Optimist Roundtable 7/8
By Martha Sykes
Jesus said, “Never among all the Jews of Israel have I met a man with faith like this”. These words are found in Luke, chapter 7 where we find the story of a centurion in the Roman army who had a servant that was very dear to him. The servant was critically ill and the centurion was concerned, so when he heard that Jesus was teaching nearby, he sent some of the Jewish leaders to find Jesus to plead with Him to come heal his servant.
One leader told Jesus that this centurion deserved His help because even though he wasn’t a Jew, he still helped them and even personally paid to build them a synagogue. Isn’t it nice to read about someone like this having compassion for his servant? He was caring but also generous to the local synagogue. Jesus must have sensed that this was a very special person, so He went immediately with these leaders to see what He could do to help.Just before He got to the house though, the centurion sent a message to Jesus that he felt he was not worthy for Jesus to honor him with His presence, so this centurion is not only caring and generous but he is also humble. So the centurion said to just say the word and his servant would be healed. And that is when Jesus commented about his amazing faith.
From this story, we can realize that not only was the centurion a good man, but the servant must have been one as well, as this man wanted Jesus to come heal him. This centurion valued his servant, and had enough compassion to call upon Jesus to heal him. And he had enough faith in Jesus to tell Him to just say the word and his servant would be healed and if we read on to verse 10, it says that the men returned to the house and found the servant well!
There are many good and faithful people that we can read about in the scriptures, but there are also people like this that exist in our world today. It is rewarding to read the story of people who are compassionate and give of themselves because of their faith. Paul M. Stevens, in his book entitled “Gathered Gold”, tells about a Japanese magazine that had a picture of a butterfly on one of its pages. The butterfly was printed with special ink that appeared to be a dull gray until it was warmed by the touch of a hand. If someone touched it with their hand, the chemicals in the ink would react and the dull gray would be transformed into a rainbow of colors.
That butterfly is a metaphor for the power of love to heal human hearts. That love is lived out each and every day somewhere in this world.
We certainly see it in the scriptures.The centurion sent for Jesus to heal his servant. Andrew heard Jesus preach and ran to get his brother Peter. Four friends removed tiles from the roof of a house where Jesus was speaking and lowered a man through the ceiling so that Jesus could touch him. Imagine what each one of us could do if we had this kind of compassion and faith to share with others. Jesus cared so much for us that if we let Him touch our lives we can be a reflection of His love in this world today.
