SECTION XI.

THE FIRST RETURN TO CAPERNAUM. — THE EXTENSION OF THE GOSPEL HORIZON BY THE HEALING OF THE SERVANT OF THE GENTILE CENTURION.

(Luke vii. 1-10.)

The Lord had already exhibited the central truths of the kingdom of God, and that as well in deeds as in words. It was now time to widen the spiritual horizon of His followers; and He was furnished with a suitable occasion by the petition of one in need of help, on His return to Capernaum. The servant of a centurion, who was dear unto him, lay at the point of death. As soon as he heard of Jesus, he applied to Him for help.

He did this with the appearance of the deepest humility, having requested the elders of the Jewish synagogue to go to meet the Lord, and beseech Him to come and heal his servant. Being a Gentile, who belonged to Israel only in the wider sense,¹ he regarded himself as too insignificant to present his petition personally to the Lord; and as he desired to pay Him honour, and give weight to his request, he had sought the intervention of this deputation of elders. They had two grounds specially to urge. The first was the consideration that the man was a proselyte. The other they themselves expressed, when they appeared before Jesus, and earnestly begged for help, in these words: 'He is worthy that Thou shouldst grant him this; for he loveth our nation, and hath built us a synagogue.' They thought they could employ no stronger motives to induce the Lord to go with them. The Lord, however, said not a word to their application, and proceeded with them in silence. For Him the mark of humility, of faith, and of love to his sick servant, which the man had exhibited, was of greater importance.

Thus He went with them. When, however, they had nearly reached the house of the centurion, the latter sent to Him a second message by the hands of friends, saying, 'Lord, trouble not Thyself; for I am not worthy that Thou shouldest enter under my roof: wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto Thee; but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed.' The second proof of his humility was still stronger than the first — it was even so with the proof^ of his faith. This faith that Jesus could help his servant even from a distance, he expressed with the remark: 'For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers (and know thus — he appeared as if about to add — how it is with the different orders of superior power): I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; to that man. Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.' With this new proof of his faith, he had also given a new proof of his love to his servant. Not only had he set in motion the elders of the Jews on his account, but his friends also; and the last word was a word of praise for his obedience.

When Jesus heard these things. He marvelled at him, and turned Him about, and said to the people that followed Him, 'I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.'

The Evangelist does not find it necessary expressly to mention that the Lord spoke the word of consent, as that was fully implied in His previous remark. Those that were sent returned to the house, and found the servant whole that had been sick.

The act itself, as an exercise of the power of Christ from a distance, belonged to His greater miracles. But it was not this especially by which the Gospel horizon was expanded, for the healing of the nobleman's son had already taken place. Nor was it properly the circumstance, that the person who experienced His healing power was the servant of a centurion, who had been originally a heathen; for here, where the elders of the synagogue made intercession for the man as a proselyte, there lay nothing in the help rendered that was offensive to Jewish exclusiveness. But the fact was of great significance, that to the intercession of the Jewish elders, who praised the merits of the centurion — his worthiness — Jesus made no reply; that, however, on receiving the message by the probably heathen friends of the centurion, giving expression to his feeling of unworthiness, his great humility, and his faith, He immediately put forth His miraculous power,² To this must be added especially the word with which Jesus crowned the faith of the man; the more so, that He did not regard him as a Jewish proselyte, but as a pious heathen, and placed his faith above the faith of the Israelites who had hitherto met him with similar requests.

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