This story is powerful! That Centurion is cool! Think about it. He built the Jews of Capernaum their synagogue. While other centurions were fleecing the Jews, he was serving them. The priests obviously viewed the Centurion as a protector and respected him. "Lord, he is worthy of you for he loves our nation and built us our synagogue." Yet, this centurion won't even go out to meet Jesus because of his feeling of unworthiness. So not only was this Centurion humble and a lover of Israel, God's chosen people, but he understands authority. "Just say the word." But his understanding of authority flows from his theology of God. To him it simply made sense that the Sovereign God of the universe had real authority over all things. Thus, the mere command of sickness - an entity that has no will or freedom of choice - MUST obey Christ regardless. And after surveying this Centurion's collective character, he surmises that he hasn't seen greater faith in all of Israel. Wow. How precious this is!

It makes me wonder if this Centurion was possibly baptized by John the Baptist and among those that asked, "What shall we do?", to which John responded not to swindle the Jews and to be content with one's wages. (Luke 3:14)

Luke 3:14 and Luke 7:1-9