My thoughts on Matthew 8:9-10

Matthew 8:9-10 “For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me: And I say to one ‘Go’ and he goes, and to another ‘Come’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this’ and he does it.” 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.”

When I read this passage of scripture about the centurion’s great faith I get a little confused. I never truly understood this story and why this man’s faith trumps all the rest, and honestly I still don’t, but I do love the picture of Christ’s love for us that is presented in this passage. I see the true character of the centurion in that even though he rules over one hundred soldiers he cares deeply about his one sick and dying servant. This commander went out to search for Jesus on behalf of his servant when I am sure he could find plenty of other servants to replace him. Just like the true shepherd went out and searched for that lost sheep even though he had 99 others. Matthew 18 says “What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep and none of them has gone astray, does he not leave the 99 on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the 99 that never went astray. So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.” The Father values us just like the centurion valued his servant and just like the shepherd values his sheep. We will never be worthy of his love, but he loves us still the same. Even when we are spiritually paralyzed, sick, and dying He loves us like we are the only one he has.

My application: Today I want to love like Jesus did and not exclude any one person from my love. Even if there is 99 people I am loving right I want to love every last one. Today I will have a conversation with one person that I have not gotten to know well yet.