I think we can all feel that right now our culture is really struggling to find faith. We talk about it in different ways. We talk about the need to restore family values. We talk about the need for spirituality. We may not talk about it, but I think we feel a need for a sense of purpose in life, a purpose strong enough to keep us on track while we are bombarded with demands to buy this, do this, believe this, support this. How can we find a direction for our lives that means something? How can we protect that direction from getting swallowed up by all the demands that press on us every day? Am I all alone in this chaotic world, or is there someone that I can turn to, someone who will really do something, really make a difference?
Our text for this morning describes someone who had a faith that amazed even Jesus. Let’s see what we can learn from him. Our text is Luke 7:1-10. It’s printed for you in your bulletin so that you can have it open in front of you.
“After Jesus had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. A centurion there had a slave whom he valued highly, and who was ill and close to death. When he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, asking him to come and heal his slave. When they came to Jesus, they appealed to him earnestly, saying, "He is worthy of having you do this for him, for he loves our people, and it is he who built our synagogue for us." And Jesus went with them, but when he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to say 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 only speak the word, and let my servant be healed. For I also 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 slave, ‘Do this,' and the slave does it." When Jesus heard this he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, he said, "I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith." When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health.”
Did you hear that this guy amazed Jesus? That’s what the text says. That’s quite an accomplishment.
What was so special about the faith of this Centurion? Why was Jesus amazed?
Well, people in the twentieth century might not recognize it, but any first century person would have been amazed at how this man cut across cultural barriers.
He cared about a slave! That was unusual! It was pretty common that if a slave got too sick to work he would just be thrown out on the street to die. But here was an important man, a centurion, in charge of up to 100 men in the Roman army. And he cared about a slave.
That sounds to me like God was breaking into this man’s life and obeying God was more important to him than social boundaries.
And when he needed help he went to the local Jewish elders. Roman soldiers and Jews normally despised each other. But this man paid no attention to such social boundaries. That was impressive. That was amazing.
As any one of us sets out on our pilgrimage of faith it won’t be long before we will run into choices. If we are going to follow where Jesus leads us, it will mean mixing with people that we may feel are socially beneath us, people that we feel our enemies of our social group, people that irritate us, people that are different from us. And I’ll bet there are an awful lot of people who choose to give up the pilgrimage of seeking God rather than cross those social barriers. But this man didn’t.
Another amazing thing about this man was that he had personally built a synagogue for the village. He didn’t cut the stones, but he paid for it himself.
And this encounter happened while Jesus was in Capernaum. It doesn’t tell us which village had the synagogue that this man built, but it might be the Capernaum synagogue and archeologists have excavated the foundations of the Capernaum synagogue and you can go there and stand where it once stood and guess where Jesus would have stood when he taught there and stand in the same place. I’ve been there and I’ve done just that and it was one of the biggest thrills of my life, to stand where Jesus probably stood.
This Centurion built a whole synagogue for the Jews of one village. And that by itself is another amazing act of faith, all by itself. As we seek God it also won’t be long before we realize that following Jesus has to change the way we spend our money. There is no way out of that. It’s going to cost us something. What good is any faith that doesn’t impact your daily choices?
I picture this centurion seeing that the village people needed a synagogue and wrestling with the decision of whether he should be the one to help them and how far he should go. And look how far he went. Doing the right thing, the generous thing, the thing that pleases God was obviously number one for this man.
But I think the thing that caught Jesus’ attention the most was the way he recognized Jesus’ power to heal.
In his day there were a lot of faith healers around. And they were all expected to do religious things when they attempted a healing, say magic words, mix up potions, do a dance or a ceremony. But this centurion realized those weren’t the point, all the religious stuff. It came down to whether Jesus had the authority in his word to heal or not. And he had seen it happen for himself. And so he counted on Jesus coming through, and don’t bother with the rigmarole.
And today we may not be all that much different. Anything we do in the church requires a meeting, a program, or a process. And they all have a purpose. And they all can be beneficial. But they all also have the danger that we can get caught up in doing them and forget that in the end it is the Word of Jesus that matters.
Those of us who grew up in the church have benefited from quite an elaborate system that helps us grow into faith. There is the symbolism in the sanctuary. There are the special days of the church year, each with a different meaning. There are the special events in the church, baptisms, confirmations, weddings, and funerals. Each has a contribution. There are the relationships that grow and come to mean so much. And how we can come to love it all.
But there is one thing that is more important, infinitely more important, that we hear the voice of Jesus through it all and we find his strength and his direction for our lives.
And the danger in all of the good things at church is that we get distracted by them and lose sight of the power of Jesus himself.
And this centurion recognized the power. Jesus, you don’t have to come to my house. Just say the word. I can see that you are the one that can really make a difference.
So, this was an amazing man. Above all else, he wanted to connect with Jesus’ power, above any social boundaries, above financial worries, above doing religious things.
And it hurts me to read that Jesus was amazed, that someone like this should be so rare. Why do we hang on to our fears of people who are different? Why do we place so much of our security in how much money we have in the bank that we can’t be generous for God? We do we get so distracted with doing religious stuff that we forget all about who it is we have come to worship?
May we all respond to our Lord with this kind of faith. May the day come in this church that Christ would be first in all we do. AMEN
