Last week, we looked at the time when Jesus calmed the storm at sea. The disciples and Jesus were on a boat and a storm came up. The disciples were distraught and woke up Jesus, who was peacefully sleeping. Before He calmed the storm, He asked them why they were so afraid. We also looked at the time when a man came to Jesus to have his child delivered from a demon and the man admitted that he wanted to believe, but he struggled to believe. Jesus told the disciples that the reason they could not deliver the child from the demon was because their faith was too small- smaller than a mustard seed. Both stories are examples of people whose faith is lacking. They are people who want to believe and trust Jesus or who are growing in their faith, but at those moments, they are struggling to trust Jesus and have faith in who He is and what He can do. Studying those events made me wonder about people who exhibited great faith in the Bible. Is there anyone who Jesus describes as having great faith?
Matthew 8:5-13 tells us the story of another man who came to Jesus, asking Him to heal. His story is a beautiful example of someone who showed great faith. Let’s read it:
5 When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help.6 “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.”
7 Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?”
8 The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
10 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. 11 I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that moment.
This is such a contrast from the other event we read about last week, isn’t it? Jesus praises the Centurion. He says, “I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.” That is a huge statement. This man has the most faith out of everyone in Israel. What was it about the Centurion that caused Jesus to say that? This event is also recorded in Luke 7:1-8. It says:
1When Jesus had finished saying all this to the people who were listening, he entered Capernaum. 2 There a centurion’s servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. 3 The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. 4 When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, “This man deserves to have you do this, 5 because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.” 6 So Jesus went with them. He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. 7 That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. 8 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
9 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.” 10 Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well.
By reading Luke’s account, we learn even more. We see that the Centurion didn’t even talk directly to Jesus. He sent his servants to talk to Him. What do we know about this man? Because he is called a Centurion, we know he is a Roman solider and in charge of 100 men. This is why he understands authority. I don’t remember where I read it or if someone said it to me, but I remember learning a principle about authority that postulates that a person’s authority flows from other authority. In other words, to have authority, we need to be under authority. Look closely at what the Centurion says in verse 8, “For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
The Centurion said that he is a man under authority. He didn’t say, “I am a man who wields authority” or something to that effect. He said he is under authority. Why does being under authority mean that he has authority? Well, if he wasn’t under authority, would he have any real authority? Think of the structure in the military. Lower-ranking soldiers have to obey their commanding officers. Why? Because those officers are under the authority of their commanding officers. And even the highest ranking officer is still under the authority of the governing body of their military. The officers have power because they are under the authority of the military. This is how it worked with the Centurion. Because he was a soldier, he was part of the Roman government. He was under the authority of Rome. When he gave a command, it wasn’t him who his soldiers had to obey, it was Rome who they were submitting to. He, amazingly, understood this concept and applied it to Jesus. He recognized that Jesus was under the authority of the highest ruling authority there is: God. How he knew Jesus was under God’s authority, we don’t know. All the text tells us is what the Jewish elders said, “he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.” He must have had some interaction with the Jewish people in Capernaum or why would he have paid to build the synagogue? Either he heard about or witnessed Jesus perform other miracles. He knew enough about Jesus to know that He could heal. And he respected Jesus so much that he felt like he was not worthy to even go to Jesus in person. I wonder if he felt that way because he was not Jewish and that’s why he sent the Jewish leaders? Or if he respected Jesus so much that he felt undeserving, not because he was not Jewish, but because he simply felt unworthy. Regardless, he sent his servants instead of going to Jesus himself. He had faith that if Jesus gave the command for healing, his servant would be healed. This chain of command, flowing from authority, was perfectly clear in his mind, for that was how his world operated, too. Unless we are in the military, that kind of authority structure might seem foreign to us.
I think it’s worth noting that this event took place before the storm at sea. Here is this Roman soldier who is showing more faith than Jesus’ disciples. Do you think that adds to Jesus’ frustration with them on the boat? He’s seen other people show faith and understanding of His power and yet the disciples are still so afraid and literally ask each other what kind of man is Jesus. Again, it makes me wonder how the Centurion knew that Jesus could easily heal his servant. How did he come to have faith?
Another example of someone whom Jesus says has great faith is also another Gentile. In Matthew 15:21-28, we read the story of a Canaanite woman. It says:
21 Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.”
23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”
24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”
25 The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.
26 He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
27 “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”
28 Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.
Jesus says that she has great faith, just like He said about the Centurion. How did she come to believe that He could heal her daughter? Did you notice what she called Jesus? She called out to Him, “Lord, Son of David.” That means that she knew He was the Messiah, the one prophesied about. By saying Lord, that means that she believed He had authority. By saying Son of David, she wasn’t just saying He was descended from David’s line, but that He was the One from the line of David who was foretold about. She understood the prophesies and had obviously heard all about Him. She saw what the Jewish leaders were blind to. She had faith, and she had humility, two qualities that Jesus values. Proof of her humility is she didn’t get offended when He referred to her as a dog. She was not upset, for she knew she was not equal to the Lord. The Greek word He uses is kunarion and according to Strong’s Concordance, it means: little dog, house dog or puppy. That term at least isn’t as insulting as we might think at first. Still, He is putting her off. The first thing He says to her is that He was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. But she ignores that and kneels before Him. Could He possibly be testing her faith? Did He say what He said because He knew what her answer would be and He wanted to display her great faith and persistence? Maybe He wanted to show what can happen when we don’t give up?
I’m making this guess because she’s the perfect illustration of Jesus’ parable about persistent prayer. In Luke 11:5-10, Jesus explains how we should persevere and keep asking for what we need. He says:
5 Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ 7 And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.
9 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
This encounter with the Canaanite woman proves these words of Jesus. She did not give up. Even when Jesus pointed out to her that His mission is first to Israel, she still doesn’t give up. She has faith that He will give to everyone who asks Him, just like He said.
N.T. Wright’s commentary on the Canaanite woman, in Matthew for Everyone, is from yet another angle. He says that the reason Jesus said that He was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel is because “Israel had to hear the message first… If Jesus and his followers had simply begun an indiscriminate mission to the wider world, before God’s purpose had unfolded, they would have made God a liar… But… the future keeps breaking in to the present… The disciples, and perhaps Jesus himself, are not yet ready for Calvary. This foreign woman is already insisting upon Easter” (pp.. 200-201).
I would like to add: because we have the hindsight of the big picture, we know that after the Cross, the disciples are told to include all people into the fold. No longer are those outside Israel separate or different. We are all brought into the family of God through faith in Jesus. Here, this Canaanite woman and the Roman Centurion are showing us that God’s plan is open to the whole world. We even see that truth in the Old Testament, in the inclusion of people like Rahab. She was so fully brought into the fold of sheep that she appears in the direct lineage of Jesus. All of these people were brought in or helped, even though they were not part of Israel, because they had faith.
The Centurion and the Canaanite woman had faith because they had either witnessed first-hand the miracles of Jesus or they had possibly talked with someone who had witnessed them or experienced them. Their faith probably came from seeing. Jesus expounds on this after the resurrection. Thomas doubted Jesus until he placed his fingers in His wounds. Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed”(John 20:29).
For all of us who have come to faith since the time Jesus walked on this earth, we are those who are blessed because we have believed even though we have not seen. Our faith has come not from seeing, but from hearing. Romans 10:17 says, “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.”
Hearing the word is not a onetime event, by the way. It is ongoing. We need to keep hearing the word. Did you notice that hearing, in that in verse, is present tense? If we want to grow in faith and have faith that Jesus would describe as great faith, then we need to be constantly hearing the word of the Lord.
I think our faith grows because the word of God is alive. As Hebrews 4:12 tells us: “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” God’s word is not empty poetry or dusty history. It is operational, working and viable. The Greek word for alive is zaó and the Greek word for active is energés and, according to Strong’s concordance, they mean “to live” and “at work, active, effective, productive of due result,” respectively.
When we hear God’s word, the Holy Spirit speaks to us through the word and deposits these living seeds of faith into the soil of our heart. To understand what I mean by that metaphor, I’m linking to a previous sermon on the Parable of the Sower. Jesus Himself explained it best in Matthew 13:19-23 when He said, “When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”
The word is alive and active. It is like a seed and, if properly watered, it will grow and grow. We water the seed of faith each time we hear or read God’s word. The more we hear God’s word, the better we understand who He is. The reason the disciples were afraid on the boat during the storm was because they didn’t yet know who He was. The reason the Centurion knew that his servant could be healed with just a word is because he knew who Jesus was. He had faith that Jesus was someone who had the authority to heal. The reason the Canaanite woman asked for help was because she knew who Jesus was. She had faith that Jesus was the Lord, the son of David. When we understand who God is, then our faith grows larger. As we read and hear the word, we learn more about God and begin to understand His ways and see His character and His power. The only way we will trust God and have great faith is if we have gained an understanding of Him through His word. As Paul said in the verses preceding Romans 10:17, “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’ But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?’ So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:12-17).
Paul so beautifully sums up the inclusive nature of the Gospel and the need for faith in Jesus. All who call upon the Lord are welcome to receive all that Christ has purchased for us. Our job as Christians is to be the feet of Jesus, taking the good news to all people. We must preach the word and share, not our ideas and thoughts for a good life, but the actual words of Scripture. For faith comes from hearing the word of Christ.
If we want to have faith that is larger today than it was yesterday, we must continue to hear the word of the Lord. It’s easy to lose faith. We get disappointed if we pray and feel like our prayers were not answered. It’s easy to feel hopeless when we look at society, but we cannot give up. The Bible tells us to hold on to our faith. In order to hold fast, we must grow in our understanding of who Jesus is.
Then we will believe and trust Him. As Hebrew 10:23 encourages us, “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.” Let us be like the Centurion who had absolute faith in Jesus’ ability to help. And let us be like the Canaanite woman who did not give up in petitioning the Lord for help. Let us have faith in Jesus, because He is faithful and He loves us.
Pray:
Heavenly Father, we pray that You would help us, by Your Holy Spirit, to love Your word. Please give us a desire to want to read Your word and learn more about You. Please give us wisdom and insight as we read so we can better understand who You are and how much You love us. Please forgive us if we have been lazy in or flippant in reading and hearing Your word. Please remind us of Your word when we lose faith. Help us to persist in prayer. Please increase our faith and help us to follow You each day. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
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