The Second Sunday After Pentecost
June 19, 2022
Luke 7:1-10
“Faith Trusts God’s Almighty Authority”
A gentile centurion trusts Jesus’ almighty authority.
After Jesus had finished saying all these things to the people who were listening, he went into Capernaum. A centurion’s servant, who was valuable to him, was sick and about to die. 3When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. When they came to Jesus, they begged him earnestly, saying, “He is worthy of having you do this for him, because he loves our nation, and he built our synagogue for us.”
Jesus went with them. When he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to tell Jesus, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, because I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. That is why I did not consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I am also a man placed under authority, having soldiers under me. I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes; and to another one, ‘Come!’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard these things, he was amazed at him. He turned to the crowd that was following him and said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel.” And when the men who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well.“Faith Trusts God’s Almighty Authority”
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. Dear Christians,
It was a few years ago. My family had just moved up to northern Wisconsin. It was finally summertime. I wanted to get outside. My wife wanted to get outside. We wanted our kids to go play outside, but there was a big problem with the outside.
There were mosquitoes. Swarms of mosquitoes. It took less than 5 minutes for us to retreat. We used bug spray. Not enough. We used maximum strength bug spray. Not enough. We tried going for a bike ride, thinking the speed would help. Not at all. It just meant you had less hands available for swatting. What finally pushed me over the edge was going out to the mudroom to get shoes on our kids. Casually looking out the window, I could see a cloud of swarming mosquitoes hovering right above the sand and water activity table where we had planned on having our kids play. We didn’t even get outside.
Now, there were signs, all over, advertising for the Mosquito Squad and the Mosquito Police and half a dozen other mosquito abatement professionals. One sign claimed 95% mosquito reduction, guaranteed. I didn’t really believe it. I was certain there was fine print somewhere that said, “Results not typical,” or, “Under ideal conditions in a laboratory.” But I was desperate. Nothing else was working. Might as well at least give it a try.
Trust can be hard to come by. It is so much easier to think of reasons not to trust a product or a company or a person. There’s huge billboard with bright red letters making a huge promise that graduates from their college have 100% guaranteed job placement. Do they really have the ability to make that happen? The robust voice on the radio says that this bank always puts the customer first and will treat you like their very own mother. Would they really? Does the little amount of money you would put into their bank really get that much attention? The infomercial with smiling, fit, healthy people zooming across the water on jet skis says that this system can help you lose the weight for good. Is that really the most likely outcome if you try it, or will you end up like most people who drop out long before any results come?
We can come up with so many reasons not to trust, and we don’t turn off that switch when it comes to the huge promises of God. God has promised you that he will raise you from the dead. Doubts come quickly. Could God really do it? I’ve never seen it happen. Would God really do something like that for me? I’ve done some disgusting things. Is that really the most likely outcome? Or does it seems like dead people stay dead?
And if we can crank out doubts like a vehicle assembly line about things God had definitively promised us – there’s no question that God said he will raise you and all believers on the Last Day – then what about those things God has not promised us, but we simply yearn for? Will this sickness get better? Will my congregation remain?
A delegation of synagogue elders came to Jesus and begged him for help. They had come on behalf of a Roman centurion, which already made the situation surprising. Jews who were willing to help out an occupying Roman soldier were hard to find, especially prominent ones. But they thought very well him, and he had a problem. One of his servants was sick, very sick, about to die. We’re not told, but I assume he had tried everything. Brought any doctor he thought could help. Tried whatever folk remedies were suggested. Nothing worked. Things were desperate. It was going to take a miracle. Fortunately, Jesus was around, who could do that.
The delegation of Jewish elders begged Jesus to help the centurion and pointed out that he was a convert to the Jewish faith, was presumably very fair and just in dealing with Jews and keeping the soldiers under his command in line, and he had even sponsored the building of the local synagogue. In the estimation of the Jewish elders, they said, “He is worthy of having you do this for him.” Wow! That’s how well they thought of the character of this Roman.
Jesus agreed to go with them to help. When they got close to the house, someone had probably run ahead with the good news that Jesus was on his way, but that prompted the centurion to send another delegation, this time of some friends, with a second message. The friends reported the centurion’s words, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, because I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. 7That is why I did not consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. 8For I am also a man placed under authority, having soldiers under me. I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes; and to another one, ‘Come!’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
Jesus was amazed at his strong faith. We have to be amazed, too. The centurion knew all the reasons to doubt that this would work. He knew what the most likely outcome was. When people get this sick, they usually die. When the doctors don’t have anything left to try, it’s just a matter of time. Why bother God about it? Just accept it. Make arrangements. He knew, for certain, he was not worthy, even if the Jewish elders that he was. This centurion even understood it would be only the grace of God just to stand in Jesus’ presence and have Jesus come under his roof, regardless of any healing that might happen. He didn’t send a delegation because he felt too important to summon Jesus, but just the opposite. Who was he, this centurion, even to have an audience with Jesus to plead his case? If he wasn’t worthy of that, why would even think he was worthy to have his servant healed? And if everything else he tried had failed, why would this work? Why would Jesus say yes? Would Jesus even be up for doing miracles right now? Even if Jesus had healed many others, did that mean he could really heal anyone of anything?
The centurion knew all reasons not to trust, but he also knew the one reason to trust against all odds, a reason that made every doubt irrelevant. He knew who he was asking for help.
Maybe he didn’t know everything, but he knew what he needed to know. He knew that Jesus wielded the power of God and that Jesus was filled with the compassion of God. That meant he could be utterly confident even though confronted by human frailty as his servant lay dying because the centurion trusted the almighty authority of God. This impossible to stop sickness that had his servant on death’s door, compared to the power of God, was a pawn on a chess board that would move according to God’s will and at God’s command. He knew, for sure, that Jesus could simply speak the word from wherever he was and the sickness had to listen to Jesus and his servant would be healed.
When we face sickness in our own bodies, or sickness strikes our family or congregation, we can manufacture all on our own every reason not to trust God. From an earthly perspective, we might know the most likely outcome, and why should God help us anyway? Could even God help us now? We clear away the doubts by focusing on the one we are asking for help from.
We’re asking God. Nothing that we can ask for is beyond his ability. He can make the sun stand still in the sky. He can calm violent wind and raging waves with a word. He can shout to Lazarus in his grave, “Come out,” and have a man who was buried four days ago, come out, alive and well. If anything, we might be asking for too little. Nothing we’ve done is beyond his gracious ability to forgive, and he has forgiven us. If he loved us so much give his Son for us to forgive us back when we were his enemies, how could he love us any less or want to help us any less now that he has brought us back to himself in faith, redeemed, restored, and forgiven?
When you look to the future of this congregation, of which God has certainly not made a specific promise about what form the ministry done here will take or what outward success there may be, I’m certain you can come up with all the reasons to doubt all on your own. But I also know that you are praying to God to bless your ministry. You’re asking God for help and that opens up every possibility. God has the power to do more than you ask. God has the desire to bless you more than you can imagine. God’s Word, which is preached and sung and studied among you, will not return to him empty. And when you do face death, whenever it comes, and your body is laid in a grave or reduced to ashes and packed in an urn, remember that the delegation of Jewish elders got back to the house and found the servant well. Jesus absolutely has the desire to bless you and absolutely has the power to bless you. The troubles in our lives that overwhelm us and are way beyond our control are a dollhouse in the hands of our God, that’s why the servant was alive and well and that’s why you will be raised, alive and well and glorified for all eternity, because God has almighty authority. Amen.
May the LORD our God be with us, just as he was with our fathers. May he never leave us or abandon us.
May he turn our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways. (1 Kings 8:57-58a)