The Soldier Who Just Believed

When Jesus finished his long talk on the hillside, he walked down into Capernaum, the fishing town by the lake where he lived. At the edge of town a group of old men in their best robes was waiting for him, all talking at once.

"Teacher, please come quickly!"

They were the elders, the leaders of the Jewish families in the town. And the person they were begging for was a Roman.

Romans were not popular in Capernaum. Rome's soldiers ruled the land with swords, and God's people did not like them one bit. This Roman was a centurion, a captain in charge of a hundred soldiers, and he had sent the elders to ask Jesus to come and heal his servant.

"His servant is sick," they said. "He is about to die, and the captain loves him dearly. This man deserves your help! He loves our nation. He even built our synagogue for us!"

(A synagogue is the meeting house where God's people gathered every Sabbath to pray and hear God's word. So every week, they met in a building paid for by a Roman captain.)

Jesus went with them.

Back at the house, the captain sat beside his servant's bed. He could give orders to a hundred men, and not one of those orders could stop a sickness. Then he pictured Jesus stepping through his front door, and he shook his head. A Jewish teacher did not usually walk into a Roman's house. Who was he to ask for that?

So he sent his friends hurrying down the street with a message.

Jesus was not far from the house when they reached him. "Lord," they said, giving him the captain's own words, "don't trouble yourself. I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. That is why I didn't even come to you myself. Just say the word, and my servant will be healed."

Then came the part of the message a soldier understands best.

"I am a man under orders, and I have soldiers under me. I tell this one, 'Go!' and he goes. I tell that one, 'Come!' and he comes. I tell my servant, 'Do this!' and he does it."

(Soldiers do not answer their captain with "In a minute.")

The captain had worked it out. When an order comes from someone with the right to give it, the order does the work. He did not need Jesus in his house. He needed one word from him, and the sickness would have to obey it the way a soldier obeys his captain.

Jesus stopped in the road, amazed, and turned to the crowd following him.

"I tell you," he said, "I have not found faith this great anywhere, not even in Israel!"

The crowd stared at one another. A Roman? Faith greater than theirs?

The friends went back to the house. The servant was well. Completely well.

Jesus had never touched that servant. He had never even seen him. The captain was right about him: Jesus did not have to be in the room. When he speaks, things do what he says, the way the world did when God first said, "Let there be light."

That day the crowd was all from Israel, and a Roman was the surprise. It would not stay a surprise for long. Jesus said that many would come from the east and the west to sit down at the feast with Abraham in God's kingdom. Some years later Peter walked into the house of another Roman captain, Cornelius, and the Holy Spirit came on everyone in it.

Jesus is still gathering people from every country who, like that captain, have never seen his face. His word goes farther than his feet ever walked.