_And_ JESUS _said unto the centurion_, _Go thy way_; _and as thou
hast believed_, _so be it done unto thee_.
WE must compare the narrative contained in St. Matthew’s Gospel with its
parallel in the 7th chapter of St. Luke, to obtain a clear and full idea
of the circumstances which preceded the healing of the centurion’s
servant. St. Matthew records just so much of the history as would
illustrate the teaching that the Gentiles from afar should be received,
and many of the children of the kingdom cast out: St. Luke sets forth in
order all the particulars, small and great, which he had been able to
obtain from those who were eye-witnesses and ministers of the word.
From the harmonised accounts we gather that a certain centurion, who had
renounced the worship of the “gods many,” and become a proselyte of the
gate, hearing of the miracles of JESUS, sent certain elders of the Jews
to beseech the exercise of His healing power upon a favourite servant,
who was grievously tormented, and at the point of death. He does not
seem to have come at all himself. The deep sense which he entertained of
personal unworthiness would alone have deterred him; and, besides, he
knew that there was a middle wall of partition between Jews and Gentiles,
and that as yet JESUS was not sent but unto the house of Israel. The
elders, come to JESUS, seek to enlist His sympathy and active interest,
by pleading that the centurion, though not actually a Jew, was a friend
of Jews, and had done much for the support of the Jewish worship. “He is
worthy for whom Thou shouldst do this, for he loveth our nation, and
himself hath built us a synagogue. Come, then, and heal his servant.”
JESUS replies, “I will come and heal him;” and straightway sets out with
them. But when He was not far from the house, the centurion, alarmed at
the temerity of his former request, and shrinking instinctively from One
so high and so holy, sent some of those around him to prevent further
condescension and trouble, on behalf of one so unworthy, and to suggest
that JESUS should but express His will (which he felt must be omnipotent)
from the spot where He stood: “Say in a word and my servant shall be
healed.” The centurion had arrived at the knowledge of a great truth,
namely, that CHRIST’S power was not confined to the scene of His bodily
presence: and he described the process of reasoning by which he had
arrived at it. “I am but a man, myself under authority, yet I have but
to say, Go, come, do this, and, lo! it is done by my servants here,
there, or wherever else I appoint, while I remain still. How much more
shalt _Thou_ speak and be obeyed, Thou who art Absolute and Supreme in
authority, Whose will all the spiritual armies of heaven observe, and are
prompt and eager to perform. ‘Speak the word only, and my servant shall
be healed.’” When JESUS heard it, He marvelled and said to them that
followed, “Verily, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no,
not in Israel.” Twice we read that our LORD marvelled—once at unbelief,
and once at belief. And this is no mere figurative statement. Our LORD
literally marvelled. His human nature, much as He knew of what was in
man, was taken aback by the unexpected and extraordinary display, in the
one case of perverse blindness, in the other of clear spiritual
perception. “Verily, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith.”
It is remarkable that our LORD selects the centurion’s _faith_ for
admiration. He dwells not on his care and anxiety for his slave, on his
general good will and good deeds, on his consciousness of unworthiness,
his resolute humility, “LORD, I am not worthy that thou shouldst come
under my roof.” No! it is his faith, to which JESUS gives this highest
praise. That while he walked among His own people, who were taught of
GOD, and was haughtily and indignantly treated, yea, despised; that while
Jews saw and albut felt His power, and refused to acknowledge it, a
Gentile, at a distance, should be filled with reverential awe of Him,
should assert so confidently the fulness of His power, should have such
an insight into its spiritual working, should find and adduce proofs of
that power and its working, to satisfy himself, to plead to CHRIST—this
was, indeed, worthy of note; this was, as yet, unparalleled. “I have not
found so great faith.”
We need not, however, suppose—in fact we must not suppose—that our LORD
meant to omit the commendation of the centurion’s other good qualities:
rather as they were all the fruits of faith, were they all praised in the
praise of faith. Why did he love the Jews—why did he build them a
synagogue—why did he seek miraculous healing for his servant—why did he
employ Jewish elders as his intercessors—why did he, an important Roman
officer, feel unworthy of the company of a wandering Jewish peasant? Was
it not through faith? faith in the true GOD, faith in the laws of His
worship, faith in His awful holiness, and no less in His merciful
goodness, faith in His manifestation in JESUS of Nazareth? Yes, it was
all of faith, and it was all admired and praised when JESUS marvelled and
said, “I have not found so great faith.” But still the highest faith—the
thing most marvelled at and chiefly commended, was the spiritual
perception of a bodily unseen LORD, the belief in His unlimited, and,
under all circumstances, available power. “I have never seen Thee: yet I
know Thee who Thou art. Thou art not here, yet with a word Thou canst
cause Thy power to be here, and to accomplish here all Thy will.”
Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed: and blessed
are they precisely in the way of their own wise choice, “Go thy way; and
as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee.” It was great honour
given to CHRIST. It was the opportunity of a wondrous manifestation, and
so we read, “The servant was healed in the selfsame hour.”
But shall we suppose that the centurion, by his humility and his faith,
deprived himself of the bliss of receiving CHRIST, that CHRIST,
_therefore_, turned away, and thought no more of him? Even in that case
he would not have been without his reward. The servant, who was dear to
him, was preserved and healed, the Jews, whom he loved, must have
honoured and loved him, when he had thus prevailed with GOD, and,
besides, what a conviction was his of the power of CHRIST, what a token
of approval, in the fact that he had, as it were, proposed his own
conditions for a miracle, and those conditions had been graciously
accepted and fulfilled! He needed no vision after this to prove to him
that JESUS was the Son of GOD; no voice from heaven to speak to him
comfort and assurance of hope. He had sought CHRIST. He had found Him
and been found of Him. Great was his reward; and his joy such as could
not be taken away. He would have been greatly blessed, then, had no more
been done for him. But did that CHRIST, Who bestows such honour on
humility, Who so loves them that love Him and His, Who has made the best
of His promises, yea, all of them to faith, did He, think you, give no
further token, no higher blessedness to that centurion? Did He not
rather prove to him, that he had made a wise choice, that he had chosen
the best kind of blessing, in asking for spiritual presence rather than
bodily presence? Did He not manifest Himself to him, in that peculiar
way of which the world knows, and can know nothing? Did He not go, He
and the Father, and make spiritual and permanent abode with him? Yes,
surely, this is all implied in the words, “Go thy way; and as thou hast
believed, so be it done unto thee.”
This view of the subject has its evident lessons and promises for us. Be
it ours, brethren, to learn and practice the lessons, and doubt not but
GOD will fulfil to us the promises.
In dismissing now the general subject, and attempting only to deduce
practical instruction from the words of the text, I would ask you to
notice first, the kind of answer which prayer gets; it is blessed in the
way it asks to be blessed. When the elders besought our LORD that He
would come and heal the servant, then we read, He went with them. When
presently the centurion, through his friends, urges, “Speak the word
only, and my servant shall be healed,” then CHRIST stays His own
progress, and sends on His grace. “Go thy way; and as thou hast
believed, so be it done unto thee.”
It is thus that prayer is generally answered: what we ask for, that we
obtain. _Generally_, I say, yet not always; for our wise and good LORD,
when, in our ignorance, we prefer a wrong or a foolish request, sends us
rather what He knows us to need, than what we ask. A father does not
give his beloved son stone for bread, nor a scorpion instead of a fish.
And it may be, yea, it often is the case, that we ask GOD for what we
think would support us, or be of some other benefit to us, when its
bestowal would cause us to stumble, or, perhaps, crush our spiritual
strength, or poison our spiritual life. And then, I say, of His wisdom
and goodness, He sends us away _not empty_—oh, no! none ask of GOD and
obtain not, if they ask with right feeling—but blessed in a different way
from that we ventured to prescribe. This truth is worth a little more
thought. There are many of you, brethren, I doubt not, who have again
and again prayed to GOD (and very earnestly) to continue to you some
blessing which you were in danger of losing, or to confer upon you
something which you felt you wanted, and who yet were not answered
according to the prayer. Perhaps, you were failing in business, or your
influence was being diminished, or your health breaking down, or your
child dying. Well, you earnestly, humbly, with faith and strong tears
deprecated the calamity again and again; but still it came upon you as
though you had never prayed; or you asked to be lifted out of your
poverty or your misery, to be endowed with wisdom, to be made
influential; you loved, and prayed GOD to make you loved again; you
struggled to get a situation which was just what you needed, you prayed
continually that you might succeed. It was all without avail. “No
answer came.”
No answer came! Say not that, brethren. Assuredly, an answer did come,
if you prayed aright. It may be that you did not get what you wanted, or
keep what was departing; for GOD knew your choice was an unwise one, and
therefore of His love would not grant it. But He gave you a
compensation, and more than a compensation. Just as when CHRIST prayed
that the cup of His last agony might pass from Him. GOD rather
strengthened Him from heaven to endure the agony, and made it His way to
glory—so, when you have deprecated, or besought, against the will of GOD
choosing for you, He has enabled you to bear the calamity, to do without
the thing coveted, and has made all to work for your good. What He does
it may be you know not now, but you shall know hereafter. And when in
heaven’s light you see that the continued or bestowed prosperity would
have made you proud and ungodly, that power or influence (though you
meant it not) would have been perverted by you to your ruin, that the
child taken away, had it remained, would have destroyed itself, and been
a curse to you, that the disappointment, and the toil, and the suffering,
which you so prayed against, were just the things that planted and
nurtured in you Christian graces, and worked out for your glory—oh! then
you will see that GOD did answer your prayers, and you will bless him
fervently for sending His own answer instead of the one you dictated.
Meantime, in the light of this hope, remember always to add to your
prayers for specific blessings the holy proviso, “Nevertheless not as I
will, but as Thou wilt.”
But I said that generally, whenever, that is, there is no harm to
ourselves in what we ask, GOD gives us what we pray for; and I produced
proofs, which might be multiplied manifold that it is so. “Go thy way;
and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee.” Surely this is
worth a thought; not only, or chiefly, as showing us GOD’S marvellous
condescension and the efficacy of prayer, but as admonishing us that the
height, the amount, the nature of our blessedness, depends upon
ourselves, upon what we ask in prayer. What a solemn consideration is
this! GOD sits upon His heavenly throne, with listening ear and
outstretched hands; angels wait to waft our supplications to His
presence, the Holy Spirit to make intercession for us, the blessed Son to
present our cause and plead it! It only remains for us to ask. Whatever
we ask, if we are faithful, if it is good, we shall receive. What we ask
not, that we shall not receive. Think of that, brethren! Call to mind,
as far as you can, what kind of prayers you have been wont to make.
Review your past and present state. In anything are you spiritually
unblessed? Have you only an inferior blessedness? Ah! have you not all
that you prayed for? Lack you not just that, which you never faithfully
sought? This life, and the things of this life, have been often in your
thoughts, and in your prayers, for yourselves and for others. You have
prayed that GOD would preserve you, that He would defend you from danger
and gross temptation, that He would give you health, and comfort, and
earthly blessing, that He would protect and prosper those you love. You
have not prayed much for spiritual blessings, or you have been content
with supplicating inferior spiritual blessings. A clean heart, a renewed
mind, lively faith, heavenly peace, joy in the Holy Ghost,—if these are
not yours, do you not know why? It is because you never asked for them,
or, at least, never asked with that appreciation, that earnestness which
alone prevails with GOD. GOD is willing to give them. GOD has promised
to give them. He stands ever ready to fulfil His promise. But,
nevertheless, for these things he will be inquired of. The measure of
the expressed desire is the measure of the supply. Nothing less, in most
cases nothing different, and always nothing more, may you expect from
GOD, than that which you ask. O let the knowledge of this truth kindle
in you desires, and teach you words wherewith to approach GOD. Miss not
His choicest gifts for want of asking. Prefer not for yourselves that
which is earthy, and poor, and fleeting. Thrust not away—and you do
thrust away, if you do not woo—perfect spiritual blessedness. When next
you kneel before GOD, whenever henceforth you kneel before Him, remember
that while He is the owner and ready-giver of all good gifts, it is yet
only what you ask that you will receive of Him. As thou hast believed,
so shall it be done unto thee.
But, secondly, it is faith we see which gives force to prayer. “As thou
hast believed.” “Whatsoever ye ask, believing, ye shall receive.” “Let
him ask in faith, nothing wavering.” “Let not him that wavereth think
that he shall receive anything of the LORD.” GOD would have us wait on
Him, with confidence in His sufficiency, with sure expectation that He
will give what we ask. If we lack this confidence and this expectation;
if we make formal, rather than eager and hopeful requests; if we have any
misgivings as to the answer; if we secretly resolve what we will do, if
there is no answer; if we wait not, and watch not, for the answer, then,
brethren, we forfeit the blessing. GOD heareth not such—we virtually ask
Him not to answer us. We mock Him with the idle form of prayer. O ye
who ask GOD for guidance, at the same time questioning yourselves as to
what ye shall do—ye that pray against temptation, and forthwith yield to
it—ye that profess to cast care upon GOD, all the while being full of
cares—ye that beseech Him to help you, yet go on helping yourselves—ye
that pray, and live as though you had not prayed, that call upon GOD, but
wait not for his answer—ye that are not certain, that feel not the
certainty, and act not, or forbear from acting upon it, that what you ask
you shall obtain, be sure that you shall go empty away, and that because
of your unbelief. It is hollow formalism, it is fearful trifling, it is
blasphemous mockery, to ask without faith, without sure calculation upon
receiving. You dare not treat an earthly friend so. You shall not, with
impunity, treat GOD so! Ah! here is the explanation of unanswered
prayer—prayer for that which is desirable and right—it was not offered in
faith; the answer was not expected, and relied on; the life did not
manifest expectation and reliance! Would you indeed receive anything
from GOD? Prefer your request, in full acknowledgment of GOD’S ability,
in faithful trust in His performance of all that you ask according to His
will, and show your faith by utter renunciation of all self-guidance and
self-dependence, by patient waiting, by steadfast resistance of all that
GOD forbids, and persevering pursuit of all that He commands. Impress
this upon yourselves as the spirit of your prayer, and the rule of your
lives. Make yourselves such as GOD hears. Cleanse yourselves by the
power of His grace from sin, that you may be allowed to approach Him.
Arm yourselves with the godly resolution that, come what will, you will
serve the LORD; and seek, above all, His kingdom and the righteousness
thereof. Examine yourselves, your peculiar wants and difficulties, that
you may inform your prayers, and make them pointed and particular,
expressing what you need and desire. Then offer them, with felt
unworthiness, with holy adoration, in the certain conviction that He
hears you, that He can supply your need, that He will supply it; and take
to yourselves such just consolation and assurance, and let your life
manifest them, as if CHRIST, Who cannot lie and cannot fail, had audibly
declared to you, “Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done
unto thee.”
SERMON XI.
CHRIST STILLING THE STORM.