The following is a guest post by Don.

Knowing a person we recently met or have only heard about is a difficult matter. Nevertheless, a number of people in the gospels recognized something special about Jesus. Some called Him a prophet (e.g. Luke 7:16) and others sensed His wisdom despite His apparent lack of education (e.g. Matt. 13:54).

A centurion in the Roman army (Matt. 8:5-13) recognized and spoke something important about the Lord Jesus. For a person in any army to say “I am a man under authority” is trivial. Every soldier is under authority. But this centurion added one word. In speaking to Jesus he said, “I also am a man under authority” (v. 9).

The “also” clearly indicates the centurion recognized Jesus as a man under authority, the authority of the heavens. Because the centurion knew Jesus was under authority, he also knew that Jesus could give orders, as he himself gave orders to his soldiers.

Therefore the centurion asked Jesus to speak a word, to give a command, to heal his servant (v. 8). The Lord spoke the word and the servant was healed (v. 13). The Lord also said that the centurion had great faith (v. 10).

May we be like this centurion in speaking out what we see in Jesus and in exercising faith to trust what we see in Him.