Matthew 8:10,13 When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, “Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!” … Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you.” And his servant was healed that same hour.
There are only two people in the gospel accounts where Jesus says they have “great faith”. One is the Roman centurion in the account we have captured in today’s scripture reading.
The other is a Canaanite woman whose demon-possessed daughter was delivered and healed by Jesus (Matthew 15:21-28). In this account, Jesus was ignoring this woman and when He did speak to her, He referred to her as a “dog”! Sounds offensive doesn’t it?! But this was all the backdrop that revealed the greatness of this woman’s faith.
Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.
There is only one common denominator between these two people – both of them were Gentiles. What is the significance of that? Well, it means neither of them was raised under the customs of the Jewish law with its rules, regulations, and self-effort.
The law, or your attempt to produce a miracle in your life through your works or earning it through what you have done for the Lord, will disqualify you. We can also disqualify ourselves through condemnation or guilt we carry because of something we did or didn’t do.
But great faith flows because it sees great grace. Both the centurion and the woman saw the greatness of Jesus' grace. The religious people of the day would try to impress Jesus through their knowledge of the law and often came across as though they had it all together. They were “pretenders”. But grace does not flow towards “pretenders”.
For the woman – when she pretended to be a Jewish woman, she was ignored. But when she took off the mask and acknowledged she was a Canaanite, “a dog” in the eyes of the Jews, that’s when Jesus' grace flowed. She just acknowledged who she was and she didn’t allow any inner voice of condemnation to talk herself down.
For the centurion – He didn’t pretend to be something that he was not. He didn’t pretend to know the law or impress Jesus with His title. He saw the power of God was simply in the Words of Jesus. He saw Jesus didn’t even need to come and lay His hands upon the sick servant. He said, “just speak the word”. He also like this woman would have known that he was a sinful man – but he too did not allow the inner voice of condemnation to talk himself out of it.
For you, today, don’t pretend to be something that you are not. When you pray, you don’t need to pretend anything – Jesus knows you. If there is sin, bad habits, failures, weakness whatever, don’t let these prevent you from coming to God through condemnation. Never try to pretend that they are not there – just bring yourself, the real you to Jesus and see His grace. See His blood washing over you and see His grace going to work for you.
As you simply see Jesus' great grace – He will see your great faith.