Seeing Isn't Always Believing

MESSAGE: Uncommon Faith (podcast)
SCRIPTURE: Luke 7.1-10

The centurion in Luke 7 showed an amazing faith - a faith that was so strong that Jesus said he hadn't yet seen anything like it in his life. At SHOUT, we looked at why this was, and what made the centurion's faith so remarkable. Check out the podcast if you want to hear about that. What I want to do here, however, is look at one other element that we didn't discuss in SHOUT that really made the centurion's faith amazing: the fact that the centurion had never once seen Jesus.

Luke 7.3 says, "When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his servant." It would seem that the only knowledge of Jesus that the centurion possessed was what he had heard about him from other people. He had never seen Jesus, never seen his miracles, never seen his power first hand. He'd never even heard his teaching for himself - he had only heard what others had to say about him.

And yet, despite his lack of personal experience in who or what Jesus was, all he needed was a testimony about what this man named Jesus could do, and he was ready to believe that Jesus had the power to heal his servant. That's pretty amazing. Believing just by word of mouth!

We often use the phrase, "seeing is believing" in conversation, meaning that in order for me to believe something, I must first see it in action. Or in other words, my visual observance of an action that proves a statement will be the evidence that I need to convicne me of its truth. The centurion, however, didn't need to see in order to believe - he was willing to put himself out there and trust Jesus. To me, this fact is absolutely mind boggling, and brings out a couple points:

1. To some extent, blind faith is necessary for believing in Jesus. Blind faith doesn't have a good reputation in our society (for some good reasons, in my opinion), and people who believe without proof are often times seen as dumb sheep willing to follow anyone anywhere. But to another extent, a certain amount of blind faith is necessary (and virtuous) for the believer. There are some aspects of the Christian faith that simply cannot be "proven" and must simply be believed. In a couple weeks we're going to come across a section of scripture where John the Baptist seems to question his faith (or more accurately, doesn't believe by blind faith). This is a healthy (and essential) practice for the faithful as well, which we'll get into later.

2. Sometimes, the most powerful proof that an individual can receive is the testimony of experience. The centurion believed because he listened to the experience of the people who told him about Jesus. He trusted their experience, and made decisions based upon the testimony of Jesus' power. He hadn't yet experienced Jesus' power, compassion, and mercy, but he knew people who did, and their testimony was enough to cause him to believe. This is also true in our day. I've personally seen and heard several people who, after hearing the gospel, asked the person who shared it with them how they knew all the things they were talking about were true. The answer is that I have decided to trust Jesus, and I put into practice all the things that the Bible instructs me on, and they have come true in my life. The proof is in the believer's experience, which then translates into a testimony, and the testimony translates into an avenue by which others can believe. All that to say that one of the answers to the unbeliever's question of "Why should I believe?" is that I have believed, and I can testify to the truth of what I am saying.

That's what we see with the centurion: he believed the reports that he heard about Jesus, and then he acted on those reports by "blindly" believing them, and then translating that belief into faith in the power of Jesus.