March 30-April 5

Centurion-like Faith
Aaron Green
Ft. Worth, Texas

Luke 7-9 offers many miracles. Most of these miracles involved someone’s faith, some of great faith and some of little faith. A centurion (Gentile), had a sick servant who was about to die. The centurion sent Jewish elders to ask Jesus to come and heal his servant. Then, when Jesus came near his house, the centurion sent some friends to tell Jesus that he was not worthy to have Jesus in his home and Jesus could just say the word and his servant would be healed. Luke reports that Jesus was “amazed” and said to the crowd, “I have not found such great faith even in Israel (7:9).” Where does a non-Jewish military officer, a man who has probably never met or even seen Jesus, find such faith?

Somewhere along the way the centurion became a God-fearing man. In 7:4-5 we learn that the centurion helped build the synagogue. He probably frequented it since he knew the Jewish elders well (well enough for the elders to speak on behalf of the centurion and say to Jesus that the centurion loves our nation and deserves to have his servant healed). Maybe the centurion had heard stories of Jesus’ miracles or even knew someone who had been healed by Jesus. But, how does the centurion believe enough to know that Jesus can not only heal his servant, but know that Jesus does not even need to be near him to do it? In some ways we are similar to the centurion. Most of us reading this are probably God-fearing and attend church somewhere. We have never met or seen Jesus, but all have read and heard of the many miracles in the Bible. Maybe even you or a close friend has experienced a miracle. However, somehow I doubt that we have enough faith to “amaze” those in Heaven.

When it comes to faith, ironically, we are more like the disciples. In 8:22 Jesus decides to move to the other side of the lake. As Jesus and the disciples sailed across, Jesus fell asleep. A sudden storm swept over the lake and pounded the boat. Frantically the disciples woke Jesus screaming, “Master, we’re going to drown!” So Jesus got up, rebuked the wind and waves and all was calm. I picture Jesus with his arms extended, palms facing the sky, a frown on his face and shaking his head sideways as he replies, “Where is your faith?”

The disciples walked and talked with Jesus. They saw tears of joy stream down parents’ faces when their children were raised from the dead (7:11-16, 8:40-56). They witnessed demons call Jesus by name (8:28) shortly before he drove them out and the peace that remained after the demons were gone (8:26-38, 9:37-43). They experienced an endless supply of fish and bread as they fed the five thousand (9:10-17). And yet, their faith washed overboard in the storm.

Doesn’t that sound like us? We have the same advantage over the centurion as the disciples. We know how Jesus' life on earth began and how it ended. We understand when Jesus references his own death (9:44). We have enough of Jesus’ stories and teachings as told by those near Jesus to prove he was more than a prophet. We know Jesus is the son of God just as the disciples did (9:20). Our faith is strong when things are going well, but when our world gets tossed about, so does our faith.

This happens because we are so far removed in time and space from the world in which Jesus lived that we don’t need God anymore. We have the mighty U.S. Armed Forces to protect our freedom. With our doctors and advanced medicine we can cure diseases on our own and replace lost or damaged limbs with prosthetics. We do not need faith to move mountains anymore because we can do it ourselves with technology and machinery. All these things act like smoke and mirrors. They mask God’s true supremacy. We look around and marvel at the great things we have done and do not realize that God plays such a large role. We believe that we have accomplished all these things on our own. Who needs God?

The best way I’ve found to shift our faith from this world and back to God is to immerse ourselves in Jesus’ time period through the Bible, biblical commentaries, history books or even visit the places discussed in the Bible (having the Bible on my IPOD so I can listen to it on my way to work or working around the house is a big help). We need to understand and remember what it was like back then and remember that Jesus did not have crutches (doctors, medicine, technology, etc…) when he performed miracles. He had power. In order to have “centurion-like” faith we need to remember that God is still in control, so when our crutches fail (and they will fail us eventually) that we have the faith to remain standing.

[Aaron Green is married to Jennifer Green and has three children. He obtained his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Florida and is currently a Schlumberger (oilfield) log analyst in downtown Ft. Worth, TX. He and his family attend Legacy Church of Christ in North Richland Hills, TX]