When Jesus heard this he was amazed at him and, turning, said to the crowd following him, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” When the messengers returned to the house, they found the slave in good health.
This is, of course, Christ's response to the centurion in Luke 7 that was part of Monday's readings. Now, my layman's gut instinct in the story is to think "Wait a second, how could Jesus be amazed? It makes it sound like he didn't know the centurion was faithful, which would suggest he lacks God's omniscience..."
Far be it from me to assume I can comprehend the psychology or neurological intricacies of the brain of an incarnate God, but here would be my quick response (most likely stolen from countless commentaries read over the years).
Conjecture #1) I'm not crazy about this conjecture, but it might explain some complications here and elsewhere. Was Jesus, as God, omniscient with infinite hard drive space, but Jesus, as pre-glorified man, only able to store so much information in his RAM? Could Jesus "know" things but only be on a need to know basis so far as the information was readily available to his human conscious? That is, we have all kinds of information in our heads that we consciously just don't have immediate access to (think about when he says that He knows what the Father has revealed to him). In this case, Jesus could be both omniscient and be surprised because he didn't have immediate access to his omniscience (just like he surrendered immediate access to his glorified body on the Cross). Again, this is just my little thought experiment for the morning, so don't go quoting this to anyone as...uhm...gospel.
Conjecture #2) Even if Jesus did consciously know the centurion's faith (a conjecture I prefer because it makes Jesus more super-powerful), the intellectual knowledge of a thing never quite compares to the direct experience. Intellectually, I can know which student is probably going to ace the midterm or exam...but that doesn't mean I'm going to be unimpressed when I actually see him or her do it. Christ's amazement doesn't have to be the same as the surprise one has at learning something new; it can be the emotional response to witnessing what one knew to be true all along. Another thing to consider is how many times you can see the same movie and play and still enjoy it, even though you know everything that's going to happen and when.
I suppose my take home point is that this another way of considering just how personal God's relationship is with us. He's not just reading tickertape newsfeeds culled by angels recording our activities...He isn't some kind of Cosmic Matt Drudge compiling data. He is personally invested in our activities, and, indeed, can respond to our actions in ways that we as humans can identify.
Comments