Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan says it plainly, “To believe, suspend disbelief.” The church fathers said the same thing, that is, until you suspend disbelief, you can never believe. Faith is not a feeling but a conscious choice. We choose to believe. And if we do not choose, we will never believe. So Faith begins with the conscious choice to suspend disbelief, to open the door to what might be that has never been before. This is especially true if we need a miracle in our lives. With God in the equation there is nothing impossible.
Luke 7:1-10 shares with us an incident of what faith is. The picture here is of an unusual man displaying an extraordinary faith in a extraordinary manner. The story is about Jesus, the Centurion and his slave. From Mathew and Luke we know the following facts about the slave of the centurion: He was a young man at the point of death, paralyzed and in great pain. No name, no cause or kind of disease mentioned. Jesus never saw him nor did the centurion introduce him. It is only a miracle that can save him so the centurion comes to Jesus. A miracle was needed so Jesus was approached.
The centurion was the captain of a 100 soldiers. He lived in Capernaum, a small fishing village on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. The Centurions were the back bone of the Roman army.
The centurion had a slave whom he highly regarded. This was rare indeed. In the Roman Empire, slaves had no rights. They could be mistreated and even put to death. One ancient writer commented that “when your animals are old, you throw them out to die. You do the same with your slaves.”
So this is the first surprising thing about this story—that a Roman centurion would care so much about his slave.
Second surprising thing that we see is that the centurion sends a Jewish delegation to Jesus, who speaks very highly of the centurion (v 2). In reality the Jews and Romans had nothing to do with each other. But the centurion was different; he loved the Jewish nation and had proved this by building a Synagogue (VV 4, 5). This is like someone paying 10 Lakh rupees to build church a church for us. He would be a hero. The Jews said that if anyone deserves to be helped by you, this is the man (v 4).
Thirdly, Jesus’ journey was surprising because he did not have to go, he did not owe the centurion anything, even the man’s worthiness was not sufficient reason to take the journey. But Jesus was willing to go. This is the third unusual thing.
The fourth surprising thing is that the centurion did not allow Jesus to enter his home. He said he was unworthy (VV 6-7). Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you” (vv. 6-7).
The Jewish delegation said he was worthy but in his own eyes he was unworthy for Jesus’ visit. He was full of humility and had great faith, —“Lord, just say the word and my servant will be healed.” (vv 6-8). The reason for this faith is seen in v. 8. 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.”
The centurion knew very little about who Jesus was. He certainly knew about his background, teaching and miracles. But he definitely did not know that Jesus was the Son of God, God the Creator. But he saw Jesus and his word to be absolutely authoritative. He realized that Jesus’ speaking would suffice and bring healing and wholeness to his slave.
There are only two instances when Jesus was amazed, in this story and in Mark 6:6 because of the people of Nazareth’s unbelief. This was the fifth surprising thing, the centurion’s faith: When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel” (v. 9). The surprisingness of the faith was because this man was a gentile. What amazes Jesus is faith which is impudent, brazen and astonishing. It is not our background, education, power, connections or position but our faith.
Two things we take away from here: 1. Faith works when we come to God acknowledging our unworthiness. 2. Faith works when we are willing to risk embarrassment and failure because we have full confidence in God that he knows what he is doing.
Rev. Shamsher Bahadur Singh
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