Living an Empowered Life

There is another discrepancy between the two accounts-which people approached Jesus with the need. In Matthew, the centurion himself came, but in Luke, he sent others on his behalf. Again, this difference can be explained by Matthew’s desire to simplify the story and not include the intermediaries. Perhaps Luke desired to highlight the humility of a Gentile and the universality of the gospel message, so he reported the other characters. Centurions were Roman military officers who were in charge of 100 men, hence their name.

Question: What was the situation in the opening verses? Who were the people involved? Why didn’t the centurion come personally to petition Jesus?

• A centurion in Capernaum learned that Jesus was in town. This officer had a servant who was dying (Matthew says the servant is paralyzed), so he sent for Jesus to come and heal his servant. The centurion didn’t come personally, but instead sent word through some highly respected Jews in the community. They made a case before Jesus of how this Gentile deserved His help. Despite what they said, the centurion himself must have felt unworthy, perhaps because he was not Jewish or because of his own sin (v. 7). Jewish customs of the day required that Jews not associate much with Gentiles; otherwise they would become “unclean.” Are there times when you don’t approach Jesus directly? Why? Many times we are flattered by others’ assessment of us, but inwardly we know what we are really like. This awareness of our sin and unworthiness can interfere with approaching the Lord in prayer. It is natural to want to have someone “more worthy” pray for us! The good news for Christians is that we are no longer “condemned” in God’s sight (Rom. 8:1-4) because Jesus’ death has paid our sin penalty and God has declared us “not guilty” (Rom. 3:21-26).

• Jesus agreed to do what the centurion asked Him to do, which was to “come and heal his servant.” But then, when Jesus had almost arrived at his house, the centurion sent friends to stop Him! Why? Again, the centurion sent intermediaries to Jesus, this time some friends. They tried to stop Jesus from actually coming into his house. According to verse 6, the reason was the same as before, his unworthiness. It was specifically forbidden for a Jew to enter a Gentile’s house in Jesus’ day.

• The centurion had remarkable insight into Jesus and His ministry. He drew an analogy between himself and Jesus. What important truth had the centurion understood? How could he have reached his conclusion? This centurion understood that it was not necessary for Jesus to actually enter his house in order to heal the servant. He was probably very familiar with Jesus’ ministry in Capernaum because it was near Capernaum that Jesus called Peter, Andrew, James, and John to follow Him (Mark 1:16-20). In Capernaum, Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law and many sick and demonized people (Luke 4:38-41). Much of Jesus’ early ministry was in the vicinity of the Sea of Galilee and the city of Capernaum on its seashore. Also, according to Matthew, Jesus left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum (Matt. 4:13). Reports of what Jesus was doing were most likely circulating among all the people of that sizable city. Based on what he had heard and maybe even witnessed, the centurion concluded that Jesus had special authority. He was able to give a verbal command and sicknesses, diseases, and demons would obey Him. This Gentile man would have understood authority quite well because of his military background. Jesus’ ministry was different from some of the popular method of “healing,” such as magic or sorcery. Jesus did not have to recite long incantations or make special potions. He only had to give a word of command, and the sicknesses had to follow His orders.

• What was Jesus’ reaction to the centurion? What did Jesus commend him for? Jesus commended the centurion for his faith. In fact, He said that the centurion had great faith, the kind that wasn’t even found among the most religious group of that day. Faith is required in order to appropriate spiritual truth. The centurion had the faith not only to understand authority and healing, but to also to apply what he understood to a real life situation, his sick servant. Perhaps we wouldn’t expect a seasoned military man to be a man of faith. This story illustrates that faith is not something reserved for just the “religious” types. Faith is simply taking God at His word and acting accordingly.

Consider these two passages:

Matthew 10:1 (NKJV) ¹And when He had called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease. 

Luke 5:17 - 18 (NKJV) ¹⁷Now it happened on a certain day, as He was teaching, that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was present to heal them. ¹⁸Then behold, men brought on a bed a man who was paralyzed, whom they sought to bring in and lay before Him. 

• First it is important to understand that there are no magic words or rules to follow in healing the sick. Even the phrase, “in the Name of Jesus,” is not a formula that guarantees any certain outcome. Those words refer to doing something as Jesus’ representatives or in line with what He would say or do. While we usually see Jesus heal by speaking a command or pronouncing health, we should not turn that into a “consistent methodology.” If there were a set formula, we would be tempted to idolize that “method” instead of trusting in the Lord.

• What we can do is imitate Jesus’ pattern of intimate relationship with the Father, in which He saw and heard what God was doing and then joined in that kingdom work (John 5:19). This probably explains why Jesus didn’t always say or do the same thing in each healing incident.

• However, Jesus and the disciples tended to pray for the sick differently than most of us. We generally petition God to heal another person while Jesus and His apostles often healed by brief commands. I believe the best rule-of-thumb, and the model that John Wimber taught us at the Vineyard, is to try to listen for God’s direction and then pray, as we believe He has led us. Thus, we don’t rely solely on petition if God impresses on us to speak a command, pronounce a healing, cast out a demon, or ask the sick person to pray for him or herself.

WRAPPING IT UP

The more we study the New Testament, the more we should be convinced that healing the sick is something God wants us, His church, to do today. As we obey the Lord by praying for the sick, we realize that we cannot operate on our own. We need to recognize the chain of command from the Father, to the Lord Jesus, to us. We are privileged to have His authority to heal the sick, but we must remain in relationship with Him and focus on His will being done. He has been given the right to govern all the affairs of heaven and earth. We need to obey Him, by the power of His Spirit within us. We need to live as foot soldiers under the command of our King, and like the centurion, say that we are people under authority who have been given authority…to heal. Thankfully we have His promise to be with us always as we follow in His footsteps.