Sermon Luke 7:1-10 Jesus was Amazed

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Sermon  Luke 7:1-10 Jesus was Amazed

First Presbyterian Church of Ocean City

May 29, 2016

            Before we begin this morning I would like to talk a little bit about liturgical colors.  People have asked me why the communion table is decorated in green this week, was white last week, and red the week before.  The answer is that we use color to help us remember the different phases of the church calendar.  Two weeks ago was Pentecost.  On Pentecost we remember the coming of the Holy Spirit as flying tongues of fire and so the color is red.  Last week was Trinity Sunday.  On Trinity Sunday we remember that the one God we worship exists as three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  For this Holy Trinity, we use white.  Today is green because we have entered into a period of ordinary time as opposed to the extraordinary time when we remember the important events of Jesus’ life.   Ordinary Time will continue until next Advent when we will once again decorate in purple to prepare for Jesus’ birth.  The color for Ordinary Time is green.  One final note, on the first Sunday of every month we have communion.  It is the tradition of this church to use white as we gather around the communion table.  I hope this helps you to understand the liturgical colors as we use them in this church.

            Usually you and I talk about what Jesus said and did.  But sometime Jesus’ words and deeds are not as important as his feelings about something.  And that is the case today.  Luke tells us that Jesus was amazed at something.  And we need to figure out what amazed him.  We will get to this, but first let’s pray.

            “Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)   

            Several centuries before Jesus, there existed in Israel a prophet named Elisha.  In the fifth chapter of the book of 2 Kings there is a story about a army general named Naaman who came to the prophet Elisha to be healed from leprosy.  Naaman washed himself seven times in the Jordan river and was healed.  This confirmed that Elisha was a great prophet.

            The question on everyone’s mind as Jesus traveled the Galilean countryside was whether or not Jesus was another great prophet like Elisha.  Jesus was a great prophet and proved it by healing the servant of another military officer.  Let’s hear what happened.

Luke 7:1 When Jesus had finished saying all this to the people who were listening, 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.

            Here is a brief recap of the story.  An officer in the Roman Army, a centurion, has a sick slave and wants Jesus to heal him.  So the officer sent elders of the synagogue and then some friends to Jesus to ask him to heal the servant.   Jesus healed the servant, but was amazed at the faith exhibited in this story.  Why was Jesus amazed?  What caused his amazement?

            One possibility was that Jesus was amazed at the faith of the centurion.  And it is true that the centurion had strong faith.  He was probably a God-fearer.  God-fearers believed in God, but they were not Jews because they were neither descended from Abraham nor circumcised.  Because of the this they were permitted only limited participation in the synagogue.  (By the way, they later flocked into churches because we had no requirement of lineage from Abraham or circumcism.)  Jesus would not have been surprised by the faith of a God-fearer because there were many of them in his day.  Nor would he be amazed at the faith of a centurion.  In Matthew’s gospel Jesus met with a faithful centurion asking for healing for his daughter.  So there is nothing about the faith of the centurion which would surprise Jesus.

            Another thing about faith:  Faith is not something we do.  Faith is something we receive.  Faith is a gift from God.  We could not believe unless God graciously allows us to believe.  So if we can declare with our mouths that Jesus is Lord, and believe in our hearts that Jesus was resurrected from the dead, then we have received the spiritual gift of faith.  If the faith of the centurion was gift from God then it would not have amazed God’s son.

            Another possibility is that Jesus was amazed at the faith of the synagogue elders who pleaded with him to heal the servant.  But Jesus couldn’t be amazed at the faith of the elders.  They had to already be extremely faithful people to become elders.  And an elder’s job is to measure and nurture the faith of the members of synagogue.  They did this by telling Jesus that the centurion’s faith was extremely strong because of his contribution to the building fund.  The faith of these elders would come as no surprise to Jesus. 

            So what about the centurion’s friends?  Maybe their faith amazed Jesus.  They told Jesus of the centurion’s humility, his feeling of unworthiness in coming into the presence of Jesus even though the centurion was a very powerful man.  But many people told Jesus about their friends and loved ones. The faith of the centurion’s friends was not remarkable in any way, and would not have amazed Jesus. 

            So what amazed Jesus?  Remember what he said.

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.”

            Jesus would not have been amazed at the Centurion’s faith, or elders’ faith or the friend’s, faith.  The faith of all these was gift from God that Jesus would have known about.  But, what was surprising was what the centurion did as a result of his faith.  This did surprise Jesus.  So let’s go back and see what happened.

            First, the centurion had great compassion for his slave.  Slavery, at this time was essentially a humane alternative to debtors prison.  Rather than going to prison for debts owed a debtor could pay off his obligations through the institution of slavery.  We don’t know much about the centurion’s slave.  We don’t know if the slave had any faith at all.  Neither do we know if he was a Hebrew or gentile.   All we know is that a faithful centurion had compassion for him and wanted Jesus to heal him.  And that was enough.  If we pray for someone’s healing, even if that person has no faith of his own, our faith is sufficient for Jesus to hear our prayers. The centurion’s compassion for his slave could have amazed Jesus as does our compassion for others.  So continue to pray for the people you know who need Jesus’ healing.  Jesus will hear you prayer and will be amazed at your compassion.

            The second thing the centurion did was to ask the elders of the community to ask Jesus for healing.  This also would have surprised Jesus.  Plenty of people asked for healing for themselves for a loved one.  But what the centurion did was to get the people he worshiped with in the synagogue to pray too.  And this amazed Jesus.  Of course we can do the same.  If we need healing, or if we know of someone who needs healing, we can bring this to the church and ask for prayers.  When the members of the church and the elders all pray for someone’s healing, Jesus is amazed at our faith.

            We do this well in this church.  Graison and Betty send out prayer requests on a regular basis through email.  And Pete works with our secretary to put prayer concerns in our bulletin.  We are doing exactly what the centurion did.  We are bringing prayer concerns to the people we worship with and all of us together offer these prayers to Jesus.  And this amazes Jesus.  Remember what he said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.”

            So the centurion amazed Jesus by his great compassion for his slave and by asking the elders to bring his concerns to Jesus.  There is one more thing that he did that amazed Jesus.  He asked his friends to take his concerns to Jesus.  And we can do this too.  We can ask our friends to pray for us or others when needs arise.  And this too will amaze Jesus.

            We see all of this at work in the church today.  Shirley Warren has great compassion for her granddaughter Kelsey.  Kelsey has Lyme disease after a tick bite years ago.  She is too sick to go to school, and needs a wheelchair to get around.  The doctors don’t seem to know what to do.  So Shirley prays for her granddaughter.  And Shirley askes us, the people she worships with, to also pray for Kelsey.  Shirley asks everyone to pray for Kelsey every week.  And if all of us take Shirley’s concerns to Jesus in our prayers then Jesus will be amazed at our faith.  And remember, Jesus can heal.

            Jesus heard the centurion’s prayers.  He heard prayers of the elders and prayers of his friends.  An amazed Jesus healed the centurion’s slave.  And by doing this Jesus established that he was a great prophet like Elisha. 

            So, if you know of someone who needs healing take you concerns to Jesus in prayer and ask for healing.  Also ask your church to pray.  Ask your friends to pray.  And when all these prayers, day after day, reach Jesus’ ears he will be amazed at your faith.  And like he did for the centurion’s slave, Jesus heals today too.  So keep praying.

            Lord Jesus we offer up to you today our prayer concerns.  We ask that you hear our prayers.  We ask for your healing touch on us and on those we love.  We are all praying together because we know this amazes you.  This we pray in your glorious name.  Amen.