to be Christians. Their real motives can be seen in the houses, cars and aeroplanes they own and their luxurious lifestyles. Jesus was not like them. He was the Servant King. Such pseudo-gospel leaders can cause many to be sceptical about the power of God.
The centurion was acting on the evidence. Jesus had been in Galilee healing every type of affliction and the evidence was there for all to see. Only God could do that. A word from Jesus was enough. This is so different to most spiritual healers today. Too often they need the emotional theatrical atmosphere to influence people and they never present their long-term results of their healings. Jesus did these miracles to prove he was the Son of God, God’s Messiah, his suffering servant. It is significant that even his enemies acknowledged that his miracles were real.
In today’s society Jesus is widely considered to be an irrelevance and utterly ineffective. It is as if he had remained dead. The default position is that he doesn’t matter, he doesn’t make any difference. This is totally untrue. There are many people who can testify that he has utterly changed their lives after they accepted him and what he had said. His word is powerful.
Today many people don’t care what the centurion thought about both himself or about Jesus. They may say,
“It is nice if he finds his faith helpful, but I don’t need that.”
Jesus warns people that they trifle with himself at their peril:
“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.” John 5:24
When people realise that their thoughts and actions are going to be judged by God, then we are much more likely to turn to Jesus as the only person who can help us when we face God’s judgment. It is Jesus who the Father has delegated to be our judge.
“And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man. “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out - those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned.” John 5:27-29
What does it mean to ‘do good’ and ‘do evil’? Judgment, as always in Scripture, is based on our ‘works’, ‘works’ that reflect our love for Jesus. Jesus says in the next chapter that it is our love for Jesus that saves us:
“And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.” John 6:39-40
Salvation is by faith alone and is not related to our ‘good works’, but our lives will act as a test of the faith we have. The Reformer John Calvin said about John 5:29:
“He marks out believers by their good works, just as elsewhere He says that a tree is known by its fruit. . . The Papist’s inference from these passages, that eternal life repays the merits of works, may be refuted without any difficulty. For christ is not here treating of the cause of salvation, but only distinguishing the elect from the reprobate by their own mark.”
Paul made this very clear:
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:8-10
It is Jesus alone who has the authority to save us. Without a relationship with him we have no hope.
4. The centurion experiences Jesus’ rescue
The centurions faith in Jesus is then shown to be reasonable. Jesus does have remarkable authority and his paralysed servant was back walking again.
Again a listener may add:
“That is very nice for the centurion and the paralysed man but I am not them. I don’t need help.”
This story is in Scripture because its message is relevant to us all. Most of us are not paralysed and don’t have a servant in agony. We have missed out two verses that are very relevant to us all - the issue of faith in Jesus matters profoundly. Jesus said:
“Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.” John 8:10-11
The centurion was a Gentile, not one of God’s original Chosen People, the Jews. God’s Kingdom is now extended to include both Jews and Gentiles from east and west who put their faith in and follow the Lord Jesus. Many born into Judaism will find themselves excluded because they have rejected the rule of their Messiah:
“But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” John 8:12
Jesus was more emphatic than anyone that there is a real hell for those rejecting his rule. However what comfort this is for those who have lived for Christ and in whom this faith this has been reflected by the way they have lived.
At Billy Graham’s funeral we were told that just before he died he said:
“I have read the last page of the Bible. It is going to turn out alright.”
The Bible speaks of the future, a new world free from paralysis, illness and sin with its consequences. The resurrection of Jesus guarantees this for us. Jesus described this new world as a banquet held in the presence of Jesus and all who believe in him.
This passage is reminding us that there is a select guest list for this reception. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are on that list. So will may from distant lands who have turned to Jesus for salvation from their sins. This centurion will be there but some religious people who consider themselves ‘sons of the Kingdom’ will not be invited. Jesus does not ‘know them’ and he is the judge and the inviter. Such people have never submitted themselves to Jesus, have never accepted the salvation he won on that cross and have never accepted that his Word should control how they think and behave. These words of Jesus should be terrifying to many so they bear repeating:
“But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” John 8:12
This centurion would tell us that to reject Jesus is to reject God with the awful consequences of this. This story is included to wake us all up. He wants us all to demonstrate the same faith in him that the centurion had.
If we have such a saving faith we will have seen our need and will have come to Jesus as unworthy people who need the help that only he can give us. We will have recognised his authority and we will then experience how God meets our needs. We have been rescued from the consequences of sin to enjoy an eternal security that starts now.
Jesus is indeed the answer we all need and that our world desperately needs.
BVP
