Great multitudes followed Him - Having been deeply impressed with the glorious doctrines which they had just heard.
8:2 And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped Him, saying, Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean.
And, behold, there came a leper - The leprosy λεπρα, from λεπις, a scale, was an inveterate cutaneous disease, appearing in dry, thin, white scurfy scales or scabs, either on the whole body, or on some part of it, usually attended with violent itching, and often with great pain. The eastern leprosy was a distemper of the most loathsome kind, highly contagious, so as to infect garments, and houses, and was deemed incurable by any human means. Among the Jews, God alone was applied to for its removal; and the cure was ever attributed to His sovereign power.
8:3 And Jesus put forth His hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
And Jesus put forth His hand, and touched him - This is a wonderful instance both of the grace, and goodness of Christ, in touching this loathsome creature; Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean - As this leper may be considered as a fit emblem of the corruption of man by sin; so may his cure, of the redemption of the soul by Christ. I will; be thou clean - The most sovereign authority is assumed in this speech.
8:4 And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.
Jesus saith - See thou tell no man - Had our Lord, at this early period, fully manifested Himself as the Messiah, the people in all likelihood would have proclaimed Him King; His preachings and miracles would have been impeded. This alone seems to be the reason why He said to the leper, See thou tell no man.
8:5 And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto Him a centurion, beseeching Him,
A centurion - Εκατονταρχος. A Roman military officer who had the command of one hundred men.
8:6 And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.
And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home - It would be a difficulty whether it was a son or a servant he was so concerned for; since the word here used, more commonly signifies a "son" or "child"; but that Luke, supposing it to be the same case he relates, expressly calls him "a servant".
8:7 And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him.
He did not say, “I will come and see him”; that would have been kind — He did not say what you and I would say, “I will come and pray with him”; that is all we can do — but “I will come and heal him.” Here is the tenderness of man and the power of God.
8:8 The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.
Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldst come under my roof. This is not said as rejecting and despising the presence and company of Christ; but is expressive of his great modesty and humility, and of his consciousness of his own vileness, and unworthiness of having so great a person in his house: it was too great a favor for him to enjoy. But speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. As the former expression declares his modesty and humility, and the mean apprehensions he had of himself; so this signifies his great faith in Christ, and the persuasion He had of His divine power.
8:9 For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.
He suggests, that as his soldiers were under him, and at his command; so all bodily diseases were under Christ, and to be controlled by Him, at His pleasure; and that, if He would but say to that servant of his, the palsy, remove, it would remove at once.
8:10 When Jesus heard it, He marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.
This man is not an Israelite; he is a Roman soldier; but I have never found so much faith in those to the manner born as I find in this stranger.
8:11 And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.
And I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and west - On occasion of the faith of the centurion, who was a Gentile, our Lord makes a short digression, concerning the call of the Gentiles; and suggests, that what was seen in that man now, would be fulfilled in great numbers of them in a little time: that many of them from the several parts of the world, from the rising of the sun to the setting of it, from the four points of the heaven, east, west, north, and south. and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven - signifying, that as the Gospel would be preached in a short time to all nations, many among them would believe in Him, as Abraham, and the rest of the patriarchs did.
8:12 But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
The children of the kingdom shall be cast out - the Jews that persist in unbelief, though they were by birth children of the kingdom, yet shall be cut off from being members of the visible church: the kingdom of God, of which they boasted that they were the children, shall be taken from them, and they shall become not a people, not obtaining mercy, Rom 11:20; Rom 9:31. In the great day it will not avail men to have been children of the kingdom, either as Jews or as Christians; for men will then be judged, not by what they were called, but by what they were.
8:13 And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.
As thou hast believed; so be it done - Let the mercy thou requestest be equal to the faith thou hast brought to receive it. According to thy faith be it done unto thee, is a general measure of God's dealings with mankind.
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