The Evidence of Faith and the Faith of Roman Officer

Art from the blog Bible Study James

In the bible, there is the record of a story that was told by Saint Matthew, which is found in the 8 chapter of that book, beginning with verse 5 and it end at verse 13. The story is told of a Roman soldier who was confronted with a problem, for which he was helpless. This was not a regular soldier; he was an officer in the Roman army. This Roman officer recognized that he was powerless to deal with the matter that was before him; he had done all that was in his power, to relieve the pain of his trusted servant who became critically ill, almost to death and was in pain. As a result of the severity of the problem, the soldier soughed out, found and came to Jesus for help.

The Roman officer cast off his shield of pride and traveled outside the norms and practice of his esteemed office and brought his problem to Jesus. After hearing the man’s complaint, Jesus declared, he will go to the Roman officer’s house and personally address the problem his servant was having. However, after Jesus publicly declared his intent; the soldier told Jesus that it was not necessary for him to come to his house, and he gave the reason why it was not necessary.

Matthew 8: 8-9 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 many 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.”

There is much to say about the faith of this Roman officer as was declare by Jesus. Faith is not exercise out of ignorance but in order for one to exercise faith he must have some knowledge of that which he exercises his faith in. the question must be asked what give this heathen such confidence in the abilities and the powers of Jesus? Why did he make reference to the authority he possesses? Why did he declare his worthlessness to the messiah?

This high ranking Roman Soldier declared his worthlessness, made reference to his authority, and declared his confidence in Jesus’ authority too take care of the problem from his current location. Although it may have been the first time, the Roman officer met Jesus face to face, he knew Jesus better then the people who was following him (Jesus).

You may ask; how could this be?

Since you have asked, I would inform you why and how I arrived at the above conclusion.

For you to understand this you will have to understand the art that is employed in national security and peace keeping. Here we have a situation where Israel a sovereign nation was conquered and now found themselves subjects of the political authority of Roam. It was therefore Roam’s mission as conqueror, to keep its reign over its enemies (Israel); and it is the sole intent and objective of any conquering nation, to maintain force political control over any nation, they have so conquered. They will do so; as long as doing so remains profitable to them or as long as to maintaining such hold, give them the required political prestige among the surrounding nations.

When Roam took over the sovereignty of Israel, they (Roam) became responsible for Israel’s national security as well as maintaining the peace within the state. It is important to note that ensuring the national security and maintaining the peace that is required to ensure the efforts and resources invested in conquering such foreign nation is worth the investment. The process of maintain the national security and ensuring that the peace of a nation is or was kept is not a hit and miss art but a science.

The things that are required to ensure that peace is maintained, in the case where an invading power is trying to ensure that peace is kept and in the same breath prevent the people from whom the sovereignty was taken from revolting are many. Below I have listed three such steps and I have relate them in the context of the faith that was displayed by the Roman’s officers in Matt. 8:5-13

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  It is critical that the invading country have eyes and ears on the ground: by this I mean the invading forces have got to have trusted informers of and among the people, in order to be kept informed of the activities, plots and plans or of any possible threats and plans of revolt within the community.

A good example of this intelligence gathering can be found in the bible 2 Samuel 15: 27-34. Absalom King Davis son, use force and trickery to take political control over Israel and Judah and cause David, his house and his servant, and his army to escape his kingdom, as a result David came up with a plan to ensure he have reliable information as to the activities and plans of his adversary Absalom his son. 

2 Samuel 15: 27-34. 27The king also told Zadok the priest, “Look, here is my plan. You and Abiatharh should return quietly to the city with your son Ahimaaz and Abiathar’s son Jonathan. 28 I will stop at the shallows of the Jordan Riveri and wait there for a report from you.” 29 So Zadok and Abiathar took the Ark of God back to the city and stayed there.

30 David walked up the road to the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went. His head was covered and his feet were bare as a sign of mourning. And the people who were with him covered their heads and wept as they climbed the hill. 31 When someone told David that his adviser Ahithophel was now backing Absalom, David prayed, “O Lord, let Ahithophel give Absalom foolish advice!”

32 When David reached the summit of the Mount of Olives where people worshiped God, Hushai the Arkite was waiting there for him. Hushai had torn his clothing and put dirt on his head as a sign of mourning. 33But David told him, “If you go with me, you will only be a burden. 34 Return to Jerusalem and tell Absalom, ‘I will now be your adviser, O king, just as I was your father’s adviser in the past.’ Then you can frustrate and counter Ahithophel’s advice.

• They must have an impeccable knowledge of the culture: It is critical that they have a working knowledge about the festival, rites, rituals, and beliefs of the conquered subjects. For example in the case of Israel; the Israelite strongly believes that Jehovah God had promised them a messiah, who was to free them from all oppression. If one were to rise up among the people, who were capable of instilling a sense of national pride in the people and develop the thirst for the freedom that they once had but they are now being denied of; it was critical that the Romans authority know about such. Anyone, thing or believe that the people had that could cause dissension among the people was something the Roman authority needed to know about.

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  And they had to know the history of the people: it was in the interest of the Roman authority to know of the history of the conquered country, their strengths and weaknesses, their fighting skills and what motivates them.

These were very pertinent information the Roman authority had to get and continually update and as an officer, this soldier were privilege to some very important information as it relates to Israel, the Messiah etc. He knew every thing there were to know about Jesus, Israel and the customs of Israel; it was his Job to know.

It is important to note, that high ranking officers are not encouraged to associate with potential instigators. To do such is seen as, lending credibility to that individual or group and such behaviors were not tolerated.

When the Roman officer went to Jesus and when he actually asked Jesus for a favor, he was going against the custom, culture and protocol of the military. We must bear in mind that a death sentence was pronounced upon Jesus at birth. However, he escaped that unjust sentence. A simple cross check of Jesus’ birth date, would have told the Romans that Jesus may have been the only boy child his age living in Israel and thus his claim of being the messiah was a truthful claim. This is so because he may have been the only child who survived the bloody slaughter that was ordered by Herod. Matt.1: 16-17. The record would have shown that every child who was born in Bethlehem in Judea except for one was killed. Jesus’ age, and his date of birth would have been enough evidence that he was the only child that survived the bloody slaughter; he was in deed the King of the Jews, the promised Messiah the son of Jehovah that Herod order killed some years earlier.

Here we have a military officer who has thousands of people at his command, why would he deputize his military career to seek the help of one who by law and position was his lesser and his servant, a common criminal as was declared King Herod. Apart from the bad reputation that was unfairly awarded to Jesus, this Roman officer knew that Jesus had far more authority than he had, he also knew that he was speaking to God in the flesh hence the reason he humble himself, cast off the pride that is associated with his office and publicly speak of the awesome power of Jesus.

Today we publicly confess Jesus as the lord of our life, we like Israel of old publicly declares our love for Jehovah, yet our life style calls us liers. We speak one thing but our action fail to live up to the declaration of our words. We are not qualify to condemn Isreal of old. Instead of being men and women of words let us become children of action, let us fall in love with Jesus; let us do like the Roman Officer did and learn all that we can about Jehovah and his son Jesus. It is only if we have a working knowledge of who Yahweh is that we can fall in love with him and his son Jesus Christ.

Like the Roman officer we to must find something on which to base our faith. We must study to base our relationship with Jesus on solid ground. we must not continue to make the same mistake Isreal made over and over again, we must know and belief what Israel the nation for whom the promise was fulfilled was struggling to believe. We must not let our action be like their action; they prosecuted Jesus, they prosecuted Jesus’ apostles and they refusal to move away from the sacrificial system, even after the promised sacrificed was offered on the alter: the cross. These action in themselves are clear indication that they still have not believed.

Today, each time we disobey Jehovah's word we publicly declare that we are not different than the Israel of Yesteryear.

Even with the mountain of evidence that declared Jesus is the Son of Jehovah God, and the correlation of Jesus’ life with the Old Testament prophetic writing, were not enough for them to believe that Jesus the Christ was the promise Son of the Creator God. When we obey the words of Yah we demonstrates that we know who Yah is, when we are diligent to the words of Yah we are demonstrating to the world that we love him.

It is important that we study to show ourselves approved so we will be able to withstand the apostasy that the devil will bring before us, to deceive us and cause us to be lead away from Yah and thus make Jesus’ incarnation, life, death and his resurrection to be without value to us.