Under Authority
A sermon
delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson
June 2, 2013
at Gordonsville
Presbyterian Church, Gordonsville, Virginia
Luke 7: 1-10
Let us pray,
Help us to see despite our eyes
Help us to think outside of our minds
Help us to be more than our lives
For your eyes show the way
Your
mind knows the truth
Your
being is the life.
Amen.
7 After Jesus had finished all his sayings in the hearing
of the people, he entered Capernaum. 2 A centurion there had a slave
whom he valued highly, and who was ill and close to death. 3 When he
heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, asking him to come and
heal his slave. 4 When they came to Jesus, they appealed to him
earnestly, saying, “He is worthy of having you do this for him, 5 for
he loves our people, and it is he who built our synagogue for us.” 6 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; 7 therefore I did not presume to
come to you. But only speak the word, and let my servant be healed. 8 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.” 9 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.” 10 When those who had been
sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health. [1]
There aren't many stories in the Gospels where the regular people that
Jesus runs into seem to get it. There are so many more times where they are
lost, foolish, and bumbling. Think about all the times Jesus says, "o ye
of little faith" or "be not afraid" or even "you
hypocrite," in some extreme cases. Often people do not know what to do
around Jesus because they don't understand, are awkward, slow, or as is most
often, down-right wrong when interacting with Jesus, at least as it seems to
his standards. I for one tend to understand, and completely sympathize with
their missteps. But this is one of the rare other types, where the person tends
to act correctly and is praised by Jesus for what he/she does. There are some
others, there is the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15, who stands up to Jesus when
he says that "It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss
it to the dogs," by saying, “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs
eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” Then there is the woman
who has been bleeding for 12 years and boldly reaches out and touches Jesus'
clothes to be healed, and Jesus says, "Take heart, daughter, your faith
has healed you." Then there also is the poor widow who gives all that she
has in the offering and Jesus says about her, "Truly I
tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.
They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty,
put in everything—all she had to live on." These are some of the well
known places where Jesus complements people on their actions.
You could say that
there are some common threads to these. One basic one is that in all three the
characters doing the right thing are women. . . but that is not the case with
our story from this morning, the Romans had no mixed army, so that there were
no women centurions, so no luck there. Another common thread is a certain
boldness, at least in the two healing stories. The Canaanite woman stands up to
Jesus and the Bleeding woman is bold enough to grab his clothes randomly in the
street. You could even make the argument that it is bold to give all that you
have in faith like the poor widow does, but is it boldness that we see in this
Centurion? Is he struggling at the bottom and demanding dignity, making the
statement of hey, I'm here, I'm in need look at me, help me, heal me, I need
it, I deserve it, I'm worthy, like these three women? It doesn't appear so.
This is one of the truths about Jesus I've continually noticed, that there is
no one way, no one simple way to interact with him, which is part of our
problem I think, he's real you can't box him up. Just when you think you have it figured out he opens up a new
path, a new way, a new window into the truth.
So let's look at
what is going on with this Centurion, and why Jesus says of him such strong
words of praise, "not even in Israel have I found such faith." What
is it that makes his faith so special and worthy of praise? So Jesus comes back
to Capernaum, a place he's been before and performed wonders before, a place
where he recruited many of his disciples, a place where he has done healings in
the past, a place where he has angered the establishment in the past, so he
comes back to Capernaum and a Centurion sends folks to him on behalf of his
slave. . . is this it? Is he faithful because he is asking for healing for
another, others have done this before with Jesus, and though the healings were
done, the praise is not offered in the same way, so that doesn't appear to be
it.
Perhaps it's not
just for another, but for a slave, that this centurion is looking out for the
lowly around him, but it says, the slave was "valued highly." Now
this could mean that their relationship was valued highly, that they were great
friends, and that the centurion was looking out for his slave's interest for
his slave's interest, but I doubt it. The value of a slave to a master is
typically much more selfish than that. It is most likely not for the slave's
well being that the centurion wants him healed, but for the job that he fills,
his purpose, his value to the centurion is tied to some service he provides. So
we're not seeing a selfless act of faith here, either.
Perhaps then it is for the services he has
rendered the religious community. The elders are the ones that are sent to
Jesus on his behalf and they say of him, "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.” Now the question must be
asked, the point must be made, Jesus has not been in the good graces of the so
called "elders of the Jewish community." Already in this the Gospel
of Luke, he has offended Scribes and Pharisees, they have already gotten angry
with the challenge Jesus presents to them, in chapter 6, just before our story,
verse 11, "But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another
what they might do to Jesus."[2] It is not
specifically stated there that the town they do that in is Capernaum, but you
can say for certain that Jesus's relationship with the religious authority
figures isn't great, and he probably wouldn't be itching to praise the
centurion for his support and his big donation toward the Synagogue building
fund. The elders say he is worthy because of all he has done for them, but are
those things the ones that make one worthy in Jesus' eyes. Many throughout the
history of the Christian Church have made such a claim. They could be right,
certain Medieval Popes would agree, they could be right, maybe, but again, I
doubt it.
So that brings us to the next part
of the story, Jesus is on his way, with the elders to the Centurion's home, but
when he is almost there, the centurion has some friends, and he sends them to
Jesus with a message, directly to Jesus, here is that message:
Lord,
do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; 7
therefore I did not presume to come to you. But only speak the word, and
let my servant be healed. 8 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.”
Here it is, humble, humility, I am not worthy, do not
trouble yourself, I do not presume.
These are the words that the centurion uses, and I think we are getting closer
to it. Look at what this centurion is saying here: He shows respect to Jesus as
a healer by asking him in the first place to heal his slave. This at least
shows him as believing in Jesus' ability heal, and heal just by speaking, and
willing the healing. He just asks Jesus in his off minute to merely say the
word, and heal the servant because he
also respects that Jesus is busy. He does not want to put Jesus out. He also
respects that since Jesus is a Jew, it would not be seemly for him to come into
the house of the occupier, the Roman, so he does not want Jesus to lower himself
by coming into his house. He does not even want to come to Jesus in person,
sending his friends with the message instead, not presuming, not assuming, not
taking Jesus' work for granted, not presuming to put any undue pressure on him.
Ahh pressure. Look at what else the
Centurion says, "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.” This Centurion is used to telling people what to do and having
them do it. He has a lot of clout, being a soldier in the world's most powerful
military does that for you. In uniform, in his post, with his sword, he says
things and people have to listen, lest they get into trouble, and trouble
certainly could mean punishment, and punishment could mean death. As a
centurion he is given the authority to act with the full weight of the empire.
The big question here is why doesn't he then force Jesus? Why doesn't he say to
Jesus, heal, and he heals? Why doesn't he expect that level of obedience from
Jesus? Why does he instead humble himself and beg? Here I think is the true
picture of his faith, and therefore what is worthy of Jesus' statement of
validation for him.
He says, "I am also a man set
under authority." Here is the statement of the man's faith. It is all in
the subtle difference between power and authority, and because he is under
authority himself he knows that difference. This is important for us to
remember, and seems to be crucial in the context as well. Power and authority
are different things. It is not that one is more strong than the other, it is
just that they are different. Power is the ability to do things and Authority
is given by others to do things, you become authorized, no one has authority
without being authorized by something. The Centurion has the authority based on
his uniform and his rank, and his years of service, to make orders and have
people follow them. It is possible that he also has the power to do certain
things based on this authority, it is possible that he has power to do things
outside of this authority, based on popularity, strength, relationships,
charisma, etc. The Centurion because he knows this difference realizes that he
truly has no power over Jesus, and doesn't even try to make it seem like he
does, though he certainly could have tried to strong arm Jesus, though he may
technically have some authority, being a Roman, and Jesus being a Jewish
occupied subject of Rome. By realizing he lacks the power to have Jesus heal, he
is giving Jesus the respect of at least an equal, but he says, like you I live
"under authority." This is a statement of faith, a statement of
understanding, a statement of that he gets the larger than Rome worldview that
Jesus has come to establish, in one simple statement he is witnessing to the
fact that Jesus too is under authority, but the authority that Jesus is under
is greater than Rome. Remember, nothing on Earth is greater than Rome. Because
he respects power and authority he knows that Jesus has both, he can tell, he
has heard, he has seen, but authority not from any earthly designating body, any
bureaucratic licensing entity, and that Jesus also has power, not in any
temporal sense of arms and might, but real divine authority, and real heavenly
power. So despite the centurion's rank, despite his uniform, despite his status
as a Roman, despite his sword, he humbles himself before Christ.
Do you think the Jewish elders hear
Jesus when he says, "I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such
faith"? Do you think Jesus wants them to hear him say it? Is his point
directed to and at them? As they are plotting his punishment for healing on the
Sabbath and hanging out with tax collectors and sinners, is Jesus reminding
them about the differences between power and authority, reminding them that
their authority is supposed to come from God, and no place else. Is it then telling
that when they finally do act against Jesus they do not use God's authority on
Earth to get rid of Jesus, but Rome's, authority not won through creation and
love, but instead through conquest and war, force of arms, the power associated
with strength and might, the same might that makes right in the human world.
Power and authority is just as
important today. Think about for a moment where those lines are drawn in our
world. Where is power and authority the same? Where do they divide? Is it
dangerous when they are not in sync with each other? What happens when
someone's power exceeds their authority? (Is that a tyrant)? What happens when
someone's authority exceeds their power? (Is that person just completely
ineffectual)? There are people all around us in positions of authority, from
where does their authority come? It is a tangled web in our world, and a
interesting one to trace? Jesus claimed that his power was authorized by God
the Father, and this Centurion saw it to be so, and acted accordingly. May we
be blessed with the same faith and the same ability.
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