Monday mornings have a way of handing us a list before we’ve even had coffee. The meeting we’re dreading. The bill that’s due. The person we love who is struggling somewhere we can’t follow them. Most of what weighs on us today is out of reach. We can’t fix it from here.
Matthew tells us about a man who knew that feeling well.
“And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, and saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.” (Matthew 8:5–6, KJV)
A centurion was a Roman officer, a man in charge of about a hundred soldiers. He was used to giving orders and having them carried out. He was also an outsider: not Jewish, part of the occupying army, the kind of person many in Capernaum would have kept at arm’s length. And yet here he is, a powerful man reduced to begging, because someone he cares about is suffering and none of his authority can touch it.
Jesus doesn’t hesitate for a second.
“And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him.” (Matthew 8:7, KJV)
That alone is worth sitting with. No questions about who he is or which side he’s on. Just “I will come.” That’s what Jesus is like.
“Not worthy, but…”
Then the centurion says something that stopped Jesus in His tracks:
“Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh.” (Matthew 8:8–9, KJV)
Notice the two halves of his faith. First, humility: I am not worthy. He doesn’t come with a list of reasons Jesus owes him. Second, trust: speak the word only. He understood something about how authority works. When he gives an order, he doesn’t need to stand next to the soldier to make it happen. And he believed Jesus had that kind of authority over sickness, over distance, over everything.
Matthew says Jesus marvelled. It’s one of only a couple of times in the Gospels that Jesus is amazed by anyone’s faith, and it’s this outsider who amazes Him.
“And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.” (Matthew 8:13, KJV)
The servant was healed in a house Jesus never walked into. The word was enough.
What we can’t reach
This is good news for a Monday. So much of what we carry today is “at home,” so to speak: somewhere we can’t get to. A child at school. A parent in a hospital in another city. A friend who has stopped answering messages. A situation at work that will unfold in rooms we’re not invited into.
The centurion shows us we don’t have to be in the room for Jesus to be at work there. His word travels farther than we can. His care reaches places our worry can only circle around.
And the humility matters too. We don’t come to Him because we’ve earned an answer. We come because He is kind, and because He said “I will come” before the man even finished asking. You don’t need to feel worthy this morning. You only need to know where to bring what you can’t carry.
For this morning
Before the list takes over, pick the one thing on your heart that is furthest out of your reach. Name it to Jesus, plainly, the way the centurion did. Then try praying his words:
Lord, I’m not worthy that You should come under my roof. But speak the word only. You don’t need me to fix this. You only need to say it.
Then go your way into the day, as Jesus told him. Do the next thing in front of you, and leave the far-off things in hands that can reach them.
May you find, this week, that His word gets there before you do.