See if you can spot the three stories in this one story.
This is Scripture for Students. I’m Steve Whitacre, president of Trinity College and a pastor at Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville. I want to help students build a daily habit for life-long Bible reading. Today is January 8, 2025 and this episode of Scripture for Students is called The Stacking Dolls of the Centurion’s Story. Grab your Bible and let’s get started.
Our readings for today are Genesis 8, Matthew 8, and Ezra 8. Please open your Bible to Matthew 8.
One of the things I enjoyed about going to my grandparents’ house when I was little was that the toys that they had were different from my toys. I grew up on Legos and G. I. Joe guys and Transformers. When I got to my grandparents’ house, they had toys from a different era: whatever they had kept from my Mom and my uncles. There were Lincoln Logs and a sack of marbles. They had a pogo stick and a World War II army helmet. And, they had a set of those little Russian stacking dolls.
Do you know what I’m talking about? These things are made of wood, brightly painted sort of bowling pin-shaped figures, maybe about 8 inches tall. It opens in the middle and there is a slightly smaller one inside. Open that one and there is another one inside of that. You keep going and you end up with 6 or 7 successively smaller dolls, the smallest of which was only about an inch tall.
Our Scripture for Students today reminds me of those stacking dolls, because it tells the story on three levels. Matthew tells this story brilliantly, so that we get several different lessons, depending on which level we read it at.
Please follow along Matthew 8:5–13:
5 When he had entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him,
6 “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.”
7 And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.”
8 But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed.
9 For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
10 When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith.
11 I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven,
12 while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
13 And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that very moment.
May the Lord bless the reading and the hearing and the keeping of his Word.
This story begins with a centurion. Two things you need to know about this guy: first, centurions were Roman soldiers who were responsible for 100 other Roman soldiers. That means that this guy is probably a veteran warrior. If you met him on the street, he would strike you as confident, in command. He would be impressive and maybe a little scary. Second, it means he is Roman, not Jewish. He’s an outsider to the Jewish people. That’s going to be significant for the story.
I mentioned there are three levels to this story, or if you like, three stacking dolls. Let’s check them out. Level 1 is, the centurion has a problem: his servant is lying paralyzed at home, so he asks Jesus to come heal him. In verse 7, Jesus says, “Ok, let’s go.”
That brings us to the second stacking doll, the second layer of the story: the centurion’s humility and faith. In verse 8 and 9, the centurion stops Jesus and won’t let him come to his house. Two reasons: first, because he believes he is unworthy for Jesus to come under his roof. Maybe because he was a warrior and had killed people in battle. Maybe because he wasn’t Jewish. It doesn’t say, but that leads to the second reason the centurion doesn’t want Jesus to come to his house: he knows that he doesn’t need Jesus to come to his house. He explains that he knows how authority works. He is in command: if he gives an order, his subordinate follows it and he believes—he has faith—that in the same way, if Jesus gives the command that his servant would be healed, it will happen.
In verses 10–12, Jesus responds. Did you notice how it says in verse 10 that Jesus “marveled”? There are lots of times in the New Testament where people marvel at Jesus for what he does, but this is the only place in all the gospels that Jesus marvels at someone else. And he marvels that this centurion has such faith.
And then comes the third level of the story: Jesus goes on to explain that there will be many more like this centurion: many more Gentiles who will come from east and west—meaning, from all different nations and tribes and languages—and they will be with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. Some of the Jews rejected Jesus, but Jesus is drawing to himself a people made up of all kinds of people. Today, we call that the church!
Then, we start closing up the stacking dolls. In the first half of verse 13, we go back to the second level of the story, or the second doll: Jesus tells the centurion, “Go, let it be done for you as you have believed.” He’s emphasizing again the centurion’s faith. And then, finally, the verse ends by backing out to the first level of the story, the original doll, which was the reason the centurion came to Jesus in the first place: his servant was healed from that very hour.
There’s a lot that we can learn from each of the stacking dolls in this story.
On the first level, the centurion had really good instincts. He had a problem and he brought it to Jesus. This might seem like a “well duh” moment, but you’d be surprised how often as a pastor, I talk to people about the difficulties they have and ask them if they have prayed about it, and they say no. Level 1: come to Jesus!
On the second level, Jesus was impressed by the centurion’s faith. Jesus wants us to trust him: to pray to him, believing that he is good, that he hears us, and that he is powerful to act. Notice that Jesus doesn’t say that the centurion’s servant will be healed because of the centurion’s faith, so let’s not make the mistake of thinking that if some prayer goes unanswered in your life, it was because you didn’t have enough faith. That is definitely not what this story teaches. But it does seem to please Jesus greatly that the centurion came to him with faith. It pleases Jesus every time we trust in him.
Finally, on the third level, let’s thank Jesus that he came to save his people. It says that he will save people from east and west and that his people will one day recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. Reclining at table is a picture of resting and feasting. It is a gift and a celebration of Jesus’ saving power. This is a wonderful reminder that our salvation includes the hope of heaven. When was the last time you thought about what it will be like to one day be with Jesus in heaven? We have a lot to look forward to.
That’s all for today. If you enjoyed this episode please share it with a friend and follow us on Apple Podcasts.
This content is sponsored by Trinity College of Louisville. We shape young men and young women for Christ and for the church. Learn more at TrinityCollegeLou.com. Until next time, keep growing!