Midweek Sermon on Matthew 8:5 1/28/21
7 And Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.”
8 The centurion answered and said, “Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
10 When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, “Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel! 11 And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you.” And his servant was healed that same hour.
When the centurion comes to Jesus, He doesn’t ask Him anything. He simply states his need. Lord, my servant is sick with the palsy, grievously tormented. He simply presents the miserable condition of his servant to Jesus. He doesn’t ask Him to come to his house. He doesn’t ask him to heal him. He only presents the pathetic suffering of his servant to the Lord Jesus. He’s lying paralyzed and is terrifyingly tortured. That is the right translation. The Centurion is a soldier. He knows suffering when he sees it. He has seen blood and gore. He has heard the screams of the wounded and dying. He has likely felt a lot of pain himself. So his description is not an exaggeration. On the contrary, we see that the Centurion loves his servant, and that he himself is distressed by the frightening agony in which his servant lies.
And so he simply tells Jesus what is going on. He tells Jesus his servant’s pain, and with it his own pain.
He doesn’t even ask Jesus anything. He just tells Him. He knows that He will do something. He knows that His heart is filled with pity. He knows that Jesus has power over this paralyzing power that is stronger than a veteran soldier. He knows that when no one else can do something, Jesus not only can, but wants to help him and his servant. Jesus has never met him, but He knows Jesus from the Gospel he has heard about him. This is the faith of the Centurion. Another man, a leper, had said, “Lord, if you are willing, You can make me clean.” The leper had his doubts, but had faith alongside to ask Jesus. But the Centurion has greater faith. He doesn’t ask Jesus anything, because he knows that Jesus will do everything that is needed.
But Jesus still tests even this strong faith. He says, “I will go and heal him.” This is what you would think needs to happen. Jesus needs to be there. We need His presence. That is what we often think faith is, that we need to feel Jesus with us, and God often indulges us in this. He gives us milk to gently feed us. He lets us feel loved, and gives us the joy of knowing that He is near.
But we don’t need to feel Him near. And the Centurion knows this.
The centurion answered and said, “Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
See in what condition this Centurion’s faith blossoms and shows its fruit. The Centurion does not boast of his faith. Instead he said, “Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof.” The power of faith is not in us, but in the promise that faith lays hold of. The power of faith is not in our holiness, not in our being strong Christians – this Centurion seems to have been a recent convert. No this man’s faith was born when he knew he was unworthy of Jesus, when he knew he was a sinner, and this man’s faith showed itself when he knew that he didn’t deserve Jesus.
We all have been under authority and still are. This Centurion understood this well. He had to do what other people told him, and others had to do what he told them. But he had found in Jesus, simply by hearing of Him and His works, someone who could tell sin and disease and death to leave. This is why he calls him Lord. He knows Jesus’ authority and how He uses it. Jesus’ authority is over the worst pain the Centurion had ever seen. It is an authority over grief and sadness, over sin and all its terror and sorrow. It is an authority not only over the paralysis of the body, but over the paralysis of the Centurion’s soul which the word about Jesus which he heard had already healed him of. That terrifying torture that sees the futility and feels the helplessness of not being able to do anything in the face of pain and death and a life lived for sin – this Jesus had authority over and He used His authority to take that torture away. This is the Centurion knew in the midst of all his feelings of unworthiness.
So you are unworthy. Yes, you are. You have ignored the word of life for the works of death. You have paid more attention to your comfort on this earth than to the truth of heaven. You have used authority for your own good and not for the good of another. You have acted like a child of Adam. But here stands the Son of Man in front of you, and He is willing to go to your house and heal all that is wrong in your life. How will you receive Him? Will you rush home and clean things up before He gets there? But what can be clean in a place where a man is being terrifyingly tortured? What need is there to clean the house when we see a greater need? There is no reason to clean yourself up. He knows you’re dirty. He knows you’re unworthy. He knows the pain and the suffering. It is in His heart to remove the cause of all of that. So confess who you are. Recognize it. You are unworthy. Does that make Jesus leave? No, it couldn’t. It is in the knowledge of sin that the soul finds the Savior from sin. It is in the knowledge of our unworthiness that we find that God is worthy of our trust.
So then, poor, unworthy sinner that you are, listen to the Centurion, because his words make Him marvel, at whom the angels marvel. “Only say the word, and my servant shall be healed.”
The power and strength you need is not in your feeling Jesus’ presence near you all the time. The help that you need is not in seeing Jesus, or in having others see you with Him. He is with you, but you do not see Him. He is always with you in His Word. “He sent forth His word and healed them,” the Psalm says. And so it is was for the Centurion, and so it is for us of little faith.
Jesus had not seen such faith, not even in all of Israel. This man who likely didn’t know the Old Testament yet, knew Jesus. He knew his need. He knew he was unworthy. So if you know you are a sinner, do not on that account demand more than you need. You only need His word. . “Those who are well have no need of a Physician, but those who are sick do. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which is lost.”
Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you.” And his servant was healed that same hour.
As you have believed. As you have claimed who Jesus is in His Word. As you have known that this only Son of God is your brother who could never desire your misery, your death, your despair, but has come to ruin all that ruins you, and to exercise an authority greater than any lord or king or president or congress or court. It is the authority He has from eternity, being of one substance with the Father. It is the authority that He earned when he came to the house of man and healed him, when he came to this earth full of misery and sickness and terrifying torture of consciences of those who could not find anything in themselves to make up for their sins, to fend of death, to give purpose and meaning to this life, but Jesus came to the house of death, so that the Scripture might be fulfilled,
“Better to go to the house of mourning Than to go to the house of feasting, For that is the end of all men; And the living will take it to heart.” Ecc. 7:2
So Jesus, the living God, met the end of all men. He went to the house of mourning, not because we asked Him, but because God did. He saw the terror that the Centurion had seen – He didn’t need to go there - but He saw more than that man or we have seen. He saw every sinner running away from God because they had made Him their enemy by being His enemies. He saw how they had no hope and were without God in the world, how every one of us is so weak, with a flesh that loves you more than anyone else, and that is why we are so powerless in the face of what takes life away, that is why, even when faith is in our heart, we often can’t even see our faith in the face of our sins that terrifyingly torture us.
It moved His tender heart to see / This world of sin and misery / In condemnation lying.
And so He earned that authority which no man had, not the Centurion, not you, not me. It is the authority over a troubled conscience, over a heart frightened by sickness and pain and death. It is the authority He earned by feeling this terror of losing God, by knowing the pain of the judgment we deserve, but being the one unworthy to stand before God, because He was clothed in our sins, and He felt every sin with every disease until it all died in His death. And all authority in heaven and earth was given to Him. He rose. He lives with this authority. He speaks with this authority. Dear Lord, only say the word, and Your servant shall be healed.
We are not worthy that He should come under our roof, but He comes. He enters home and heart with the words that are spirit and life. He enters with authority over your own conscience, and he tells you, “Stop listening to the judgment of your own mind, and listen to Me! You don’t have power over your sin. I do. You don’t have power over death. I do. You can’t make one hair of your head white or black, but I can speak into water, and you are washed and made whiter than snow. I can speak from a sinful man, and who is there to condemn you? God has justified, forgiven you. In the very instant, in the very moment when I speak, you are healed, your sin in covered, and your heart is changed from fear to confidence. Faith is born when you are unworthy, but worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive all our praise and thanks.
And love is born from this, a love that comes from faith alone. Not a love that exalts us, but a love that pities as He pities us. A love that comes and lays down at Jesus’ feet our need, knowing that He knows what to do, knowing that His word is what we need, and it is His word alone that heals us.
Hallelujah! to the Lord of lords, to the Crucified who has all authority, who utters His voice and the earth melts, who spoke and the Centurion’s servant was healed, who speaks and my heart is freed from my own wrong thoughts, from the judgment of the Law, from the accusations of the devil, from the threats of death, and He opens my mouth to sing His praise – Only speak a Word, dear Jesus, and your servant shall be healed. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
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