Matthew 8: 5 – 13
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.
Faith, many say they have it but how many really do? I once read a billboard that said something
like, “Worry is a sign of lack of faith”.
I put quotations around that, I don’t know if that is exactly what it
said but something like that and it hit me like a ton of bricks! This centurion did not worry, but simply made
a request of Jesus. He realized that
Jesus had the power to heal this man from a distance so that indicates that he recognized
Jesus as the Lord. This man knew that
Jesus was present everywhere at the same time (omnipresent) and His physical
body did not need to be present in order for the servant to be healed. I would imagine this is what fascinated Jesus
so much about this man. His own
disciples had not even recognized the deity of Christ yet this centurion did.
Could
this be why Jesus begins talking about the weeping and gnashing of teeth in verses 11 – 12? In Matthew
22:1 – 14 we read of another time when Jesus spoke of Heaven and how some
would be thrown out. 1 Jesus
spoke to them again in parables, saying: 2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for
his son. 3 He sent his servants to those who had been invited
to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.
4 “Then he
sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have
prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and
everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’
5 “But they
paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. 6 The rest seized his
servants, mistreated them and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He
sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
8 “Then he
said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did
not deserve to come. 9 So go to the
street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ 10 So the servants went out
into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well
as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11 “But when
the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing
wedding clothes.12 He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The
man was speechless.
13 “Then the
king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into
the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
14 “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”
Our Heavenly Father, claimed the Jewish people as His
people but when He sent them their King, Jesus, they refused to recognize
Him. The leaders had Him crucified and
others agreed with that decision. After
His resurrection He appeared to many and many believed. He sent servants out to share their witness
and we learn in the Bible how the early church grew in numbers on a daily
basis. These were not all Jewish but
also the Gentile people. Just as the
servant invited the people in the parable Jesus told, so has our Heavenly
Father invites us. He has servants today
who go and invite others to come to the wedding banquet. Jesus commanded His disciples in Mark 16:15 – 17 15 He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all
creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but
whoever does not believe will be condemned.”
(http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%2016:%2015%20-%2016&version=NIV)
It is not our place to decide who
are and who are not deserving of the Gospel but it is our duty and our privilege
to share it with others. More people than ever have been reached with
the Gospel of Jesus Christ and many are believing and being baptized. However, there are many who think that
believing is all they have to do but did you know that even satan and his
angels believe in the Son of God. Many
people think that just because they believe they will be going to Heaven. They think their time on earth is for them to
live the way they want and if it gets too bad they will send up a prayer. These people are going to be the ones that
will be asked to leave, even though they believed, they did not put on the
wedding clothes. Be careful, proclaiming
to be a Christian and proclaiming Jesus Christ as Savior are two different
things. Have you proclaimed Jesus as
your Lord and Savior?
Remember the sign regarding
worry? The centurion had true faith
because he knew that Jesus could heal this servant because of the deity of
Christ. When we worry we are not like
the centurion because all of a sudden we are questioning God, doubting that our
prayers will actually be answered in our favor.
We are doubting that He can heal or that He cares for us. Don’t doubt, stand firm and believe that
whatever is in store for you in this life is for your good, no matter how
painful or awful it may be. Put your
hand in God’s hand and allow Him to lead you through life. Then, when those horrible things do come your
way you will be prepared to give it to the Lord just as the centurion did.
Seek Him and know Him, trust Him
and obey Him, clothe yourselves in the wedding apparel so that when you attend
the wedding feast, you will not be the one asked to leave.
Seeking Him with all my heart,
Sheila
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