"For He spoke, and it came to be; He commanded, and it stood firm."

Psalm 33:9.

I was reading the story of the centurion and his servant in Matthew 8:5-13 when something suddenly occurred to me.  This story has always been strange to me; I could never make any sense of the centurion's words or why Jesus was so astonished by his faith.  But it finally clicked just now.  The secret lies in the beginning and end of verse 9: "'For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me... I say to my servant, "Do this," and he does it.'"  I believe the centurion is specifically talking about his servant who is paralyzed, saying that the servant always obeys his commands because the centurion has authority over him; in saying this, he acknowledges that Jesus has authority over him, so he relinquishes his authority over his servant and gives the reins to Jesus.  He knows that, because Jesus is the ultimate authority, whatever He says goes, so his servant will obey Him if He gives him a command.

And what's more, the centurion recognizes Jesus' identity as the Sovereign Lord, the God of all creation.  In verse 8 the centurion says, "But just say the word, and my servant will be healed." As God spoke the world into existence in Genesis—just as light came into being at His command—all of creation, even mankind, must submit to His authority.  If God were to simply command the servant to be healed, he would become well.  He wouldn't even have to hear Jesus give the command in person because the Holy Spirit would speak the command to his spirit.  Creation didn't even exist yet when God commanded the world into being, and it still obeyed; so why shouldn't something that already exists be able to hear and obey the Lord when He speaks?

The centurion's faith is so shocking because he truly acknowledges not only Jesus' identity as God, but also the fullness of God's sovereignty.  He understands that nothing is impossible with God, and he holds tight to that truth.  Even the Israelites in the Old Testament didn't have that kind of faith.  Repeatedly they abandoned the Lord because they felt hopeless in the wilderness.  They forgot that the Sovereign God was with them—no, they didn't forget that He was with them; they forgot that He is omnipotent.  They lost faith in Him, not that they didn't believe He existed, but they didn't believe He could help them.  But the centurion didn't forget.  He trusted the Lord, so his faith was rewarded.  As Mark 11:24 says, "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."  The centurion believed in Jesus' sovereignty, and he was granted the blessing of seeing His power in action.

I pray that we would all have the kind of faith the centurion had.  Let's remember Jesus' simple command in Mark 11:22: "Have faith in God."