Jesus’ Compassion

¹ After Jesus finished presenting all his words among the people, he entered Capernaum. ² A centurion had a servant who was very important to him, but the servant was ill and about to die. ³ When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to Jesus to ask him to come and heal his servant. ⁴ When they came to Jesus, they earnestly pleaded with Jesus. “He deserves to have you do this for him,” they said. ⁵ “He loves our people and he built our synagogue for us.” ⁶ Jesus went with them. He had almost reached the house when the centurion sent friends to say to Jesus, “Lord, don’t be bothered. I don’t deserve to have you come under my roof. ⁷ In fact, I didn’t even consider myself worthy to come to you. Just say the word and my servant will be healed. ⁸ I’m also a man appointed under authority, with soldiers under me. I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and the servant does it.” ⁹ When Jesus heard these words, he was impressed with the centurion. He turned to the crowd following him and said, “I tell you, even in Israel I haven’t found faith like this.” ¹⁰ When the centurion’s friends returned to his house, they found the servant restored to health.