The Centurion

Matthew 8:5-13

Our true story comes from a part of the Bible called the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew was a disciple of Jesus. That means Jesus was his teacher. And the word gospel means “good news!”

Our true story is about Jesus helping someone. One day, Jesus walked into a town, and a centurion came up to Him.


A centurion is a fancy word for someone who was a leader of a lot of soldiers. Centurions were very powerful and important. But this centurion had heard about Jesus and all the amazing things He had done. Even though the centurion was an important person, he knew that Jesus was even MORE important. And he needed Jesus’ help!


The centurion said, “My servant is at home. And he is very, very sick.”


“Please! I need your help to make him better.” The centurion really needed help, and He believed that Jesus had the power to help him.


Jesus asked the centurion, “Do you want me to come to your house and make him better?”


The centurion said, “I know you are so powerful that you can just say that my servant will be better and that he will get better!” Jesus told the centurion to go home and that his servant would be all better.


And guess what? That’s exactly what happened! Jesus loved the centurion and wanted to help him and his servant.


Jesus loves you and wants to help you, too! That’s right. Jesus loves you! And He wants to be your friend forever.






Bible Verse: How wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. —Ephesians 3:18, NIV

Text Truth: Jesus loves me and wants to help me.



Family Devotional

When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. 6 “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.”

Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?”

The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that moment.
—Matthew 8:5-13

In our Bible story, we learned that Jesus wants to help us because Jesus loves us!

How wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. —Ephesians 3:18, NIV

Jesus loves us and wants to help us. So, with your family, make a list of things you need help with. Have each family member write down one thing they need help with. And be sure to write down the name of each family member next to their thing.

Pray with your family. Allow any family members to pray if they wish. In your own words, say, “Dear God, thank You for sending Jesus to love us and help us. Please help [family member’s name] with (what family member listed). Please help [family member’s name] with (what family member listed). Please help . . . (continue with each family member). We trust You to give us what we need when we need it. We love You, God. In Jesus’ name, amen.”

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Story illustrations are made possible by a joint venture of Good News Productions, International and College Press Publishing Co. Artist: Paula Nash Giltner (www.theglobalgospel.org). The images are freely available for personal, teaching and ministry use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommerial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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