Salvation Is Jesus

Matthew 8

Matthew chapter 8 begins with a few stories of the value of faith. First there is a man with leprosy that said to Jesus,

“Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”

Jesus reached out his hand and toughed the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cured of his leprosy.

Then we’re told that when Jesus enters Capernaum, a Roman centurion came to Jesus to ask him to heal his paralyzed servant who was in terrible suffering.

Well be focusing in on Matthew 8:5-13:

When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering.” Jesus said to him, “I will go and heal him.”

The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, “I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! It will be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that very hour.

We see here that Jesus states again the importance of faith in him. The centurion believed in Jesus with such faith, he didn’t even feel that Jesus needed to see his servant in order to heal him. The NIV Bible says Jesus was “astonished”. The NAS Bible, which is a more literal translation, uses the word “marveled”. Jesus compares this Roman soldier, part of the force that is oppressing the Jewish people, and says that his faith is greater than any other person’s in all of Israel.

Again we see Jesus teaching that faith in him is what makes a man righteous, and not the person’s heritage. He says, “that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of Heaven. But the subjects (or “sons” in the NAS version) of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

This statement would be extremely offensive to the Pharisees and other Jews of the day who were counting on their Jewishness to earn their way to heaven. They were focusing in on the law of God as the means, rather than Jesus, to which the law points. And now Jesus just said that this Roman centurion, along with other gentiles from all over the world would be feasting with the great Jewish patriarchs, while the “subjects” or “sons” or “Jews” would be thrown outside where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The purpose of Israel was to lead the Nations to God. Ultimately this is accomplished through Jesus Christ, the Jewish Messiah. But many of the Jewish people were focusing so much on the do’s and don’ts of the law, that the reason behind the law became secondary. The law is a mirror to show us our own sinfulness and need of God’s mercy and forgiveness through Christ. It is not a scoring system for earning points in order to enter heaven.