A FAITH JESUS CALLS “GREAT”
Luke 7:1-10
Pastor Jeremy Mattek – May 29, 2016
You may have heard of Doctor Oz. He’s a real doctor, who happens to have a television talk show on which he talks about various health topics. One day, he had as a guest on his show a reflexologist, who wanted to show everyone that the secret to eliminating many of our pains is entirely in our hands. Literally. They brought up on stage a woman from the studio audience who has low energy. She’s exhausted by the middle of the day but then also has a great deal of trouble sleeping at night. So this reflexologist told her to stick out her thumb, take the thumb nail of her opposite hand, and dig it into the little whirly part in the middle of your thumb. She said it should feel like there’s a little metal ball inside there. Once you find it, start swirling it around, do this regularly every day, and eventually, you should have more energy.
According to the reflexologist, fixing your lack of energy isn’t the only solution currently in your hands. If your right shoulder is giving you problems, rub the area just underneath your pinkie. If it’s your left shoulder, aim for the area underneath your pointer finger. If you have stomach or digestive problems, aim for the middle of your palm. If your spine hurts, picture your spine starting just underneath your thumb nail and going all the way down to your wrist. Identify the part of your spine that hurts and start massaging the appropriate place. According to the reflexologist, the solution to pretty much any pain in your body is already in your hands. I can’t tell you for sure if that’s true. But I’m guessing some of you are going to try it out, and I bet I can guess the reason why. Because you know how it feels to have something important completely out of your hands. You know how it feel to be helpless.
Like the guy who’s been filling out application after application, going to interview after interview, and, at the end of every day, has to try to confidently look into the eyes of his bride he promised he would support for life. Or the parents sitting by the hospital bed of their little daughter or son. Or anyone who has ever been told they have cancer. Or that their mother does. Or anyone who went just a little too far with a sin and are now stuck with a consequence that is going to change everything. Ask them how it feels when the outcome for which you’re hoping is entirely out of your hands, and you’ll find something similar to what was going on in the mind and heart of the man who comes to Jesus in our sermon this morning.
We don’t know his name. We know his occupation. He was a Centurion, which means that 100 Roman soldiers were under his command. And we know how he felt. He felt helpless. A dear friend, a man who worked for him, was sick and about to die. The centurion’s heart couldn’t handle it, so he sent for Jesus, who ends up saying something about this man that he only says about two people in the entire bible – that his faith is great; which would be music to the ears of anyone who has ever hoped for something really important. The book of Proverbs says, “The Lord protects the way of those who have faith.” A couple chapters later, it says, “A man with faith will be richly blessed.” “Your faith has saved you,” Jesus once said to a troubled woman who anointed him. “Your faith has made you well,” he said to the one leper who thanked him. Those are good things to hear from Jesus when you’re feeling helpless. The question is, what does your faith need to look like in order for Jesus to say the same things when he looks in your directionand sees your helpless situation? In Luke chapter 7, we have a beautiful reminder of what great faith is, and what a great blessing that there is someone like Jesus we can have faith in.
1 When Jesus had finished saying all this in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum.2 There a centurion’s servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die.3 The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant.4 When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, “This man deserves to have you do this,5 because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.”6 So Jesus went with them. He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof.7 That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed.8 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”9 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.”10 Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well.
You might be familiar with the reality television show called the Bachelorette. It’s a reality show that has no resemblance whatsoever to reality. On one night, a single woman meets 25 handsome single men. And over the next couple of weeks, she has to eliminate the men from the show, one-by-one, until there is only one man left. Jo Jo is the name of the Bachelorette this season. And on the first episode, which aired this past Monday, she met each of the 25 men. But by the end of that first night, Jo Jo had to eliminate 6 of them. Knowing this, some of the men worked really hard to make a first impression. Most were dressed in a perfectly fitted suit. They were all polite. But there were some who did things a little different. One guy didn’t arrive in a limo. He rode onto the scene on a unicorn. Another guy wore a kilt. Another dropped to the ground and started doing push-ups. Another guy sang a song. Another guy hired the R&B group, All-4-One, to arrive with him and sing their most famous love song. And why did they do these silly things? Because they want something from Jo Jo. They want her love. They want her hand in marriage. They want something important; something important only one of them will get. So they work hard to prove they are worthy of receiving it. Unfortunately for Coley, Jake, Jonathan, Nick, Peter, and Sal, they weren’t. They were the six who went home that first evening.
That’s the same approach the friends of this centurion took when it came to their conversation with Jesus. They wanted something important. They wanted to help their friend. And they knew that during Jesus’ time on earth, not every sick person was healed. Not every dead body was raised to life. Not every demon was expelled. Jesus made choices as to where and when he used his incredible power to do those things. They knew that not everyone got what they wanted from him. So they tried to prove to Jesus that their friend was deserving of his attention by singing a song about the his very best characteristics.
“He loves our nation,” they said, which was really a big deal. The men talking to Jesus were Jewish. The centurion wasn’t. And in those days, if you weren’t Jewish, it was very unusual for the Jews to treat you as a friend, especially if that friend was a commander in the army of the hated Romans. But this Roman centurion found a way to clearly communicate that someone’s politics, race, or class didn’t mean quite as much to him as caring about whomever it was that happened to be next to him. That was just as unusual then as it is today. This man was their friend.
“He has built our synagogue,” they also said. And what they meant was that he built the synagogue. He used his money. He paid for it. In other words, he didn’t just say that he loved God, he showed it. In a very big way. He was incredibly generous with his offerings. Not because he was looking for attention. But just because he didn’t want to do anything different. This centurion was a good man. If my daughter’s met him, I might let them start dating before age 35.
I want you to imagine that you are in a similar situation that this centurion was. I want you to think about someone you love that needs help – and the kind of help that only God can give. They are hurting deeply, in tremendous pain, or in the most severe need. And I want you to imagine that Jesus comes to town. And you can’t leave your friend. But others say that they will go to him on your behalf. What would they be able to point to in your life to prove that your faith is great? Can you come up with a list of the top 5 things you do to prove that you really are a man or woman of faith? Or maybe the easier list isn’t the top things that you already do, but the top things that you know you should. One of the contestants on the Bachelorette thought he needed to do push-ups in order to prove he was worthy of something. Maybe you think you need to go to church more often, pray a little more, give a bigger offering, be less selfish, less angry, or less jealous, or be more attentive to your spouse, job, or children.
That’s a common way of thinking in pretty much every religion – the thought of what does my life need to look like in order to know that I am going to get God’s greatest care and attention. It’s what the Hindus call Dharma. It’s the Buddhist’s Eightfold Path, the Five Pillars of Islam – all different ways of saying the same thing: that if you work hard enough, long enough, well enough, that, soon enough, you will have God’s attention; which means that, in none of those religions is the bar as high as it is for the Christian.
“Love the Lord with all your heart,” the bible says. “Love your neighbor as yourself.” “Whoever stumbles, even once, at any point, is guilty of breaking every commandment.” To God, “whoever lusts is already an adulterer.” “Whoever hates, God considers a murderer.” “What does the Lord require?” a man once asked Jesus. “Perfection,” he replied. Nothing less. There is nothing more. Some believe we were given the Ten Commandments so that by keeping them well enough, we could get God to love us. According to God, nothing could be further from the truth. “Rather, through the law we become [aware of] our sin,” the bible says. God didn’t give us his laws so that we would have a way to twist his arm to give us his attention, but to point out in no uncertain terms that you and I are entirely broken. And what do we typically do with something that’s broken?
Ollie was the family dog for the Fate family. He was a collie that looked just like Lassie. But for the last couple of weeks, Ollie hasn’t been able to stand, walk, or even use the bathroom. He was basically paralyzed. They tested him for cancer, fractures, anything that they could find to identify, and hopefully, fix the cause of his pain. But after weeks of finding nothing, they made the hard decision to put him down. They brought him to the vet this past Monday, put him on the table to euthanize him, and that’s when an intern noticed something. Right behind Ollie’s ear was a tick lodged into his skin. They pulled it out, and within ten hours, Ollie was back to his old self. Ollie was saved. And why was he saved? Not because Ollie was so strong and so great. But because someone identified his greatest problem and then took it away.
The centurion’s friend was saved. He was saved after Jesus called the centurion’s faith “great.” But notice that he didn’t call his faith great after his friends’ glowing description of his life. He called his faith great after the centurion admitted that he was broken. “I don’t deserve to have you come under my roof,” he said. “I’m not worthy.” “I’m not sufficient,” he confessed. In the very same ways you and I so clearly see when we look in the mirror and allow God’s law to tell the truth about you and me.
But his confession didn’t send Jesus running away in the other direction. Just like yours doesn’t. Instead, Jesus reached out and took away the cause of our brokenness, and carried those sins to a cross where he became broken himself, paralyzed under the pain of a crucifixion, where he actually did die to forgive us for all the things in our hearts and lives that aren’t so great and to show us exactly how hard you need to work in order to get God to give you his greatest attention. You don’t have to work at all. You already have it. That’s what the cross of Jesus means. Faith isn’t great when your life looks really good. Jesus thinks it’s great when we recognize our own brokenness and look to the cross to see the great love of the one we get to have faith in. As well as the great power of his Word.
The centurion knew the power of a word. He tells his servants to go and they go, to come and they come. If one broken man can get 100 men to immediately follow his directions with just one word, then what do you think God would accomplish if he spoke the same thing? Great faith knows the power of God’s Word.
Just look at Jericho. Do you know why Jericho’s walls fell? Because that’s what God said would happen. In verse one of Joshua 6, we see an impossible situation. “Now the gates of Jericho were securely shut … [so that] no one could go out and no one could get in.” It looked like an impossible obstacle – similar to the ones you and I seem to face so often. But it was an obstacle that Israel conquered. And why? Because in verse two, the Word of the Lord came to Joshua and said, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands.” For the next seven days, Israel remembered that word, as they marched around the city absolutely silent, knowing that on the seventh day the Word of the Lord would speak for them. And it did. Just as he said, the Lord most certainly did deliver Jericho into their hands.
Just as certainly as nothing in all creation will keep you from your Promised Land. Just as certainly as God will give you wisdom when you ask him. Just as certainly as you don’t need to worry about anything. Just as certainly as all things will work out for the good of those who love him. Just as certainly as you can “be still” and confident in the middle of anything. Just as certainly as God will hear and answer your prayers when you call out to him. Just as certainly as he never slumbers or sleeps when he watches over his children. Just as certainly as his grace really is sufficient to give you all the strength you need for your sometimes difficult journey.
And why can we walk through life absolutely certain of all these things? Because that’s what the Word of the Lord says. And the Word of the Lord is a powerful thing, just as powerful as the love of the Lord we are so blessed to have faith in.
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