The Centurion

Romans Chapter 8, verses 5 – 13

“… 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’…”

This is the story of a Roman Centurion, the equivalent of a modern day infantry major, who sought Jesus out to ask Jesus to heal his servant. This wasn’t unusual. People followed Jesus around all the time asking Him to fix their problems.

But when Jesus said He would come and heal the servant, the Centurion 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…’. Jesus ‘marveled’ (some translations say Jesus ‘was astonished’) at the man’s faith.

The Centurion, like any good soldier, had done his reconnaissance and had been watching Jesus closely. In doing so, he had made two key discoveries. The first was that Jesus, like himself, was a man under authority. The Centurion served Rome and did what Rome told him to do, with the full backing of the power of the Roman Empire. Anyone who messed with the Centurion messed with Rome itself. Likewise, there was more to Jesus than just the man you could see. Jesus was a man under God’s authority and had the full backing of God. It’s not clear whether or not the Centurion initially realized the truth that Jesus was in fact God in human form, but he certainly recognized that what Jesus did was under the power of God. It was a power that the Centurion realized could be relied upon.

The second thing the Centurion realized, is that Jesus (and God’s power) was not restricted by distance. Jesus did not need to see the servant to heal the servant. He could act long-distance.

Satan doesn’t want us to recognize God’s authority, or His power. He wants us to think of God in frail human terms. When we deploy to dangerous places, Satan would like us to doubt God’s ability to look after us, our families, and our buddies. The Centurion stands as an example, as a serving member of the military, that God can be trusted and that He is not limited by distance. A healthy respect for our environment is always wise in the military, but we do not need to fear it if we have placed ourselves under God’s authority and therefore have access to God’s power through the Holy Spirit. God can look after us just as easily at home or in a combat zone. Nor do we need to allow fear of what is happening at home to distract us from the job at hand. God can guide and equip and protect our families no matter how far we are away from them. We can trust God to have our best interests at heart anywhere we are. We just need to ask Him to take care of things, just as the Centurion did, and He will.

Ask God to have His Holy Spirit stir you up and grow in you the faith of the Centurion so that you, too, might “astonish” God.

Questions to share:

1. Think about things that worry you right now and list them.

2. How many of your concerns are too big for God to handle them?

Hopefully, you will realize that the answer to these two questions is that God is big enough to handle all of your worries! Ask God every day to help you, through the power of His Holy Spirit, to take care of the things you can influence. Then ask God to handle all of the things you can’t influence. Check your list from time to time and see how God is doing! This is how our faith grows—by looking for and seeing God in action.