A soldier’s faith! -- Matthew 8:5-13
A soldier’s faith! -- Matthew 8:5-13
By Pastor Lee Hemen
July 7, 2019
What kind of discipline do you display in life? I have a sister who never saw a shoe store she couldn’t pass by or for that matter a jewelry display she would not stop for. For me it used to be bookstores. However self-discipline is a good thing and is why the military focuses on it so much. They want soldiers who will follow orders and are disciplined enough to be able to handle anything that is thrown their way during a conflict. In fact they are trained to act as a team and to depend on one another.
Jesus desired that his followers learn how to not only have faith in him but also to have faith in one another because he knew their future was going to be tough. And here in this depiction of an incident that Jesus has with a Roman centurion teaches about what it means to have faith in him and to have the willingness to follow Jesus wherever he leads. Let’s take a look at a soldier’s faith…
READ: Matthew 8:5-13
The way Jesus handles the Roman centurion’s faith teaches us that…
I. We have to be willing to see beyond a person’s exterior! (Vv. 5-7)
When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering.” Jesus said to him, “I will go and heal him.”
1. It is interesting but first it is a leper who comes to Jesus for healing and now it is a Roman centurion! The Jewish people hated the Romans and there were constant uprisings against them and constant repercussions by the ruling Roman authority. And it occurred “When Jesus had entered Capernaum” a major Jewish town where Jesus lived and went out from to do his ministry that “a centurion came to him, asking for help.” We know that Pontius Pilate used extreme measures to quell any threat to Roman authority. In describing Pilate’s personality, Philo (a first century Greek historian) writes that Pilate had “vindictiveness and furious temper”, and was “naturally inflexible, a blend of self-will and relentlessness”. Referring to Pilate's governance, Philo further describes “his corruption, and his acts of insolence, and his rapine (taking other’s property by force), and his habit of insulting people, and his cruelty, and his continual murders of people untried and uncondemned, and his never ending, and gratuitous, and most grievous inhumanity”. So we understand that the Hebrew people did not like the Romans who occupied their nation. And here this Roman commander comes to Jesus! “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering.” Now wait a minute, you mean to tell me that a Roman soldier who is in command of 100 men is coming to an itinerant Jewish rabbi for help? And we learn it is for a servant no less? In his actions and words we learn a few things about this Roman: 1) He was compassionate (his servant was in “terrible suffering”), 2) He fully understood who he needed to go to for help (Jesus), and 3) he was humble enough that went himself into a major Jewish town and did not send an underling! I believe Jesus saw all of this in this man as well and responds to him by immediately telling him, “I will go and heal him.” Like Jesus, we have to be willing to see beyond a person’s exterior!
EXAMPLE: The tough question here is: Can I see beyond the outward appearance of the person? George Washington seems cold and aloof. Yet he served without pay as General of a ragtag Army against the might of the British military. Fiery in temper, he rarely displayed it; he held everyone in high regard with honor and wept over his soldiers. Kids today are likely to spend school time listing “10 things I like about myself” while young Washington, in contrast, diligently copied 110 “Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior” into his lesson book! Washington was known to pray often. Here Jesus teaches us that we have to be willing to see beyond a person’s exterior!
What we may see on the outside is not the actual person inside and here Jesus teaches us that…
II. We have to be willing to understand a person’s interior! (Vv. 8-9)
The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just 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.”
1. Gauging what’s in a person’s heart is often hard to do but God never asks us to do that. Rather, we can listen and be attentive and deduce by why a person does what they do or says what they say and come to a pretty good conclusion. And further we can ask the Holy Spirit for guidance! Jesus promised “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. (John 16:13 NIV)” Far too often we rely on our “intuition” when we need to learn from God’s interaction! And in his humanity Jesus does just that! Jesus listens to the Centurion’s words and looks closely at his actions. Notice what Jesus hears: “The centurion replied, ‘Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed.’” This army commander calls Jesus “Lord” meaning here “master”. He recognizes what some people never do: That Jesus is in complete control and in perfect power to do what he desires! Jesus is either the master of our lives or he is not. If he isn’t then he cannot and will not work in our lives until we are willing to become his servant. The Centurion understood all Jesus had to do was “say the word” and his “servant” would “be healed”! A Roman army officer was willing to become a servant in order for his slave to be healed! And notice he tells Jesus exactly why he believes this to be true: “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.” You see, there it is, Jesus sees that this man understood the command structure and because he does he understood how God works in the lives of those who willingly place themselves under his command! This rugged Roman Centurion was fully exposed to Jesus from his inside out! Jesus understood what made him tick because he listened and was attentive to the Centurion’s need. Like Jesus, we have to be willing to understand a person’s interior!
EXAMPLE: The tough question here is: Who controls my life? We all have comfort zones we do not like to leave. Benjamin Franklin drew up a list of 13 virtues he wished to acquire, and a program for practicing them. “I was surprised,” Franklin wrote later, “to find myself so much fuller of faults than I had imagined; but I had the satisfaction of seeing them diminish.” It is safe to stay inside our self-built walls. Yet if we are going to reach this generation with the good news of Jesus we must be willing to take a hard look at ourselves. Like Jesus, we have to be willing to understand a person’s interior!
Who controls our lives says a lot about who we follow and taking a hard look at one’s self can be tough. But here we learn from Jesus that…
III. We may need to give ourselves a kick in the posterior! (Vv. 10-13)
When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, “I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! It will be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that very hour.
1. Can you imagine what Jesus’ disciple thought? What about the crowd who now followed his every move, I wonder how they responded to Jesus’ willingness to hear and act on the behalf of a Roman? Yet we also discover that Jesus in his humanity could be surprised and “When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, ‘I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.’” Say what? Jesus is delightfully surprised by the man’s explanation. How cool is that! So much so he admits he had not seen the same kind of faith out of his own people! And Jesus bluntly tells the crowd and his followers, “I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.” The promised feast that all Jews longed for and looked forward to! “But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Say it isn’t so! Basically Jesus is kicking them in the pants with is words! He is telling them that this hated Roman Soldier has more faith than any of them and that “many” of them “will come from the east and the west” to take their “places at the [future] feast with [their Father] Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” [Patriarchs all] but they the “subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside”! They will be punished for their unbelief! For their unwillingness to become Jesus’ servants! Remember Jesus had just gotten through telling the crowd “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 7:21 NIV)” In fact he would never know them but he would know this Roman centurion! Jesus teaches us that we may need to give ourselves a kick in the posterior!
EXAMPLE: The tough question here is: Do I need a swift kick in my bottom to get me to do what I know I need to do? Habeas corpus is recourse in law whereby a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment before a court. President Lincoln suspended it during the Civil War. John Merryman, a state legislator from Maryland, incurred Lincoln’s wrath and was arrested for attempting to hinder Union troops from moving from Baltimore to Washington during the Civil War and was held by Union troops. He immediately sought a writ of habeas corpus. However, President Lincoln decided not allow it because he felt state legislators were trying to hinder his ability to effectively fight the war. Lincoln decided to give them a “swift kick” to gain their attention. It worked even though five years later the Supreme Court ruled that only Congress could suspend habeas corpus. Here in Matthew’s account we learn that we may need to give ourselves a kick in the posterior!
Conclusion:
We have to be willing to see beyond a person’s exterior! We have to be willing to understand a person’s interior! We may need to give ourselves a kick in the posterior!
---
This article is copyrighted © 2019 by Lee Hemen and is the sole property of Lee Hemen, and may not be used unless you quote the entire article and have my permission.
By Pastor Lee Hemen
July 7, 2019
What kind of discipline do you display in life? I have a sister who never saw a shoe store she couldn’t pass by or for that matter a jewelry display she would not stop for. For me it used to be bookstores. However self-discipline is a good thing and is why the military focuses on it so much. They want soldiers who will follow orders and are disciplined enough to be able to handle anything that is thrown their way during a conflict. In fact they are trained to act as a team and to depend on one another.
Jesus desired that his followers learn how to not only have faith in him but also to have faith in one another because he knew their future was going to be tough. And here in this depiction of an incident that Jesus has with a Roman centurion teaches about what it means to have faith in him and to have the willingness to follow Jesus wherever he leads. Let’s take a look at a soldier’s faith…
READ: Matthew 8:5-13
The way Jesus handles the Roman centurion’s faith teaches us that…
I. We have to be willing to see beyond a person’s exterior! (Vv. 5-7)
When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering.” Jesus said to him, “I will go and heal him.”
1. It is interesting but first it is a leper who comes to Jesus for healing and now it is a Roman centurion! The Jewish people hated the Romans and there were constant uprisings against them and constant repercussions by the ruling Roman authority. And it occurred “When Jesus had entered Capernaum” a major Jewish town where Jesus lived and went out from to do his ministry that “a centurion came to him, asking for help.” We know that Pontius Pilate used extreme measures to quell any threat to Roman authority. In describing Pilate’s personality, Philo (a first century Greek historian) writes that Pilate had “vindictiveness and furious temper”, and was “naturally inflexible, a blend of self-will and relentlessness”. Referring to Pilate's governance, Philo further describes “his corruption, and his acts of insolence, and his rapine (taking other’s property by force), and his habit of insulting people, and his cruelty, and his continual murders of people untried and uncondemned, and his never ending, and gratuitous, and most grievous inhumanity”. So we understand that the Hebrew people did not like the Romans who occupied their nation. And here this Roman commander comes to Jesus! “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering.” Now wait a minute, you mean to tell me that a Roman soldier who is in command of 100 men is coming to an itinerant Jewish rabbi for help? And we learn it is for a servant no less? In his actions and words we learn a few things about this Roman: 1) He was compassionate (his servant was in “terrible suffering”), 2) He fully understood who he needed to go to for help (Jesus), and 3) he was humble enough that went himself into a major Jewish town and did not send an underling! I believe Jesus saw all of this in this man as well and responds to him by immediately telling him, “I will go and heal him.” Like Jesus, we have to be willing to see beyond a person’s exterior!
EXAMPLE: The tough question here is: Can I see beyond the outward appearance of the person? George Washington seems cold and aloof. Yet he served without pay as General of a ragtag Army against the might of the British military. Fiery in temper, he rarely displayed it; he held everyone in high regard with honor and wept over his soldiers. Kids today are likely to spend school time listing “10 things I like about myself” while young Washington, in contrast, diligently copied 110 “Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior” into his lesson book! Washington was known to pray often. Here Jesus teaches us that we have to be willing to see beyond a person’s exterior!
What we may see on the outside is not the actual person inside and here Jesus teaches us that…
II. We have to be willing to understand a person’s interior! (Vv. 8-9)
The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just 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.”
1. Gauging what’s in a person’s heart is often hard to do but God never asks us to do that. Rather, we can listen and be attentive and deduce by why a person does what they do or says what they say and come to a pretty good conclusion. And further we can ask the Holy Spirit for guidance! Jesus promised “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. (John 16:13 NIV)” Far too often we rely on our “intuition” when we need to learn from God’s interaction! And in his humanity Jesus does just that! Jesus listens to the Centurion’s words and looks closely at his actions. Notice what Jesus hears: “The centurion replied, ‘Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed.’” This army commander calls Jesus “Lord” meaning here “master”. He recognizes what some people never do: That Jesus is in complete control and in perfect power to do what he desires! Jesus is either the master of our lives or he is not. If he isn’t then he cannot and will not work in our lives until we are willing to become his servant. The Centurion understood all Jesus had to do was “say the word” and his “servant” would “be healed”! A Roman army officer was willing to become a servant in order for his slave to be healed! And notice he tells Jesus exactly why he believes this to be true: “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.” You see, there it is, Jesus sees that this man understood the command structure and because he does he understood how God works in the lives of those who willingly place themselves under his command! This rugged Roman Centurion was fully exposed to Jesus from his inside out! Jesus understood what made him tick because he listened and was attentive to the Centurion’s need. Like Jesus, we have to be willing to understand a person’s interior!
EXAMPLE: The tough question here is: Who controls my life? We all have comfort zones we do not like to leave. Benjamin Franklin drew up a list of 13 virtues he wished to acquire, and a program for practicing them. “I was surprised,” Franklin wrote later, “to find myself so much fuller of faults than I had imagined; but I had the satisfaction of seeing them diminish.” It is safe to stay inside our self-built walls. Yet if we are going to reach this generation with the good news of Jesus we must be willing to take a hard look at ourselves. Like Jesus, we have to be willing to understand a person’s interior!
Who controls our lives says a lot about who we follow and taking a hard look at one’s self can be tough. But here we learn from Jesus that…
III. We may need to give ourselves a kick in the posterior! (Vv. 10-13)
When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, “I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! It will be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that very hour.
1. Can you imagine what Jesus’ disciple thought? What about the crowd who now followed his every move, I wonder how they responded to Jesus’ willingness to hear and act on the behalf of a Roman? Yet we also discover that Jesus in his humanity could be surprised and “When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, ‘I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.’” Say what? Jesus is delightfully surprised by the man’s explanation. How cool is that! So much so he admits he had not seen the same kind of faith out of his own people! And Jesus bluntly tells the crowd and his followers, “I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.” The promised feast that all Jews longed for and looked forward to! “But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Say it isn’t so! Basically Jesus is kicking them in the pants with is words! He is telling them that this hated Roman Soldier has more faith than any of them and that “many” of them “will come from the east and the west” to take their “places at the [future] feast with [their Father] Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” [Patriarchs all] but they the “subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside”! They will be punished for their unbelief! For their unwillingness to become Jesus’ servants! Remember Jesus had just gotten through telling the crowd “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 7:21 NIV)” In fact he would never know them but he would know this Roman centurion! Jesus teaches us that we may need to give ourselves a kick in the posterior!
EXAMPLE: The tough question here is: Do I need a swift kick in my bottom to get me to do what I know I need to do? Habeas corpus is recourse in law whereby a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment before a court. President Lincoln suspended it during the Civil War. John Merryman, a state legislator from Maryland, incurred Lincoln’s wrath and was arrested for attempting to hinder Union troops from moving from Baltimore to Washington during the Civil War and was held by Union troops. He immediately sought a writ of habeas corpus. However, President Lincoln decided not allow it because he felt state legislators were trying to hinder his ability to effectively fight the war. Lincoln decided to give them a “swift kick” to gain their attention. It worked even though five years later the Supreme Court ruled that only Congress could suspend habeas corpus. Here in Matthew’s account we learn that we may need to give ourselves a kick in the posterior!
Conclusion:
We have to be willing to see beyond a person’s exterior! We have to be willing to understand a person’s interior! We may need to give ourselves a kick in the posterior!
---
This article is copyrighted © 2019 by Lee Hemen and is the sole property of Lee Hemen, and may not be used unless you quote the entire article and have my permission.
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