In Matthew chapter 8, we’re given the account of the centurion that came to Jesus asking for healing for his servant. Jesus asks the centurion to lead him to the servant, but the centurion balks at this, instead saying that he knows that Jesus is capable of healing his servant without Him even being there.
At this, scripture tells us that Jesus marveled.
I’ve always wondered about that. Jesus, being God With Us, shouldn’t be surprised by anything, and yet He “marveled” at the centurion’s faith. Then I noted how Jesus contrasted the centurion’s faith with the faithlessness of Israel, and it struck me.
Israel was handcrafted by God to become a unique people with a unique worldview, one that would eventually allow for Jesus to enter the world and be recognized for Who He is. If anybody in all of history and all of creation should have understood what Jesus was trying to say, it should have been the people of Israel. If there was anyone who should have had genuine faith, it should have been a Jew.
And yet, when Jesus finds authentic faith in someone, one that recognizes the kind of authority that Jesus wields, it’s in a man whose job it was to oppress the people of Israel.
Jesus, of course, isn’t surprised by this, but it is still noteworthy, worthy of marveling, of shaking his head at the irony of it all.
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