Matthew 8:9 Commentary and Bible Study

This a most remarkable answer, and a very personal expression of this man’s faith. He speaks in unique terms found nowhere else in Scripture, but in words which express precisely what he understands Christ’s authority to be. Christ marvels at the centurion’s words because they are evidence of great faith, and faith is something which he loves to see because it is a gift that comes from heaven. Christ loves his Father in heaven and he loves to see his Father’s workmanship in this fallen world; it is evidence that God has not completely abandoned this world.The centurion is arguing that Christ does not need to come to him in person but he can remain where he is and his servant can still be healed, for Christ can heal at a word, at a distance. It is a tremendous appreciation of the power of Christ’s word alone. Others had believed that the Lord could heal if he came and touched the sick, but this man’s faith rises higher. His statement is driven by his humility which itself is something admired by Christ and a strong indicator of faith, and yet it leads to this wonderful request which could only be made by someone who had caught sight of the power and authority of Christ. ‘You can heal from a distance’, he says to the Lord, ‘because you are a person with supreme authority.’ His focus was on the person of Christ: it is because Jesus Christ possesses so much authority in himself that his word carries so much authority, and this healing can be done. He saw something of the attributes of Christ that no one else in Israel had seen, and he expressed it in such simple and beautiful terms.‘I know what authority is’, he says. ‘In the realm where my authority operates – among the soldiers of the Roman army – my word is enough to get things done. I do not have to come in person and be standing in front of the one receiving the command. The Roman army could never operate in that way, because I am only one person, and the army has to be operating in many diverse places at once. The only way that will work is if my bare word is enough to get things done. When a soldier receives a command from me they know that they must obey for behind my word is all the authority of my person, and if they fail to obey, the whole machinery of the Roman empire will start to act against them. I know what it is to receive commands and I know what it is to give commands. My general does not come person to command me; he sends his word and that is enough. Similarly, my command gets things done.’ Is he boasting? No, it may seem like it, but he is making an important point. Although he does not complete his argument, the application to the present situation is obvious and Christ does not need him to complete it. There is another realm in which the centurion knows that the Lord Jesus operates. It is a vastly higher realm, an invisible realm. Just as there are runners in the Roman army to carry messages from one soldier to another, so there are runners in this spiritual realm to do the Lord’s bidding. How all that operates does not matter; the centurion does not need to know. He understands that this is a realm which is high above him, much of which he knows nothing about. His faith is not measured by how much he knows about that spiritual world. He knows only one thing and that is enough: he knows that Christ is supreme in that spiritual world, and his power is irresistible. He knows that the Lord’s word must be obeyed and that word concerns all that happens. To him, miracles of healing are nothing more than obedience to the word of the one who can command anything and must be obeyed. The nobleman was required to exercise this faith and he gingerly did so; but the centurion humbly volunteers this faith to avoid Christ coming under his roof.