July 11, 2010
The Centurion - Luke 7:1-10
Pastor: Luke Maybry
DownloadI have three children all under the age of four. One of the places that I visit very often now is the pediatrician’s office. We have kept those people in business lately, mainly through check-ups. As any young parent can attest, the biggest thing they do at check-ups is vaccinations, or shots. I’ll have to give my children credit and say that so far they all have been pretty stoic about shots. Their mother and I have a much harder time than they do. My biggest question as it relates to vaccinations is what’s in those things? Many people believe that vaccinations can somehow trigger various conditions in children, especially autism. According to our pediatrician, though, there is no reason to believe that. According to her, there is certainly a risk, as there is with anything, but not getting the vaccination is far riskier than getting one.
Trust me, she says. That’s what it comes down to, isn’t it? Asking for that kind of trust is a very tall order. What if she’s wrong? My child can survive a bad teacher, or a boring preacher, or a lousy baseball coach. But if you give me a lousy doctor who gives my child a lousy vaccination, then my child could die, or could develop autism, which is on the rise (and might be related to vaccinations according to some sources). We all face that dilemma when it comes to healthcare. My wife had some complications in her first pregnancy and the doctors gave her a morphine drip. Being the inquisitive person I am, I asked the doctor if morphine was okay for her and the baby. And he told me that of course it’s okay, that if it was not okay, he would never order it. “So she can have a morphine drip, but not a glass of wine,” I observed. “Yes,” he said. “Trust me.”
That kind of faith is hard. And yet that’s what we as Christians are asked to do every day. At least physicians can point to some evidence, to some scientific research to show us that what they are doing is good. But that’s not always true with God, now is it? What scientific research shows that there even is a God? We Christians are asked to believe in something that we can’t understand. The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) has been meeting this week, which is always a disaster. I want you to remind me to go on vacation the next time they meet. But in their defense, they are asked to believe in God and to act accordingly, when so many other things are seeking their trust. It’s a very high-stakes game, this belief this us. If we’re wrong on it, then we’ve wasted our lives. I hate to be that blunt, but it’s just true.
Never in any of the Gospels does Jesus marvel at anybody, other than at this nameless centurion. Centurions were bad people, by the way. They either worked for Herod, the paranoid-sellout Jew who attempted to kill Jesus, or for Pilate, the Roman governor who succeeded in killing Jesus. To the ordinary, common Jew, both Pilate and Herod were evil dictators and their lieutenants, or Centurions, were ruthless, except for this one Centurion. This one Centurion actually reached out to the Jews. He even built their synagogue. A Centurion reaching out to a 1st Century Jew would be somewhat like a Nazi reaching out to a 20th Century Jew. This was a huge deal. He loved the Jewish people, and this was according to them, the Jewish people. The Gentiles vouched for him, too. This nameless Centurion evidently was a bridge between the Palestinian and the Jew, or what is it? Maybe the liberal and conservative, or the Republican and Democrat, or the black and white, or the rich and poor. Come to think of it, we have a many divisions in our own culture. And yet we seem to have precious few bridges between them. Well, this Centurion was one of those rare bridges.
And before I forget, the whole thing was about a slave. The Centurion evidently had lots of slaves, one of whom was sick. Slaves were property then, and if you have lots of them, then who cares if you lose one? You certainly aren’t going to eat your pride and call on your subordinates, the Jews whom you rule, to help you out. The Centurion could do to them and his slaves whatever he wanted. So if the slave died, there were plenty more where he came from. But the Centurion cared very deeply for the man. In fact, Luke describes him as a slave, but the Centurion himself described him as “my child.” That the Centurion valued the valueless, then, speaks very well of him.
But none of that (neither the bridge thing nor caring for the slave) is what made Jesus marvel. The thing that made Jesus marvel was his faith. The Centurion never even saw Jesus. He said he wasn’t worthy to see Jesus. All he needed Jesus to do, anyway, was to say a few things. That was it. The Centurion was a very powerful man, and he, too, could say a few words and get what he wanted. He had authority from the Romans, you see. But that authority was limited, and he knew it. And he also knew that Jesus’ authority came from God, and God can do what the Romans could never do. All Jesus needed to do was to open his mouth and heaven could open up.
Imagine if we really believed that. Imagine how different the world would be if we really, I mean really, believed that. We are ordinary people. I read the newspaper and I get Newsweek and I try to stay well connected to what’s happening in the world. And, I love ya’ll, but I haven’t read about you in any of that. And I haven’t read about myself, either. And to be fair, I kind if doubt if I would have read about this Centurion then. We all search very hard to make our lives meaningful. I had a professor in college who would often ask us that at the end of our lives, will it have made any difference at all that we lived? That question has stayed with me ever since then.
For the Centurion, his life certainly did make a difference. He was a great guy, which is evidenced by so many things here: his generosity, his concern for this low-down slave, his treatment of the Jews, etc… He was a great guy, but the thing that impressed Jesus, was his great faith. Jesus said that not even in Israel had he found such faith. Jesus mentioned nothing about him being a good guy. It seems separated, doesn’t it? His faith and his good works seem separated.
But maybe they are not separated. Maybe it’s both. Let me ask you again to imagine what we could do if we really believed what we say we believe about Jesus. Mother Teresa believed a few things about Jesus. We now know after her death that she also had doubts. In fact, it’s probably fair to say that she struggled with belief her entire life. According to her diaries, she was very much like the man in Mark 9 who, when Jesus asked him if he believed said, “I do believe. But help my unbelief.” Evidently Mother Teresa prayed that prayer a lot. She had some unbelief, but she also had that small glimmer of faith, and look what she did with that.
Jesus compared faith in God to a mustard seed. It does not take much to do a great deal of good. If God could do so much with Mother Teresa’s faith, conflicted though it was, imagine what God could do with ours. The world desperately needs us to have faith. I am becoming more and more convinced that faith is getting pretty scarce, as is goodness. That is no coincidence. If there was ever a time that the world needed faith, it’s right now. I would argue that the tremendous good that the Centurion did was the result of his faith and not the other way around. The world desperately needs bridge builders. One side, I don’t care what side it is, never has a monopoly on the truth. So without bridge builders, we’re in sad shape. Faith in God forces to us to build bridges. I’m also convinced that we are de-valuing human life. Faith forces us to value every life. The world needs us to have faith. The world needs more Centurions.
The world needs you to have faith. The world needs you to be who Jesus Christ says you already are. You just have to believe that. You come to Church every Sunday and you get reminded of a man named Jesus. I don’t know why you come to Church. I’m sure it’s for a number of reasons, or how often you come or what you like about our service and what you don’t. Regardless of any of that, you get reminded of Jesus here. You actually say a few things about Jesus that you claim to believe. Now the world desperately needs you to really and truly believe those things. The world needs us to live as though what we say about Jesus is true. Because it is true, isn’t it? So my charge for all of us is to go home and work on our faith, our belief. If you are honest with yourself, you struggle with it from time to time, but among many other things, God has given you some faith. So may that faith grow, and may our goodness follow closely behind it.
In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
