I. Observe how this man got his faith, how it came to him. It came not in the midst of spiritual privilege, but in the midst of common life. Nay, more than this, it came from that particular field of common life which was his own. It came from his professional life as a soldier. To see the poetic side of discipline is not given to all; but to see the spiritual side is given to still fewer. And it was just this spiritual element which had been revealed to the Roman centurion. In the discharge of his daily professional duty, in the reception and transmission of the brief word of command, he could see the emblem of Divine power power instantaneous, wholly effective, incapable of being thwarted or baffled, when once executed absolutely irreversible. And so, now, when a servant who was dear to him seemed at the point of death, he brought, as it were, his disciplined spiritual instincts into battle array. He had heard enough of Jesus to assure him of His love and power. His faith, trained as we have tried to imagine, would do the rest.
II. Note the fact that Jesus marvelled. Why did He marvel? You answer, Because the man was a Gentile. By comparison little had been given to him. He had had, as we should say, but few spiritual advantages. He had not from his youth known the true God. He had not from a child known the Holy Scriptures, or been brought up in instincts of worship, with saints and prophets and friends of God standing out in the sacred background of the distant past. And yet he was found meet for the kingdom of God. His faith was wonderful, a marvel even to Him who had given it.
III. What, after all, was the essence of the centurion's faith? It was faith, we must remember, in an early and elementary stage. We must not expect to find the faith of a Paul or an Augustine the faith that removes mountains, the faith that overcomes the pollutions of the world. It was a belief in Christ's unlimited power to heal. "Speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed."
H. M. Butler, Cambridge Review,January 27th, 1886.
(with Mark 6:6)
Two Marvels Faith and Unbelief.
I. Look first at some of the things which may lead us to marvel both at faith and at unbelief. (1) Our own nature. (2) The Bible. (3) The course of life and its events.
II. Notice some principles by which we may be helped to a decision. (1) The first thing to be realized is that God's plan of impressing spiritual truths is not by demonstration. (2) To reach a decision in faith, we should look at things in their full breadth and in their practical bearing. (3) To have faith raised to certainty we must find it in the life.
J. Ker, Sermons,2nd series, p. 83.
References: Matthew 8:10. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xvi., No. 936; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. ii., p. 262; Preacher's Monthly,vol. iv., p. 47; F. W. Robertson, Sermons,2nd series, p. 114; J. Keble, Sermons for Christmas and Epiphany,p. 451; C. Girdlestone, Twenty Parochial Sermons,1st series, p. 103.