![]() "International Standard Bible Encyclopedia". They and other centurions mentioned in the Gospels and the Ac ( Matthew 8:5 Mark 15:39,44,45 Luke 23:47) are represented by the sacred writers in a favorable light. Men like Cornelius and Julius ( Acts 10:1 27:1) may have been separated from the legion to which they properly belonged for the discharge of special duties. Centurions were sometimes employed on detached service the conditions of which in the provinces are somewhat obscure. The ordinary duties of the centurion were to drill his men, inspect their arms, food and clothing, and to command them in the camp and in the field. The number of centurions in a legion was 60, that being at all epochs the number of centuries, although the number varied in the cohort or speira. Matthew and Luke use the Greek word while Mark prefers the Latin form, as he does in the case of other words, seeing that he wrote primarily for Roman readers. I doubt Jesus is astonished at anything from his seat beside the Father's throne, but if he is, I would rather he be astonished at my faith than at my unbelief.As the name implies, hekatontarches or hekatontarchos, kenturion, Latin centurio, was the commander of a hundred men, more or less, in a Roman legion. God being God, he will find another way of bringing his kingdom on earth, but what a tragedy when we fail to understand who Jesus is, fail to understand the nature of his authority, fail to enter into a totally submitted relationship with him which releases that authority, and in the end fail to enter into the destiny for which God created us. But failure to exercise faith is equally failure to recognize Jesus for who he truly is, and that failure will mean God will not use us to do what he otherwise could have done through us. ![]() Moving by faith to enter into God's chain of authority does not give us the ability to do anything outside of God's will. But he did possess one thing, and that one thing was enough: an understanding of authority which was so acute it led him to the one with authority over all. And he did all this without being raised in the Scriptures or in the knowledge of God. ![]() The centurion understood exactly where Jesus’ authority came from and how it operated. He had seen that Jesus himself was the Son of God, and because he stood directly under his Father’s authority, he had power even over sickness. The centurion’s faith was great because, as a Gentile raised completely outside the knowledge of God, he had, in a way even the disciples had not yet seen, penetrated into the secret of Jesus’ authority. The centurion’s faith was not great because he believed that Jesus could heal by long distance. That is the reason he came pleading for his. Jesus said that he had not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. That is, the centurion had a very strong attachment to his slave. If he had not come to Jesus, if he had not recognized Jesus’ authority, if he had not come under that authority, the power of God would not have been released to heal the servant. It was by his faith that the servant was healed (Matt. Even though the centurion himself had no direct physical role in the healing, he was the human channel by which it occurred. The centurion, by placing himself under Jesus’ authority, tapped into that authority and became the channel by which that authority flowed to the servant. The centurion was the link in the chain between Jesus and the sick servant. The centurion, by receiving Jesus as the Son of God and giving him due honour, placed himself in the middle of God’s chain of authority. In one sense, therefore, the two stories are all about how different people understood Jesus and how they received him. The townsfolk limited Jesus to what his earthly father could give him, the centurion saw that Jesus could have anything his heavenly Father gave him. The townsfolk of Nazareth saw only Jesus’ earthly father, the centurion saw only his heavenly Father. It equally astonished Him that this centurion, entirely foreign to Israel and the covenant promises of God, could so easily grasp hold of who Jesus was in relation to his Father. It astonished Jesus that, in spite of all the miracles, his townsfolk could see no further than the boy they had grown up with. Jesus was rarely surprised by anything, but those two situations caught him off guard. These are the only times this verb occurs in the entire New Testament with reference to Jesus. The same word is used in Mark 6:6 to describe how Jesus was "astonished" at the unbelief of the people in his home town. ![]() ![]() Jesus was “astonished” at the faith of the Roman centurion who came to Him seeking healing for his sick servant (Matthew 8:10). ![]()
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