Big Healing Book - Matthew 8:5-13

Matthew 8:5-13:

And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him,

And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.

And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him.

The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.

For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.

When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.

And I say to you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.

But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.

Notes on Matthew 8:5-13:

Here was a man who understood authority. He was under authority and he had people under him. He believed that Jesus had authority over disease and received a healing for a servant at home. There were two rarities in this story. The man believed and received a healing for someone else, and a Gentile received a healing even though technically healing did not yet belong to the Gentiles.

While many had faith, this man had great faith. So what characterized his “great” faith? He was willing to believe the word of the Lord. If the Lord said it, that was good enough for him. He needed no visible sign that anything had changed.

Although Matthew’s account taken by itself would leave the impression that the centurion was having a direct conversation with Jesus, we know from Luke’s account (Luke 7:2-10) that he actually carried out the conversation with Jesus indirectly first through elders and later though his friends. Luke provided some extra detail that Matthew did not provide. We see different details in different gospels and sometimes you need to read all the different accounts to get the complete picture, as is the case for the details of Christ’s resurrection and what was written to describe Him on the cross. This does not mean that the Bible contradicts itself. It only means that different accounts fill in different details to create one whole picture. That is why there are four gospels instead of only one!

From a biblical perspective, as well as that of most people, if you send someone to do something, it is still considered your doing. If the centurion sent someone to say something, it was still the centurion saying it as far as Matthew was concerned. Another example of this is that Jesus said that the woman with the spirit of infirmity had been bound by Satan. Yet it was not Satan in person who was afflicting the woman – it was a spirit of infirmity that was doing Satan’s bidding. As far as Jesus was concerned, if a spirit that Satan sent did something, Satan did it, even if he used an intermediary. Yet another example is the statement that the Angel of the Lord spoke to Moses in the burning bush (Exodus 3:2), but Jesus said that God spoke to him in the burning bush passage (Mark 12:26). The same kind of thinking applies here.

A modern equivalent is the statement that Hitler killed millions of Jews. Most people, myself included, have no problem with that statement even though Hitler probably didn’t kill many Jews HIMSELF. He ordered others to do his dirty work. While those who did it were still guilty, I don’t’ know of anyone who would dispute that Hitler did it and bore responsibility for it. He DID do it, but through intermediaries.

We know that God sees things this way because Peter told that Jews that they had killed the Prince of Life (Acts 3:15) even though the Romans were technically the ones who crucified Jesus – at the Jews’ insistence. We also see that the Jews were held responsible in Acts 2:23, Acts 4:10, Acts 5:30, Acts 7:52 and Acts 10:39.

Another example is that Jesus addressed Satan when it was actually Peter speaking. As far as Jesus was concerned, it was Satan speaking even though it was through Peter. (See Matthew 16:22-23.)

The modern claim that Jesus was affirming a homosexual relationship between the centurion and his servant is ridiculous and unfounded. The argument for this claim is that the Greek word pais used by both Matthew and Luke can be used to describe a homosexual lover (though Matthew also uses the more traditional Greek word doulos to describe Him as a servant). However, there is not one instance in the Bible where pais refers to a homosexual lover. On multiple occasions Jesus is referred to as God’s pais and I would hope that no one would ever blaspheme by claiming that Jesus is God’s homosexual lover. Of course, Scripture (the written Word) clearly condemns homosexual activity, so there is no way that Jesus (the living Word) would ever contradict the written Word.