After Jesus had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. A centurion there had a slave whom he valued highly, and who was ill and close to death. When he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, asking him to come and heal his slave. When they came to Jesus, they appealed to him earnestly, saying, "He is worthy of having you do this for him, for he loves our people, and it is he who built our synagogue for us." And Jesus went with them, but when he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to say to him, "Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; therefore I did not presume to come to you. But only speak the word, and let my servant be healed. For I also am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes, and to another, 'Come,' and he comes, and to my slave, 'Do this,' and the slave does it." When Jesus heard this he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, he said, "I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith." When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health. (Luke 7:1-10, NRSV)
Commenting on Jesus’ healing of the centurion’s servant, Mark Gregory Karris wrote the following insightful note:
[W]e cannot assume Jesus heals the servant unilaterally without the cooperation of the servant. The centurion is a man of great faith. Since he is friends with Jewish elders, he is most likely a God-fearing gentile who has a relationship with God. He has such a good reputation with the Jews that the elders say to Jesus, “This man deserves to have you do this, because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue” (Luke 7:4-5). High praise indeed! Because the centurion is close with God and also appears to be close to his servant, it is likely that the servant has a relationship with God too. In Luke’s account, Jesus is on his way to the centurion’s home to heal the servant but is stopped on the way by the centurion’s friends, who tell Jesus that the centurion believes he is not worthy to have Jesus enter his home (Luke 7:6). Since the centurion knew Jesus was coming, we can assume that the servant must have been aware too and that he must have demonstrated faith. In the moment Jesus said the healing word, the servant who was open to healing cooperated with God and therefore experienced a miraculous recovery. (Mark Gregory Karris, Divine Echoes: Reconciling Prayer with the Uncontrolling Love of God [Orange, Calif.: Quoir, 2018], 113)
