Matthew 8:5 Commentary and Bible Study

This next miracle brings the focus not so much on the healing, as on the perfect example of faith, the faith of the centurion. The Lord turns this event to account because it is such a great demonstration of faith. The centurion’s faith is so clear that Christ brings it out as the most noteworthy element of the encounter. It presents very interesting possibilities for the preacher to bring out elements of faith which are quite different to what the world imagines faith to be. Although Matthew reports that the man came to Christ with his request, Luke clarifies and tells us that in fact he sent the elders of the Jews on his behalf. Matthew summarises the centurion’s approach, but Luke wants to stress a particular detail of the encounter. This man is so timid that he will not go to Christ himself, and the elders are obliged to go for him, and yet he is set forth as a premier example of faith. Luke’s account is entirely consistent with Matthew’s, and explains how the centurion could come to Christ and yet later (Matthew 8:8) be unwilling for Christ to come under his roof – he had not actually come personally in the first place, but had sent others to represent him. His reluctance to come together with the Lord’s commendation of his faith is a riddle and in the solution to the riddle we will discover what is really meant by faith. The word centurion is used in a broad way, not just literally of a soldier in charge of one hundred men. He was a philanthropist, we learn from Luke: a man of culture, a soldier, well born, with personal wealth. Capernaum was not a small place and it was a most unusual gesture of a Roman officer to build a synagogue for the Jews. This may be the synagogue of which the ruins can still be seen in Capernaum to this day, although that is thought to be a later building on the same site. Clearly he was a religious man and was drawn to the religion of the Jews for they would never have been willing to represent him in this petition otherwise. As a Roman he had been programmed against the idea of the Trinity, of the Son of God coming down to earth. Although Rome gave much liberty to the provinces, in Rome itself you had to follow the established religion. He therefore ran a risk in following another provincial faith. Also his pride would have been against belief in the religion of the Jews. The Roman saw themselves as superior to the Jews. To us, conquest does not mean superiority, but that is what it meant to them. So here is a man in whose heart the Spirit of God is at work to humble and to seek the true God.The centurion no doubt knew the rulers in the area. He would have heard of the nobleman in John 4 who was also from Capernaum and who took a long journey to Cana to find Christ and to plead for the life of his son. He would have heard how Christ had declined the request to come himself, and had insisted that the nobleman return on the basis of Christ’s word alone. The centurion volunteers that Christ should do the same, and displays an even greater level of faith than the nobleman.He doesn’t go himself. Our own explanation for his reluctance to go personally is likely to be wrong; the Lord tells us what this means. We might think it is because he is proud and so he gets someone else to do it for him. But no, it is about his sense of unworthiness. ‘How can I go to this man?’ I will get some of the religious leaders to go for me. They were in fact no better than him, but he did not realise this. Real faith has perspective. It believes who God is. It’s obvious if you do that you feel unfit. If you can go straight into his presence then you have no fear of God.The word ‘beseech’ implies not demanding, but deeply sincere feelingful asking. Matthew tells us that the centurion pleaded with Christ to heal his servant, but Luke explains that it was actually the elders who did this on his behalf, adding arguments of their own which they imagined would tell in his favour.