My Thoughts on 27/06/2020
In today’s Gospel we have the story of the Roman centurion asking Jesus to heal his servant. There are several striking things about this incident.
Firstly the centurion didn’t insist that Jesus come to his house. He believed that Jesus only had to say the word and his servant would be cured. Jesus healed him from a distance.
Secondly here was a gentile, a member of a hated and conquering race, and a military leader that Jesus was willing to help.
Jesus responded to man’s faith. For Jesus, where you were born, what family you came from was not important. Jesus came for all. This is especially important to remember in today’s climate where there is great anxiety and anger about the treatment of people of different ethnic backgrounds.
At the end of the reading today Matthews tells us that “that evening they brought him many who were possessed by devils. He cast out the spirits with a word and cured all who were sick. This was to fulfil the prophecy of Isaiah: He took our sicknesses away and carried our diseases for us.
God has no favourites he just wants us to ask, to come to him with faith.