CRITICAL NOTES
Matthew 8:5. A centurion.—I.e. a captain or commander of a century—a company normally composed of a hundred men, the sixtieth part of a legion in the Roman army. This centurion was probably an officer in the army of Herod Antipas, which would be modelled after the Roman fashion (ibid.). The presence of a centurion implied that of a garrison stationed at Capernaum to preserve order (Plumptre).
Matthew 8:6. Servant, παῖς, boy (R.V. margin).—The word is one which answers to the old English “chylde,” and denotes a servant in a peculiarly honourable sense (Laidlaw). Palsy, grievously tormented.—In this instance we have probably a case of progressive paralysis, attended by muscular spasms, and involving the respiratory movements, where death is manifestly imminent and inevitable. In such a case there would be symptoms indicative of great distress, as well as immediate danger to life (Sir R. Bennet, M.D.).
Matthew 8:9. I am a man under authority, etc.—His argument is evidently from less to more. “I am a servant, and know how to obey; a master, and know how to be obeyed. If my word, who am only a subordinate in command, be so promptly heeded, how much more Thine! My word, with the authority of Herod or Cæsar, how much more Thine with the authority of God!” (Laidlaw). My servant.—τῷ δούλῳ, bond-servant (R.V. margin).
Matthew 8:10. Marvelled.—A genuine, human wonder, which we shall not find at all stumbling, or foreign to our conception of the Man Christ Jesus, unless we have allowed one-sided theological views to take our Saviour away from us, and cannot tell where they have laid Him (Laidlaw).
Matthew 8:11. Sit down.—i.e. recline at a feast.
Matthew 8:12. Outer darkness.—i.e. the darkness outside the house in which the banquet is going on. Gnashing of teeth.—The natural bodily expression of extreme cold. It is the condition of one who is turned out of a heated banqueting-hall into the chill, dark, winters night, clad only in his light, festal robes. We are more familiar with the very similar expression, “chattering of teeth” (Tuck).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Matthew 8:5-13
Repeating the type.—With some points of difference, there are more of similarity between this miracle and the last. The leper was probably outside of Capernaum, the centurion was within. In the former story it is an outcast who asks; it is the man of position in this. There the sufferer prays for himself; here the sufferer is prayed for by another. Yet for all this there are two main features common to both. Equally notable in both cases is the marvellousness of the work; equally notable the simplicity of the means.
I. The marvellousness of the work.—How fearful the evil, in the first place, as well in this case as in that! If leprosy was awful outwardly, so was “palsy” (Matthew 8:6) within. It is said of the nerves, in cases of wasting, that they are the last to lose weight. When these are affected, therefore, nothing is right. How much was wrong in the present case is shown by two things. The poor sufferer was so ill that he had been left “lying at home” (Matthew 8:6). He could neither come nor be brought (contrast Matthew 9:2). The poor sufferer suffered so much that only the strongest language could be used of his case. He was “grievously tormented”—in fearful pain—“en proie à de violentes douleurs” (Lasserre). Also, as in the previous instance, how complete the cure. “The servant was healed,” not relieved only, not partially cured, not merely made convalescent, or on the way to recovery, but with the recovery over, the journey accomplished, sickness gone (and suffering also), and health and ease in their place. Also, yet more, all this in a moment; not by a tedious climb, but as it were by a spring (Matthew 8:13, cf. Matthew 8:3). Also, further yet, as before, by a word; and that, in this case, by a word afar off, out of the hearing and in a place beyond the sight of him of whom it was spoken; and addressed to another (Matthew 8:13) and not himself. In this case, in short, there was that present which only the very largest faith (Matthew 8:10) had thought of before. Shall we say, therefore, of the healing in question, that it was effected by only a word? So far as the man who was healed was concerned, it was effected by less than a word—by a thought. A “thought” about this man—which he knew nothing about—brought him up, as with the swiftness of thought, from the very shadow of death to meridian life!
II. The simplicity of the means.—How was this wonderful triumph accomplished so far as man was concerned? It was accomplished by faith. That faith was present in this case is easily seen. The very coming to Jesus for help, as in the case of the leper before, is a proof of this truth. No man would come for help where he had no hope of obtaining it (see Hebrews 11:6). Also the faith present was of a very remarkable kind. The testimony of the centurion to the Saviour proves this to be so (Matthew 8:8-9). Where do we find the appearance of stronger faith than we find in those words? Thy commands to sickness and suffering are like mine to my soldiers. I have only to let them know what I wish, and it is immediately done. So also of all the forces which are now distressing and killing my servant at home. Any message of Thine to them will be obeyed by them at once. Nor was this signal faith in appearance only. It was also a fact. So we are taught, on the other hand, by the testimony of Jesus to the centurion. “I have not found so great faith” even where men are renowned for it most. Lastly, the effect produced was distinctly connected with faith. Connected with it directly by the Saviour Himself. “As thou hast believed so be it done” (Matthew 8:13). Connected with it to the exclusion of everything else. This stranger was accepted, and many others with him, because of their faith. Others would be rejected, although nominally of Israel, because men without faith. Faith it was, therefore, and nothing but faith, which brought this wonder about.
Thus does this story, therefore, enforce the lesson of the story before. In the case of the leper there were just two things to recommend him to Jesus, the presence of faith in him on the one hand, and the severity of his need on the other. But these two were enough. Jesus put forth His hand and touched him, and sent him away a healed man. Exactly the same two recommendations were found in this other case too. Exactly the same treatment, therefore, was accorded to it. It is the rule of His kingdom throughout. In all the Saviour’s subsequent miracles, if not expressly, by plain implication, the same rule is observed. See, for example, in the immediately subsequent chapter (Matthew 9:1-8; Matthew 9:18; Matthew 9:22; Matthew 9:27-28). It was well, therefore, that this key-note should be struck—and struck twice—at the first; even in these two stories which are the first of their kind related at length.
HOMILIES ON THE VERSES
Matthew 8:5-13. The centurion and the Captain of the Lord’s host.—
I. The man and his faith.—
1. If we put together the traits of character given by Matthew and Luke, we get a lovable picture of a man with a much tenderer heart than might be expected to beat beneath the armour of a mercenary soldier, set to overawe a sullen people. Like so many of the better spirits of that strange era, he had been drawn to “love our nation,” certainly not because of their amiability, but because of the revelation which they possessed. He had built them a synagogue, and thereby expressed his adhesion to their worship, and won the confidence even of the suspicious elders. His solicitude for his servant bespeaks a nature from which neither the harshness of military life nor the natural carelessness about a slave’s welfare had been able to banish the sweetness. The crowning trait of his character is his humility, which is manifest in Matthew, and even more conspicuous in Luke’s version of the story, where he does not venture to approach the miracle-working Rabbi, but sends the elders to intercede for him. Such a character, springing up in heathenism, like a fair flower on some waste unsheltered open, puts to shame the results of centuries of patient culture by the Great Husbandman, as shown in the Jewish nation. One can scarcely help noticing the common type of character, in different degrees, shown in the centurions of the New Testament; this man, the anonymous one, who stood by the cross, and was more open to its teachings than rulers and priests, Cornelius, and the kindly Julius who had Paul in charge on his voyage.
2. The centurion’s appeal, as given by Matthew, does not say what he wants, but simply tells the tale of suffering, as if that were enough to move Christ’s heart. The sad sisters at Bethany sent a like message to Jesus, but their confidence was the growth of years of close friendship. This man’s was greater because its foundation was less.
3. Christ’s answer is full of consciousness of power, as well as of willingness to meet the unbreathed prayer. He volunteers to come where He had not been asked. He refuses to go when His going seems made an indispensable condition of His miracle, as in the story of the healing of the “nobleman’s” son at Capernaum. His wisdom may be trusted to decide when it is best to exceed and when to fall short of our wishes. Here the promise to come is spoken to evoke the noble confession which follows, and so to give the centurion a higher blessing than his servant’s healing, even a self-conscious and uttered faith.
4. That confession begins with humble acknowledgment of unworthiness, and rises to perhaps the clearest and deepest conception of Christ’s authority over all the forces of the universe which was ever attained during His earthly life. But the centurion’s conception of the manner of exercising the power is the remarkable thing here. A word is enough.
II. The eulogium on faith.—The confession is followed by praise from Christ’s lips. Contrast His calm acceptance of the highest place which could be given Him with the king’s “Am I God, to kill and to make alive?” or with Peter’s “Why look ye so earnestly on us?” The centurion’s faith was great in the clearness of the belief which it included; great in the difficulties which it had overcome; great in the rapidity of growth on so slight a knowledge of Jesus; great in the firmness and completeness of its moral part, confidence; great in the humility which it produced. The centurion was, in some sense, the first-fruits of the Gentiles, and our Lord’s sad prescience sees in him the forerunner of a long train who shall exercise a faith which puts the children of the kingdom to shame. Those to whom the kingdom was offered shall, some of them, not be there. What could be plainer, when taken in connection with the immediately preceding eulogium on the centurion’s faith, than this teaching, that the one condition of entrance into the kingdom is just that which the centurion had, and Israel had not, viz. faith in Him. The darkness is but, as it were, the externalising of the dispositions of those who are in it. Darkness reigned in them here, the darkness of sin; and now they dwell in darkness of sorrow, the creation of their own evil natures. The picture is darkly shaded, but by One who “speaks that He knows,” and whose every word throbbed with love.
III. The answer to faith.—“Go thy way,” etc. These great words of Christ’s give the key of His storehouse into our hands, and lay down the law to which He rigidly adheres. Our faith is the measure of our reception. As St. Bernard beautifully says, “He puts the oil of His mercy into the vase of our trust.” The centurion’s willingness to be content with a word showed a strong faith, which He confirms by demonstrating that it had not thought too loftily of Him.—A. Maclaren, D.D.
Matthew 8:5-10. Christ and the centurion’s servant.—Loving zeal a characteristic of the kingdom of heaven.
I. The servant obeying his master from attachment and devotedness; or Christianity in the domestic circle and in civil society.
II. The centurion serving his subordinate from esteem and compassion; or Christian philanthropy.
III. Christ serving both; or, the kingdom of grace.—J. P. Lange, D.D.
The centurion’s regard for his servant.—We know something of the hardening effects of slavery in the United States of America. But, as the greatest of Roman historians (Mommsen) tells us, African slavery is a mere drop in the ocean in comparison with the horrors of slavery in the old Roman empire. Even so tenderhearted and amiable a man as Cicero once blushed and offered an abject apology because he so far forgot himself as to feel a twinge of regret at the painful death of a slave. It was in this corrupt and horrible atmosphere that this man cared for his slave; and I know nothing that is more noble, more indicative of the Godlike man, than a proper courtesy and thoughtfulness and a disinterested and unselfish care for those who are our social inferiors.—H. P. Hughes, M.A.
Matthew 8:11-12. A great transformation.—The great transformation of near and far in the kingdom of God.
I. In the cause of history.—
1. At the time of Christ.
2. At the time of the migration of nations.
3. At the time of the Reformation.
II. Its inner lesson.—
1. The penitent sinner who relinquishes every claim, hears the call of mercy afar off.
2. The least appearance of self-righteousness obstructs our view of the light of salvation, however near.—J. P. Lange, D.D.
Matthew 8:13. The centurion’s faith.—
I. What were the characteristics of the faith of the centurion of Capernaum?—
1. It must have been a thing of gradual growth, and it must have grown under no ordinary difficulties.
2. It was marked by thoroughness.
3. By humility.
II. Why should such a disposition, such an effort of faith, have this power?—
1. It involves knowledge of facts, which are of the first importance to the religious well-being of men.
2. It is a test or criterion of the predominant disposition of the soul or character.—Jealousy (scribes and Pharisees), habit of insincerity (rich ruler, etc.), a scornful or satirical temper (“Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?”) are fatal to growth of faith.
3. It is leverage.—It sets the soul in motion; it embodies an element of will. Faith does not create, it only apprehends its objects.
III. The reward of faith.—
1. To nations.
2. To churches.
3. To individual souls.—Canon Liddon.