"The highly valued slave of a Roman officer was sick and near death. When the officer heard about Jesus, he sent some respected Jewish elders to ask him to come and heal his slave … and Jesus went with them. But just before they arrived at the house, the officer sent some friends to say, 'Lord, don’t trouble yourself by coming to my home, for I am not worthy of such an honour. I am not even worthy to come and meet you. Just say the word from where you are, and my servant will be healed. I know this because I am under the authority of my superior officers, and I have authority over my soldiers. I only need to say, 'Go,' and they go, or 'Come,' and they come. And if I say to my slaves, 'Do this,' they do it.' When Jesus heard this, he was amazed [astonished; he marvelled at him]. Turning to the crowd that was following him, he said, 'I tell you, I haven’t seen faith like this in all Israel!'  And when the officer’s friends returned to his house, they found the slave completely healed" (Lk 7:1-10).

The words "I haven’t seen faith like this in all Israel" really stood out to me. This Roman officer's faith truly amazed Jesus. I looked into this and discovered that only twice are we told about Jesus marvelling over people. Here it concerns the strength of a Gentile's faith. The other instance is over the unbelief of the Jewish residents of Nazareth, Jesus' hometown. They scoffed at him, despite his obvious wisdom and power to heal. "'He's just a carpenter [we even know his family]!' They were deeply offended and refused to believe in him" (Mk 6:3). But Jesus had found faith in other parts of Israel. However, he had found none to match the unshakable belief of this officer. My own conviction is that this man believed that Jesus was indeed the Son of God and, being under God's authority, he could exercise authority over sickness and disease.

Faith is incredibly important to God. Without faith it is impossible to please Him (Hb 11:6). And he wants us to trust him completely; to trust in his compassionate character, his precious promises, and his wonderful ways. Faith is one of the three things – together with hope and love – that remain (1Co 13:13). The verb is in the singular, so we are probably meant to understand them as united into one. Paul said: "I live in this earthly body by trusting in [by faith in] the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Gal 2:20). We live by faith not by sight. Living itself for us means living by faith.

Have you ever marvelled at the faith of another? I certainly have, and in the cases that come most readily to mind, those concerned have been very simple disciples of Jesus. By that I mean, not necessarily preachers, teachers and miracle workers, but those whose unshakable faith is seen in their love, joy, peace, compassion and sensitivity to the plight of others, and in their solid, unquestioning belief that with God all things are possible.

Some have been hearing God's Word taught for years and years – and experiencing God's faithfulness and supernatural involvement in their lives – yet their faith remains weak. Wasn't this the case concerning Israel? And wasn't this part of Jesus' amazement? The Roman officer had very little to go on by comparison, yet his faith was incredibly strongly. What a challenge to us all!     .