OUR FATHER WHO RESPONDS STRONGLY TO FAITH

A centurion, an officer in the Roman army who would have commanded about a hundred men, had a servant whom he valued highly who got deathly sick.

The centurion had heard about Jesus and so he urgently sent his Jewish contacts to give a message to Jesus to come and heal his servant.

The Jewish envoys reached Jesus and implored Him to help the centurion's servant because the centurion was a strong supporter of Israel and had built the local synagogue.

Jesus went with them and they were about to get to the house when the centurion sent another message via his friends as captured in Luke chapter 7 verses 6 - 8;

 “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof.  That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. 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.”

Luke chapter 7 verses 9 - 10 records Jesus' response to the centurion's word's;

When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.” Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well.

The Lord Jesus was deeply moved upon hearing the centurion's discourse on the nature of authority and his deduction that Jesus' miraculous power worked on the same principle.

Jesus, speaking to the crowd, said that even in Israel, He had not encountered the level of faith demonstrated by the centurion.

The centurion understood that supernatural power, being a function of spiritual authority, did not need the physical presence of Jesus to be carried out.

His message to the Lord was,  "say the word, and my servant will be healed." He was humble before the Lord but he also knew that the issuance of the word by a person under authority and carrying authority was enough for the word to be obeyed in the spirit so that the healing miracle was carried out.

The centurion's servant was healed by the great faith of the centurion without Jesus being present.

Amen.

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