Mathew chapter 8 continues ....2

Mathew 8:5-13

The second person Jesus met with after the leper was a centurion, a man of much authority, a military leader. He could motivate and mobilize platoons by his authority. But when it comes to the case of  health or mental welfare he was helpless. Authoritarian can exercise his authority on his subjects and can exploit them but often cannot maintain and mend their welfare. That need concern, kindness and compassion towards other people. Authoritarianism doesn't  posses these spiritual qualities. Jesus has authority but it over spirit. He can motivate, mobilize and rejuvenate spirit. One cannot be a spiritual enlightener, leader,  until and unless he/she can motivate and rejuvenate spirit. But most of the time we see so called spiritual  as well as social leaders crush soul and spirit and make people passive, paralysed, painful and diseased as they exercise authority over people like this centurion. 'How the soul is so the man is'. This centurion understood he cannot heal anyone who suffer, with his authority and power. So he visited Jesus and begged him to heal his servant.  Why? He mentions why he came to Jesus to heal his servant. He has authority so if he says someone to go, he goes and to say do this he does that but he cannot command disease to move, or he cannot command a diseased soul, only a healthy body. But Jesus was not for healthy, but for diseased and sinful.  

Jesus agreed to accompany him and heal the servant but centurion was not ready to take Jesus home. he said," Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof". Why it is so? The centurion was under the roof of a political system where law and regulations in force to mobilize and activate society, but no righteousness prevailed. Where there is righteousness there no need of a government, law and regulations. Where righteousness dies there rise up a government and its laws and regulations to control unrighteousness.  In nutshell, we can say government's foundation is an unrighteous human society. That's why centurion prevent Jesus from coming to 'under his roof', the roof of authority , the roof of law and regulations, the roof of polity. Jesus amazed in the discriminative power of this centurion and he said,   "I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.

11 I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.

12 But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." 

What does it mean? It means that this discriminative power to understand, to distinguish between the kingdom of God and kingdom of polity is an inevitable one to follow Jesus, or there begins real faith. As soon as this centurion made out this difference in his conviction his servant cured. If we cannot make out this difference in its full depth, we cannot be spiritual . We are not in line with real faith.