After Jesus had finished preaching in parables to the multitude, He went down the mountain and entered Capernaum. The multitudes followed Him.
He was greeted by a delegation of Jews who asked Him to heal a centurion’s gravely ill servant because he was a man who loved the nation of Israel and had built a synagogue with his own money.
Jesus agreed. But as He approached the centurion’s home, the centurion sent out friends to ask Jesus not to trouble Himself by coming into his home.
He then approached Jesus and said he did not feel he was worthy for Jesus to enter his home, nor even worthy to meet Jesus Himself.
He asked Jesus to just say the word and his servant would be healed. The centurion said he had authority over soldiers who would obey him.
When Jesus heard this, He turned to the crowd that followed Him and said,
“Truly I say to you, I have not found faith this great, not even in Israel.
And I tell you that many will come from the east and the west and will sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom, the Israelites, shall be cast into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Jesus said to the centurion,
“Go your way, it has been done just as you believed. And when the centurion returned to his house, he found the servant healed and whole.”
