Healing the Centurion's Servant

After this teaching time, Jesus and the Twelve returned to Capernaum. As they entered the city, they were met by a request for the healing of the centurion’s servant. Matthew says the centurion made the request and Luke says the request was by the centurion’s Jewish friends. They are both right. It seems Matthew attributes the message directly to the Centurion who was its actual source, rather than his representatives. Then he focuses on the faith he expressed.

Luke gives us the story’s specifics. This seeming inconsistency is compounded by the addition of quotation marks in the modern translations—which are not part of the original text. If Matthew intended to limit the story to its necessary elements by giving us the centurion’s plea (which in English should not be in quotation marks, but an indirect quote) it is factual, even if he didn’t choose to tell us it was said through others.

Luke and Matthew didn’t put the story in the same place, either. What does that mean? Matthew moves it—never claiming it is chronological—to illustrate Jesus’ authority to heal. He uses this in the series of miracles that show Jesus’ total authority over all areas, physical and spiritual. Luke seems to have it in the right time frame.