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2. Sunday after Pentecost, 06/02/2013
Sermon on Luke 7:1-10, by Hubert Beck
After he had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. Now a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him. When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his servant. And when they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly, saying, "He is worthy to have you do this for him, for he loves our nation, and he is the one who built us our synagogue." And Jesus went with them. When he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to him, "Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. Therefore I did not presume to come to you. But say the word, and let my servant be healed. For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me: and I say to one, ‘Go,' and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,' and he does it." When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, said, "I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith." And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well.
WORDS HAVE EFFECTS
Words have effects, whether spoken or written, whether we know it or not, whether we intend it or not.
Parents wait hopefully and expectantly for the first word their small child will speak. They even vie for the privilege of being the first referred to - Mama or Daddy. They coax. They coach. They urge. And when the first distinguishable word comes from the child's mouth they are ever so excited! One would hardly expect the word of a child to have such an effect. But it inevitably does. It is a major step in the social development of the child. Words can have such a joyful effect.
We hear much about bullying these days. Sometimes that bullying is of a physical nature, to be sure, but probably even more often it is a verbal bullying that leads to anything from not wanting to go to school on through suicide. Words can have a devastating effect.
Words have great power - and without fail they have their effect good or bad. Words of approval, encouragement, appreciation, admiration and praise all give confidence to a person just as much as words of criticism, condemnation, censure and denigration destroy confidence and cause despair.
An Activating Word
They also effect behavior, as the centurion clearly declares in today's Gospel: "I say to one, ‘Go,' and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,' and he does it." Centurions have come through the ranks. They have obeyed orders, so they know what obedience to a word of command is. They also know, from that experience, how powerful their own words are when commanding a situation. Their words are commanded from above on the one hand, but they also command those who are below them. It's all in the order of ranks. That's the way things work when it comes to authority.
It is something of a wonder at just how this centurion had heard about Jesus or had come to consider him an authority of sorts in his own right - a man whose words had already clearly asserted authority of some kind. This event took place fairly early in Jesus' ministry, so his reputation must have spread quite rapidly. Luke has told of Jesus' early ministry, including a time of rejection; a variety of miraculous deeds; some early run ins with the scribes and the Pharisees; and the establishment of the twelve apostles as his immediate right hand men, including an extensive instruction on the way of life that was to be the mark of those w ho followed him. This centurion may have heard about some or all these initial signs and discovered in them that Jesus was an extraordinary person. But he also seems to have gotten a sense from what he had heard about this man that there was more to Jesus than met the eye or ear. He quite clearly considered Jesus to be a man whose words had a special effect on everybody who was touched by his voice.
Words of Humility
For that reason he sent some envoys to ask Jesus "to come and heal his servant." That tells us something about this man, for centurions were generally hardened men whose long years of service, often in violent and dangerous situations, had pretty well made them immune to suffering - their own suffering as well as the suffering of others. But here we find him concerned over the illness of a particularly prized servant "who was sick and at the point of death." Perhaps this, too, was behind the centurion's call for Jesus inasmuch as Jesus had made it abundantly clear, from what the centurion had heard, that he was a compassionate man, one who had already touched the lives of a number of people troubled in a variety of ways prior to this. Maybe he could do for the centurion's servant that which no doctor of the time had been able to do. A word from this man would perhaps have more effect than all the medicine and incantation of others could possibly have.
Here, however, we sense another thing about this centurion that would have surprised many of his peers. He had a sense of humility! Most people of his sort were forthrightly brash, haughtily proud. They were used to giving orders and didn't hesitate to do so. This centurion, however, in spite of the fact that he was a Roman authority whose very presence made those around him shiver and shake with fear at what he could do to them if he wished to do so, felt it only proper that he should politely and respectfully ask Jesus to come to the aid of his servant through intermediaries of Jesus' own people. He laid aside his self-importance as a representative of Rome to ask those who may have ordinarily feared him to go to Jesus in his behalf.
Nor were those agents he employed slow to use words of high commendation for the man they represented. He was not the typical arrogant Roman representative whom the Jews despised. Quite the opposite, they went so far as to say that this man "loves our nation," an almost unheard of recommendation for a Jew to make of a Roman of any social background In fact, he was so favorably disposed toward the Jewish people among whom he lived that he had built a synagogue for them! For that reason they assured Jesus that "He is worthy to have you do this for him." He had proved himself to be one who not only could be trusted to treat them well, but he was even one for whom they, in turn, would gladly do him well in return! The humility of this centurion was noteworthy!
An Easily Overlooked but Noteworthy Element of This Account
A side-note may be made at this point that even these "elders of the Jews" who represented this centurion showed no question in their mind or heart concerning Jesus' ability to be of help to the servant who was ill. They came for reasons quite other than the request - or was it a command - of the centurion to ask Jesus to come to his home with a healing presence. They, themselves, seem to have had no reservations concerning Jesus ability to do that which the centurion was asking of him.
The Higher Power Gives Way to a Still Higher Order
The centurion's humility went still further. "I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. Therefore I did not presume to come to you." With these words the centurion threw the spotlight entirely onto Jesus. The centurion was little more than a bystander, so to speak, in this whole dramatic moment. He sent friends to intercept Jesus as he neared the home of the centurion. At the behest of the centurion himself, very likely, those friends even addressed Jesus as "Lord"! The Roman who recognized authority when he saw it because he both experienced and exercised it himself sent ambassadors to stop Jesus before he got to the home toward which he was heading because he recognized in Jesus an authority far above his own! His house was too humble a place for one with the weight of influence that Jesus carried within himself to step foot in it! The weight of the story shifted entirely from the centurion to the presence of Jesus with that awareness.
In that moment the centurion signaled this shift of attention by recounting his recognition that authority is always an exercise from an ultimate authority handed down a chain of officials above them through and then to others. It is not an authority solely in and of the one exercising it. He was a centurion, able to command servants and soldiers with a simple word, only because another word had given him that authority. "I too am a man set under authority," he said. It is in the "I too" phrase that we hear the heart of this account. It implies "you, too" are a man set under authority. It was a recognition that Jesus' authority was derived from one above him, the one we call "his Father" but whom the Roman may have simply said "God." Jesus was always quite plain that, while he did speak on his own authority in many ways, his authority was always that which was his from the Father who sent him. The centurion sensed this. How he sensed it we do not know, but it is quite plain that he recognized Jesus as one in whom and through whom the highest of all authority was present - and that his word would therefore be as effective - even more effective, in fact, as the centurion's earthly word was effective. He "did not presume to come to you. But say the word, and let my servant be healed." This was the word that was sent to Jesus by the centurion's friends who were seeking Jesus' word above all. That word would be far more effective than any earthly words could be.
The Effect of Jesus' Word Becomes Evident
Three things now leap at us of a sudden out of the words that follow.
First of all, Jesus never sees or meets with the centurion face to face according to Luke. Matthew says otherwise, but in the reading we have before us, the centurion's absence is remarkable as a sign of his deep-felt sense that Jesus was greater even than he - and he, one must remember, was quite great in the earthly order of things. Nor does Jesus, for that matter, ever see the servant that he was being asked to heal. The centurion and his servant sank further and further into the background as Jesus was pushed further and further into the foreground.
The second thing that jumps at the reader is Jesus' commendation of the centurion's confidence that Jesus could do that which he was asked to do. And he could do it with a word! The centurion, when he had begged off having Jesus as a guest under his roof, had instructed his friends to say this to Jesus: "Say the word, and let my servant be healed." The centurion recognized that such a word of Jesus would itself be effective in and of its own, for it was an authoritative word just as the centurion's word was authoritative. Words are always effective, but when the word is more than just a passing word, when it has a mandate about it and a muscle within it, then something happens as a result of it. The Roman officer knew that Jesus' word would not be a wish, a hope, nor merely a kindly word of sympathy. He had a commanding word of healing, and the centurion recognized that in some unknown way. So he called upon Jesus to say a word like that!
It was this certain confidence that Jesus' word would be effective that called forth Jesus' words of astonishment: "I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith." We are told many times over that the crowds or an individual in a crowd was amazed at Jesus, but here it is all turned around. Jesus, himself, expresses amazement at the centurion's faith! The faith of this man centered on the authority he recognized as residing in the one whom he had summoned to his home to heal his servant. Could it ever have been imagined that a Gentile could possibly have recognized in Jesus that which those whose whole background lay in the Holy Writings of old had not been able to discern? It was an overwhelming moment! An "outsider" had recognized that which all the "insiders" had failed to see in Jesus!
This leads to the third thing, then, that leaps at one as this scene unfolds -- the fact that Jesus is never said to have spoken a word concerning the servant's healing! That on which the centurion had based all his hope and invitation never took place as he had first envisioned it! Jesus never saw the servant, never touched the servant, never spoke to the servant! In fact, Jesus never spoke directly to the centurion either! That the servant was, indeed, healed, is made clear, however, in the last words of the reading: "When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well."
But Jesus never "spoke him well." Jesus, himself, was "the Word" whose will to come and heal the servant bore its own command, and the healing was projected by virtue of his "coming near" to the place where the servant was lying. If the centurion was representative of authority, it had faded entirely into the background as the authority of Jesus now thrust itself to the fore still more fully. Not only did he have a word of authority at his disposal to speak, but he was, himself, the authority from which the word would come forth with an effect all its own. Jesus was as near to the centurion by virtue of that centurion's faith as he could have been by entering his house! The centurion had drawn Jesus into his house merely by his confidence in what Jesus would do if he had entered that house! Nor did Jesus ever have any personal or verbal exchange with the one who was to be healed! The presence of Christ in the faith of that centurion became a healing force in its own turn for the one for whom the centurion cared so deeply!
The Effect of Jesus as "the Word"
Herein lies the force of the entire narrative! The word of the Lord draws the hearer to him who speaks that word and, in turn, he who speaks draws near to the one who is listening with an open ear and heart! Words are effective in general, as we said at the beginning. One does not have to think long or hard to recognize that. But when the word is the Lord's word, it has its own effect. Israel had long been quite aware of that fact from the time when the Lord's word called Abraham out of his Gentile homeland into a new life marked by the word of the Lord's blessing. That blessing was passed on with all its power and force to Isaac and Jacob and through them into an entire people watched over and cared for by the God whose word kept sounding through centuries of actions and prophetic voices calling them back to their foundations time after time when they failed to listen to it carefully. God made it plain that his word "would not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it," as Isaiah put it.
It was when that word became flesh and dwelt among us, however, that its most immediate and direct thrust was felt. The centurion felt the strength of that thrust as few around him did at that moment. The disciples themselves were hard pressed to understand that word, even when Jesus spoke it in most direct fashion. "'We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.' But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said." It was not an easy word to hear, to get hold of and believe. The centurion, an "outsider" to those who were "insiders," was far more quick to grasp the power of that word held by the Word than those around him were.
It is the word by which we live as Christian people, however - the word of Jesus' saving suffering, death and resurrection. He is the word of hope in the midst of those things that so easily and quickly lead us to despair. He is the word of forgiveness spoken into the heart of our hopeless imprisonment in sin. He is the word of anticipation in the midst of times when the future appears to be a locked door. He is the word of promise in the times when we experience the breakdown of all human vows of faithfulness. He is the word from whom light flashes forth in the midst of darkness. He is the word that breaks apart whatever chains of misery and desolation that hold us in their tight grip. He is the same word that the centurion sought when The Word draws near to us as the healer of our sickness and wounds. He is the word whose effectiveness resides in his very presence even when that Word is projected across the distance from where he drew near to the centurion's home to the door of his residence.
We are so attached to our human words, however, that we are constantly susceptible to being broken apart into bits and pieces of anguish and desolation and dejection, thereby finding it difficult to believe that God is present in the midst of all that with quite another word. That is why we need "messengers" to the Lord in our times of trouble - friends who take our word to the Lord with entreaties for the help and healing that only his word can give. Our faith is always hanging by a thread, so it needs those who appeal to the Lord for us as the emissaries of the centurion appealed to Jesus for him. We easily overlook this aspect of this account. That which the centurion found it impossible to do on his own he entrusted to others to do for him. In the praying of friends and family our own journey is supported and sustained.
But others need us to be their friends in turn, their messengers appealing for the help that only the Word made flesh can give. As the centurion appealed to Jesus through others on behalf of his servant so also those in need all around us - whether family or friends or distant cousins in far-off places where hunger and thirst and constant threats of every kind surround them - need us to be the ones who hold up their hands and present their needs to him who alone can speak the word with the effect for which they so desperately long for. There is good reason why Jesus instructed us to pray, "Our Father," for in the "our" we gather all those around us in the praying that comes from our hearts.
As we walk this way together, then, you and I, the wounded and the needy and the injured and the hurting, together waiting for the word that will heal and make whole and resolve the hurts, turn ever and ever again to the word of promise given us by the Holy Spirit through the church within which he is present with all that is necessary to strengthen and support us in this journey. Here the word of the Lord enlivens the waters of our baptism with new life; here he feeds us on the body and blood of the Word who drew near to that centurion millennia ago; here he speaks to us through the scripture and through the mutual exchanges of all who gather in this place. Here we, in turn, offer him our service as he, himself, serves us, as he has served his people through generations before us.
For we are all centurions sending a word of entreaty to the Lord with the plea to come to homes where sicknesses of body, soul and mind are found - sicknesses that only Jesus can address. We are all centurions who are unworthy to have him enter our homes ... but still we dare to call on him to just say the word that addresses our need and we shall be satisfied. We are all centurions whose lives have been disrupted by unwelcome types of trouble, who therefore need the restoring word by which we can carry on through the distresses that surround us. The Word is always ready with words that have their own healing and curative and saving effect on all that oppresses us. He will always draw near when we call on him.
The one word that we wait for and anticipate, when all is said and done, whether in this life or in that which is to come, is a simple one: "I tell you, nowhere in all the world have I found such faith." When that word is spoken, all is well!