8:5 Centurions were Roman military officers each of whom controlled 100 men, therefore the name "centurion."They were the military backbone of the Roman Empire. Interestingly every reference to a centurion in the New Testament is a positive one. These centurions were fair-minded men whom the Jews respected. Capernaum was an important garrison town in Jesus' day. Probably most of the soldiers under this centurion's command were Lebanese and Syrian Gentiles.369
8:6-7 Matthew recorded that the centurion's address to Jesus (lit. "lord") was polite, though he probably did not intend it as a title of deity.370The Greek word that the centurion used to describe his servant, pais, usually means "servant,"though it can mean "son"(cf. John 4:51). Perhaps reports of Jesus' healing of another official's son led this man to approach Jesus (John 4). Here was one Gentile asking Jesus to come and heal another Gentile. Evidently the centurion sent his request through messengers (Luke 7:3).
It is possible to translate Jesus' response as a question: "Shall I[emphatic] come and heal him?"This translation has the advantage of providing a reason for Jesus emphasizing "I,"namely to focus attention on Jesus' person. Jesus would not have hesitated to go to the centurion because of ritual uncleanness, as Peter later did (Acts 10); He had already touched a leper (v. 3). Jesus' lack of concern about remaining ritually clean shows that He was replacing some laws in the Mosaic Code (cf. Deut. 18:18; Mark 7:19).
8:8-9 The centurion confessed that he felt unworthy to entertain Jesus in his home (cf. 5:3). John the Baptist had also expressed a similar feeling of unworthiness (3:14). The basis for the centurion's feeling of unworthiness (Gr. hikanos) was the authority that he believed Jesus possessed. He believed Jesus had sufficient authority to simply speak and He could heal his servant (cf. John 4:46-53).
All authority in the Roman Empire belonged to the emperor who delegated it to others under his command. When the centurion gave a command it carried all the authority of the emperor, and people obeyed him. A soldier who might disobey an order the centurion gave was really disobeying the emperor. The centurion realized that Jesus also operated under a similar system. Jesus was under God's authority, but He also wielded God's authority. When Jesus spoke, God spoke. To defy Jesus was to defy God. Jesus' word, therefore, must carry God's authority to heal sickness. The centurion confessed that Jesus' authority was God's authority, and Jesus' word was God's word.
8:10 Jesus expressed astonishment at this Gentile's great faith in Him.
"Wonder' cannot apply to God, for it arises out of what is new and unexpected: but it might exist in Christ, for he had clothed himself with our flesh, and with human affections."371
The introductory clause "I say to you"or "I tell you"alerted Jesus' disciples that He was about to say something very important (cf. 5:22). The greatness of the centurion's faith was due to his perception of Jesus' relationship to God. It was not that he believed Jesus could heal from a remote distance. Moreover the centurion was a Gentile who evidently lacked the knowledge of Old Testament revelation about Messiah. No Jew that Jesus had met had shown such insight into His person and authority.
One of the reasons Matthew evidently stressed the uniqueness of the centurion's faith so strongly was he wanted to show the movement in Jesus' ministry from Jews to all people (cf. 1:1, 3-5; 2:1-12; 3:9-10; 4:15-16; 28:18-20).
"This incident is a preview of the great insight which came later through another centurion's faith, Then to the Gentiles God has granted repentance unto life' (Acts 11:18)."372
8:11-12 Again Jesus introduced a solemn truth (cf. v. 10). He then referred to the messianic banquet prophesied in Isaiah 25:6-9 (cf. Isa. 65:13-14). There God revealed that Gentiles from all parts of the world will join the Jewish patriarchs in the kingdom. The Old Testament has much to say about the participants in the kingdom. God would gather Israel from all parts of the earth (Ps. 107:3; Isa. 43:5-6; 49:12), but Gentiles from all quarters of the earth would also worship God in the kingdom (Isa. 45:6; 59:19; Mal. 1:11). The Gentiles would come specifically to Jerusalem (Isa. 2:2-3; 60:3-4; Mic. 4:1-2; Zech. 8:20-23). As mentioned previously, in Jesus' day the Jews had chosen to view themselves as uniquely privileged because of the patriarchs. This led them to write the Gentiles out of the kingdom despite these prophecies.
"The Jew expected that the Gentile would be put to shame by the sight of the Jews in bliss."373
The "sons [or subjects] of the kingdom"(v. 12) are the Jews who saw themselves as the patriarchs' descendants. They thought they had a right to the kingdom because of their ancestors' righteousness (cf. 3:9-10). Jesus turned the tables by announcing that many of the sons of the kingdom would not participate in it, but many Gentiles would. Many "sons of the kingdom"would find themselves outside the banquet. The terms "weeping and gnashing of teeth"(cf. 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30; Luke 13:28) were common descriptions of gehenna, hell (4 Ezra 7:93; 1 Enoch 63:10; Psalms of Solomon 14:9; Wisdom of Solomon 17:21).374This interpretation finds confirmation in the expression "outer darkness,"another image of rejection (cf. 22:13; 25:30).375
"The idea of the Messianic Banquet as at once the seal and the symbol of the new era was a common feature in apocalyptic writings and an extremely popular subject of discussion, thought, and expectation."376
The Greek text has the definite article "the"before "weeping"and before "gnashing."This stresses the horror of the scene.377The terms probably picture suffering and despair respectively.
Jesus shocked His hearers by announcing three facts about the kingdom. First, not all Jews would participate in it. Second, many Gentiles would. Third, entrance depended on faith in Jesus, the faith that the centurion demonstrated.
". . . the locus of the people of God would not always be the Jewish race. If these verses do not quite authorize the Gentile mission, they open the door to it and prepare for the Great Commission (28:18-20) and Ephesians 3."378
8:13 Other similar words of Jesus help us understand what He meant when He said that He would do for the centurion "as"(Gr. hos) he had believed (cf. 15:28). Jesus did not grant his request because the centurion had faith or in proportion to his faith. He did so in harmony with what the centurion expected. Jesus did for him what he expected Jesus would do for him.
"It is . . . interesting to observe that the Gentile follows the Jew in the sequence of healing events. This is in accord with Matthew's plan of presenting Jesus first as Son of David and then as Son of Abraham."379
This healing marked Jesus as the Messiah who was under God's authority.
