Astonishing Faith

When Jesus was on the earth he must have disturbed so many people. I imagine the day he turned water into wine, the Cana of Galilee Brewery Limited must have had a board meeting to discuss the chaos, I mean even their stocks on that day did so badly. Or imagine the undertaker who after burying Lazarus, heard that he had be raised, and not just him, but even the daughter of Jairus and the boy who belonged to the widow in Nain. Or the town doctor who was losing business every day since Jesus would randomly healing the sick. I mean, people were disturbed. Or should I say astonished?

But then one day it’s Jesus who was astonished. In Mathew 8: 5 -13 we see the story of the centurion.  ⁵ When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. ⁶ “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.”  ⁷ Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?”  ⁸ 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. ⁹ 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.”  ¹⁰ When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.NIV

When I was thinking about this passage three things stood out for me. First Jesus asks the centurion whether he should accompany him to go and heal the guy, but he declines the offer and asks Jesus to just SPEAK. We have not seen Jesus do a remote controlled miracle. He was ever present in the place of performing a miracle. But this guy demands something beyond what had been done before; a remote controlled miracle. Where did he get such an idea that Jesus could just speak and it would be done?

Second, it is recorded that Jesus himself was astonished. I mean, he had not seen anyone entering into such dimensions of faith. This guy beat the woman with the issue of blood who just touched the hem of the garment for healing, he beats Peter who abandoned everything to follow Jesus, he beats the guys who had to make way through the roof to have their friend come to Jesus, he had faith in a new level.

Thirdly, I am thinking of the power of a man under command. The question is who has the authority? Many a times we forget that Jesus is the man in charge. We rely on people we know to do as favors instead of just asking Jesus to speak a word, we bribe to have doors opened instead of asking Jesus to speak a word, we compromise to have a life partner instead of asking Jesus to speak to our situation. Do you know how stupid we look? Like the disciples waking Jesus just because there was a storm. He just spoke to it and it calmed down. The point is, Jesus is the King of Kings, HE SPEAKS AND IT’S DONE. Do you believe him?

I am challenging myself to develop the astonishing faith, to create new demands from the word of God. I mean, all I need is a word from Jesus and chaos will turn into order, darkness turns into light, sickness becomes health and nothing becomes something. I want to have the capacity to believe in what Jesus can do and to enter into new levels of faith. I want to have the astonishing faith!