the nobleman and the centurion: Trench cites Chrysostom
Richard Trench has a chapter on the healing of the nobleman's son (John 4: 46-54) in his Notes on the Miracles of our Lord. He compares this incident with the one where the centurion came for healing for his servant (told in Matthew 8 and Luke 7). He says that when the nobleman asked for Jesus to come to his house, the reply he got ("Except ye see signs and wonders you will not believe,") shows that his petition was mixed with unbelief - in contrast to the centurion, asking on behalf of his servant, who believed with humility that Jesus was able to heal just by speaking a word.
There are several pairs of incidents like that which have some surface similarities but which are dealt with differently. Maybe the most noticeable of these comes out in the responses of Mary and Zachariah to the message of the angel in Luke 1 - they both responded with the question, How? But (as I've heard it explained anyway) Mary was asking for her faith to be supported, and so she was rewarded, but Zachariah was asking for his disbelief to be refuted, and he was censured.
Trench was an archbishop sometime around the end of the 19th century and early 20th. In my notes of lectures on lexicography in the Late Modern period, he is named as one of the prime movers behind the development of the New English Dictionary, having published two seminal papers on the inadequacies of existing dictionaries (or that's what it seems to say, now that I've deciphered the scribbly lecture handwriting). In addition to his Notes on the Miracles of our Lord he also wrote a book of Notes on the Parables of our Lord, and he also published books on New Testament Greek. In Christ's Doctrine of the Atonement, however, George Smeaton seems to politely disagree with some view that he held, which he seemed to mention in the same breath as some of the more dubious German theologians.
A comparison of the Lord's dealings with this nobleman and with the centurion of the other gospels is instructive. Assuredly He has not men's persons in admiration who comes not, but only sends, to the son of this nobleman, Himself visiting the servant of that centurion. And there is more in the matter than this. Here, being entreated to come, he does not; but sends His healing word; there, being asked to speak at a distance that word of healing, He rather proposes Himself to come; for here, as Chrysostom explains it well, a narrow and poor faith is enlarged and deepened, there a strong faith is crowned and rewarded. By not going He increases this nobleman's faith; by offering to go He brings out and honours that centurion's humility. (p129)
There are several pairs of incidents like that which have some surface similarities but which are dealt with differently. Maybe the most noticeable of these comes out in the responses of Mary and Zachariah to the message of the angel in Luke 1 - they both responded with the question, How? But (as I've heard it explained anyway) Mary was asking for her faith to be supported, and so she was rewarded, but Zachariah was asking for his disbelief to be refuted, and he was censured.
Trench was an archbishop sometime around the end of the 19th century and early 20th. In my notes of lectures on lexicography in the Late Modern period, he is named as one of the prime movers behind the development of the New English Dictionary, having published two seminal papers on the inadequacies of existing dictionaries (or that's what it seems to say, now that I've deciphered the scribbly lecture handwriting). In addition to his Notes on the Miracles of our Lord he also wrote a book of Notes on the Parables of our Lord, and he also published books on New Testament Greek. In Christ's Doctrine of the Atonement, however, George Smeaton seems to politely disagree with some view that he held, which he seemed to mention in the same breath as some of the more dubious German theologians.
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