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. 

Matthew 8:13 

Christ recognizes, commands, and rewards faith in Him. In our text, we see His response to the faith of the Roman centurion. The man had such a high estimation of Christ, he believed that all Christ had to do was speak a word and his paralyzed servant would recover. He actively discouraged Christ from coming to his house when He offered. Rather, all he wanted was a word from Him. Christ marveled at the greatness of this faith, in His estimation, greater than any He had encountered in Israel. Christ would not ignore this faith but, would commend it and reward it. The man received his desire, and Christ received the glory. We have every reason to have as much faith in Christ as the centurion did. We have the whole Bible to show us Christ. We have even greater reason to have confidence in the power of His word. We already know more about Christ than the centurion did on the day. Therefore, if Christ rewarded his faith, we have every reason to believe He can give us faith that is what He will commend and reward. Everything we know of Christ should increase our faith. He is as good as His word, and ‘they shall not be ashamed that wait for Me.’ We long to hear from Him, ‘so let it be.’ 

Great God of wonders,
we rejoice in the power of Your word.
We praise You that You are ever proving Yourself
to be as good as Your word to us.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

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. But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 

Matthew 8:11-12 

What are we to understand about the ‘sons of the kingdom’ to whom Christ refers in our text? He was speaking to a gentile. He was saying that many ‘from east and west,’ that is non-Israelites, would come to sit down with the fathers of the faithful in the kingdom. He contrasts that group with, ‘the sons of the kingdom,’ who would be ‘cast out.’ What does He mean? Israel had an abundance of revelation regarding Christ. As He said of the Old Testament Scriptures, ‘They are they which testify of Me.’ Israel had the first opportunity to hear Christ and to receive Him. While the common people heard Him gladly, the princes of the nation, ‘the sons of the kingdom,’ did not. They were the erudite, conservative, purveyors of formal, hypocritical religion. Their counterparts, the priestly class, were making astronomical amounts of money from religion by the way they ran the Temple. Thus, these people and those who sided with them, had a vested interest in opposing Christ and all He said. They would ignore all the ancient prophecies that revealed Christ. They would not believe Him or in Him. Thus, they sealed their own doom. Christ receives believers of every kingdom, tongue and tribe. Those who refuse Him, do damage to themselves.  

Our Gracious God and our Savior, 
we rejoice that You give an abundant revelation of Yourself. 
We praise You that You make it available 
to all who will receive it.  

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

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. But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 

Matthew 8:11-12 

Christ’s saving work is a large work. On the night before He went to the cross, as He instituted the communion feast, He said His blood was shed ‘for many.’ The scene in Revelation describes ‘a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues standing before the throne….’ In our text, He is standing before a Roman centurion, a gentile, and in the midst of His exchange, He uses the words before us. This hints at the broadness of the plan of salvation. When Christ said, ‘many will come, from east and west,’ He is indicating what is ‘many’ to Him. We perhaps thinks of ‘many’ in very different terms. Christ’s ‘many’ is a huge number. In fact, if in all things He must have the first place, there is good reason to believe there will be more saved than lost. This is tremendously encouraging for anyone who seeks to make much of Christ in the hopes that others will embrace Him as the Gospel offers Him. We have confidence in the plan of God. We believe that ‘many will shall come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.’ It is utterly worthwhile for us to proclaim Christ and to pray for those around us to believe. He will do His saving work and bring many.  

Our Gracious, Sovereign God, 
we rejoice at the broadness of Your plan of salvation. 
We praise You that it extends to all peoples 
over all the earth, in every generation. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

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. 

Matthew 8:10 

Christ appreciates great faith in Him. In the text before us, He speaks in glowing terms of the great faith of the centurion who had said that only a word from Christ would be all that was necessary to heal his paralyzed servant. Christ responded to this statement with the words before us. When He passed this remark, He was elevating the status of the faith of a Roman soldier of the occupying Imperial army above anything He and had found in Israel, God’s chosen people. This would have jolted His audience. They would never have expected Christ to be so complimentary toward a gentile. Thus, we see that Christ gives faith to unlikely people and then appreciates their exercise of it. We may be members of a despised demographic. We may not be part of the prevailing ‘in’ crowd. This does not stop us from having faith in Christ and exercising that faith in tangible ways. The centurion rested upon the bare word of Christ. He required nothing more than a word from the Word. It would satisfy him and meet his need. If he could rely on the word of Christ, we can as well. Christ is as good as His word.  

Our Gracious Master and our God, 
we rejoice that You are utterly worthy of our faith. 
We praise You, that as we trust in You, 
You bring everything to pass that rewards our faith. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

And Jesus said to him, I will come and heal him. 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.  

Matthew 8:7-9 

The centurion who appealed to Christ to heal his paralyzed servant had great faith in the power of Christ’s word. As a Roman soldier, he was used to giving orders and following them. He understood the power of the word of someone in authority. His estimation of Christ was such that he considered only a word to be necessary to heal his servant. Beyond that, he was uncharacteristically humble for an officer of Rome’s occupying army. His attitude was, ‘I am not worthy that you should come under my roof.’ Like the Canaanite woman whose faith in Christ was also great, this man approached Christ with true humility, and implicit faith in the power of His word. We can both admire the faith of this man and learn from it. Christ has made promises to us. He has given His word. What more do we need to do than to approach Him in humility, asking Him to fulfill His word to us? If this man had such faith in Christ, that he would depend upon His bare word, how much more can we, whom He has already redeemed by free and sovereign grace, depend on the word of Him, Who is the Living Word.  

O, Glorious, Living Word of God, 
we rejoice that You are truth, and speak truth. 
We praise You that we can utterly rely upon Your Word, 
and the power of it. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning