canst'), and willing (`I will'), and in God's good time the leper will be cleansed, and receive the anointing oil of re-

After Israel's cleansing will follow that of the Gentiles; this is the consistent theme of prophecy, type and

doctrine, e.g., Galatians 3:13,14 :

`Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law ... that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles

through Jesus Christ'.

`Saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you first God, having

raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities' (Acts

The cleansing of the leper by personal touch is followed by the healing of the centurion's servant by a word

spoken at a distance. The Lord is no sooner acquainted with the servant's condition, than the gracious willingness is

again made manifest. Before the request is actually made the Lord said, `I will come and heal him'; then follows an

exhibition of faith so great that it is written of the Lord that He marvelled! On one other occasion only is it recorded

that the Lord `marvelled', but then it was at the `unbelief' of those who were of His own country, and kin, and house

(Mark 6:6).

The words of the centurion reveal how clearly he recognised the Lord as the Sent One. All who see Him thus

will be brought to the same estimate of themselves, `I am not worthy that Thou shouldest come under my roof'.

Then come the words of faith that caused the Lord to marvel, `but speak the word only, and my servant shall be

healed'. What a contrast with another military Gentile - Naaman, who said, `Behold, I thought, He will surely come

out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the LORD his God, and move his hand up and down over the place'

(Author's translation).

Great faith can dispense with all means and accessories, and can rely on `the word only'. It was faith indeed on

the leper's part to say to the Lord, `if Thou wilt, Thou canst', but it was greater faith for the centurion to dare to

decline the personal visit of the Lord, and rest confidently in His spoken word. We suggest that he recognised

Christ as the Sent One, because of his added explanation. He said more than the Authorized Version records; not

merely did he say, `for I am a man under authority', but he said, `for I also am a man under authority'. The fact that

he was under authority gave authority to his words; he said to a soldier, `Go, and he goeth', and the authority under

which he himself was placed gave, in its turn, all the weight to his commands. So with the Lord, He spoke not His

own words, but the Father's; the works He did He declared were not His, but the Father's who sent Him. The whole

of John's Gospel rings with the fact that Christ was the Sent One. The healing of the centurion's servant was John

5:24 in tableau:

`He that heareth My word ("speak the word only"), and believeth on Him that sent Me ("for I also am a man

under authority"), hath everlasting life'.

The words of Christ that follow show that the miracle was connected, in some way at least, with teaching:

`I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and

Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there

shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth' (Matt. 8:11,12).

The centurion's faith was real and strong, for the Lord said:

`Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame

hour' (Matt. 8:13).

The parallel record in Luke 7:1-10 should be read. The Companion Bible considers this a second miracle of

healing, suggesting that the Lord had blessed the centurion before (Matt. 8:12,13), i.e. before the calling of the

twelve in Matthew 10:1, etc. The second healing of the centurion's bondman took place after the calling of the

twelve (Luke 6:13-16). It must be remembered that Matthew selects his items with a view to the object of his

Gospel, and nowhere claims that historical order is maintained. Luke claims that he writes `in order', but even Luke

does not slavishly follow a mere time sequence. Many have found a `discrepancy' in the fact that whereas Matthew