Before We can lead, We must first learn to Follow.

The very word authority has within it the word author. An author is someone who creates and possesses a particular work. Insofar as God is the foundation of all authority, He exercises that foundation because He is the author and the owner of His creation. He is the foundation upon which all other authority stands or falls. ~ R.C. Sproul: (born February 13, 1939) is an American Calvinist theologian, author, and pastor

Gospel Text: (MT 8:5-17)

When Jesus entered Capernaum,

a centurion approached him and appealed to him, saying,

“Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully.”

He said to him, “I will come and cure him.”

The centurion said in reply,

“Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof;

only say the word and my servant will be healed.

For I too am a man subject to authority,

with soldiers subject to me.

And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes;

and to another, ‘Come here,’ and he comes;

and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him,

“Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith.

I say to you, many will come from the east and the west,

and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

at the banquet in the Kingdom of heaven,

but the children of the Kingdom

will be driven out into the outer darkness,

where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”

And Jesus said to the centurion,

“You may go; as you have believed, let it be done for you.”

And at that very hour his servant was healed.

Jesus entered the house of Peter,

and saw his mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever.

He touched her hand, the fever left her,

and she rose and waited on him.

When it was evening, they brought him many

who were possessed by demons,

and he drove out the spirits by a word and cured all the sick,

to fulfill what had been said by Isaiah the prophet:

He took away our infirmities and bore our diseases.

The fidelity to the words of today’s Gospel passage highlight the centurion’s point: authority. The centurion understands the authority that Jesus bears because the centurion himself bears authority, and because he bears it, he is willing to submit to a higher authority. The centurion’s humility in the face of Jesus prepares for his faith, and in this he is a model for each of us to follow.