The story of the faith of the Roman centurion has passed into Christian legend. Here is yet another instance of the humble ‘prayer of the plain man’, now repeated again and again whenever Christians come to receive the Eucharist. The centurion’s profession of faith has become the model for all Christians, of all times.

The incident is set in Capernaum, where the centurion is based. He hears that Jesus is around, and comes to meet him with a request for a cure. His slave, of whom he is very fond, is seriously ill. Jesus makes as if to come to his house and heal the patient, though it was known that Jews did not enter pagan dwellings lest they incur ritual pollution.

But the centurion stops him, and surprises everyone with his next comment: You don’t need to come all the way, sir. I too am a man under authority, and I have only to give a command and it is obeyed. So you too, sir. “Say but the word, and my boy will be cured.”

Jesus is astonished at the faith of this pagan and contrasts his belief with the unbelief and skepticism of his fellow Jews. In the story, the healing of the centurion’s slave is secondary. What is primary is how a pagan places his trust in Jesus as his saviour. This in turn elicits praise from Jesus, and his declaration that the kingdom of heaven is not the reserve of a few, but is open to all men and women of faith. This is the first example of what will become a recurring motif in the Gospels: strangers and outsiders will enter the kingdom of heaven, while the very children of Abraham will be pushed aside because of their lack of faith.