The Centurion’s Great Faith
The centurion thought so highly of Jesus’ authority that he considered Jesus was able to heal his servant from a distance, with simply just a command. Upon assessing this man, Jesus concluded, “Truly I say to you, I have not found such a great faith with anyone in Israel.” This man’s faith was one that we can be encouraged to mimic as he approached the Lord with humility, understood His unworthiness, and trusted fully in the grace of Jesus. And He received favor from God.
Who does God favor?
In Capernaum, it was clear to the people who God favored. It was His people, the nation of Israel, the Jewish people who were the most blessed. God had made a covenant with Abraham that he would be the father of many nations and kings… that the Jewish nation would have land, an existence, greatness, and that this covenant would continue through the lines of Isaac and Jacob. And Jesus’ coming only reaffirmed this, because He was Jewish. A Jewish Messiah for the Jewish people. And there was a sense of entitlement among the Jewish people… God’s favor only rested upon them… they considered that because Abraham was their descendant, they would automatically have a place in God’s kingdom… but that could not be further from the truth. Jesus said in Matthew 3:9, “do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.” In context, don’t think just because you’re Jewish, you’re going to heaven. The people had a faulty understanding of grace. Grace is unmerited favor. That means grace is unearned, undeserved, and certainly not something you can inherit by birth. They thought simply by who they were racially, that they had a personal right to God’s grace and an automatic bid into God’s family. God’s Word makes it clear that is not the case though. In Romans 9:6-8, we learn that just because someone is descended from Abraham does not make that person a child of God. And as we study the Jewish Messiah, Jesus, it becomes very clear that He came for the Jews… but also for the rest of the world as well.
The Outsiders are welcomed in and the Insiders are left out
Basically, to Jesus, this gentile centurion had no equal in faith within all of Israel. Within the nation of Israel, even amongst all the Jewish scribes and Pharisees, the teachers of the Law… there was no one like this outsider. And it seems the centurion is not the only gentile outsider to receive grace. Jesus says that “many will come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.” This was startling news for the Jewish nation… people from the east and west… people not from the line of Abraham… people from outside of Israel to the east and west… would be reclining with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. Other people had a place in God’s kingdom. We have a place in God’s kingdom. Gentiles have a seat with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. To recline at the table is most likely to refer to a meal… this is a heavenly banquet with the Jewish forefathers… in the Jewish traditions, there is this great heavenly feast reserved for the Jewish people, in their minds it’s a Jewish gathering… but Jesus says that on the contrary, many Gentiles will be present and “the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness” many Jewish people will be left out. The people whom God had given unique promises and privileges, the ”sons of the kingdom” the ones expecting to enter God’s kingdom because of their racial descent were cast out into the place where there is “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Expecting heaven, they will receive hell. So how do you make it in? And how did Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob make it in? Cause to the Jews, they always thought it was because of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob’s Jewish bloodlines that they entered God’s kingdom.
What’s the key to grace?
The centurion asked Jesus to heal his servant, and because of his faith, his servant was healed. Because of his faith in Jesus, he received grace in proportion to his faith. “It shall be done for you, as you have believed.” The servant was healed that very moment. His healing was complete… and so the centurion’s faith must have had complete faith in Jesus to accomplish this task. Imagine how great his faith must have been after this incident. The theme of this account is faith… we examine a man with unparalleled faith… and we see someone healed because of their faith. How does this relate though to the picture of heaven’s feast… the kingdom of heaven filled with both Jews and Gentiles. Here’s the relation, God’s people are not identified by their blood lines or by their practices or by circumstances… rather they are identified by a common faith in Jesus. That is the only way that people like us, outsiders born not of the family of Israel… wretched sinners that can lay no claim upon God’s grace… can find ourselves welcomed into God’s family, it’s by grace you have been saved through faith. (Eph 2:8)
The Requirement to Enter the Kingdom of Heaven
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did not enter God’s kingdom because of their common Jewish descent… no, rather it was their common faith in the Lord that carried them through heaven’s doors. On the other hand, the “sons of the kingdom” who were left out, the Jewish people who were leaning on their blood lines, rejected the only way into heaven… they rejected Jesus, the Jewish king, and so they disqualified themselves. So in the kingdom of heaven, we find both Jews and Gentiles, and their commonality is simply their faith… Jesus came for not just the Jews, but the rest of the world as well. Those outside in the outer darkness find their commonality in one thing… rejection of Jesus, and thus rejection of God’s righteousness, rejection of justification, rejection of life, and rejection of God’s grace and mercy. Jesus is the key, faith in Him is the way, and so there is eternal hope for all those who would believe… yet eternal condemnation for all those who will not believe.
The same requirement exists today
It is the same today, how can we find favor with God? How do we gain for ourselves a place in heaven? It’s not by being born into a Christian family, it’s not about the situations we are brought into. The key is not memorizing the Bible or going to church, though good things… not the requirement for the kingdom of heaven. It’s through faith, through complete trust in Jesus that one is saved. There’s one way in, and if you reject that way… if you reject Jesus and try something else, you will find yourself in the place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, gehenna, hell. With faith in Jesus, we can be confident in God’s grace, that we have received it, that we will continue to receive it, and that we’ll have a place at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
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