Luke
7:1-10 When Jesus had finished saying all this to the people who were listening, he
entered Capernaum. There a centurion’s
servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. The centurion heard of
Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his
servant. When
they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, “This man deserves to have
you do this,because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.”So Jesus
went with them.
He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to
say to him: “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you
come under my roof.That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to
you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed.For I myself am a man
under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes;
and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does
it.”
When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the
crowd following him, he said, “I tell
you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.”Then
the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well.
My sister is absolutely the worst at introducing new people to
each other. Every time I’m back in the
states she wants me to meet some new friends.
So – she begins by telling her new friends about me at least once a week
for at least a couple of years. She
mentions me in stories – she talks about how cool I am. And she tells me all about her new
friends. And she tells me about the
funny jokes they tell and the funny situations they find themselves in. She talks about how cool they are.
And then the day comes along when I’m back in the states and I
finally get to meet these new friends that I have learned so much about. And it’s always so awkward – because I’m
meeting these people for the first time … but I know everything about
them. I know about their families and
the marital problems they’ve had. I know
their funny jokes and about the terribly painful warts on their feet.
And it’s awkward for them because they’ve heard all the stories
about me – about my time in Ukraine and my childhood hip surgeries. They’ve read things I’ve written and seen my
picture.
We know so much about each other that it is awkward when we
finally get to meet. She has hyped us up
so much to each other – that there is a huge letdown. She promised how much we would laugh at the
others jokes and we end up just waiting to see who will say something funny
first.
I end up just dreading returning to the states and meeting all of
the people that she promised I will “just love.”
The centurion is promised a lot out of today’s interaction.
First, let’s step back and look at the situation. The centurion is a wealthy, powerful,
military man who represents in every way the oppressor. The Jewish people were a small, repressed
minority – and the centurion soldiers were the ones walking around reminding
them of their occupied status. The
scripture states that he “sent some elders of the Jews” to go to Jesus. These were not his friends, these people did
not work for him - these were Jewish men who were important and respected in
their culture and religion. But, he had
the power to order them around and to tell them what to do. And this day he ordered them to go and find
this Jesus.
He had heard about Jesus.
Well, what exactly had he heard about Jesus?
Who is this man? What does
he have to offer?
He had heard of the great and powerful miracles Jesus had
performed. He had heard of Jesus healing
the sick, and he had heard that Jesus was gaining a large following. But, more than that, this Roman centurion had
heard that he should fear this great and powerful man – his job security would
be destroyed when the messiah led the uprising against the Romans. The roman centurion had overheard the hushed
tones as the Jews talked about how the Messiah would destroy the invading
Romans.
And what is most interesting is that this Roman centurion ignores
all of the warnings, and focuses entirely on his present need. He hears that this wandering preacher is also
some kind of magician and medicine man and maybe Jesus can heal his trusted
servant.
Because this man hasn’t heard the full story about Jesus; he
doesn’t know that Jesus will be brought before Pilate and will be executed by
the government this soldier represents.
This soldier doesn’t know that Jesus came to die for the forgiveness and
restoration of the whole world.
What’s interesting about today’s scripture is that two groups of
people are interacting around Jesus.
Officials representing the Roman occupation and the Religious Elite of
the Jewish faith. At the end of Jesus’
earthly ministry we see these two groups coming together again to plot and see
who would take the blame for Jesus’ death.
But this man was different than the other Roman soldiers. This man respected the Jewish culture and
faith. He had spent his own money to
build a synagogue.
And so the Jewish leaders gladly went on his behalf. This was also an opportunity for them to meet
this wandering preacher without having to confront him directly.
These religious elite – they really wanted to trick Jesus. We see this again and again throughout
scripture. These men were insightfully
brilliant. If Jesus didn’t go and heal
the servant – they could tell the people not to believe in him because he
couldn’t really heal. If Jesus did go
and heal the servant – they could go to the people and share that Jesus was on
the side of the oppressors.
This is a perfect trap – and the Jewish leaders didn’t even have
to set it.
Because everyone is asking the same question. “Who is this man?” The people in their town had heard of his
miracles – and they so desperately wanted to believe that the Messiah was
finally here. The Roman centurion was
interested in this small, antiquated religion called Judaism and he was
interested to see if this man coming toward his house was the promised future
of it. He built a house of worship for them because he didn’t think that the
God of the Jews was any threat to the Roman rule – but this Jesus was promised
to have some power. And these Jewish leaders, they desperately wanted to hold
on to their power by proving that this man was a fraud.
And Jesus is in the center of this. The brilliant trap is set just for him and he
moves right into it and evades it entirely at the same time. Jesus heals the servant – without even being
physically present with the boy. And he
steps up to the challenge given by the Pharisees and he looks them directly in
the eye and he shames them for their actions.
He doesn’t heal the soldier’s servant because the soldier has given
money for a building to be built. No. He
heals the servant because the soldier has great faith.
Jesus takes a terrible situation – a terrible trap - and he makes
it a wonderful opportunity to share the good news.
Jesus answers the question that everyone is asking.
“Who is this man?”
This man is the messiah. He
is the promised one. He is the savior.
But, Jesus expands the question.
“Who will this man save?”
Because everyone in Israel had missed the point that throughout
the scripture God again and again casts a vision that the whole world would
believe in the Messiah. These Jewish
leaders thought they would shame Jesus, but in the end they are shamed for not
seeing the bigger picture. They are not
rewarded for their faith – but this man, this man who represents all the
disgusting, bourgeois realities of the Roman occupiers, this man is rewarded
for his faith(?). Jesus answers the
question that everyone is too timid to ask.
Jesus is the savior – and he is the savior of all.
He is the savior of the religiously faithful jews. He is the savior of young men held in service
by the Roman occupation. He is the
savior of the occupying forces of Rome.
He is our savior, too.
We know the things we were taught as children. We know the stories from the Bible. We know the things our parents and
grandparents taught us.
We know that many of our grandparents and parents were willing to
risk persecution in order to follow him and to continue to be active in the
church during the Soviet days.
But it is easy to look at the easy answers – to see the painted
face of Jesus and think of him belonging to ancient story books – but Jesus is
our savior as well. He died for our
sins. He calls us to follow him – he is as
real to us today as he was to this soldier 2000 years ago – he is as real as
our own skin.
Jesus, the savior, who looked controversy in the face and chose to
make a young boy well to prove to those around that he was the savior of all
the earth. That Jesus is the same savior
who looks at the mess we make of our lives and promises to make us well,
too.
Today we place the cross on this table. This cross is the universal symbol of
Jesus. But, let us not forget, this was
a means of execution. This was what they
used to kill people. When the Roman officials and Jewish religious elite gather
again to talk about Jesus – they decide to put him on a cross to die. This is a symbol that Jesus is our
savior. Jesus takes things that are so
bad and so terrible and he changes them.
He took this terrible weapon of torture and turned it into the symbol
under which millions of Christians live and celebrate. He takes the mess of our lives and changes it into the joy of being a follower of Christ. He gives us
worth.
