Friday, January 23-Matthew 8:5-13

Deep thought of the day: If today were yesterday, it'd be tomorrow.


5When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help.
-Jesus enters major city. He's approached by military dude.

6"Lord," he said, "my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering."
-Roman dude addresses Jesus as lord. Probably not necessarily lord like God, but lord like important person.
-His concern for help was his suffering servant. Nice of him to care about his servant so much to go himself to see that his needs were met.
-Jesus' reputation obviously went before him.

7Jesus said to him, "I will go and heal him."
-Jesus gives him a positive reply and agrees to tend to his needs.

8The centurion replied, "Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed.
-Interesting that an important man would be so humble to Jesus here at this point. Most of the time you'd expect a doctorish type person to meet with the patient.
-He genuinely believes that Jesus can heal him.

9For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and that one, 'Come,' and he comes. I say to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."
-The centurion understands the chain of command and believes Jesus has this type of spiritual authority.

10When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, "I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.
-Astonishing Jesus isn't easy. The man is praised for his faith.
-The most faith in Israel. He believes. What do we believe about what Jesus can and can't do.
-Remember that the greatest faith comes form someone who is not an Israelite.

11I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
-To kind of poke more at Israel, he tells them that many Israelites will come to the kingdom and sit where they think they belong, but they will be removed from those places. They were subjects to the kingdom, but apparently they were disqualified at some point.

13Then Jesus said to the centurion, "Go! It will be done just as you believed it would." And his servant was healed at that very hour.
-The mans faith was rewarded.
-How has our faith been rewarded, or do we need to grow in it?