Then Jesus said to the Roman officer, “Go back home. Because you believed, it has happened.” And the young servant was healed that same hour (Matthew 8:13).
There is an old comedian named Steven Wright, whom I used to love as a kid. He had one joke about a light switch in his house that didn’t do anything, so he would just turn it on and off, on and off, on and off, all day. Then he got a call from a woman in Germany who asked him to “knock it off.”
You probably didn’t laugh at that because Steven Wright is best seen and not just described. It is the way he delivers a joke that makes it even better. Like the other simple one, where he claims he owns a cordless extension cord. That’s it … that’s the joke. Funny right?
In Jesus’ time, most believed that he had to be present to heal. Jesus had to show up and physically lay hands on the person for them to be well. So when the Roman officer showed up and asked Jesus to heal his servant, Jesus’ response was, “I will come and heal him.”
Now here is where I would be really curious about Jesus’ delivery of that line. Was it a glad tone? “I will come and heal him!” Was it exasperated? “I will come and heal him …” We don’t know. But the response of the officer was one filled with faith. Essentially, he knew that all Jesus had to do was speak and his servant would be healed. Jesus didn’t need to show up at all. In that moment, Jesus was amazed at his faith, a faith that did not need presence to have proof.
If we are honest, we have all felt at times that our faith would be so much easier to maintain if we could just see, touch, hear from, smell Jesus. And there is nothing wrong with that. Jesus honors Thomas’ request for that very thing later in the Gospel. But the kind of faith that thrives without that is lifted up by Jesus here. So where do you find yourself today? Walking by faith or holding back because you haven’t yet seen?
Reflection:
- What does having faith without seeing mean to you? Is needing proof a bad thing?
- What can we learn from the faith of the Roman officer?