The centurion understood authority because he stood under authority: and so he could tell Jesus that it would not be necessary for Jesus to come to his house in order to heal his servant. “I 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” (Matthew 8:9). His recognition of the nature of authority gave him the confidence to declare, “Just speak the word, and my servant will be healed” (8:8).

At the end of the gospel we will see that “all authority in heaven and on earth” has been given to Jesus (28:18): that tells us that Jesus is the one who tells us decisively what we are to believe and do. Yet within the Gospel of Matthew, we need to see how the centurion functions as the model of how the authority of Jesus is to be understood. Jesus was amazed and offered an astonishing affirmation of the centurion’s faith: “Truly I tell you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith” (8:10): clearly this represents the example we need to emulate. And this mean, in turn, that our understanding of authority will not be measured simply by the correctness of our doctrine of scripture, but especially by the fullness of our obedience to Jesus.

We are generally not good at obedience. On the whole, we are better at disputing about the authority of Bible verses, and so we tend to spend more time disputing. The example of those who were arguing and questioning, meanwhile, was the Scribes and Pharisees (9:3, 9:11, 9:34). Jesus noted that not every question is innocent: sometimes such queries indicate that people are thinking evil in their hearts (9:4).

We need to consider how Jesus marveled at the centurion and commended his faith. More than that, we need to recognize that the authority of Jesus was different from the sharp attitude of the religious leaders (7:29). And we need to grapple with the warnings Jesus gave: that many fail to find the narrow gate (7:14), that those who merely say the right thing will not enter the kingdom (7:21-23), that hearing and acting yields a different outcome than hearing and failing to act (7:24-27).

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I long to understand your word, O Lord, fully and deeply: yet I get so caught up in the need to show that the verses I like are somehow more authoritative than the verses my opponents like. Teach me instead to show the doctrine of authority by being quick to obey your commands: for you are the Lord, and all authority truly belongs to you.

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