So Great Faith

After Lamoni went unconscious when hearing the gospel message from Ammon, the queen called Ammon to her to know if the king was dead or not. She said to him, “The servants of my husband have made it known unto me that thou art a prophet of a holy God, and that thou hast power to do many mighty works in his name; Therefore, if this is the case, I would that ye should go in and see my husband, for he has been laid upon his bed for the space of two days and two nights; and some say that he is not dead, but others say that he is dead and that he stinketh, and that he ought to be placed in the sepulchre; but as for myself, to me he doth not stink.” Ammon responded, “He is not dead, but he sleepeth in God, and on the morrow he shall rise again; therefore bury him not.” He then asked her, “Believest thou this?” She responded with this simple declaration of faith: “I have had no witness save thy word, and the word of our servants; nevertheless I believe that it shall be according as thou hast said.” Ammon then made this interesting declaration: “Blessed art thou because of thy exceeding faith; I say unto thee, woman, there has not been such great faith among all the people of the Nephites” (Alma 19:4-10). What was it that made her faith so great? Surely there were women of great faith among the Nephites. What made her worthy of such a superlative declaration?

               We have a similar declaration made the Savior to a man who was not one of the covenant people. Matthew recorded the story this way: “And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.” He then pronounced the servant healed and “his servant was healed in the selfsame hour” (Matthew 8:5-10). What was it about his faith that made it greater than all of those in Israel? I think the thing that connects them both is that they had very few witnesses to go off. The Lamanite queen had only the word of her servants and that of Ammon, a Nephite she had been taught all her life to distrust, and yet she still believed. The Roman centurion likely had only a few witnesses of people telling him that Jesus had healed others, and yet he still believed. On the other hand, those of Israel—both Nephites and in Jerusalem--had been taught all their lives to trust in the Lord. They had experienced His word over and over and had surely received many witnesses of the power of God to build their faith. The queen and this Roman centurion believed the first time they were taught, and I believe that is what made their faith so great. If we are to learn from them we must believe the words of the scriptures and the prophets and the inspiration of the Spirit when we first hear it without needing witness after witness to truly believe.