Did Jesus personally obtain the donkey? No. Yet, when John briefly addresses these same events, he simply notes, “ Jesus, when He had found a young donkey, sat on it” (12:14). The disciples then “brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on it, and He sat on it” (Mark 11:7 cf. Prior to Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem during the final week of His life, Matthew, Mark, and Luke all indicate that He instructed two of His disciples, saying, “Go…find a colt…and bring it here” (Luke 19:30 Matthew 21:2 Mark 11:2).For example, John wrote that “the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John (though,” John explains, “ Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples)” (John 4:1-2). The Gospel writers frequently use such acceptable legal language throughout their accounts of the life of Christ.Truly, this type of speech was used, understood, and perfectly acceptable among Israel for 2,000 years! Nearly 2,000 years later, Stephen used Joseph’s same language to describe Joseph being sold by his brothers “into Egypt”-Acts 7:9. At one point, Joseph reminded his brothers that they had sold him “ into Egypt” (Genesis 45:4), when technically they sold him to the Midianites (Genesis 37:36), who in turn sold him into Egypt.All those actions done on Joseph’s behalf were done (in a very real sense) “ by Joseph.” It truthfully can be said that what Joseph authorized and commanded, “he did.” Like all sorts of leaders in the past and present, Joseph was viewed as ultimately responsible for Egypt’s success or failure (at least during seven years of plenty and seven years of famine-Genesis 41:1-47:26). Most everyone easily and rightly understands that all these statements are made in light of Joseph’s authority and not of him personally doing each and every one of these individual tasks (on behalf of hundreds of thousands, or perhaps millions of people). What’s more, “ Joseph gave” and “ fed” the Egyptians “ with bread in exchange for all their livestock” (Genesis 47:17). “ Joseph” also “ gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, for the grain which they bought and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh’s house” (Genesis 47:14). Later, “ Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold to the Egyptians” (Genesis 41:56). Joseph gathered very much grain, as the sand of the sea, until he stopped counting” (Genesis 41:48-49). The text says that Joseph “ gathered…and laid up the food in the cities he laid up in every city the food of the fields which surrounded them. Moses wrote about Joseph, who was second in command of all of Egypt (Genesis 41:37-44), repeatedly doing things that he undoubtedly ordered to be done (and not literally done by him).Before turning our attention back to the centurion’s interaction with Jesus, consider a few (of the many) examples of the “law of agency” in Scripture. Though some may not like it, and others (who continually cry “Bible contradiction”) may “not have it,” 4 the fact is, the Bible writers frequently (and logically) employed this widely practiced and accepted, legal principle of proxy in their penning of Scripture. How can the second account be truthful? Because “he who acts through another is deemed in law to do it himself” 1-a legal principle (known as the “law of agency”) 2 that billions of people around the world have understood and accepted for millennia. To another friend, you might simply say, “The President has asked me to come to eat at the White House, and I told him, ‘Yes!’” The two different versions you tell are totally different, but both are true. What might you truthfully tell your friends about this encounter? To one friend, you might give every detail, describing the two individuals who came to your house, what they said to you, and how you responded to them, etc. To help answer this question, consider a scenario where the President of the United States sends two individuals from his administration to your house with an official invitation to dine at the White House. Do the differences in these accounts demand that we judge them contradictory, or can they be reasonably and justly harmonized? On the other hand, Luke notes that when the centurion “heard about Jesus, he sent elders of the Jews to Him, pleading with Him to come and heal his servant” (Luke 7:3 cf. Indeed, Matthew indicates that “when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him” (Matthew 8:5). The accounts in question are found in Matthew 8:5-13 and Luke 7:1-10. At the same time, Luke explains that he sent others to plead with Jesus on his (and his servant’s) behalf. In comparing the two accounts of Jesus healing the centurion’s servant, Matthew indicates that the centurion came to Jesus personally.

Centurion and jesus