“Now when Yeshua came into Capernaum, a centurion came begging for help. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘my servant is lying at home paralyzed, horribly tormented.’ Yeshua said to him, ‘I’ll come and heal him.’ But the centurion said, ‘Master, I’m not worthy to have You 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. I say to this one, “Go!” and he goes; and to another, “Come!” and he comes; and to my servant, “Do this!” and he does it.’
Now when Yeshua heard this, He marveled and said to those who were following, ‘Amen, I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith! Moreover, I tell you that many will come from the east and the west, and they will recline at table with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be driven out into the outer darkness; in that place will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ Then Yeshua said to the centurion, ‘Go. As you have believed, let it be done for you.’ And the servant was healed in that same hour.” Matthew 8:5-13
This story holds excellent lessons that many can benefit from. This person, who many would understandably deem an outsider by those within Isreal who claimed the faith of Abraham, was praised for his faith and claimed as an insider by God. Not only that, but his faith was contrasted with the lack of faith of those who are considered to have the most proximity to the teachings of Torah, or at least those we may feel justified in assuming do. But Yeshua shows us that it is dangerous to assume someone’s standing with God based on their background and social associations. Just because someone knows about Abraham doesn’t mean that they really know the God of Abraham for themselves. And just because someone isn’t one of “us” that doesn’t mean they can’t teach us anything worth knowing.
Too often, people are quick to dismiss those they see as outside of their community as irrelevant and having nothing to offer them in terms of spiritual truth. We need to be willing to keep an open mind toward our ability to learn positive things from the example of others, even if they are from a class of people that we may consider our enemies. The centurions worked under a foreign government that was subjugating Isreal. The temptation to color them all with the same brush as simply evil ungodly people with purely bad motives that had nothing of value to add to the spiritual lives of Israelis in that context would be greatly understandable, yet in the example of Yeshua we see he judged people on a case by case basis as individuals and gave credit where credit was due no matter where it came from instead of allowing prejudices to distort a good example of faith we can learn from into a negative.
Yeshua was also willing to acknowledge the faults of those who came from Israel and claimed allegiance to the God of Abraham like Himself and didn’t pretend shared background meant he had to blindly defend and overlook the shortcomings of his own people or pretend their example was always to be followed. I think the reason so many believers who pride themselves as being God’s chosen may be shocked at their actual standing before God is because they have confused familiarity with relationship. In the scripture above Yeshua said “Go. As you have believed, let it be done for you.” What we believe will be reflected in our actions, not just words. It is one thing to know about God it is another thing altogether to actually live a life that applies the reality of what we believe to the situations we face.
