Centurion's Servant Healed, and Widow's Son Raised

Notes

Reading.

Matt. 8:5-13; 11:2-19; "Desire of Ages," pp. 315-320.

1. Several items serve to make this an interesting account. The centurion was counted a heathen by the Jews, but while in command of the Roman post at Capernaum, he had been so favorably impressed with the Jewish religion as to build for them a synagogue at that place. No particular favor was asked for the centurion, but his anxiety was for a servant,—a slave,—generally considered as a thing rather than a person. Mommsen says that all the miseries of negro slavery were a drop in the ocean compared to the slaves of those days. Yet this man's tenderness for his slave prompted him to send to Jesus, whom he had never seen, for relief for his beloved slave. Matthew sets forth the centurion as making the appeal, on the principle that the Jewish elders represented him. Compare Matt. 20:20 with Mark 10:35 for a similar case.

2. Here was a strange saying. One regarded as a heathen was found to have more genuine faith than was in all Israel. And on what ground?—Simply that of believing that the word alone was able to produce the desired result. In this artless faith was a confession that Christ had godlike power, and was, therefore, able to heal the sick by His word. This was greater faith than any one among the Jews possessed, even though that people professed to be then expecting the Desire of Ages. It was indeed a marvelous faith.

3. Nain,—the fair, the beautiful,—was more than twenty miles from Capernaum, on the northwest slope of Little Hermon, in full view of Tabor and the heights of Zebulon. The most common route to that point from Capernaum was to go by boat to the south end of the lake, then pass down the Jordan Valley to the point where the ravines of Esdraelon slope down to it. Passing thence to the west between Mount Tabor and Endor, the journey was easily accomplished in less than a day. But the fact that "much people" were following Christ on this journey renders it questionable about His having taken this lake route.

4. To die childless was counted a terrible calamity among the Jews, and to have their offspring entirely cut off was regarded a direct punishment for some sin. This woman was already a widow, and was following her only son to the grave,—a most wretched affliction.

5. It may be well to remember that Shunem, the place where Elisha raised the "great" woman's son, was a village on the opposite side of the very hill upon which Nain was situated, and that the plain of Jezreel, the scene of the greatest events of Elijah's life, stretched out in full view of the place. It was perhaps the memory of these great prophets that called to the lips of the people that another great prophet had arisen among them.

6. John had been in prison for a long yet indefinite time. Herod had relaxed his severity enough to permit visitors to see the prisoner frequently, as if almost ashamed to keep the innocent one in confinement. Thus he could hear of Christ's doings, which caused him much thought. John's ideas of the Messiah were evidently those held in common with all the Jews,—that of the establishment of a pure theocracy on the earth. The thought was therefore most natural, If He is the Messiah, why does He not assume the throne of David? Why does He leave me to languish in prison, who went before Him to proclaim His coming? Why am I set aside, apparently forgotten, and my work permitted to drop? (On this point see "Desire of Ages," p. 361.) These very thoughts were calculated to bring despondency, unless he remembered the lives of Moses and Elijah, who had been over the ground before him. No wonder, then, that he had, and even ourselves have, temporary seasons of depression, when looking at ourselves, and the seeming lack of appreciation which follows one's pathway.