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Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Brothers and sisters, the text for this morning is about the centurion and the healing of the servant of the centurion by our Lord Jesus. Here again, the very words you just finished singing, especially this verse that I’m reading to you: “The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose, I will not forsake. I will not desert to his foes. That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake, I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.” That is good news, dear brothers and sisters. And that is the comfort that I have in having preached to soldiers over the years. Because so many of the soldiers unto whom I have preached don’t get how much God loves soldiers.
In the scriptures, every time a soldier is mentioned, other, of course, than the ones that took great joy in beating and doing other things to Jesus at his crucifixion, the ones that came to him in faith always were treated with love, dignity, and honor. No different than this morning, this centurion. But whether the soldiers unto whom that I have preached have been here in this country or over in Iraq, whether they’ve been National Guard or Reserve or active duty, they all have this sense that they’re not as worthy as other people. Not all, just a lot of them.
Now that unworthiness can flow from all kinds of different things. A lot of them aren’t churched unto whom I’ve spoken. Maybe that’s it. A lot of them have lived lives or are living lives that would not be considered Christian. Some have even done things in combat that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. Either way, there is this sense of unworthiness, and it’s a good thing for me to have seen over the years. Because it’s very easy for someone who grew up in the church, who didn’t have parents that were philandering out there in the world, who didn’t have parents that divorced, who didn’t have parents who were lesbian or gay, who didn’t have all of the things that many of these soldiers, with whom I’ve preached, lived with all their life. Mom was maybe a prostitute or a drug addict. And same with Dad.
Reminding me that my worth in God’s sight is not based upon the fact that I grew up in a church or had Christ since I was a baby. That attitude to see is good for me, as I hope it’s good for you.
Now the Jews in the Gospel reading, they’re all about highlighting the worthiness of this centurion. In fact, when they are sent by the centurion, the centurion only tells them, as the text says, go get Jesus, tell him I need him to heal my servant. That’s it. The centurion does not accentuate any worth on his part whatsoever. The centurion only asks. That’s it. That’s it.
Now, when the Jews get to Jesus, they’re all about wanting to show Jesus, this man, this centurion, is worthy of Jesus to have him come. They mention, he is a lover of our nation. That’s a pretty big thing to say for a Roman citizen who is a centurion, who’s not from that area, who’s in the backwater town of Capernaum, in the backwater country of Palestine, to be called a lover of that nation.
Secondly, this centurion literally put his money where his mouth is. This centurion used his own money to build a synagogue for the local Jews at Capernaum, which by the way, archaeologically, they have found already. So these Jews come to Jesus with all of the reasons why he should come. You ever had that done for you? You ever had your mom and dad say, my son or daughter is worthy of you giving them this job? You ever had that done for yourself? Isn’t it interesting? Because we do value our own flesh and blood over other people’s children, let’s be honest. And we value certain people over other people, don’t we? Let’s be honest as well.
And why is it that we value them over others? What is that which we deem worthy or unworthy? It’s interesting, isn’t it? The centurion, however, as the text says so clearly, had a totally different view of himself. He didn’t even want to necessarily interact face-to-face with Jesus. And as we will find out a little later on, he didn’t even want them to have him come under his roof so that he wouldn’t defile himself, meaning Jesus defiled himself by being in a Gentile’s home on the Sabbath.
What’s a centurion? A centurion is a Roman soldier who is responsible for up to 100 men underneath his command. Up to 100. Typically, if you’re a centurion… You’re all so pretty doggone tough. Military discipline was often, in that era and day, handled with fists and fights rather than simply a unified military code of justice. The men who he commanded, oh, they were not Roman soldiers. That would mean you would be in Rome. The soldiers that this Roman centurion commanded were all foreign nationals, kind of a ragtag group of mercenaries maybe, but they were not Roman citizens. The real honorable centurion would be in Rome commanding Roman soldiers, and here he is, Palestine commanding, who knows? But that’s who he was.
Now this centurion is one of three that the New Testament mentions in great love and honor. The first centurion is this one, a Lutheran Christian sermon. After Peter saw that vision, he went to visit a centurion by the name of Cornelius in the book of Acts. That centurion did Peter preach to, did Peter baptize the whole household, children, infants, and adults, and did Peter preach to these children, infants, and adults and teach them.
And boy, did Jesus kick off mission work among military men and especially among Gentiles. Because all three of these centurions were Gentiles, non-Jews. You could liken it, I suppose, though not specifically accurate. People who didn’t grow up in the church would be considered Gentile pagans. The Jews would be considered people who grew up in the church, who had it around them all their life.
So Jesus kickstarts the mission among the, quote, unchurched, strongly. And in fact, of all the different people that Jesus could comment about the faith, the two people that he comments about, this centurion and another Gentile, a Canaanite woman, which we’ll never know her name either. Syrophoenician is also one of the texts called her.
So then when it comes to worthiness, why then are you worthy? Is it because your family raised you in the church? Is that why you’re worthy? Are you worthy because you had a fairly moral home? What makes you worthy? And why should God listen to you and come to you? The centurion, he understands his worth. It’s not based upon himself. So then, what is it about you that you say, thank you, Lord, that that didn’t happen to me? The tornado didn’t rip through your home, didn’t kill any of your family, the one that whipped through Moore and El Reno and outside of Tulsa. We say, oh, thank you, Lord.
But do we say, thank you, Lord, like the Pharisee in the temple who said, thank you, Lord, that I’m not like other men? Yes, there’s a little bit of both. Obviously, we say, thank you, Lord, that it didn’t happen. And we’re rightfully and very spiritually sincere in thanking the Lord. But let’s be honest. We’re also very mindful of, it didn’t happen to me. I dodged the bullet. Why should God bless you with good things? Is it because you’re worthy of good things? Is that why things happen to you the way they do? And if they don’t, is that why God allows them to happen to you?
Remember how I began. I spoke to you about soldiers and their attitude toward themselves for many and various reasons. And the application is to you and to me. It is easy for you and me, who have grown up in this environment, like the Jews of Jesus’ day, who grew up among the religiosity and of the triune God. Some of them believed, obviously. Not all of them did. But it’s easy among us who have been around this to have this view that we’re cut from a different bolt of fabric than the rest of society.
Those who had no church background, those whose parents, lesbian or gay, those whose parents divorced, those who didn’t have parents and grew up in a foster home, those who practiced all kinds of various sinful acts, and maybe still practicing them in your relationship with them. They are as worthy of Christ as you, and God uses you to work with them. It’s Satan and you in my own flesh who wants us to see these people as different, less worthy, as less to hear the word of God, that it won’t work as well on them as it did on you or me. That’s of Satan. That is not of God. Everyone here, including me, have sin in their family, have things of which we are ashamed of, and people within our family of whom we are ashamed, and things that we don’t share with other people.
We don’t air our dirty laundry, do we? Where does worth come from then? It does not come from within. Our worth comes from outside of us. Jesus. And that’s the great gift in this text. Jesus shows these Jews that worth is not found in anything that they’ve done or could do. Worth is found in the one who was asked for healing, Jesus.
Now, only in this text and a few other places, very few, does Jesus marvel at anything. Because it says Jesus marveled at the centurion’s faith. Most of the time, the person who marvels is not the Lord. It is a crowd, a specific individual who’s named, or an unnamed individual who marvels at what Jesus did. The beautiful aspect of this text is that Jesus marvels at this man’s faith.
And guess what? Jesus doesn’t speak those words in the ears of the centurion because he never shows up in the centurion’s house, does he? So if the centurion found out about this, he found out about it by way of the delegation, either that he sent first, the Jews, or the second delegation that he sent to keep Jesus from coming underneath his roof. One of the two told him. This is interesting; what was he marveling and amazed at, Jesus our Lord, of this centurion’s faith? Why was it different?
The centurion’s or Gentile faith, or let’s be even more honest, this unchurched individual’s faith was marveled at by our Lord because, one, he was humble. He knew who he was. He knew who he was and, at the selfsame time, knew that Jesus was merciful, like that hymn that we read. And he had the gumption to ask. That’s profound. That’s faith. Faith says, in spite of what I see in myself, in spite of what I see happening around me, in spite of what I think or feel, I say, Lord, hear me. That’s one of the things that Jesus marveled at.
The second thing was that this centurion’s faith did not center on anything else but Jesus’ word of promise. Two things about this. One, when he said, the centurion, just say the word, that’s all I need. He’s saying, all I need to know is that you say yes, it’s done. I don’t have to see it. I don’t have to see you. I don’t even have to have you near me or my servant. You say the word and it’s good as gold.
Every time you pray the Lord’s Prayer, brothers and sisters, it’s the same thing. You’re calling Jesus to account for a promise that he made to you. Do you believe it? God gives daily bread even to evil people, whether they pray for it or not. We pray that we would receive our daily bread with thanksgiving. And daily bread includes healing of servants, healing of cancer, blessing of children, marriages, life in this world that’s not spiritual—all underneath that one petition.
That is ultimately the final thing about Jesus marveling at the centurion’s faith. The centurion said, you don’t even have to be near me. You don’t have to be near my dear servant, because I’m a man of authority. Like, what does that mean? He’s a centurion. He tells one of his underlings to do it, whether he is in their presence or not. He knows it will be done. Now you and I can say, well, maybe they don’t do it necessarily. No, no, no, no. That’s the expectation. And that’s in an earthly manner. This centurion takes that same application and applies it to Jesus.
If Jesus is authoritative over everything in this world and everywhere in this world, all that has to be done is him say it and it’s done. And I’m banking on it, is what the centurion is saying. No wonder he marveled at such faith. You and I limit it. Can this person really believe in Jesus if they grew up in the household that they grew up with? No. Can they really believe in Jesus if they’ve done all these horrible, deviant things that they’ve done? Nah, they’re cut from a different bolt. They won’t listen. They won’t hear. They won’t believe.
Is that God or is that Satan? You tell me and you tell yourself because I had it proven to me over and over again. It’s not God that says such things. It’s Satan. And it’s my own flesh. Shame on me. Shame on all of us if we think such things.
Maybe this old soldier centurion heard about another old soldier. A soldier in the Old Testament. A grizzled old soldier. A commander of many soldiers. His name? Naaman. His problem? Leprosy. Remember, he went to Elisha, and he could not grasp in his mind why Elisha didn’t open the door, come outside, wave his hands over him, and heal him. But Elisha said, here’s the word to you: Go wash yourself in the Jordan. Go wash yourself in the Jordan. Naaman wanted to throw up his hands and walk away. Who encouraged Naaman to stick around? Naaman’s servants. They said, my Lord, if that’s what he said to you, believe it, do it, trust in it.
Maybe that centurion had heard of that story of Naaman and knew. All he needed to do was trust in the word of the prophet, Jesus. Maybe that’s like us. We have no idea of whether Jesus said anything of this story. Be healed, servant. Look at the text. All it says is about Jesus marveling at it, and then the people go back to the centurion’s house, and he’s healed.
We have nothing recorded where Jesus said, Be healed. Did he say it? I don’t know. Did he need to say it? It’s God. He can do anything he wants to. We have no idea whether he did or didn’t. That’s not the point. The point is that the servants, the centurion’s faith was fixed upon Jesus doing it through whatever means or method he chose. And he did it. The proof’s in the pudding. There’s the servant, a healthy and a well.
So for what purpose and for whose sake was this done? Yes, it was done for the centurion. That’s obvious. Yes, it was done for the centurion’s servant. That’s obvious. But do you know who else’s sake this was done for? The Jews’ sake. The Jews who were the delegation sent to try to convince Jesus of worth and value, they were shown very clearly, as I was shown in my work with soldiers, it’s not about anybody’s background.
It’s not about what they grew up with or what they failed to grow up with. It’s not about how good or bad their mother or father was or how things have been done to them that were so horrific. Because we’re all the same. And it’s also for your sake and my sake to see other people with the same eyes. The people that God places in your life, that God wants you to speak to, that God uses you to speak to, to love them, to encourage them, to integrate them and invite them into this parish family of sinners. That’s for whose sake this miracle was done.
And you know what? That’s still the same way Jesus works today. One of the most interesting stories is of this soldier who grew up with a drug addict mom and had no father nearby. I was kind to him and nice to him, but I, deep down, didn’t think it would ever work. God does work. And he works through that spoken word that you and I speak. And he works it through people like me, judgmental sinners, and people like you, judgmental sinners.
In the name of the one who worked faith in your heart and mine, and who works faith in all people’s hearts, who hear and believe. Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and your minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
