Centurion or Pharisee?

   Where lies the road to a true and vibrant faith?

   In Matthew, chapter 8, a Roman centurion speaks these words:

   "Oh, no," said the captain. "I don't want to put you to all that trouble. Just give the order and my servant will be fine. I'm a man who takes orders and gives orders. I tell one soldier, 'Go,' and he goes; to another, 'Come,' and he comes; to my slave, 'Do this,' and he does it."

   This man, a leader in the Roman garrison, had come to Jesus to ask for healing for his servant. When Jesus heard his reply to what He told him that He would do, Jesus told him:

   "Taken aback, Jesus said, "I've yet to come across this kind of simple trust in Israel, the very people who are supposed to know all about God and how he works.

   This man was a Gentile, an outsider to the Jews who were the chosen of God. What was the difference in this man's faith and that of the Jews? In fact, how does the faith of the centurion compare with mine?

   The Jews of Jesus day had it all religiously. They had the Word of God, the Old testament, the Law and the Prophets. They had the tradition and the practices that God had commanded their ancestors to initiate among those people. They had all the stories of how God had acted in the past to take care of them, and, even then, in that day, when they were under the hand of Rome, they knew they were better than their oppressors because they were "chosen".

   But Jesus says to them and to me as well:

   "I am the Road, also the Truth, also the Life."

   What do I rely on? My status, my money, my education, my job, my church and my role in it? I can say that my trust is in Jesus, but do I live that way? Am I the centurion or the Pharisee?

   I have been blessed, sure, and I acknowledge that all of this comes from the hand of God, but I can't let those good things blind me to the truth.

   True faith, and one that pleases God, comes through a Person and not through my circumstances.