“When Jesus heard this, he was amazed” (Luke 7:9).
What makes Jesus amazed? Is it the things we do? How much money we make? Our job titles? How we raise our kids? How clean our houses are? How much we read the Bible? It isn’t any of those things! It’s our faith.
In our reading today, Jesus was amazed at the officer’s faith in who Jesus was and what he could do. The officer went to Jesus and made a request that one of his highly valued slaves be restored to full health. In making this request, the officer was recognizing that Jesus had the power of God, which meant he did not have to touch him, speak to him, or even go and see him. Jesus had the power of God to heal at that moment from where he was.
In many other miracles in the Gospels, we see people coming to Jesus, bringing their loved ones to be touched by him. But this officer knew all it would take was Jesus’ will to heal his slave. He made his request, and then let Jesus do the rest.
When you make a request to Jesus, do you fully give it to him? Or do you hold on to it, trying to maintain a bit of control?
Just over two years ago, I got married. It was a beautiful day, and my husband and I felt so celebrated, loved, and encouraged. However, this passage strikes me as I think about the planning and preparation leading up to our wedding day.
My biggest prayer was that God would be present and our marriage would honor and celebrate his love and covenant with us. I prayed this, but I still held on to control of so many details that even if I’d wanted to be able to control them, I couldn’t. Like whether my husband would cry when he saw me for the first time, how much fun our dance floor would be, and that everything would run on time and smoothly. These were valid things, but at the end of the day, our number one prayer was that God would be present and glorified.
I could have saved myself a lot of stress—and my husband and me from small bickering moments—if I could have truly released the request to Jesus. I could have requested this and trusted that God would be present regardless of those minor details and how the day went. Because of course, God was going to be present, and of course, our day was going to glorify God whether David teared up or not. God was going to be present even if we were not perfectly on time all day.
Looking back, I wish I could have had faith like the officer, and I hope I can learn from this going forward. It doesn’t take being on time or a big dance floor to amaze Jesus; rather, it takes trust and total faith in who God is and what he can do.
Reflection:
- Has there ever been a moment in your faith where you think Jesus was amazed? Reflect on what made that moment impactful.
- Is there something in your life you are trying to give to Jesus while simultaneously holding on to right now?