Jesus accepts the centurion's recognition of Jesus' great authority as faith and heals the servant (8:13). But the text also offers a second lesson, a lesson about our prejudices. Jesus "marvels" (NIV was astonished) only twice in the Gospel traditions, here at a Gentile's faith (v. 10) and in Mark 6:6 at his hometown's unbelief (France 1977:259). It is often those closest to the truth who most take it for granted and those who have had the least exposure to it who most recognize its power when it confronts them (Mt 2:1-12).

Many church workers focus on getting people saved in churches where new people rarely visit; we may need to focus more on sharing the faith by word and deed in our communities outside church walls, and across cultural barriers as well. As one missionary statesman put it, "I do not see why anyone should hear the gospel twice when so many people have never heard it once." Or as R. T. France muses (1985:157):

The centurion's story has thus highlighted faith as the "one thing needful." It is a practical faith which expects and receives results. Such faith renders tradition and heredity meaningless, and "of such is the kingdom of God." Schweizer draws an appropriately uncomfortable moral: "The warning in this story may be especially urgent in an age when Africans and Asians in the community of Jesus may well be called on to show `Christian' Europe what Christian life really is."