What Do Faith, Healing, Jesus Christ, and John the Baptist Have In Common?

On Faith, Healing, Jesus and John the Baptist

(Luke chapter 7, verses 1–23)

Last week when we concluded our dissection of Luke chapter 6, we left off at the parable Jesus told at the conclusion to his Sermon on the Mount about the wise and the foolish builders. One built his house on a bedrock foundation, the other homeowner built his on stilts. So much time goes by and then along comes a tropical storm with heavy rain, damaging winds and much flooding. The first house built on solid rock stood firm, but the house on stilts washed away. Jesus compared this to 2 men who heard his Word in church, but only one put those words into practice, whereas the other did not. As a result the first man’s faith stood firm, but the second was swept away. If we hear the Word of God and fail to put it into practice, we sow the seeds of our own destruction. So today let’s pick up where we left off beginning at verse 1 of chapter 7.

“When Jesus has finished saying all this in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. There a centurion’s servant, who the master valued highly, was sick and about to die. The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, ‘This man deserves to have you do this, because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue’. So Jesus went with them. He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him, ‘Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. That is why I did not even consider myself to be worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one ‘Go’ and he goes, and to that one ‘Come’ and he comes. I say to my servant ‘Do this’ and he does it.’ When Jesus heard this he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, ‘I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel’. Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well.” (Luke 7, verses 1–10)

This is one of the most inspiring stories in the Bible, and there are a ton of those. It’s also one of my…