Epiphany 3
Mt
8:1-13
1/15/17
The 1998 movie “The Thin Red Line” depicts the U.S.
Army’s 25th infantry division as it participated in the final push
to drive the Japanese off of the island of Guadalcanal. The film portrays the assault at Mount Austen
at the end of December 1942 and the beginning of January 1943. There the Americans took heavy losses as they
attacked a group of hills where the Japanese had built a strong defensive
position. Multiple camouflaged bunkers at
the top of the hills protected machine guns with interlocking fields of
fire. The Japanese had sited in their
mortars on the approaches of the hills where the Americans would have to
advance.
The movie portrays the beginning of the assault as the
Americans advance up the first rise.
They walk through tall grass in silence.
After advancing some distance, the lieutenant leading the assault orders
the men to halt as they as drop down into the grass. There is no sound except
the wind blowing through the grass that now conceals them.
The lieutenant looks through his binoculars out toward
the rise and the hills beyond it. There
is no movement. There is no sound. There is nothing except the tall grass
swaying in the wind on the hill that rises up ahead of them.
And then, the lieutenant motions to the two soldiers ahead
of him and uses hand signals to indicate that he is ordering them to take point
and advance ahead of the rest of the group.
The men look back at the officer and then at each other in fear. The lieutenant again emphatically signals his
order. The two soldiers look at each
other in resignation and then with a glance they try to encourage each other.
They rise up and after they have advanced about twenty feet two shots suddenly
ring out and they drop dead.
The scene in the movie dramatically portrays the
authority of the chain of command in the military. The lieutenant is in command at that place
and the soldiers he is leading are under his authority. If he gives them an order, they must carry it
out. They don’t get to ask for a
discussion to see whether the officer can persuade them that this is a good
idea. He has authority over them and so
they must carry out his order – even if it means advancing into danger.
In the Gospel lesson for the Third Sunday after the
Epiphany, Jesus interacts with a man who knows all about how authority
works. He is a soldier – a centurion. And he has come to Jesus because he has faith
in Jesus’ authority to heal his servant.
We learn in our text that when Jesus entered Capernaum, a
centurion came forward to him,
appealing to him as he said, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home,
suffering terribly.” At the time,
Capernaum and Galilee were not under direct Roman rule. Instead, Herod Antipas – a son of Herod the
Great – ruled there as a petty king. The
Romans allowed him to rule this land, but there was no doubt about who was in
charge – the Romans were.
As a petty king, Herod Antipas could
be called upon to supply military units to assist the Romans. These auxiliary units were organized along
the lines of the Roman army. The foundational unit of the Roman army was the
century which usually had around eighty men. The unit was led by a
centurion who usually had worked his way up through the ranks and had about
twenty years of military service. The
centurions were the backbone of the Roman army, providing experienced tactical
leadership for the most fundamental part of the army.
There was no shortage of non-Jews – Gentiles – in that
immediate area and it was not uncommon for them to be recruited into Herod’s
forces. They would, after all, have no
compunction about acting against the Jews who inhabited Herod’s lands if the
king ordered this. This centurion was
one such Gentile.
The centurion said to Jesus, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed
at home, suffering terribly.” What is
truly striking here is that a Gentile
centurion addresses a Jewish civilian as “Lord.” The centurion was the one who had the
authority - he was the army, the force that maintained control. And he was a Gentile, a group that looked
down on Jews – especially in those boundary areas where Jews and Gentiles had
historically come into conflict.
Yet here this Gentile centurion comes to Jesus. He addresses Jesus as “Lord” and describes how his servant is
ill and in need of help. The centurion
had lived a rough life. He was no
stranger to discomfort and pain. So when
he says that the servant is “suffering terribly,” it was probably rather
severe.
Jesus said,
“I will come and heal him.” The centurion’s reply demonstrated that he
understood who really had the authority. He said to Jesus, “Lord, I am not worthy to
have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be
healed. 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."
The
centurion again called Jesus “Lord” and said that he was not worthy for Jesus
to come to his house. Instead, Jesus had
the authority to speak and bring about healing.
It was as certain as the fact that if the centurion told a soldier to do
something, he had to do it. The centurion had faith in Jesus. He had faith in the authority of the Lord.
That trust
in the Lord Jesus and his authority is something with which we often
struggle. The circumstances of life
bring difficulties and challenges, and it shakes our confidence in him. Instead, we tend to doubt whether the Lord
Jesus is really in charge. And beyond
this, we often don’t want Jesus to have authority. We don’t want the Lord to tell us what we are
to do through his word. We want to be in
charge so that we can do what seems best for me. We want to be free to serve ourselves and to
look out for #1. We want to be free to
do whatever we find enjoyable – whatever brings us pleasure.
Yet this is
a delusion that brings us harm. It is
sin that sets us in opposition to God – and that is always a losing proposition.
It is a path that in the long term leads to eternal judgment. And it is a path that brings us harm because
rejecting the way the Creator set up life to work does not turn out well.
The
centurion recognized Jesus’ authority.
He looked in faith to Jesus. He believed that Jesus only had to speak
the word to heal his servant. When he saw this, Jesus marveled and said to
those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found
such faith. I tell you, many will come
from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the
kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer
darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Then he
said to the centurion, “Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.” And
the servant was healed at that very moment.
During
Epiphany we celebrate and remember that in Jesus Christ the saving glory of God
was revealed in the world. Matthew tells
us that in his ministry, Jesus’ authority was revealed. The verse just before our
Gospel lesson concludes the Sermon on the Mount and we learn that, “the crowds
were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.” In the next chapter Jesus will heal a
paralytic to show that he has authority on earth to forgive sins.
Jesus has
authority because he is the incarnate Son of God in whom the reign of God
entered into the world. He is Emmanuel -
God with us - as God acts to defeat Satan, sin and death. Jesus’ death on the cross has redeemed you
from your sins – he has freed you by winning forgiveness. And in his resurrection from the dead he has
freed you from death because in his resurrection you see the beginning of your
own resurrection.
Jesus’
ministry took place two thousand years ago in Palestine. But his authority is still here. Literally, in our text the centurion asks
Jesus to heal the servant as he speaks “with a word.” That authoritative word of Jesus is still
with us now in the word of Holy Scripture as it is read and proclaimed.
We heard
the authoritative word of Jesus this morning as Drew was baptized, “In the name
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” It is the same word that was spoken in your
baptism – the word that turned water into the means by which you have shared in
the saving death of Jesus Christ.
And we hear
the authoritative word of Jesus every Sunday as he says, “This is my body …
This cup is the new testament in my blood.”
This authoritative word continues to do what it says as our Lord uses
bread and wine to give us his true body and blood, given and shed for you for
the forgiveness of sins. In the celebration of the Sacrament we receive a
foretaste of the meal the Lord describes in our text – the feast of salvation
when many will come from the east and the west and recline at table with
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God.
This truth
from our text gives us comfort and strength.
But there is also a caution here – a reminder that the Christian life is
one of real faith. As Jesus praises the faith of a Gentile and describes how Gentiles
too will share in salvation, he says, “the
sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there
will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
It was easy for the Jews of Jesus’ day to assume that salvation was
theirs simply because they descended from Abraham. Jesus says it’s not so.
In the same way it is easy for
Christians – Lutherans included – to assume that because their name is on a
church roster; because their family has been Christian; because they go to
Christmas Eve and Easter Sunday services, that salvation is in the bag. But Jesus says it’s not so.
Instead, those who have faith in
Jesus have salvation. And what does that
faith look like? Well, God’s Word tells
us that it continues to draw near to the Means of Grace to receive Jesus’
authoritative word. It wants to hear that word proclaimed, to study that word
and to receive the body and blood of Jesus that word provides. For in these ways forgiveness is received,
and faith is sustained and strengthened.
And faith – if it really is faith –
acts in love. It acts in ways that point to Jesus. It acts in ways that Jesus makes possible –
ways that follow in Jesus’ footsteps of service toward others. As we see in our Gospel lesson, Jesus has
authority. But he uses that authority to help others. He used it to help you as he died on the
cross and rose from the dead. And now the life of faith in the Lord provides
the comfort of forgiveness, and it moves us to love and serve those whom God places
in our life.
No comments:
Post a Comment