![]() It seems that the Roman was saying that Jesus worked in the same way! He said, “For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me” ( John 8:9). This military man understood the authority and work of Christ through the lens of Roman military authority and hierarchy. ![]() What the centurion said next became a staggering exposition of his own understanding of Christ’s identity as King and a stunning expression of submission. When Jesus agreed to come to the home and heal the child, the centurion stopped the Lord by saying, “I am not worthy for you to come under my roof.” Apparently, the Roman understood that for Jesus, being a Jew, to enter a Gentile home would be a gross offense of the Jewish tradition, and the centurion seemingly did not want to be party to such a breach of custom. Many people were “amazed” ( Matthew 7:28) by Jesus’ teaching, but amazement doesn’t always translate to submission, which can clearly be seen in the number of people who followed the Lord - merely motivated by curiosity or a desire for a handout ( John 6:26).īut as chapter eight unfolds, a shocking exchange unfolds before our very eyes when a Roman centurion came to Jesus “imploring him” ( John 8:5) to heal his young servant who was “paralyzed at home and fearfully tormented” ( John 8:6). Not only had Jesus appeared merely preaching, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is here” ( Matthew 4:17), he was teaching and modeling what that kingdom looked like under the faithful reign of the good King. ![]() We see this in statements like, “You have heard it said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart’” ( Matthew 5:27). ![]() It was the very arrival of Christ, which had ushered in a new way of living and thinking.īy his own admission, Jesus had come to “fulfill the law, not to abolish it” ( Matthew 5:17). The tremendous events, which we read about in chapter eight, come right on the heels of Jesus’ thrilling teaching in the Sermon on the Mount ( Matthew 5-7), in which he set forth the new kingdom ethics by which all subjects in the Kingdom of God will be characterized. If you can’t cry to Jesus in the midst of the storm, then where should we turn? I submit to you that there is more to the story than what meets the eye, and to truly understand Jesus’ rebuke of the disciples we must consider this scene against the backdrop of the events preceding the storm. The story is a well-known narrative, in which the disciples wake the Lord from his sleep crying out, “Save us, Lord we are perishing!” ( Matthew 8:26).Īt first glance, their request seemed like a reasonable one to most of us. Nowhere in the Bible do we see the disciples’ collective lack of faith exposed more than in the scene where Jesus had fallen asleep in the boat during a storm which seemed to threaten the very lives of everyone on the boat, especially the disciples. If Jesus could use uneducated, irreligious, simple men who were slow to believe, then maybe there could be hope that he could equally use someone like me to manifest his glory and represent his kingdom agenda. Though there were likely a billion reasons why Jesus handpicked these particular 12 rather than others, I am certain I know of at least one reason why he did. And intuitive gospel readers might be tempted to wonder why the Lord would select any of them at all. The Bible makes no effort to hide or gloss over the raw humanity of these men who seldom seemed to be up to the task to which they were called. Of all the choices that Jesus made during his public ministry that deeply impact me today, none is more encouraging than his choice of 12 ordinary men to be his closest followers.
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