Q&A about the healing of the centurion's servant

Matthew 8:8-10 - King James Version (KJV)

<8> The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. <9> 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; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. <10> 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.

In order to answer your question one has to relate this "great faith" of which the Lord speaks here to His use of the identical expression in His exchange with the Canaanite or Syrophoenician woman (Matthew 15; Mark 7); and to His healing someone not physically present in both cases due to that "great faith".

And in order to do that, one has to relate this "great faith" He sees in people outside the Jewish Church to the opposite which He sees inside the Jewish Church: "Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8).

This rhetorical question of the Lord's concerns faith in the "earth", that is in the Church; it is essential that someone wishing to understand why He sees "great faith" in people outside the Church know the basic four-quarter template without which prophecy cannot be understood.

Prophecy has to do with the four-quarter life cycle of the Church whereby love and faith/truth are born and then die over the course of many generations. When the Church begins, it is a Church and has both charity and faith; but when it ends, it is no longer a Church but a Whore and has neither charity nor faith/truth.

It is therefore at the end of a Church, when the people in it "render the commandment of God of none effect" (said by the Lord of the Pharisees ) and "understand neither the scriptures nor the power of God" (said of the Sadducees), that the Lord comes; knowing He will not be recognized then but by a small remnant, and knowing that He cannot patch the old wine skin or garment or Church but must establish a New Church.

In addition then to that remnant, there are all these people outside the nominal Church who have "great faith", sufficient faith to gather them together into a New Church in which there is charity and faith/truth. We see the echo of all of this in Ezekiel:

"5 For thou art not sent to a people of a strange speech and of an hard language, but to the house of Israel;

6 Not to many people of a strange speech and of an hard language, whose words thou canst not understand. Surely, had I sent thee to them, they would have hearkened unto thee" (Ezekiel 3:5-6).

This centurion has that sufficient faith, as does the Syrophoenician woman; and so great is that faith that His merely saying the word is sufficient for them.

There is much more context in the two camera angles on the episode with the Syrophoenician woman, because He explicitly refers to her as a "dog" who is not fit to eat "bread of the children".

This is because the people outside of the nominal Church coming to its end are effectively dogs; and the people inside the nominal Church coming to its end are effectively "children". But this is not because the Lord is being nasty at all; it is to say that the new bottles are waiting and the old bottles are passing away.

The same thing is meant by the poor man Lazarus eating crumbs, just like the dogs eat the crumbs in the saying of the Syrophoenician lady which the Lord praised; and by the rich man clothed in purple and linen, knowledges of good and truth which he has in abundance but does not share with people outside the Church due to contempt and turning the things of the Church to self-aggrandizements.

Accordingly, this "great faith" is what is now lacking in mainline Christianity, except for a remnant; we are undergoing a lengthy and chaotic process whereby those who have this "great faith" are aggregated together in suitable formats.

One final matter: "great" in the Word is a predicate of the will, good or evil. And faith is of course predicated of the understanding. "Great faith" thus compactly combines the charity and faith/truth which are the two essentials, the bread and wine, of true religion. Hopefully this makes perfect sense; but it can only do so if you understand the epic torch race of the Churches which the Lord makes clear here:

"Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof" (Matthew 21:43)