Things are NOT what they appear

Luke 7:1-10                                                                    

7After Jesus had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum.²A centurion there had a slave whom he valued highly, and who was ill and close to death.³When he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, asking him to come and heal his slave.⁴When they came to Jesus, they appealed to him earnestly, saying, “He is worthy of having you do this for him,⁵for he loves our people, and it is he who built our synagogue for us.”⁶And Jesus went with them, but when he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to say to Jesus, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof;⁷therefore I did not presume to come to you. But only speak the word, and let my servant be healed.⁸For 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.”⁹When 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.”¹⁰When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health.

This is the word of the Lord…..Thanks be to God

 

A few weeks ago we heard the first sermon that Jesus preached, according to the gospel of Luke.  Remember?  Jesus went back to his hometown, and preached a sermon in his home church.  And, like so many young preachers, he started off well…but then things took a turn.  For the worse.  So much so, that the crowd, presumably who knew him, who had watched him grow up, got so mad that they wanted to throw him off a cliff.

Because Jesus told them that God blesses strangers, “the other”, the enemy.  That God does not limit God’s grace only to us and to our kind.

That was Jesus’ inaugural speech, his declaration of what his reign would be like.

And now, Jesus is acting out his inaugural promises. 

Jesus has again gone back to his home region, to Capernaum in Galilee.  The region of heavy Roman occupation.  The region of maniacal, murderous Herod.  A region in which there was an uprising against the Romans that was squelched.  And we hear the story of the centurion.  A centurion who has a slave, a beloved servant, close to death.  He sends word to Jesus—through the Jewish elders.  Things are not what they appear.Apparently, this Centurion is a good centurion—as if there could be such a thing!  The Jewish elders plead his case before Jesus- “He is worthy of having you do this for him, he loves our people, and built the synagogue for us”. 

Jesus begins to walk towards the centurion’s house, only to be greeted by more people, speaking on behalf of the centurion- this time, saying “I am not worthy- but only say the word, and my servant shall be healed.”  And Jesus does.  And the servant is healed.

And Jesus commends the centurion’s faith.  A worthy man, his request is granted.  We understand how God works.  But things are not as they appear.

Luke 7:11-17

¹¹Soon afterwards Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went with him.¹²As he approached the gate of the town, a man who had died was being carried out. He was his mother’s only son, and she was a widow; and with her was a large crowd from the town.¹³When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, “Do not weep.”¹⁴Then he came forward and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, rise!”¹⁵The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.¹⁶Fear seized all of them; and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has risen among us!” and “God has looked favorably on his people!”¹⁷This word about him spread throughout Judea and all the surrounding country.

This is the word of the Lord….Thanks be to God

Jesus then goes to the village of Nain, a village southeast of Nazareth, and came upon a funeral procession, heading out of the city, to the burial ground, led by the mother of the dead man.  And Jesus disrupts the procession, puts his hand on the casket, and the men carrying the body stand still.  Probably in shock.  Because if you are a faithful Jew, you don’t touch dead bodies unless you absolutely, absolutely have to.  It makes you unclean, you have to go through a whole process, and then be declared clean by the priest, before you can get back to your life.  It just was not done.  But Jesus did. Jesus speaks to the dead man, and the young man is restored to life, and Jesus gives him back to his mother.

Before Jesus went to the towns of Capernaum and Nain, Jesus has been speaking to crowds, and he has been telling them stories, parables. Jesus has told the story of the wise and foolish men- the wise man builds his house upon the rock, but the foolish man builds his house upon the sand. He is telling that story to point out that those who SAY “lord, lord” but do not act in consonance with their talk, with their beliefs, have no foundation, and will be swept away by the storms of life.

Jesus is consistent in his speech and actions—he talked about God’s grace, and lived it out.

These two stories of healing stand together, and stand in contrast to each other.  The Centurion is an enemy- and yet his request is answered.  He says he is not worthy, but the Jews say he is, and intercede for him.  The widow in Nain—she makes no request.  We have no idea of her faith.  In the whole accounting of “worthiness”, she has none- a nameless widow, now with a dead son.  And yet Jesus interrupts the funeral procession—and restores her son and gives them both their lives back. 

Jesus heals one man, the slave, after a request, and talks about faith.  And Jesus heals a second man, an unnamed son, without a request, and with no comment about anybody’s faith.  So the healings are not really about worthiness, or the amount of faith, or even being “one of God’s people.”  They are about the overwhelming grace of God. 

The crowd, around the widow and her son, in the town of Nain, get it.  They get that in Jesus, God has looked favorably on God’s people.  The Jewish elders in the first story get it—they go to Jesus on behalf of the centurion. And the centurion himself, on some level, understands that Jesus has power- after all, he is in the army—he understands how things work. The centurion gives orders, and things happen.

Things are not what they appear.  The centurion says “I am not worthy to have you come under the roof of my house….”  Like Simon Peter after the great catch of fish, saying to Jesus “Lord, get away from me for I am a sinful man…” the centurion sees, clearly, who Jesus is, and who he is.

Last summer, the [Hector] youth went to Staten Island, to work with Project Hospitality, to serve food to the homeless and the poor, to learn about HIV and AIDS, to see how the people of God were reaching out in that area.  And things were not always what they appeared there, either.  People were coming to the food pantry driving some very high end cars.  And the youth struggled with that- how could they qualify for the food pantry while still driving such an expensive car?  And the people in the group with AIDS and HIV- they didn’t look sick, most of them.  And when we talked with them, or played card games with them, they didn’t seem so different from us. 

 

Reverend Terry Troia, the founder of Project Hospitality, recently wrote about the effects of Hurricane Sandy on the people of Staten Island that she serves.  She wrote of the help that had come from all over:  Buddhist monks, distributed 10 million dollars- in 100$ bills- to families in the area.  Monks, who had taken a vow of poverty, giving away millions.  She wrote of people from all over, from all faiths, Muslims and Jews, Southern Baptists and Mexican day workers who all worked together to help those in need.  She wrote of a town hall meeting, where person after person came up to the microphone:  immigrants, many of them, some long time residents, some disabled, some hearing impaired, gay, straight, young and old, all searching for hope “in the midst of devastation and despair”.  But she saw, through the eyes of faith, the people gathered at the great feast, the people who God had called and God loves, even in great tragedy.  “They shall come from east and west, from north and south, to sit at table in the kingdom of God” we say.

 

For God is working, even now, to heal and make whole.  Because when we look at Jesus’ actions in these stories of healing and hope and compassion, we see that Jesus doesn’t care about the lines, about the rules, about the way things “appear”- Jesus doesn’t care about whether or not the centurion is a Jew, he doesn’t ask about the status of the slave or their relationship—he only heals.  And Jesus doesn’t care that the son of the woman is literally almost in the grave—Jesus interrupts the funeral procession because he is moved with pity.  This is what God is like—because when God is involved, things are NOT what they appear—the rules about what is, or what should be, are laid aside in the face of overwhelming love and healing.  Thanks be to God.