A Meditation on the Centurion's Prayer

As we enter the Lenten season I keep thinking about Jesus’ encounter with the Centurion in Matthew’s Gospel. You remember the Gospel passage I’m sure. A Roman Centurion approaches Jesus and tells our Lord that his servant is paralyzed and ill. Jesus offers to go to the Centurion’s home, but the Roman military leader says something very striking, “Lord, I’m not worthy that Thou shouldst come under my roof, but speak the word only and my servant shall be healed.” Jesus does heal the servant, but the Centurion’s request has come to be known as The Centurion’s Prayer. This brief encounter not only reinforces for us who Jesus is, but it also instructs us as to how we are to approach our Savior and this pleading from the Centurion has become a familiar prayer in the Church.

I think we can see three themes in this meeting: 1) Faith; 2) Trust; and 3) Humility. The Centurion who approached Jesus had only heard of Him, but had never met Him in person. he had heard of Jesus’ teaching and his miracles, but he had experienced none of that for himself. However, a servant he cared about very deeply was gravely ill and so he came to Jesus for help. He didn’t really know what would happen. This is the first step in faith.

We don’t always have some concrete evidence in front of us concerning what our Lord can or will do for us, but we reach out to Him in faith, believing He will hear us. Like the Centurion, we often find ourselves reaching out to Christ for His help and we take it on faith that he will respond. Our belief that Jesus is the Son of the living God allows us to draw close to Him and put ourselves in His hands, just as the Centurion drew close to Christ and put his faith and he servant’s well being in Jesus’ hands. For us to do this it means that our faith must combine with the second theme of this meeting: Trust.

While the Centurion’s faith led him to Christ, it was his trust that told him Jesus would do just what he had heard He would do: That Jesus would love so much that He would not turn down the Centurion’s pleas for his servant. And pleas they were because the word “beseech” that we find in this Gospel passage connotes a pleading. It’s not just asking for a favor, it’s a down-on-your-knees pleading for someone to grant a request. So the Centurion was pleading with Jesus.

Here was a man of great power over others. A man who was accustomed to giving orders and having them obeyed immediately, yet he comes in faith to someone about whom he has only heard, trusting that Jesus will be who he has heard that He is. he puts aside his position and power and approaches a man who is standing before him in poor clothing and sandals….and he begs. This brings us to the final theme: Humility.

This man of power shows us graphically how we are to approach our Savior. When he comes to Jesus does he tell the Lord of his (the Centurion’s) power over others and order Jesus to heal his servant? No. He tells Jesus that he (the Centurion) has the power to order men to come and go. He is emphasizing his temporal power and he’s doing that for a reason. By doing that in this way he’s saying, “Look, I can make people do things, I have power over many things, but you have a far greater power than I. You have power over all Creation.” Then he says something that is very unexpected for a man of temporal power. He humbles himself and says, “Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldst come under my roof, but speak the word only and my servant shall be healed.”

Where have we heard that before? Well, we frequently hear it at the Eucharist. After the consecration the priest may turn around to the congregation, show them the body and blood of Christ. His Real Presence in the Eucharist. The priest might say, “Behold the Lamb of God. Behold Him who taketh away the sins of the world.”

Like the Centurion, we are saying that Christ has power over all creation, over sin, and death. Now, we are confronted face-to-face with the Real Presence of our Savior in the Eucharist and how do we respond? No we do it casually and matter-of-factly? No. We approach our Lord as the Centurion did and say, “Lord I am not worthy that Thou shouldst come under my roof, but speak the word only and my soul shall be healed.”

We say almost the same words as the Centurion. In doing this we are approaching Christ just as he did. We approach in faith, believing that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior. We approach in trust, knowing in our hearts that Jesus will fulfill all of the promises of the Gospel for us. That He loves us, cares for us, and He alone can bring us to the Kingdom of Heaven. We approach in humility, knowing, like the Centurion, that no matter how powerful we are here on earth, we only have power of small, temporal things. We have poser over things that are impermanent and that will wither away in time. However, He has power over all creation. He can tell a mountain to move and it will move. He has complete and utter power over all sin and evil. He is the Son of God who has come to save us. He is present here with us in all His majesty and glory.

So we must ask ourselves how we can respond to Christ other than with faith, trust, and humility. What to we say to the Son of god who has saved us? In this Lenten season perhaps we should say, “Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldst come under my roof, but speak the word only and my soul shall be healed.” May each and every one of you have a Lenten season of growth in love for our Lord.

+Wes