Centurion's Slave Healed

Jesus started walking and when He was “not far from” the centurion’s home, the centurion sent friends to stop Him from coming closer to his home. This implies that some type of communication system was being used to tell the centurion the latest location of Jesus. Maybe there were some Roman cavalry with the Jewish leaders who were periodically returning to the centurion to keep him informed, or maybe there were foot soldiers racing ahead of Jesus. Otherwise, the centurion would not have known that Jesus was closer rather than at some distance.

When the centurion heard that Jesus was near, he sent some friends who quoted the centurion as saying, “I am not worthy for you to come under my roof, for this reason I did not even consider myself worthy to come to You . . .“ The centurion did not want Jesus to come to his home because he felt unworthy. Now that is great respect and humility from a Roman centurion who was an authority figure and used to being served.

But Matthew reveals that Jesus continued walking toward the centurion’s home anyway. Jesus ignored the request of the centurion’s friends. The centurion did not know it, but Jesus was coming to see him. Matt. 8:5b reveals that when the centurion saw that Jesus was coming anyway, he left his home and went out to meet Jesus.

The Greek word PROSERCHOMAI which is translated as “came” has the sense of someone approaching another who is also coming toward him. That is, the centurion discovered that Jesus was continuing to approach his home, and so he finally in desperation, personally went out to meet Jesus, to stop Him from coming any further. Jesus wanted to meet the centurion; so He motivated the centurion to come to Him.

When the centurion finally stood before Jesus face-to-face he told Jesus about his slave and then made a personal plea that He not come further.

. . . “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, fearfully tormented.” Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.” But the centurion said, “Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.” (NASB) Matt. 8:6-9

The centurion’s faith was great. He knew that Jesus could heal from a distance. He believed that Jesus did not need to place his hand on the slave, speak to him, or pray over him. When Jesus heard this, He was amazed.

Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled at him, and turned and said to the crowd that was following Him, “I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such great faith.” (NASB) Luke 7:9

Jesus had not yet found this type of faith anywhere in Israel. And so He turned to the crowd and declared that this man’s faith was exceedingly above and beyond normal expectations.

Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who were following, “Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel.” (NASB) Matt. 8:10

It appears that Jesus repeated His statement for emphasis (Jesus was amazed). I often do that to emphasize a point. I reword things for emphasis and build up to the point that I really want to make. Matthew recorded a statement that is stronger than the one Luke recorded. It is unreasonable to conclude that Jesus never emphasized a point or repeated His statements.

Matthew’s statement is more pointed. Luke says that Jesus had not yet seen the centurion’s faith any where in Israel, but Matthew reveals that Jesus had not seen this type of faith in any person in Israel. Jesus added emphasis. He was stressing His point by repeating His statement and emphasizing that no one in Israel had this type of faith. He had not found anyone’s faith like that of the centurion. We will see shortly that Jesus will heal the slave because of His compassion for him and because the centurion believed that Jesus could heal.

I say to you that many will come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (NASB) Matt. 8:11-12

Jesus’ additional statement tells us that many Jews will not enter the kingdom of heaven, but many Gentiles will. Why? The Jews lacked the great faith displayed by the centurion. They rejected Jesus, but the centurion did not. He believed in Him.

Servant or Slave? The critics’ second complaint is that Matthew says the ill person was a servant. Luke says that he was a slave. This issue is simply resolved by investigating the Greek words that Matthew and Luke used. Matthew used the Greek word PAIS and Luke used DOULOS. They used different Greek words. This immediately alerts us to the fact that there is not a conflict.