2nd Sunday after Pentecost, 05/29/2016

Sermon on Luke 7:1-10, by Carl A. Voges

The Passage

“After he (Jesus) 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 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.”

[English Standard Version]

“For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” [Galatians 1.11-12]

In the Name of Christ + Jesus our Lord

In the past two weeks the Lord’s people have once again been anchored into the foundation of a new liturgical season with the festivals of Pentecost and the Holy Trinity. As we make our way into the six-month long Pentecost season, we find ourselves running into passages that have accumulated familiarity over the years. That certainly is the reality today with this passage from Luke Seven. The healing of the centurion’s slave has been with the Church for hundreds of years. Rising along with this growth in familiarity, however, is the development that, as soon as we see it or hear it, our tendency is to skip over it and shut down our concentration. Why is that? It’s because of our familiarity with the passage and the belief that we do not need to work through it again.

One of the significant teachers in the Church, Martin Luther, had a very good approach for such a growing familiarity. He would remind us to look at a passage’s context, exploring what came before and after it. Such an approach works well for the opening section of Luke Seven.

In the first part of chapter Six we see Jesus quarreling with the Pharisees about the laws concerning the Sabbath. Command Three was at the Sabbath’s base, but the Pharisees had worked up with an additional thirty-nine prescriptions they believed would cover every situation concerning the Third Command. The problem was that their prescriptions ended up choking the Life that anchored and drove the Command. The Pharisees were making the mistake of thinking that they could improve on what the Lord God had given them, but it had the opposite effect.

After Jesus heals a person’s withered right hand on that Sabbath, he goes to a mountain and engages his Father in prayer for the entire night. The next day he calls his followers together and, from the larger group of followers, chooses twelve of them as his apostles. Then, with a great crowd of his disciples and a huge multitude of people from all over the region, Jesus continues his healings of those who are diseased and pressing around him. He then turns his attention to the disciples and teaches them. This section (Luke 6.20-49) is called the “Sermon on the Plain.” It is similar to Matthew’s “Sermon on the Mount,” but there are fewer teachings. Some of them duplicate Matthew’s “Sermon”, but, in verses 24-26, Luke expands how material satisfactions will not endure.

When we turn to the opening verse for today’s Gospel, Luke is commenting that after Jesus completes his teaching on the Plain, he enters Capernaum. In that town there is a centurion with a valued slave who is extremely ill and is near death. Centurions were commanders of one hundred soldiers. In the Roman military system a legion was composed of sixty of these commands. Centurions were well-paid career soldiers responsible for the discipline and administration of those under their authority. Their position in Roman society was high and, in the case of this individual, it was high in Jewish society.

The centurion had heard of Jesus’ work so he sent Jewish elders to Jesus, asking him to come and heal his slave. As a group, Jewish elders are not as neatly defined as the Pharisees and Sadducees. They were not responsible for worship in the synagogue even though they enjoyed seats of honor at the gatherings. Synagogue rulers were often elected from among their number. The elders traced their history back to Moses’ appointment of the seventy elders in the wilderness (Numbers Eleven). They were selected to reflect the various interests in the synagogue, and were ordained by prayer and the laying-on of hands. In time they developed precedents in the interpretations of the Law that were titled “Traditions of the Elders” (two references are found in Mark 7.3-5 and Matthew 15.2).

Sent by the centurion, the elders make an earnest plea to Jesus to heal the slave, noting that the centurion is a worthy individual. They cite his love for their nation (a rather interesting observation for an occupying military force!) and his generosity in building their synagogue (remember that centurions were well-paid!). Jesus goes with the elders. As he nears the home, however, the centurion sends friends to him stating that Jesus does not need to trouble himself by coming into his home. This reflects the centurion’s understanding that the Jewish laws of purity prevented Jesus from coming into the home of a Gentile.

The conversation between the centurion and Jesus then takes a surprising turn. Telling Jesus that he did not want to be presumptuous, he just wants Jesus to say the word and

heal his slave. The centurion allows that he recognizes authority (he uses it all the time with the soldiers under his command). In this situation he recognizes the authority that is surfacing in Jesus’ ministry. Jesus marvels at the centurion’s understanding of his work and comments to the crowd around him that not even in Israel has he found such faith! As the centurion’s friends return to his home, they discover that the slave has been healed.

As familiar as this passage is, we can notice a couple of things. First, there is its movement – from illness to health, from Jew to Gentile, from impending death to the regaining of life. Second, the key to this movement is the exposure to our Lord and God.

Returning to the first observation, this movement from Jew to Gentile is clearly evident in the New Testament, especially in Luke’s two volumes – the Gospel and the book of Acts. It also surfaces in the writings of the apostle Paul. For us to dig into that movement, biblically and historically, would tend to cramp the impact of this passage on the Lord’s parish communities. This passage is intended for their life and work as their people aim to be faithful to their Baptisms and ordinations. In this context the movement, generated and sustained by the activity of the Holy Trinity, moves them from the instinctive ways of the world to the ways that pour out of Baptism.

Picking up on this movement is critical for a parish’s life and work. Does it want to turn to the stuff of this world that is always suggesting the ways in which we can be most attractive to the most numbers of people? Or are we willing to go with the ways given us by the Lord God? The latter can involve stirring up numbers of people as well. The key is that they are being exposed to the Lord’s ways, not the ones of our making and borrowing.

This exposure brings us to the second observation. Through the Jewish elders and his friends, the centurion was exposed to the Life that Jesus is bringing to the world. This is not as far removed from us as we may think. Through our participation in the Scriptures and the Sacraments of Baptism, Forgiveness and Eucharist, we are exposed to the same Life surfacing here in Luke Seven! Admittedly, such participation does not come easily. It rises up or falls down because of the habits that guide people’s lives. At times, because habits are strong, people will make decisions that tend to revolve around what they think is more important. The unholy trio of sin, Satan and death is constantly working to block our exposure to the Lord’s Life or to cut it down. Our response is not to deal with the trio on our own, but to let the Lord God pull us more and more deeply into his Life. Through the Son’s crucifixion and resurrection, he has dealt decisively with the unholy trio, and he will continue to do so until the End-of-Time. The key, imitating the centurion, is to trust that his Life and ways will always have the last word!

The exposure to the Lord’s Life through his Scriptures and Sacraments (his holy places) keeps impacting his people as they make their way through the world’s life. Following today’s Gospel, Jesus raises the son of a widow who has died; his actions stir John the Baptizer to inquire if he is the coming Messiah and Jesus’ comments about John; and there is the rich forgiveness he pours out on a woman who has come to a dinner that Jesus was having with a Pharisee.

We encounter illnesses. But with the Lord’s holy places swirling around our lives, we are brought back to health! We encounter profound changes in the work of our parish communities. But with the Lord’s holy places swirling around our lives, we are given fresh approaches and renewed energies! We encounter impending death. But with the Lord’s holy places swirling around our lives, we are carried through it to the completion of eternal Life!

Yes, today’s Gospel is a highly familiar passage but we are not left skipping over it or shutting down our concentration. With our exposure to the Lord’s activity pushing into our lives and the lives of his parish communities on a weekly basis, we are being energized not only for the work he has given us through Baptism and ordination during this Pentecost season, but also far beyond it!

Now may the peace of the Lord God, which is beyond all understanding, keep our hearts and minds through Christ + Jesus our Lord.

Pr. Carl A. Voges
Columbia, SC USA
E-Mail: carl.voges4@icloud.com

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