From Matthew 8:5-13 / Jesus Marveled. It is noted only twice in the Gospels that Jesus is said to marvel at anything, here, at the Centurian’s faith, and in Mark 9 at the unbelief of those in His hometown of Nazareth.

Now what makes the Centurian’s faith something for Jesus to marvel at, is not that as a Gentile he HAD faith at all.

It is true that if any should have had faith it should have been His fellow Jews. Afterall, He was fulfilling prophecy, preaching powerfully and performing miracles one after another. In our parlance we would say that believing in Him would be a no-brainer. Obvious. So obvious in fact, that Jesus Himself looks at their unbelief as something not even credible – especially in the face of the flimsy reasons Mark gives for their rejecting Him. In truth, the reasons for those who reject Him today remain just as flimsy. The main one being, if He is who He said and demonstrated He is, then we would need to cast ourselves upon Him for mercy and to be reconciled to God the Father. And we don’t want to give up our personal righteousness nor submit to anyone else but self.

But what of this Gentile? Why is His faith as marvelous as the Jews’ unbelief? The text reveals it. It was more than that Jesus had the ability to perform the miracles and healings that had been reported – it was rather that the Centurian grasped something of who Jesus really was over and above what He could do.

The Centurian lets the cat out of the bag when he says that it is obvious Jesus is a man of authority even as he is. And that Jesus was “under” authority – acting on someone else’s behalf. In other words, the man recognized Jesus was acting at God’s behest. Jesus was God’s true agent. And even Jesus’ closest allies at this moment hadn’t gotten that far in their own thinking about Him. The Centurian’s faith was for all intents and purposes already more mature than that of His own disciples. More mature than many self-confessed Christians even today. Marvelous indeed.

Here then is something of great importance for us. Where we tend to desire power, the ability to do things, make things happen – Jesus’ power, like His Father’s, rests not in brute strength, but in His absolute authority. He need only “speak the word” and whatever He speaks will come to pass. It takes us back to Genesis, where in creating the heavens and the earth, it required only that “God said.”

Indeed, we can take that a step further. For God, as we know, has no body like ours. He has no lips, no vocal cords. He didn’t have to verbally articulate the words “let there be” for all to come to pass. He merely needed to will it so. With His absolute authority, that’s all it took. And so it is in our passage. Jesus never says: “servant – be healed!” He just says to the man, go, it’s done. He willed it so, and it happened.

This then is where our faith is to rest if we are to truly grow in grace. What do we rest in? That the One who saved us by His grace and substitutionary atonement, has all authority in Heaven and on earth, and therefore, every one of His promises to us HAS to come to pass. It will be as He promised that we will remain His until He comes, that sin and death will be overcome, and that we will one day fully bear His image. Because He has willed it. And He has the authority to bring it to pass, irrespective of any resistance, opposition, lack of cooperation or attack by the Enemy. Beloved, He cannot fail you.