Jesus Praises the Faith of the Roman Soldier
Matthew 8:5 Have you ever thought about Jesus “praising” people for things well done? Well, He does. A Roman Centurion (Army commander of 100 men) sends word to Jesus through some Jewish leaders asking Jesus to come heal his sick servant. In the course of things the Roman soldier demonstrates faith essentially saying, “It isn’t even necessary to come to my house, but just speak the word and my servant will be healed.” Jesus is “amazed” and praises the man saying, “Wow, what incredible faith this man has! I haven’t found anyone, even in Israel, with such great faith!”
When you meditate on this for a while, you realize that Jesus is really praising this guy in an incredible way! And don’t forget – this guy is human, he isn’t perfect – but Jesus still praises him. Therefore where and when is Jesus praising us? Yes, we are imperfect, but He still finds things to praise us for.
Foundation Principle: Colossians 1:15 (like John 14:9) says, “He [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God…” Since Jesus is the perfect picture or “image” of God – that means God is the kind of person that praises imperfect people. God isn’t a fault finder. He knows how to encourage and praise us “while” we are realigning our will with His (repentance) and growing in righteousness.
The CRITICAL thing to understand about the Character & Emotions of Jesus (God) is how He relates to imperfect weak believers who sin and fail. The fact that we believe in Him means we are responding to Him. Much of the world is not even trying to respond to Jesus. But while we are growing and trying (with His help) to grow in goodness and righteousness, we find that we fail and sin. So we have to understand how He feels about weak, imperfect and sinful followers. We will only be perfect in the next life during the resurrection. So how do we live now – sometimes obeying and loving – sometimes failing and sinning?
We live in the knowledge that Jesus is the “kind of person” who can praise us even while we are not perfect. He is the “kind of person” who can protect us (woman caught in adultery) even when we are guilty (but He challenges us to repent & grow). Jesus is the “kind of person” who never rejected Peter for his failures and outright sin. (Peter has at least 2 dozen or more failures and sins listed in the Gospels). Jesus always Instructs Peter and sometimes Disciplines Peter – but He never rejects Peter. (You never hear Jesus say – “Peter – you blew it one time to many this time… you are off the Apostolic Team… I can believe you failed to walk on water, I can believe you are arguing with James & John about which of you is the greatest, you fell asleep in the garden, you denied Me at my most critical moment…etc” Jesus never rejects Peter but He always restores Peter and instructs him how to grow.) We know that Satan is NOT “this kind of person.” The enemy is always accusing us and seeking to make his voice sound like God’s so that we feel attacked, discouraged and quit in despair. So figure out the difference between Jesus’ way with us and the enemy’s way with us. God’s way involves “conviction” to get us to turn from evil to good, but it never involves “condemnation” – that is the enemy’s voice.
Remember – since Jesus is “this kind of person” – then so is God. Jesus is the very IMAGE of the invisible God. Let it encourage you that God works with us in our weakness to grow us in greater goodness.