The Day Jesus Marveled (Matthew 8:5-13)
The Day Jesus Marveled
Matthew 8:5-13
As you know we have now entered a new section in Matthew’s gospel.
Matthew has shown us systematically all that he wanted us to see
In order to prove to us that Jesus is the Messiah.
And this most recent section (8-9)
Indicates very clearly to us the power of the king.
By revealing miracle after miracle Matthew shows us
The power of the King in an absolutely unmistakable way.
Last week we saw Jesus vs. Leprosy
And saw the victory He held over that extremely debilitating disease.
With a touch Jesus instantly restored a leper to perfect health.
It was a miracle!
For only God can reverse the effects of leprosy.
This morning we move on to Matthew’s next point.
We might call this Exhibit B
It is Jesus with the power and authority to heal a disease,
And one where He never even made contact with the actual afflicted one.
As you noticed when we read this passage, Jesus healed this servant,
And never even laid eyes upon him.
And that again is an unmistakable proof of Jesus Messiahship.
Matthew 8:17 “This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet: “HE HIMSELF TOOK OUR INFIRMITIES AND CARRIED AWAY OUR DISEASES.”
Matthew quotes from Isaiah 53, and obvious messianic passage
In order to open the eyes of all who are reading
That the one spoken of in Isaiah is the One who stands before us here.
And so the main point of these two chapters is obvious.
Jesus is the Messiah,
For only God’s Messiah could do the things that He does.
However, there is more that we can see even from a passage like this.
And this morning, I am caught by a single statement
That Matthew makes down in verse 10: “He marveled”
Marvel: means “to become full of wonder”.
The Greek word here translated “marveled” is THAUMAZO
And it is a word often used
To describe the way the crowd responded to Jesus.
It didn’t matter if it was His wisdom, His power, His love, or His patience,
The people around Jesus continually marveled at what they saw.
But it is not a word often used in regard to Christ.
And that makes sense.
We know that He is omniscient God. He is the all-knowing one.
We have verses that clearly indicate He read the hearts of men.
John 2:24-25 “But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.”
So we quickly understand that there wasn’t much that could surprise Him.
There wasn’t much that could catch Him off guard.
BUT TWICE THE SCRIPTURE REVEALS THAT IT HAPPENED.
Once occurred according to Mark 6:6
Mark 6:1-6 “Jesus went out from there and came into His hometown; and His disciples followed Him. When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue; and the many listeners were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things, and what is this wisdom given to Him, and such miracles as these performed by His hands? “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us?” And they took offense at Him. Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his own relatives and in his own household.” And He could do no miracle there except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. And He wondered at their unbelief.”
Jesus did do miracles.
The miracle He didn’t do was the miracle of salvation.
Because none would believe.
And Jesus was astonished.
It was almost as though He was caught off guard
At how deep the rebellion of man could be.
Who knew man could be so stubborn and unbelieving.
And even because of this unbelief we often find Jesus
Irritated or seemingly put out with humanity.
Matthew 17:14-17 “When they came to the crowd, a man came up to Jesus, falling on his knees before Him and saying, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic and is very ill; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. “I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not cure him.” And Jesus answered and said, “You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to Me.”
Mark 3:4-5 “And He said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill?” But they kept silent. After looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored.”
Mark 7:33-34 “Jesus took him aside from the crowd, by himself, and put His fingers into his ears, and after spitting, He touched his tongue with the saliva; and looking up to heaven with a deep sigh, He said to him, “Ephphatha!” that is, “Be opened!”
Mark 8:11-13 “The Pharisees came out and began to argue with Him, seeking from Him a sign from heaven, to test Him. Sighing deeply in His spirit, He said, “Why does this generation seek for a sign? Truly I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.” Leaving them, He again embarked and went away to the other side.”
John 11:33 “When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled,”
And when you look at passages like that,
It is obvious that humanity continually disappointed Jesus.
As Jesus walked this earth, He found humanity to be
Shallow, skeptical, stubborn, self-seeking, , manipulative, & unbelieving.
And in His hometown they even took that to a level
That is said to have astonished Him.
So Jesus was well acquainted with the weakness and wickedness of man.
And that is what makes this passage so intriguing.
In Matthew 8:10, we see the only other time in Scripture
That says that Jesus was astonished.
We see the only other time He marveled.
What we recognize is that here is a day where Jesus marveled Because on this day He found what He was looking for.
And perhaps He had wondered if He would ever find it.
Luke 18:8 “I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”
But on this day He did, and He found it in an unsuspecting place.
So while this miracle as a whole is about His tremendous power to heal.
This miracle also opens the door for us to see,
Exactly what Jesus was looking for from humanity.
And it allows you and I to examine this man who marveled Jesus,
That perhaps we might marvel Him as well.
There are 5 things I want you to see in this text.
#1 A DETERMINED SOLDIER
Matthew 8:5
First off, let’s examine who we are dealing with.
And here we find that this man is “a centurion”
So we know he was a soldier.
And because he was a centurion, we know he was in charge of 100 men.
And that alone is intriguing.
When I say centurion, you just think “tax collector”
So it is obvious Matthews picked miracles worked on unlikely people.
First it was the unclean leper.
Now it is the unclean gentile.
We also read that “a centurion came to Him, imploring Him”
While that is true, it is a little misleading.
For this centurion did not come in person.
He sent some Jewish friends to Jesus.
Luke 7:1-3 “When He had completed all His discourse in the hearing of the people, He went to Capernaum. And a centurion’s slave, who was highly regarded by him, was sick and about to die. When he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders asking Him to come and save the life of his slave.”
He sent men to Jesus, and then as Jesus was going,
The centurion apparently came out to meet Him.
But regardless of the logistics,
What is clear is that we have yet another person
Who should not have been confident he could approach Jesus,
Yet feeling confident that he could.
And of course you and I know that this is only building the point
Matthew will make in a few chapters.
Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Jesus wasn’t looking for the self-righteous and self-sufficient.
Jesus was always in search of the outcast.
And so it is no surprise that of all the miracles
Matthew could have included,
The first two deal with miracles done for a leper and a gentile.
A Determined Soldier
#2 A DESPERATE SERVANT
Matthew 8:6
Here we have another great picture of this man.
The leper overcame all adversity to see Jesus
Because he himself was infected with leprosy.
But this centurion was making his appeal on behalf of someone else.
This man is tracking down Jesus for the benefit of another.
And for no one but a lowly servant.
In Jesus’ day servants were mere property, and especially in Rome.
They were discarded as quickly as old livestock or as broken tools.
And yet this Roman is willing to approach Jesus in order to help his.
And he is motivated because his servant
“is lying paralyzed at home, fearfully tormented.”
In short, his servant is suffering, and he can’t bear to watch it.
Now obviously there has been an accident.
Had the man been paralyzed from birth,
It is doubtful he would have been a servant.
Furthermore the grief that it was causing him indicates a recent injury.
(For those who are born with disabilities
Seem to handle them better than those who receive them later in life)
Something had happened, and as a result he was paralyzed and was “fearfully tormented”
Luke’s gospel says that he was “sick and about to die”
And so not only was it the problems of paralysis,
But this man was staring death in the face and he was afraid.
And because of compassion this centurion was willing
To find Jesus in order to help out this lowly servant.
We are already refreshed by the compassion of this hardened soldier.
A Determined Soldier A Desperate Servant
#3 A DELIGHTFUL SURPRISE
Matthew 8:7-10a
So it is obvious that as these Jewish elders asked Jesus to come,
He told them, “I will come and heal him.”
Yet, before Jesus could get to the centurion’s home “the centurion said, “Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof,”
Apparently the centurion saw Jesus coming, and went out and stopped Him.
And the reason he gave is that “I am not worthy”
And this by the way is interesting as well.
We see the word “worthy” throughout the New Testament.
And we read commonly of this person being worthy or not worthy.
And every time that word is used it is the Greek word AXIOS.
And it indicates worth based upon merit or function or action.
Commonly saying something like if you do this you are worthy,
If you don’t do this you are not worthy.
I’ll give you an example.
Matthew 10:37-38 “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.”
It is worth referred to by one’s action.
It is used of Jesus as well.
Revelation 5:9-10 “And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. “You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.”
And so it is worth based upon action.
You did this so you are worthy.
And I tell you that because this man WAS worthy in this sense.
In fact listen to Luke’s gospel.
Luke 7:3-5 “When he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders asking Him to come and save the life of his slave. When they came to Jesus, they earnestly implored Him, saying, “He is worthy (axios) for You to grant this to him; for he loves our nation and it was he who built us our synagogue.”
There the Jews use the word AXIOS “He is worthy”.
He has done so much for us.
He is God fearing.
He is one of the good guys.
He deserves it.
But the centurion comes out and says, “I am not worthy”
Only the word he uses is NOT axios.
The word he uses is HIKANOS (heek-a-nos)
And it is NOT a performance based word.
It means “sufficient” or “competent”
Literally this centurion was saying to Jesus “I am not enough”
NOT, “I have not done enough”, but “I am not enough”
It is the same word John the Baptist used.
Matthew 3:11 “As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
It is the same word Paul used.
1 Corinthians 15:9 “For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.”
And that is what this man was saying, “I am not fit to be around Him”
And so despite the fact that he was more than worthy in action,
He was convinced that he was less than worthy in person.
This is exactly OPPOSITE of the world’s mindset that says,
“I am a good person even though I do bad things.”
This man said, “I am a bad person even though I do good things.”
And you and I know that this is the very mindset that Christ is looking for.
Matthew 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
And so not only is this man full of compassion,
He is also full of humility.
And yet that is not all.
For it is the next fact about this man that astonished Jesus.
“Lord, I am not worthy for You to 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; and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.”
This man was also filled with confidence in the power of Jesus.
You see while others marveled at the authority of Jesus,
This man understood it.
He was saying, “Look, I know what authority is, and I know what it represents. Furthermore I recognize that You have it.”
You see this man understood something
That so many have forgotten today.
And that is that JESUS IS LORD
He is the supreme and ultimate boss
And He can do anything He desires to do.
Furthermore everything must do what He tells it to do.
(And who better than a soldier to understand authority)
And this man believed that the authority of Jesus
Went further than just the 12 who followed Him,
But that it also reached into the world of sickness and disease.
Everything must do what You tell it to do,
So if You tell this paralysis to leave my servant, it will.
And because He recognized this
He knew that Jesus shouldn’t even come into his home.
Would the general of the Roman army come into his house?
Would the governor of the Roman province come into his house?
Would the emperor of Rome come into his house?
Then most certainly this Man should not,
For He has more authority than them all.
This man didn’t just have humility,
He had perspective, he had submission, he had FAITH.
(10) “Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled”
I almost envision tears of joy entering the Savior’s eyes.
I can imagine the many dusty roads He walked.
I can imagine the millions of people in the crowds.
I can imagine the endless lines of people He cured.
And none of them seemed to get it.
And then Jesus is confronted by a Roman soldier who did.
Jesus was delightfully surprised.
Don’t you want to astonish Him in the same way?
A Determined Soldier A Desperate Servant A Delightful Surprise
#4 A DEFINING SERMON
Matthew 8:10-12
And so that man’s faith finally gave Jesus the opportunity
To preach a sermon the world needed to hear.
He was surrounded by Jews who thought their only problems
Were Rome, hunger, and the diseases that plagued them.
They were certain that they were God’s people,
And that heaven was already a done deal.
And even after preaching the Sermon on the Mount and convicting them at every turn, it is obvious they still thought this to be the case.
And so Jesus takes the opportunity afforded by this humble, believing, soldier to preach a truly shocking message.
“Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who were following, “Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel.”
What a message to the crowd of Jewish faithful behind Him.
Some probably wondered why He would go to the home of a Gentile.
And so Jesus turns to this pious crowd and says,
“I can tell you this much, there isn’t a one of you here
That has as much faith as this man has.”
Talk about a dose of reality.
And all of a sudden this crowd was hit with the reality
That just because they were Jewish they might not be pleasing.
In fact, they might not even be as pleasing as a Gentile.
And if that is not enough Jesus continues.
“I say to you that many will come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
You mean to tell me that when the role is called up yonder,
There will be many Gentiles there with Abraham.
And if that was not shocking enough, many Jews will not get to go,
But will instead go to hell.
BUT THESE ARE JEWS!
Romans 9:4-5 “who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.”
God has worked harder for their salvation
Than for the salvation of any other people on the face of the planet.
And yet you are telling me that many of them will not go to heaven.
And at that point everyone in that crowd
Had better be asking one question.
“WHAT DOES THAT GENTILE HAVE THAT WE JEWS DO NOT?”
Because what we have is frustrating Jesus, and what he has amazes Him.
Well friends you know the answer.
Faith
“I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel”
AND WHAT DID HIS FAITH LOOK LIKE?
IT WAS COMPASSIONATE – putting a servant before himself.
IT WAS FULL OF GOOD WORKS – building a synagogue for the Jews.
IT WAS HUMBLE – knowing that those works didn’t change who he was.
IT WAS SUBMISSIVE – having a firm grasp on authority
IT WAS CONFIDENT – knowing that Jesus could do whatever He wanted.
That was faith.
The centurion had it, the Jews did not.
He would go to heaven, they would not.
A Determined Soldier -A Desperate Servant -A Delightful Surprise -A Defining Sermon
#5 A DEFINITE SIGN
Matthew 8:13
Now we already know that Jesus is working signs
To prove His messiahship.
But this sign goes beyond even that.
This sign is meant to confirm all that He just said.
It stands as an exclamation point at the end of that great sermon.
“And Jesus said to the centurion, “Go; it shall be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed that very moment.”
Jesus was for real, and that sermon He just preached was for real.
And it is a sermon that still rings true today.
Jesus has never been on a search for the most religious.
Jesus has never been on a search for the most pious.
Jesus walked this earth looking for those who had faith.
2 Chronicles 16:9 “For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.”
And that is what Jesus was doing.
He was looking for those who had faith.
• Are there any who are humble?
• Are there any who are compassionate?
• Are there any who are submissive?
• Are there any who are obedient?
• Are there any who will trust Me?
Sort of sounds like the beatitudes doesn’t it?
Matthew 5:3-10 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. “Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.”Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
CAN YOU SEE THOSE QUALITIES IN THIS CENTURION?
You sure can.
Now, can you see them in your own life?
Friend it is not your religion that will impress Jesus.
It was not the crowd walking around with Him that astonished Him.
Jesus marveled when He saw simple people with great faith.
And I want to be one who marvels Him like that.
And friend, this morning, I want you to be one like that as well.
If you have never approached Jesus as an unworthy sinner,
Desiring to submit to His authority,
Believing He can do what He says,
Then I want to invite you to do so this morning.
Not only will Jesus be amazed, but all of heaven will rejoice.
Be one this morning who causes Jesus to be amazed.
