It blows my mind that while Jesus was on the Earth, He had the ability to be surprised and amazed by people. In the miracle of the Incarnation (Jesus becoming a flesh-and-bone human being), Jesus emptied Himself of enough of His all-knowing-ness to “marvel”, as the Bible says, at people like you and I.
There are only 2 recorded instances in Scripture where Jesus marvels at the faith of people.
We studied the first instance in our study of Luke 7:1-10, where Jesus has an amazing interaction with a Roman centurion who had a beloved servant who was in terrible pain, paralyzed, and dying. The Roman centurion sent intermediaries to Jesus, to ask Him to heal his servant. Jesus agreed and made his way toward the centurion’s house.
Starting in verse 6:
And when He was already not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to Him, saying to Him, “Lord, do not trouble Yourself, for I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof. Therefore I did not even think myself worthy to come to You. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man placed under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
When Jesus heard these things, He marveled at him, and turned around and said to the crowd that followed Him, “I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!” And those who were sent, returning to the house, found the servant well who had been sick.
What an incredible display of faith! For the centurion, the only issue was authority, and he believed, wholeheartedly, that Jesus had authority over all things - even sickness and death. His faith was simply profound and profoundly simple.
The second time we see Jesus marvel at the faith of others is when He makes one final trip to his hometown of Nazareth. In Mark 6:5-6, it says this:
Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. And He marveled because of their unbelief.
It was the complete opposite of what Jesus experienced with the centurion! The very people who knew the Scriptures and had every reason to believe in Him, were the very people who chose not to.
As a result, the power of Jesus to do mighty things in their lives was limited (a deeper discussion on that is for another day!).
Jesus is either marveling at our faith or marveling at our lack of faith.
He’s either marveling that we simply take Him at His Word and believe what He says…
…Or He’s marveling that despite all He’s done for us, we still refuse to believe that He is who He says He is and will do what He said He’d do.
Jesus is marveling at your faith today - for one reason or the other. So CHOOSE FAITH! And bless the heart of God.
