Today's passage is also remarkable, among other things, because it is the only event in the Gospels where it is said that "Jesus marveled" at the strength of a person's faith. Really, what can amaze God? Only perhaps, as in Nazareth, when He marveled at unbelief. He knows all our thoughts beforehand; every one of our steps is known to Him (see Ps. 138). And yet the centurion's request amazes Him. What is so unusual about this soldier's words? What did he say that Christ sets him as an example to His disciples and to all God's people, warning them against the danger of being cast into the outer darkness (see Matt. 8:12)?

This man very clearly, as is characteristic of people of his cast of mind, sees his place in relation to Christ: not only is he a Gentile, he also serves in the occupying forces. And still he comes to Jesus boldly and explains simply and directly what he wants, fully understanding that under normal circumstances he has no way to receive it. But thanks to such humility before the circumstances, something is opened to him that perhaps those around him do not see at all. The centurion, sensing that before him stands not merely a man, understands that Christ does not need to come to the sick man and touch him in the physical sense of the word. Perhaps the Lord healed people in that way because it was easier for them themselves to receive healing that way. But the centurion's faith allows him to see that Christ, the Son of God, can act outside space and time, and that one thought of His and one glance of His are enough for salvation and healing. And the depth of this man's insight proved able to amaze God...

How strange we would look if we came to a doctor with a broken arm, asking for help but not allowing him to touch it. The same can be said of our prayer asking for help, but without faith...

In response to the centurion's request, Jesus did not say something like "let what you ask be done for you" or "your servant has recovered; go." He says: "Go; and as you have believed, let it be done for you" (Matt. 5:13). In this way He tells us the main thing: it is not enough simply to ask; faith is necessary. It is faith that fills the request with "power," makes it real and full. For if one asks someone for help without believing that it can be given, one will scarcely receive it. Besides, if we do not believe that the Lord can help us, we in effect close the road to Him, that is, we simply do not give Him the opportunity to provide that very help.

That is why Christ said: "Have faith in God. For truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and thrown into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours" (Mark 11:23-24).

In the Gospel we can find many stories about miraculous healings and the casting out of demons from different people. These miracles are usually called "signs," that is, they serve to show something. For example, in today's stories the miracles are meant to illustrate the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy about the coming of the Messiah, who was to "take upon Himself our infirmities and diseases."

For the first readers of the Gospel, who knew these prophecies by heart, the allusion was completely clear: these healings are only the beginning of the work of saving the world, which Christ accomplishes in history through His voluntary suffering (Isa. 53). Thus the context of this prophecy, and Matthew's references to it, leads us beyond the bounds of a particular miracle, which in general has little to do with us personally, and brings us into the history of the world's salvation, where all the events in which the prophecy was fulfilled have their place, and into our own life, when Christ saved our life, healed our sickness, and conquered evil around us or within us.