True Faith In Christ Jesus
The One Who Takes
The Lord God is not satisfied with only saving our souls, He also cares about the human body. When the centurion comes to HIM, asking that HE heal his servant, Jesus willingly heals the servant with His Word. When Peter's mother-in-law lay on her deathbed, Jesus drove away the fever. He did not turn away from the masses who were afflicted with diseases and suffering from infirmities, He healed them all through HIS almighty power. Today, Jesus is no less able to heal us than HE was when HE walked with the disciples. He is the same GOD who walked in the cool of the day with Adam. The same GOD who parted the Red Sea. The same GOD who protected Daniel in the Lion's den, and He is the same GOD we cry to through Christ to help us today.
The curing of the centurion’s servant of palsy (vs. 5-13)
The setting:
A Roman centurion was the leader of over 100 soldiers.
Symbolized the foreign oppressor, yet Jesus teaches us by example to “to do good to our enemies, and not needlessly to interest ourselves in national enmities”
Not a likely candidate for Jesus’ entourage of low-class Jews, but “where grace conquers the unlikely, it is more than a conqueror.”
In this way Jesus begins to fulfill Simeon’s prophecy that Jesus was a “light to lighten the Gentiles, as well as the glory of his people Israel” (Luke 2:32)
The patient: literally “My boy” – Luke’s account calls him a “dearly-loved servant.” Perhaps the child of slaves, born in his household. He is lying in bed paralyzed, unable to move, and suffering.
The parallel passage in Luke 7 says that the centurion had built a synagogue for the Jews in Capernaum and had friends among the Jewish elders of the city, so he asked his Jewish elder friends if they could convince Jesus to heal his boy, and it is this delegation which meets Jesus coming into his residence in Capernaum. The request to heal the boy is nevertheless an appeal from the centurion himself.
The centurion’s request
Even though he was the top soldier in control of the town, he humbly calls Jesus “Lord” and explains his problem without making a single demand, just putting himself at the mercy of Jesus.
We can learn a lot from this man: “A humble confession of our spiritual needs for cures from illnesses and troubles will not fail to get an answer from our Lord. Pour out your complaint, and mercy shall be poured out.”
Notice how this centurion cares and loves a servant of his household. We can learn from him to care for even the lowliest under our control.
Jesus responds readily in the next verse (7) “I will go and heal him.” This is because Jesus felt it was appropriate to step into public healing ministry at this point in time, but was also perhaps in response to the respect, faith, and compassion evidenced by this centurion’s message, and also the fact that the centurion asked. Jesus tells us “You have not because you ask not!” (James 4:2)
The request is adjusted (v.8-9)
In the parallel account, the centurion, upon discovering that Jesus is on His way to his house, sends another delegation of friends with a second message to the effect that he’s not worthy/not deserving for a personal visit from Jesus, but that an authoritative word to heal at a distance would be fine.
This kind of humility is staggering, coming from a powerful army captain to a poor homeless philosopher! But remember that Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in heart”, and this centurion’s heart is in the right place.
“The more humility the more faith; the more modest we are of ourselves, the stronger will be our confidence in Jesus Christ.”
The centurion’s faith is also staggering: He believed that Jesus’ power was such that He had command over every kind of sickness and disease. Furthermore, he believed that Jesus would not even have to see or touch His patient, and needed no medicine or magic charm for His cure. A mere word would suffice. He understood that “the power of Christ knows no limits!”
WOW, we should have such faith in Jesus. If we did, we would all be better off.
Compare this to Jesus accusing His disciples of having little faith (Luke 22-25)
Now it happened, on a certain day, that He got into a boat with His disciples. And He said to them, "Let us cross over to the other side of the lake. "And they launched out. But as they sailed He fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water, and were in jeopardy.And they came to Him and awoke Him, saying, "Master, Master, we are perishing!" Then He arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water. And they ceased, and there was a calm. But He said to them, "Where is your faith?
The centurion’s understanding of well-ordered authority gives us a window into the precision and scope of God’s authority. It’s easy to think of spiritual things as kind-of mushy and not very sharply-defined, but the centurion was on the mark; mere words from God govern everything that happens in this world from the turning of the largest galaxies to the motion of the smallest subatomic particles, all precisely according to His will. And He requires no less than that same responsiveness from us. Viewed in this exacting light we can see that our slowness to fully obey Him is truly offensive. No wonder this Army captain felt unworthy for Christ to set foot under his roof!
Jesus’ astonished reply (v.10ff)
This is the kind of humility and faith God dreams of seeing, but seldom sees in humans, and Jesus marvels at it.
One reason why He takes the time to marvel and express astonishment is that He wanted “to teach us what to admire; not worldly pomp and decorations, but the beauty of holiness” – faith and humility.
“Note, The thing that Christ seeks is faith, and wherever it is, he finds it, though but as a grain of mustard-seed.” If that is what He is looking for, then let us accordingly exercise uncommon faith that brings such delight to our Lord Jesus!
That this faith should be found in a Gentile army captain is all the more astounding, but it should reassure us that we Gentiles have a place in the kingdom of heaven through faith in Jesus.
There will be “many” of us from the East and West in heaven (Heb. 2:10, Jude 1:14, Rev. 7:9, Rev. 21:24, Mal. 1:11, Matt. 24:31, Isa. 60:3-4)
The Old Testament patriarchs who believed in the Messiah to come will be there in heaven, and we will get to make friends with them. Heaven will be a very social place, and it will be pleasant because nobody will have any sin to make them unpleasant company!
The Greek verb translated “sit downKJV/recline at tableNAS/take their places at the feastNIV” is a compound of the preposition “up” and the word for “couch,” and it is passive, so it could literally be translated “they will be couched up.” In Jesus’ day, and still today in many places in Asia, when people eat, they recline on a couch rather than sitting up in chairs like we do. To translate the idea into our culture, it’s like having your chair pulled up to the table where you can eat and enjoy fellowship.
There is a flip side to all this: some people will not be able to pull up to this table in heaven. They will be thrown out, cast into hell, far away from the camaraderie and conversation of heaven. To be an outsider is terribly lonely, isn’t it?
What’s worse, they will be in such pain in their loneliness that all they can do is grind their teeth and cry. That’s a picture of hell.
What kind of people will be in this terrifying position? (v.12) “Children of the kingdom.”
There will be others who had no association with the kingdom of God in the first place, but this is a special warning to Jesus’ Jewish listeners. Just because you were born of a Jewish mother doesn’t mean you will automatically go to heaven. (Rom. 11:20; 9:31)
It is the same way in Christian families today: “Being born of professing parents denominates us children of the kingdom; but if we rest in that, and have nothing else to show for heaven but that, we shall be cast out.” When we die, we can’t get into heaven by merely saying, “I went to church with my Mom and Dad.”
Every son and daughter in this room needs that one thing Jesus is looking for, and that is faith/trust in Him.
The servant is cured (v.13)
Jesus decides to grant this request on the basis of the centurion’s faith. “as you have believed, let it be done”
And it is an immediate, miraculous cure.
The healing of Peter’s mother-in-law and others (vs. 14-17)
The setting:
Peter owned a house with his brother Andrew in Capernaum – possibly bought it to live near Jesus. (PHOTO: Ruins over the spot where tradition holds that Peter’s house was.)
Peter was married and living with his wife, and they were taking care of her mother in their home.
The parallel passage tells us that Jesus was retiring with Simon Peter, Andrew, James, and John, after speaking at the synagogue on a Sabbath day.
They come home and find mother-in-law literally “burning up” with a fever, and, according to the parallel account, Peter and his brother ask Jesus to heal her!
Jesus Takes Control
Jesus took care to notice and show kindness to his friends’ mother: If we put together all three parallel Gospel accounts, He “looked at” her, “stood over her,” “touched her hand” (heedless of getting the fever Himself), “rebuked the fever” and “lifted her up by the hand” (In Matthew’s account, the word is passive, she did not “rise up;” she “was raised up”). This is the tenderness and kindness of our Great Shepherd!
Mother-in-law was immediately so well that she began serving Jesus and His friends as her guests. Fevers don’t naturally disappear immediately; this was a supernatural healing.
“It is very fitting that they whom Christ has healed should minister unto Him, as His humble servants, all their days.” Once again, we see an acknowledgement of Jesus as Master and Lord.
People Take Notice And Respond
Once evening came, (v.16) people began bringing every sick person in town to the door to be healed:
Perhaps word got out about Peter’s wife’s mother. “He healed her mom, why not mine??” and so they brought their sick friends.
And Jesus healed them all!
The fulfillment of scripture (v.17)
Matthew tells us this as a fulfillment of Isaiah 53:4
Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our diseases;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
Isaiah 53:4
Matthew tells us that “He carried our diseases”
Using the word “Carried” tells us that Jesus not only removed our sickness, but that He experienced our sickness.
The ancient language Isaiah wrote this in was “Hebrew”, and in that language Isaiah was actually explaining how one day the Messiah would remove our sins, and take them onto Himself as a punishment for our sins. Something HE would ultimately take to the cross with HIM.
By removing our sin's, illnesses ,and infirmities, he was immediately and continually taking on the punishment for our sins upon Himself, of which HE would inevitably carry them with Him to the cross for the full punishment of them. Not just removing them from us and then later being crucified for them, but rather HE carried them continually with HIM like we would store up trinkets in a bag. All the illnesses and infirmities and sins they HE took away from us, stuck to HIM until they would ultimately die with HIM on the cross.
When Peter quoted Isa. 53:4, he used the word “sins” instead of the word “diseases”
who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness by whose stripes you were healed.
1 Peter 2:24
Application:
In every instance of Jesus healing the lame, the ill, and forgiving the sinners, we should always look to the cross and realize HE died because we are sinners. Without the blood HE shed on the cross we are not forgiven, and without the resurrection, we are still destined to die when the body dies. Yet, His death gave us freedom from sin, and so we are justified by HIM, “Just As If We Did Not Sin”. Praise GOD.
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