Jesus Loves Radical Faith

Matthew 8:5-13 –

And when Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, imploring Him, and saying, "Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, fearfully tormented." Jesus said to him, "I will come and heal him." But the centurion said, "Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, 'Go!' and he goes, and to another, 'Come!' and he comes, and to my slave, 'Do this!' and he does it."

Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who were following, "Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel […]”

And Jesus said to the centurion, "Go; it shall be done for you as you have believed." And the servant was healed that very moment.

I want to focus on one main point in this familiar story: Jesus loves radical faith. When we read this account, we must see it as more than just another miracle of healing. While we now know the full extent of Jesus’ ministry, and we know that Christ is capable of anything, consider the situation from the perspective of the centurion. Obviously he had heard of Jesus’ works, but he was asking Christ to do something that, as far as we know, had not yet been done. Up until this point, all of Christ’s healing had been done in direct contact with the afflicted. This centurion had the faith to believe that Christ could do something huge, something unheard of. It is worth noting, however, that he asked for something that lined up with what he did know about Jesus.

If we then apply this concept of radical faith to modern Christianity, we must first think about how much more we know of Christ. We are told even that He “is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think” (Eph. 3:20). Christ Himself promises that with great faith “nothing will be impossible to you” (Matt. 17:20). Discern first whether your request lines up with biblical truth, and then ask in faith for God to do big things. Ask for something so crazy and seemingly impossible that the only way it could possibly succeed is for God to make it happen. Stretch the limits of your faith so that through you God may accomplish much. This is where human responsibility and divine intervention meet: as you increase in faith, God will increase His work in and through you, and ultimately His glory will increase.