Giving Orders

Giving Orders

The officer said, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come into my home. Just say the word from where you are, and my servant will be healed. I know this because I am under the authority of my superior officers, and I have authority over my soldiers. I only need to say, ‘Go,’ and they go, or ‘Come,’ and they come. And if I say to my slaves, ‘Do this,’ they do it.” When Jesus heard this, he was amazed. Turning to those who were following him, he said, “I tell you the truth, I haven’t seen faith like this in all Israel!” Matthew 8:8-10

Like the Roman centurion in today’s Scripture passage, doctors have the authority to give orders. On a daily basis, we order medications for pain control or antibiotics for infections. We order tests to diagnose cancer and diabetes. We also order procedures such as surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy if we believe they can help cure a patient’s disease. But most commonly we give “doctor’s orders” to our patients to eat better, exercise more, or go on bed rest during a pregnancy.

When we give these orders, we depend entirely on other people to carry them out. A nurse administers the medications. A lab tech does the tests. A radiologist does the X-ray or applies the radiation treatment. And it’s up to the patient to eat better, exercise more, or stay in bed.

But of all the millions of orders that doctors have given over the years, none has come close to what Jesus was asked to do. The Roman officer wanted Jesus to heal his servant—not by using tests to diagnose the problem or medications to fix it, not by coming to his house to see what was wrong with the servant, but by simply saying the word.

This would be equivalent to my getting a call on the weekend from a nurse in the ER about a patient I’d never met. If the nurse said, “He’s in a lot of pain, and he’s paralyzed from the waist down. We haven’t done any tests, but you don’t need to come in; just say the word and I’m sure he’ll be fine,” I would think she was crazy. What an impossible request!

But Jesus didn’t think the centurion was crazy—instead, he was amazed at his faith. This Gentile soldier believed that Jesus had control over time, distance, and disease—and he was right! What kind of faith would it take for you to believe that?

No matter how much faith we put in modern medicine or in our doctors, nothing compares to the kinds of healing we see when we put our faith in Jesus.

TODAY’S RX

Follow your doctor’s orders, but also have confidence that Jesus heals completely.

Jesus, your name is the one word I need to be healed. May your name be continually on my lips every day of my life.