Have you ever heard someone say, “I don’t understand enough of Christian Science to practice it or have a healing” or “I don’t know how to pray” or “I don’t think I am worthy of being healed”? How about, “Do we need to attain a certain level of understanding before we can heal or be healed?” There have been times, when healing hasn’t come quickly for me, that I have entertained thoughts like these. Perhaps you have, too.
But I found an answer to these self-defeating expressions of inadequacy in the Bible, in the account of a certain centurion (see Matthew 8:5–13). Centurions were Roman military officers. During their occupation of Galilee, where this biblical account took place, Roman soldiers made life miserable for the Jews, keeping them in a state of utter servitude to Rome. Being Romans, these soldiers were probably pagans or nonbelievers—something antithetical to the Jews they were ruling. And they governed with an iron fist. Any sign of resistance was met with severe punishment. As a result, the Romans were widely detested.
This particular officer was stationed in Capernaum, where it would have been virtually impossible for him not to know of Jesus, whose reputation was growing because of the remarkable healing he was doing. Given his status in the Roman hierarchy, the centurion was an unlikely candidate to seek Jesus’ help. But that is exactly what he did when a beloved servant was sick and close to dying. It had to be a humbling experience—a high-ranking authority figure putting aside all pretensions of power to ask a lowly Jew for help.
