18th Day of Lent
Surprises in the Company of Followers
"...to the crowd that followed him he said, '...not even in Israel have I found such faith.'" Luke 7:9

I find a couple surprises in this story of the healing of the centurion's slave.  First, it's somewhat surprising that the centurion seeks to have his slave, near death, healed at all.  After all, he was just a slave.  Harsh as it sounds, the slave was the owner's property.  Couldn't he just buy another one?  But the text says the centurion "highly valued" his slave.  Was this just a monetary thing?  Was he highly valued because he was a good worker?  Or was he highly valued because he was a person of worth?  It must have been that he was a person of worth to the centurion, part of his family, so to speak.  He may have started out only as a slave, but the relationship became personal, so the centurion sought his healing.

It also surprises me that the centurion places himself under the authority of Jesus.  He understood authority.  He was under the authority of those above him, and he had authority over those below.  In his position of authority, he had the power  to give orders and take action.  He knew that if he placed himself under the authority of Jesus, Jesus could act and heal his slave.  That's pretty remarkable, that he knew to place himself and his slave under the authority of Jesus.  Jesus was amazed that this Roman centurion would do so.  "Not even in Israel have I found such faith," he tells the crowds.  This is a very good reminder to me, and to us, to place ourselves under Christ's authority as well.  That is faith, to place our lives under the  authority of Jesus and to trust him to act in our lives.