Jesus is Amazed

THE HEALING OF A CENTURION’S SLAVE

A centurion there had a slave who was ill and about to die, and he was valuable to him. When he heard about Jesus, he sent elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and save the life of his slave. They approached Jesus and strongly urged him to come, saying, “He deserves to have you do this for him, for he loves our nation and he built the synagogue for us.”

And Jesus went with them, but when he was only a short distance from the house, the centurion sent friends to tell him, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof. Therefore, I did not consider myself worthy to come to you; but say the word and let my servant be healed. For I too am a person subject to authority, with soldiers subject to me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come here,’ and he comes; and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard this he was amazed at him and, turning, said to the crowd following him, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” When the messengers returned to the house, they found the slave in good health.

Reflection: True Faith

There are only 2 times in the New Testament that it mentions Jesus was amazed. Once, was in Mark 6. Jesus was in His hometown of Nazareth and, “He was amazed by their lack of faith.” In contrast here, Jesus was amazed by the abundance of the Centurion’s faith. The cause of Jesus’ amazement is 1) Disbelief when there is every reason for belief and 2) Belief when there is every reason for disbelief.

The people of Nazareth, who spent an incredible amount of time with Jesus, refused to acknowledge the truth despite their familiarity with Jesus. On the other hand, the Centurion, who was likely in the service of Herod Antipas, accepts the truth of Jesus.

The lesson of Nazareth is that familiarity with Jesus does not necessarily translate to true faith. We can attend church, know the Bible, and say our prayers before meals, but we can still lack true faith. We must ask ourselves, “Would Jesus be amazed at my faith?”

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