WHEN JESUS MARVELED

" When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel . . . (Matt 8:10) And He marveled because of their unbelief" (Mark 6:6).

The Scriptures record these two instances when Jesus "marveled," or wondered, or was amazed. In Scripture, the word "marvel" also carries the idea of astonishment. Ordinarily, you would not think of our Lord being astonished or marveling. After all, He "needed not that any should testify of man: for He knew what was in man" (John 2:25).

       However, lest we embrace a view of things that is too simplistic, and in order to see the real nature of things, we are told of Jesus marveling two times. (1) When He saw great faith in a person (Matt 8:10; Luke 7:9). (2) When an area was dominated by unbelief (Mark 6:6). Jesus was astonished by extraordinary faith and pervasive unbelief!

       We are not to understand by this that He was surprised, as though He had no idea such heights of faith or depths of unbelief could be reached. This was not intellectual marveling, but spiritual marveling. It was marveling produced by an acute awareness of the origin of both faith and unbelief. While both are found in men, their genesis is found in the unseen world.

       Faith "comes" through Divine influence, and unbelief is perpetrated by the powers of darkness.  Both can be experienced in extraordinary measures – which is what caused our Lord to "marvel." Both also require the consent of the person in whom they are found.

       We have no record of Jesus ever marveling at a person's strength or endurance, or at the report of extraordinary earthly achievement or attainment. But He did "marvel" at a person who could be so fully persuaded of Divine power with so little evidence, and at people who were unbelieving even though they had so much evidence.

       Our Lord was sensitive to both of these conditions–they impacted upon His spirit. He was forward to respond to such great faith, and to withdraw from such unbelief. Notice, the unusual faith was found in the Centurion, who was NOT an Israelite–who had not been cultured to believe. On the other hand, the unbelief was found in the Israelites, who had been cultivated to believe.

       There is a principle to be seen here. Where there has been much exposure to the things of God, obstinate unbelief is a marvel – it is something that does not conform to sound spiritual reason. Too, where strong faith is found in spite of minimal exposure to the things of God, it is a source of pleasant wonder.

       There is reason to "marvel" that those who have been "churched" for such a long time are still unbelieving. There is also reason to "marvel" when people turn to God from a background in which the church and religion played no significant part at all.