In all of the uses of
“Lord” that have been encountered up to this point in Matthew’s Gospel, the
Greek term that is used is “Kurie.” We see this in Matthew 7:21, Matthew
7:22, and in Matthew 8:2, as it used four times by Jesus, and then once by the
leper that Jesus heals. Then we come to the Roman centurion in
Capernaum. He is aware of this man Jesus. He sees the crowds
following Him. He has most likely heard of Jesus’ usage of the term
“Kurie, Kurie” in reference to Himself, along with His associating that usage
with entering “the kingdom of heaven” and His “Father in heaven” (7:21).
As a good, Roman soldier, loyal to Caesar, he should be casting a suspicious
eye towards this fellow called Jesus, and be ready to arrest Him for His
claims.
So what does the
centurion do? When Jesus enters Capernaum, the centurion “came forward to
Him, appealing to Him” (8:5b). What did he say to Jesus? How did he
greet Jesus? He said, “Lord” (8:6a). This is more than just a sign
of respect. What reason would this centurion have to show Jesus such
respect? This usage of “Lord” is incredibly worthy of our
attention. Why? Because in the Roman empire, in the first century,
it was Caesar who was Lord. Caesar was “Kurie.” Not only would this
be true for the vast majority of the people under his dominion, but it would be
especially true of a solider of the empire. This solider, however, having
heard about Jesus, having likely heard of the cleansing of the leper, having
heard of the way that the leper approached Him by calling Jesus Lord, and
recognizing the power to heal and the connection of that power to the telling
of words of the kingdom that he has heard, comes to Jesus and says, “Lord, my
servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly” (8:6).
How does Jesus
respond to this Roman centurion, this Gentile? Well, He responds the way
that we have been trained to think He would respond. He says, “I will
come and heal him” (8:7). Does He respond in that way simply because it
is in Jesus’ nature to heal, or is it something deeper? Does Jesus
respond in that manner because the centurion calls Him “Lord”? Should we
equate Jesus being called “Lord” with Jesus’ own preaching of the kingdom,
which is invariably connected with His performance of healing? In essence,
by calling Jesus “Lord,” this centurion preaches the Gospel, and does so in a
revolutionary way, especially as we consider the context in which his statement
is made, in which it is probably quite likely that the only person that this
centurion had ever referred to as “Lord” up to that point, and in that way, was
Caesar himself.
Making his reply to
Jesus, the centurion said, “Lord, I am not worthy to have You come under my
roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed” (8:8). From
there, he goes on to speak about authority and commands and servants.
Clearly, this centurion understood the nature of power. In addition to
that, it is becoming increasingly obvious that he knew of the cleansing of the
leper, because in that instance, Jesus had spoken and the leper had been
cleansed. With this understanding of power and authority, and by his
calling Jesus “Lord,” he knew that Jesus need merely speak the word for healing
to take place.
Here, it must be said
that “Jesus is Lord” is the message of the Gospel. The Gospel
announcement, as Paul would say, is the power of God to salvation.
Salvation entails a rescue and a deliverance from all those things that are the
effects of the failure of the divine image bearers to rightly bear that image,
and sickness and disease are numbered among those effects. Recognition of
Jesus as Lord is salvation (joining with the covenant people of God so as to
share in the prescribed responsibility to be a blessing). In that moment,
we can say that, rightly understood, the centurion and his servant experienced
God’s salvation through Christ. They experienced His eternal life---the
renewal and restoration that Jesus brings as the in-breaking of the age of new
creation to come---and they did so because the centurion called Jesus
“Lord.” It is no different for us.
We read that “When
Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who followed Him, ‘Truly, I
tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith’.” (8:10) What a
remarkable statement! Jesus makes the point that the first overt recognition
of Him as Lord, and of the power of His kingdom, came from a Gentile, and not
from a member of the people of Israel. By extension, this would indicate
that the leper that was cleansed was a Gentile as well, which we can well
understand, as Jesus was in “Galilee of the Gentiles”. After making this
crucial point, Jesus goes on to say “I tell you, many will come from east and
west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of
heaven” (8:11). Almost immediately, Jesus embarks upon the usage of
covenant language, referencing the covenant first given to Abraham, and then
passed along to Isaac, and to Jacob, and then to Israel, that through that
covenant all of the families of the earth would be blessed. Jesus was
fulfilling the covenant, according to God’s covenant faithfulness, in extending
the blessings of that covenant to the Gentiles, by being the light of the world
that had been God’s intention for His people Israel.
Israel had failed in
that, though all they truly had to do in order to be that light was refrain
from idolatry, keep God’s Sabbaths, and reverence His sanctuary (which, in the
end and according to the Scriptures, would look a great deal like caring for
orphans and widows). That had proven to be too much, so they experienced
cursing and exile and dominion by foreign nations. This was designed to
get them to return to the covenant and be that light to all nations for the
glory of their God. Instead, they had ostracized the Gentiles. They
had separated and isolated themselves from the Gentiles. They had risen
up violently against their Gentile rulers, and would eventually demand that Jesus
do the same if He was to have their support. It is for this reason that
Jesus follows up His invoking of the covenant and its inclusion of Gentiles, by
saying “while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer
darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth”
(8:12). Indeed, this is the lot and end of all that fail to live up to
the terms of the covenant that Christ delivered, which is to believe the Gospel
and to preach the Gospel, so that God might be glorified.
Jesus goes on to say
to the centurion, “Go; let it be done for you as you have believed”
(8:13a). It is written that “the servant was healed at that very moment”
(8:13b). What was it that was believed? Why was the servant
healed? Did healing take place because the centurion believed that Jesus
could heal? Absolutely. More importantly, it was the belief in Who
Jesus was, and the proclamation of Jesus as Lord, and its associated
proclamation of the kingdom of heaven, that was the more crucial aspect of
belief. That was what showed forth faith and its associated allegiance.
That was what brought the healing.
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