Scriptures: I Kings 18: 20-39, Psalm 96
Galatians 1:1-12, Luke 7:1-10
Old movie buffs may remember the 1965 movie “The Greatest
Story Ever Told”, an account of the life of Christ with a star-studded cast
that included all the big names of the era – Max von Sydow (currently playing a
character in HBO’s Game of Throne series) was cast as Jesus, Charlton Heston as
John the Baptist, Telly Savalas (the future “Kojak”) as Pontius Pilate, Claude
Rains (who was “shocked, shocked” in the movie Casablanca) as King Herod,
Sidney Poitier as Simon of Cyrene.
Angela Lansbury, Shelly Winters, Jose Ferrer, Martin Landau, Donald
Pleasance (who would go on to play Michael Myers’ psychiatrist in the Halloween
horror movie series; in this movie he played Satan), Pat Boone, Roddy McDowell,
Jamie Farr (who would later go on to play as Corporal Klinger in MASH)….all
these actors and actresses found their way into the cast, each with a line or
two, many as disciples or people whom Jesus healed during the course of his
ministry. John Wayne was also in the
cast, as a Roman centurion at the crucifixion.
Famously, at the climactic moment of Jesus’ death on the cross, John
Wayne’s deadpan rendition of his one line: “Truly, this man was the son of God”
was less than convincing. The director,
George Stevens, did take after take of John Wayne’s one line, imploring him to
say it with more emotion, more of a sense of awe. Rumor has it that John Wayne responded in one
take by reciting, in the same deadpan, “Aw, truly this man was the son of God.”[1]
Anyway…..well, in today’s Gospel reading, we don’t meet John
Wayne, but we do meet a centurion. Our
Gospel reading today comes from fairly early in Luke’s gospel, just after a
long section of Jesus’ teachings – basically, it’s Luke’s version of the Sermon
on the Mount, except in Luke’s gospel Jesus is standing among the people in a
level place, and so it’s often called the Sermon on the Plain. In today’s reading, Jesus has just concluded
his Sermon on the Plain, when he is accosted by a number of Jewish elders, who
had been sent to ask a rather large favor of Jesus. The request wasn’t on their own behalf, but
for a centurion – a military officer of the Roman empire, one entrusted with
command over 100 soldiers of the Empire.
We’re told that the centurion had a slave whom he valued highly, who was
ill and near death. (I’ll mention that
in Matthew’s version of this story, the servant is referred to using the Greek
word for boy, “pais” rather than the
Greek word for slave, doulos, and
we’re told the servant boy is paralyzed.)[2] At first glance, it would seem odd that
leaders of the Jewish people would be asking Jesus to help an official of the
Roman empire – the Jewish people hated the Roman occupation, and so normally
there wasn’t a whole lot of warm feeling between Jews and those who supported
the empire. But, it would appear, this
particular centurion was an exception.
Rather than oppressing the Jewish locals, this centurion used his
position of privilege and power to help and advocate for them. As the Jewish elders told Jesus, “He is worthy
of having you do this for him, for he loves our people, and he’s the one who
built our synagogue, our house of worship.”
Underneath these favorable words was probably some anxiety on the part
of the Jewish elders: while they didn’t come out and say it, they hoped Jesus
would get the hint: “Please help this
centurion, because he loves us and he built our house of worship – and by the
way, please also help him because we’d like to stay in his good graces.” After all, had Jesus refused, who knows how
the centurion might react.
Jesus begins to follow the Jewish elders to the centurion’s
home, when the group is accosted by yet more emissaries from the centurion, who
came with a message: No need to come to
my home; please save yourself the trouble.
I’m not worthy to have you come to my home, and what’s more, I felt
myself unworthy to approach you myself.
All you have to do is speak the word, and let my servant be healed.” The
centurion’s message went on to say that the centurion was a man accustomed both
to taking orders from his higher-ups, and to giving orders to those who
reported to him. The centurion assumed
that, just as he was used to issuing commands and having them followed, Jesus
could issue a command to make the disease leave the centurion’s servant. We’re told that Jesus was amazed at the
centurion’s words, saying, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such
faith.” And then we’re told that by the
time the centurion’s emissaries had returned to the centurion, the servant had
been restored to good health.
I’d add, not only did the centurion have great faith, but
also great humility. It’s worth noting
that the story begins with the Jewish elders vouching that the centurion was
worthy of Jesus’ attention, because of all he had done for the Jewish nation –
but ends with the centurion himself vouching that he wasn’t even worthy to be
in Jesus’ presence, not worthy to have Jesus in his home, not worthy even to
have Jesus look on him. Certainly this
would have been at least partly due to the centurion’s awareness of the Jewish
kosher laws, according to which the home of a gentle was deemed ritually
unclean, and entering such a home would have been defiling to a Jew. And so he didn’t want Jesus to defile himself
by being in his presence. But
still….this was a man used to having his own way in the world, and so his
humility in dealing with Jesus was striking.
The centurion also showed surprising concern for this slave or servant
or boy. In that day, slaves were
considered expendable – but the centurion cared a great deal for this
particular slave or servant or boy, so much so that he was willing to ask the
Jewish elders to seek out Jesus for healing.
And so this centurion comes across as quite a remarkable character. Roman Catholics hear the words of the
centurion every time they worship, as the last words said by the congregation
before taking Eucharist are, “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you” – the updated
mass says, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only
say the word, and my soul shall be healed.”
That line in the Roman Catholic mass comes from this story, and so the
centurion’s words, and his attitude toward Jesus, live on in worship to this
day.
“Truly, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” A running theme throughout not only Luke’s
gospel but all the gospels is that Jesus found faith in the least likely places
and the least likely people. The good
religious people of the day, especially the Jewish leadership, by and large,
rejected Jesus. Most said Jesus cut too
many corners on religious observance, especially by healing people on the
Sabbath. They called him a drunkard and
a glutton because of the crowd he hung with.
A few even accused Jesus of being demon-possessed. But the people on the margins – the rabble,
the prostitutes, this centurion, who had status in Roman society but despite
his kindnesses was considered ritually unclean by Jews and certainly wasn’t
expected to be a man of great faith – responded powerfully to Jesus’
teaching. Jesus’ parable of the great
banquet captures this reality that he experienced over and over throughout his
life and ministry – those who had originally been invited to the banquet used
lame excuses to turn down their banquet invitations, so the host had to beat
the bushes and drag people in off the streets and out of the gutters to fill
the banquet hall.
It’s a lesson for us to remember as well – God shows up in
the most unlikely places and the most unlikely people. Church folk tend to set up categories of
those worthy of God’s grace and those unworthy of God’s grace, ruling some
people in and some people out. About ten
years ago, the United Church of Christ satirized this religious tendency by
airing commercials showing in a large, stately church with a velvet rope and
bouncers at the entrance, who let in the respectable folk while turning away a
gay couple, several dark skinned people, and a handicapped person.[3] A follow up commercial showed a church with
ejector pews, in which a finger was shown pushing a button as a single mom with
a crying baby, an old man on a walker, a gay couple, and a middle-eastern man,
among others, were ejected from the church.[4] This was to contrast with the UCC’s message
of welcome; as the commercial went on to say, “Jesus didn’t reject anyone;
neither do we. No matter who you are, or where you are on your journey in life,
you are welcome here.” Ironically, the
commercials themselves, with their message of welcome and of an end to
rejection, were themselves rejected by most major TV networks as “too
controversial.”[5] Welcoming people to church is controversial?
- Who knew?
Offering welcome is risky.
Welcoming all comers, on the possibility that God might be acting in
their lives and that God might be blessing us through them, is risky. People visit churches for the first time for
all sorts of reasons, and occasionally with bad intent. Or sometimes people
come with the best of intentions, but their minds and spirits are so twisted by
trauma, mental illness, addiction, that they inflict pain on those around them,
often without intending to do so. They
need our prayers for God’s healing. I’d
have to say that our congregation has been burned once or twice. Even so, it’s far preferable to be welcoming,
with all the risks that brings, to give God a chance to bless people through
us, and to bless us through those God sends our way. It’s
been said that a church should be a hospital for sinners, not a museum for
saints. And hospitals can be messy and
chaotic in a way that museums aren’t.
But as much as I love museums - and I’m a member of several here in Philly
– if my life is in danger, if I’m feeling chest pains and shortness of breath,
I’d hope the ambulance will take me, not to a museum, but to a hospital. And it has to be said that not welcoming
people comes with its own risks – churches who are not welcoming bear the risk
of empty pews and of their church doors closing for the final time as their
congregations disband.
Jesus said, of the centurion, “I tell you, not even in
Israel have I found such faith.” May we
always remain open to seeing God at work in unlikely places and unfamiliar
faces. May we be surprised by joy at the faith at work in
the lives of those God sends our way.
Amen.
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