Who’s Giving The Order? Series

Matthew 8: 5 – 13

Who’s Giving The Order?

5 Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him, 6 saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented.” 7 And Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.” 8 The centurion answered and said, “Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 10 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! 11 And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 13 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.

Now, as you know there were two other documents in circulation and they were the Gospels of Mark and Luke. As you know, Matthew was an apostle who was with our Lord Jesus Christ for over three years and was an eye witness to all that our Lord said and did. Mark, on the other hand, was probably the young man whom we read about in his gospel who ran away naked during our Lord’s arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane. He heard all the information that he recorded from the apostle Peter. I find it interesting that Mark does not comment on this miracle. Luke was the friend and disciple of the apostle Paul. He wrote his Gospel about 15 years after Matthew’s was penned.

So, to get a full picture let us take a quick look at Lukes Gospel and see if there is any other information that would bless us.

Luke 7: 1 – 10, “1 Now when He concluded all His sayings in the hearing of the people, He entered Capernaum. 2 And a certain centurion’s servant, who was dear to him, was sick and ready to die. 3 So when he heard about Jesus, he sent elders of the Jews to Him, pleading with Him to come and heal his servant. 4 And when they came to Jesus, they begged Him earnestly, saying that the one for whom He should do this was deserving, 5 “for he loves our nation, and has built us a synagogue.”6 Then Jesus went with them. And when He was already not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to Him, saying to Him, “Lord, do not trouble Yourself, for I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof. 7 Therefore I did not even think myself worthy to come to You. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. 8 For I also am a man placed under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 9 When Jesus heard these things, He marveled at him, and turned around and said to the crowd that followed Him, “I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!” 10 And those who were sent, returning to the house, found the servant well who had been sick.

Whoa! - major discrepancy. Did you catch the difference? In the Gospel of Matthew the Centurion came up to our Lord Jesus and besought Him to heal his servant. Now here in the Gospel of Luke we read that Jewish elders came up to our Lord beseeching Him to heal the Centurion’s servant. So what is it? Could the bible be wrong? It appears so here. Well, for all those skeptics I will say this, ‘both versions are correct.’ WHAT? Yes, that is what I said, so calm down and we will come up with the answer in a moment.

5 Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him

We read in Luke’s versions this, “1 Now when He concluded all His sayings in the hearing of the people, He entered Capernaum.”

What sayings? - the teachings that He just did on His way back to his home base in the town of Capernaum..

We read these important facts relative to the works of Adoni Yahweh’s Messiah. He would do some of these things;