How does the centurion answer Jesus’s offer to visit?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

The chapter records successive petitions, commands and responses across healings, discipleship exchanges, the storm and the Gerasens’ encounter.

Chapter breakdown

Great multitudes follow Jesus down from the mountain. A leper approaches in adoration, saying Jesus can cleanse him if willing. Jesus stretches his hand, touches him and expresses that will; the leprosy is immediately cleansed. He commands silence, presentation to the priest and Moses’s prescribed gift as testimony. The passage does not identify an infectious diagnosis or explicitly narrate subsequent community readmission.

In Capharnaum a centurion begs for a servant at home, sick of palsy and grievously tormented. Jesus offers to come heal him. The centurion says he is unworthy to receive him under his roof and requests only a word for the servant’s healing. He explains that he too is subject to authority and commands soldiers and servant to go, come and act. Jesus marvels and tells followers he has found no such faith in Israel. He says many from east and west will sit with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in heaven’s kingdom, whereas the kingdom’s children will be cast into outer darkness with weeping and gnashing teeth. He sends the centurion away with the response that it be done according to his belief; the servant is healed that hour. The officer’s nationality and a modern diagnosis are not supplied here.

At Peter’s house Jesus sees his wife’s mother lying sick of fever, touches her hand, and the fever leaves; she rises and ministers to them. At evening many possessed people are brought; he expels spirits with his word and heals all the sick. Matthew links this with Isaias’s saying about taking infirmities and bearing diseases. Seeing multitudes, Jesus orders a passage over the water. A scribe says he will follow wherever Jesus goes. Jesus answers that foxes have holes and birds nests, while the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head. Another disciple asks first to bury his father. Jesus says to follow and let the dead bury their dead. No response by either requester is recorded, nor a stated motive of rashness or an explicit interpretive definition of dead.

Jesus enters a boat and disciples follow. A great tempest covers it with waves while he sleeps. They wake him, crying for rescue because they perish. He asks why those of little faith are fearful, rises and commands winds and sea; a great calm comes. The men wonder what manner of man is obeyed by winds and sea. Extra details of shipwreck, towering waves or a method for the command are not supplied.

Across the water in the Gerasens’ country, two possessed men come from sepulchres, so fierce no one can pass that way. They address Jesus as God’s Son and ask whether he has come to torment them before the time. Nearby many swine feed. The devils request entry into the herd if expelled; Jesus says Go. They enter the swine, which rush down a steep place to the sea and die in the water. Their keepers flee to the city and recount everything, including the formerly possessed men. The whole city meets Jesus and asks him to leave its coasts. Their request is recorded without assigning fear, unbelief or a preference for property as its motive, and without importing the name Legion or Gadarene place-name.

The story inside

The centurion responds to an offered visit with a request for a word and an authority analogy. Other healing and storm events retain their stated timing. The city’s request to leave concludes without an invented motive.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Use the chapter’s Gerasens designation and two possessed men.
2
Keep the officer’s own subordinate authority in his analogy.
3
The scribe and burial requester have no narrated follow-up response.

Test your recall

When is the centurion’s servant healed?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 111115–111189
Matthew Chapter 8 Christ cleanses the leper, heals the centurion’s servant, Peter’s mother-in-law, and many others: he stills the storm at sea, drives the devils out of two men possessed, and suffers them to go into the swine. 8:1. And when he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him: 8:2. And behold a leper came and adored him, saying: Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. 8:3. And Jesus stretching forth his hand, touched him, saying: I will, be thou made clean. And forthwith his leprosy was cleansed. 8:4. And Jesus saith to him: See thou tell no man: but go, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift which Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them. 8:5. And when he had entered into Capharnaum, there came to him a centurion, beseeching him, 8:6. And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, and is grievously tormented. 8:7. And Jesus saith to him: I will come and heal him. 8:8. And the centurion, making answer, said: Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant shall be healed. 8:9. For I also am a man subject to authority, having under me soldiers; and I say to this, Go, and he goeth, and to another Come, and he cometh, and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. 8:10. And Jesus hearing this, marvelled; and said to them that followed him. Amen I say to you, I have not found so great faith in Israel. 8:11. And I say to you that many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven: 8:12. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into the exterior darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 8:13. And Jesus said to the centurion: Go, and as thou hast believed, so be it done to thee. And the servant was healed at the same hour. 8:14. And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house, he saw his wife’s mother lying, and sick of a fever; 8:15. And he touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she arose and ministered to them. 8:16. And when evening was come, they brought to him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word: and all that were sick he healed: 8:17. That it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet Isaias, saying: He took our infirmities, and bore our diseases. 8:18. And Jesus seeing great multitudes about him, gave orders to pass over the water. 8:19. And a certain scribe came and said to him: Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou shalt go. 8:20. And Jesus saith to him: The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. 8:21. And another of his disciples said to him: Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. 8:22. But Jesus said to him: Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead.
Lines 111191–111227
8:23. And when he entered into the boat, his disciples followed him: 8:24. And behold a great tempest arose in the sea, so that the boat was covered with waves, but he was asleep. 8:25. And they came to him, and awaked him, saying: Lord, save us, we perish. 8:26. And Jesus saith to them: Why are you fearful, O ye of little faith? Then rising up, he commanded the winds, and the sea, and there came a great calm. 8:27. But the men wondered, saying: What manner of man is this, for the winds and the sea obey him? 8:28. And when he was come on the other side of the water, into the country of the Gerasens, there met him two that were possessed with devils, coming out of the sepulchres, exceeding fierce, so that none could pass by that way. 8:29. And behold they cried out, saying: What have we to do with thee, Jesus Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time? 8:30. And there was, not far from them, a herd of many swine feeding. 8:31. And the devils besought him, saying: If thou cast us out hence, send us into the herd of swine. 8:32. And he said to them: Go. But they going out went into the swine, and behold the whole herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea: and they perished in the waters. 8:33. And they that kept them fled: and coming into the city, told every thing, and concerning them that had been possessed by the devils. 8:34. And behold the whole city went out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, they besought him that he would depart from their coasts.