Faith Comes In Strange Packages

This morning I want us to look at a little vignette in scripture found in the 8th chapter of the book of Matthew... This is the second of three miracles that Matthew records just in this chapter. Three separate occasions where our Savior did the miraculous, where he displayed his divinity, where He healed infirmity, disability and disease...in the midst of the darkness, doubt and despair of the crowds who gathered around him.

The particular healing that we’re concerning ourselves with today, is one that involves a Roman centurion who asks for healing for his manservant who was paralyzed and in great pain.

Let’s read the account together beginning in verse 5.

PRAY

Wow! There is so much here packed into these 8 verses:

The first thing I want us to take note of is the person asking for the miracle was a Roman Centurion.

A Roman centurion was often a career military officer who was responsible for 80-100 soldiers under his command. Often the sons of Roman Senators or powerful figures would begin their careers at this level.

Let me point out a few things that should be fairly obvious to us, but it bears pointing out...

#1. The Centurion was part of the military. This is important because the Jews despised the Romans and they greatly resented Rome’s presence and intrusion into their lives. The Romans were a heathen nation, filled with gentiles who often mistreated the Jews and caused trouble for them.

And this is important for us to understand because I want it to teach us an important lesson about the way Jesus views people...and how different his view often is from our own...

Jesus sees souls...he sees hearts, thoughts and intentionsHe sees a person’s true self, the reflection of what is hidden in the deepest recesses of one’s heart...We only see outward things like class, rank, social and economic status, political affiliation and social media standing...Jesus had a way of seeing past the exterior things that we often get stuck on, so that he could meet an individual at the point of their greatest need...As for us... we often are so distracted by what we see, that we don’t take the time to discover the true person behind the opinion or the facade, which causes us to write off a great deal of people, when what we should be doing is learning how to love them in spite of our differences.

Listen to me...if there was ever a time for Christian to learn to view others through the lens of Jesus and love others with the agape love of Christ, that time is NOW.

I don’t need to remind you how utterly divided we are as a nation. We are split right down the middle on just about every single front - economics, politics, fashion, music, entertainment. You name it, and we can find a way to disagree on it.

If you’ve checked out social media this week, I’m sure you’ve noticed the way that we attack and malign others who don’t look like us, who don’t think like us, who don’t vote like us or believe like us...

Understand that this is incredibly IMMORAL AND WRONG!

Vilifying, degrading, demoralizing and outride attacking other people because of their beliefs is not only inherently wrong and sinful it is a slippery slope that will eventually lead to our destruction as a nation!

What has always made America a great nation to live in was that we were considered a melting pot of people, ideas and lifestyles. That didn’t mean that we thought the same, voted the same or lived our everyday lives the same, but that we gave everyone the right to co -exist and live under the banner of freedom - free from the tyranny of being squeezed into any particular mold or shape.

How sad and tragic it is to see what our nation has become...to see how divided and angry we are at one another. This shouldn’t be! There is far more than unites us than divides us. There is far more that agree on than what we disagree on. And as Christians, the banner that we wave should not be our political affiliations, the banner that we should wave should be the love and grace found in the Cross of Christ.

I want to challenge you to ask the Lord to show you how he sees the people all around you. He sees past their bumper stickers, and their politics so the he can see their souls, hear the cries of their hearts and meet their deepest needs.

You and I have got to learn to do the same. It may not look like it, but there is a great harvest field of souls that is ripe for the reaping, yet we are too busy arguing and fighting to see that those who oppose us are merely souls in need of God’s saving grace!

Look at verse 6... “Lord my young servant lies in bed, paralyzed and in terrible pain.”

Of all those who came to Jesus in the scripture asking for a miracle, most of them were asking for themselves or for their children, for a close personal friend. This is the only instance of someone coming to Jesus on behalf of their servant.

Now we have to recognize that times were different back then. Slavery was part of everyday life. We know that slavery is wrong. Scripture sought to liberate all of mankind from slavery, but it also recognized it as a present reality and sought to turn the very concept on its head by commanding masters to love and care for their salves in a way that would make the salve want to serve the master.

And while many masters treated their servant harshly. While many of them mistreated, abused, took advantage of their slave labor and viewed them more as property than as people. This Roman Centurion, certainly did not.

He had true compassion and concern and dare we say -profound love - for his servant. SO much so, that he was willing to step out of his comfort zone, to align himself with Christ and ask for Help and healing.

This was an unbelievable act of courage in and of itself. The Romans despised the Jews. They thought of them as rubbish and trash, as a nuisance to deal with rather than a people group to respect and admire. So when this military officer approached Jesus on this particular afternoon, it was a really big deal. The Roman nation wasn’t concerned with Religion, they were concerned wiht power and dominance and control.

So to watch this particular officer walk up to Jesus and ask him for a miracle was almost a miracle in and of itself.

What a great reminder that we can’t judge a book by its cover. That we can’t allow our assumptions and prejudices to color our view of others.

Jesus certainly never did that. And with His help, we can learn to do it as well.

Look at Jesus’ response to the Centurion in verse 7. “I will come and heal him.”

This might even surprise some of us. Right? In today’s vitriolic atmosphere, we would almost expect a Jewish teacher or leader to scream, “who do YOU think you are coming to ME and asking ME for ANYTHING? Get out of here. Go back to Rome. You are a heathen - a gentile - a dirty dog. I wouldn’t even think of defiling myself by speaking with you.

Ohhh but not my Jesus. He crosses the political divide...He crosses the social/economic barrier...he offers to ceremonially defile himself in order to go the Centurion’s home and heal his servant.

This is where we expect the Centurion to say. “Great! That would be awesome. Let me show you the way...”

But he doesn’t say that. In fact, what he is about to say completely amazes and astonishes Jesus.

Look with me at verse 8” Lord I am NOT WORTHY to have you come into my home. Just say the word from where you are, and my servant will be healed. I know this because I am under the authority of my superior officers, and I have authority over my soldiers. I only need to say ‘go’ and they go or ‘come’ and they come. And if I say to my salves ‘do this’ they do it.”

Verse 10 “When Jesus heard this He was AMAZED” NLT

KJV He marveledCEV He was so surprisedTPT He was astonished

Why? Because he hadn’t seen faith like this in ALL OF ISRAEL!

This Gentile...this unclean dog...this representative of Rome’s military presence, revealed and displayed greater faith than ANYONE in ISRAEL...and that included the Lord’s disciples as well.

This was such an intense AHA moment, that Jesus chooses to captilize on it to teach the Jews a lesson....

“I tell you the truth, I haven’t seen faith like this in all Israel! I and I tell you this that many Gentiles will come from all over the world - from east and west - and sit down wiht Abraham and Isaac and Jacob at the feat in the kingdom of Heave. But many Israelites - those for whom the kingdom was prepared - will be thrown into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

WOW!

Understand...we are the gentiles. We are the outsiders who have been graciously invite to share in the great banquet feast in Heaven with Jesus. And because of this, IT IS OUR RESPONSIBILITY to welcome and invite and treat those who we consider to be outsiders and different and unlikely candidates for salvation- it is our DUTY to invest ourselves into them so that they, too, can experience the love and the grace and mercy of God!

Verse 13 “Go back home. Because you believe, it has happened.” And the young servant was healed that same hour.

KJV ‘ As thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee

MSG- What you believe could happen has happened

CEV- Your faith has made it happen

TPT- All that you have believed for will be done for you

THe centurion believed that all Jesus had to do was say it, and it would be done just as he said...

- there was no need for Jesus to come to his house

the authority Jesus possessed was enough

The question then becomes, are we willing to believe that Jesus truly has the authority ro so what we ask him to do?

Do we truly believe that he is able to transform our lives, kill of our sin, enact change, release revival, save our nation, usher our church into a new era of relevance and effectivensss?

If we can believe it...He can release it.

“ALL that you have believe for will be done for you.”

We’ve already begun to see God move on behalf of our faith. We’ve seen him heal cancer, We’ve witnessed him call his weary servants home, we’ve experienced his miraculous provision in the face of our lack

But what more could He do if we simply dared to believe?What strongholds in our lives could HE break?What new opportunity could he bring about>How much more could he transform us into His image and likeness?

His words declares that “we have not, be values we ask not.”

What we lack in this world of Jesus, is a result of our inability or unwillingness to ask him to do...

Oh that God would grant us the boldness and the faith to believe. That he would grant us the confidence to ask...