Third Sunday in Epiphany

The Third Sunday in Epiphany
1/23/11
Matthew 8:1-13
Bror Erickson



[8:1] When he came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him. [2] And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, if you will, you can make me clean." [3] And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, "I will; be clean." And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. [4] And Jesus said to him, "See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof to them."
[5] When he entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, [6] "Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly." [7] And he said to him, "I will come and heal him." [8] But the centurion replied, "Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. [9] For I too am a man 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." [10] When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, "Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. [11] I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, [12] while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." [13] And to the centurion Jesus said, "Go; let it be done for you as you have believed." And the servant was healed at that very moment. Matthew 8:1-13 (ESV)

But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed.”…. When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith.”

“Lord, I am not worthy to have you dome under my roof.” Here a Centurion, a gentile, gets what the compatriots of Jesus don’t. Some of this has to do with being a gentile, being a minority. The Centurion is an outsider, this often allows a person to see the predominate culture with an objectivity that those growing up in it are not always able to see. The Centurion is respectful of Jewish culture, and knows that it would cause scandal for Jesus if he were to come to his home. The same sort of scandal that Peter stumbled into when he went to the Centurion Cornelius’s home in the 10th chapter of Acts. (One may even wonder if it is the same Centurion?) Good Jews were not supposed to mix with Gentiles in their home, they might accidentally eat something not kosher, or otherwise make themselves ritually unclean, and then they might infect the rest of the community. This Centurion respected the culture in which he lived, and his respect demonstrated faith in the God of Israel, a faith that led him to Jesus.
But the Centurion seems to understand even more here about who Jesus Christ is. He knows that Jesus is able to heal his servant whom he cares about, a servant for whom he uses the term boy in Greek. This Centurion considered his servants to be members of his family, and he cared for them as such. And his faith is showed there also, in his love for those who work for him, as faith always reveals itself to others in love and respect. Love is the expression of faith. The kind of love that puts another’s need before one’s own. The kind of love parents have for their children, and extends to neighbors, friends, employees, even enemies.
But faith is not love alone. The Faith that Jesus marvels at is not divorced from its object which is God, and by extension then, Jesus Christ. Here Jesus marvels that this man, a Gentile, who has not been raised with the scriptures, has not gone to the temple, whose faith has yet to manifest itself in his own circumcision or the adoption of kosher foods, has more faith than his own Jewish brethren. And why is it that these brothers have so little faith? I could give a few guesses. There is often a certain amount of boredom with that which you have grown up with. The Jewish were defeated subjects of the Roman Empire Who possibly felt a little abandoned by God. They probably felt as if they themselves were unworthy of faith, unworthy of God. Growing up under the legalist watch of Pharisees. They didn’t feel they could live up to the expectations. With all that there is a temptation to just look elsewhere for answers, to just give up on living up to Grandmas expectations.
And Perhaps that is where the centurion had the advantage. Bored with the gods of his culture, he immersed himself in the culture he lived among. And there he saw that the God of Israel was a God of mercy and forgiveness, a God to be feared because with him there was forgiveness. He saw the true nature of the Old Testament faith, and by the way, this is the same as the true nature of the Christian faith, because they are one and the same, believing in the very same God. And this is what he notices in Jesus, that Jesus embodies the true nature of the Old Testament Faith, That Jesus is the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament. Jesus is the Anchor of the Old Testament Faith.
Let me explain though what I mean by Old Testament Faith. I mean by this phrase that which the Jewish faith was supposed to be about. But the Jewish people of Jesus time had differing expectations they were not all of the same mind. Some were able to see that Jesus was the Messiah. Others had given up on belief altogether and saw the faith as perhaps good morals, but not much else, good traditions to live by. (And is this not really what is behind the Mormon push to focus on the good moral behavior and family values of their faith. I often get the impression that they don’t believe anything really.) Others had turned the religion into an unbearable legalism in which salvation was offered only to those who lived not only according to the God’s Law, but man’s law that had grown up around it. (Which always then entails ignoring certain portions of God’s law, and emphasizing others.) And when you do that you replace God with another god. So it is that so many missed Christ, who is the God of the Old Testament! The God that healed Namaan in our Old Testament lesson, with this prefiguring of baptism, is the same God with whom the Centurion now speaks, and puts his trust and faith in, Jesus Christ. This is what is meant when we confess Jesus Christ is Lord! So the Jewish faith of today that rejects Jesus Christ, denies the Trinity, and continues in its many forms today is not the religion of the Old Testament. Because the faith of the Old Testament was faith in Jesus Christ, and recognized the Trinity even as it is taught in the Old Testament, as Jesus shows so well in his own discourses on Psalm 110 for instance.
And that is the beauty of the New Testament and the Christian faith! It shows that Jesus is the Lord, that he is God. And sure there are morals attached to the Christian faith, but salvation is not attached to the morals but love! We are not saved by our morals. But through our morals we show love and express our faith to others. So it is that we know that all we can earn for ourselves with our moral life is death and damnation. We cannot save ourselves, or even add to our salvation with our moral life. We don’t do it, and we have no reason to do it for ourselves. But in the love of Christ who forgives us each and everyone of our sins, who loves us to the point that he died on the cross to forgive our sins and save us from the death and damnation we earned for ourselves with our failures to live according to the law, we love others and share with them the faith.
So it is in love for our Children that we bring them up in the faith, teach them about Christ, say evening prayers with them, bring them to church, send them to Sunday School and confirmation. It is in love for our neighbors and the desire to show them Christ that we respect and love them so that we do not steal from them, murder them, slander them, covet their belongings. It is for love of neighbor and God that we honor our mother and father, and governing authorities, that we do not worship other gods, or blaspheme our own. That we honor God’s word and gladly hear it. Because we know we are not worthy of Christ, and yet he heals us anyway. So we live as forgiven sinners, and it is as forgiven sinners that we show love to neighbors and express faith in God.
For in the end our faith is about forgiveness. It is about forgiveness and not our ability to live the most upright life. Truth be told, we even fail in our endeavors to show this love to our neighbors by our moral life. But in that in our weakness the strength of God is revealed, Because when we fail. He forgives, and when he forgives he triumphs even in our own lives.
Now the peace of God that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.