A Soldier's Faith

"I wish I had your faith."  Ever heard someone say that?  Ever said that yourself?  "I wish I had your faith."

Perhaps you remember the Channel 4 sitcom, Father Ted.  In a conversation between the two main characters, the hapless priests Father Ted and Father Dougal, Dougal asked the absurd question, "Ted, do you believe in the afterlife?".  Somewhat surprised, Ted answered, "Well, generally priests have a very strong belief in the afterlife."  "Ooh, I wish I had your faith, Ted!"  Classic.

A bizarre conversation.  Of all people, shouldn't a priest have faith?  But what is faith?  How do you get faith?  Where does faith come from?  Does it come from somewhere inside and you've either got it or you don't?  We're going to see if we can get some answers to those questions from the bible this morning.

We're at the halfway point of our autumn series, Jesus in Luke, looking, as the title suggests, at Jesus through one of his four biographers, Luke.

We were reminded at the start of the series that Luke wrote his biography, his gospel, to give us certainty.  He described it as an orderly account.  Luke is the writer who takes particular care to include minor details, like which town Jesus is in and this happened after that and the guy with the shrivelled hand… it was his right hand, not his left, that was shrivelled.  Luke wanted us to know that his gospel account could be checked out by its earliest readers and trusted by us even today.

The Big Idea in Luke, we said, was that Jesus offers radical acceptance to unacceptable people.  So in chapter 6 we had the healing of that man with shrivelled hand,  He was an outsider in the community because his condition implied that he was under God's judgement.

We had the calling of the disciples, who weren't exactly the elite of the community.

In the rest of the chapter we've studied Jesus' famous sermon, the Sermon on the Plain.  In it Jesus taught what it would look like to live as people of God's kingdom, the kingdom he had come to initiate and proclaim.

He taught of God's merciful acceptance for his enemies, which was to become a family trait – those adopted as God's children were to reflect the radical acceptance he had shown them.  Above all, kingdom people would be people who heard Jesus' words and put them into practice.

In chapter 7 the theme of radical acceptance continues, as Jesus interacts with a foreign, gentile centurion in the occupying Roman army, and then with a widow and then a woman, quote, who had led a sinful life – three outsiders in the community.  This morning we're looking at v1-10, the account of Jesus' interaction with the Roman centurion.

We're going to come at this text from two angles:

Firstly: Jesus performs an incredible healing

And secondly and in more detail: a centurion displays amazing faith.

1 – Jesus performs an incredible healing

1When Jesus had finished saying all this [that is, the Sermon on the Plain in the second half of chapter 6]… 1When Jesus had finished saying all this in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. 2There a centurion's servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. 3The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant.

So Jesus finishes his sermon at the end of chapter 6 and goes into the town of Capernaum.  It's not the first time he's been in Capernaum; he was there at the end of chapter 4.  On his last visit he amazed crowds of people with his authoritative teaching and his power to perform miracles.  He exorcised demons and healed many sick people with a touch.  He had to get up at daybreak to escape the crowds and move on to preach in other towns.

In Capernaum there is a Roman centurion, a commander of 100 soldiers, approximately a captain, using today's definitions.  The centurion has probably got several slaves, one of whom is critically ill, at the point of death.  We can imagine several members of the household at his bedside, resigned to the fact that there's nothing more they can do.  But the centurion hears of Jesus, v3, and decides to seek his help.

Perhaps he already knew about Jesus from the earlier buzz about town when Jesus was last in Capernaum.  Perhaps he just heard of his arrival on this occasion.  Perhaps he knew some of the soldiers who responded to John the Baptist's message in chapter 3.  We don't know.

In any case he sends a delegation of Jewish elders to ask if Jesus can heal the servant.  They persuade Jesus to come and help.  Jesus is on his way when a second delegation arrives.  'Don't trouble yourself to come here,' they say, 'but just say the word and my servant will be healed.'  It's a remarkable message, and we'll come back to it in a minute.  First let's skip on and see what happens.

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.

They returned to the house and found the servant well, literally, whole, or in sound health.  Now we can often be very familiar with these gospel stories from our own bible reading or Sunday School or sermons – this very passage was preached just over a year ago in an invitation service here are HTG.

But we need to be so careful that we don't lose our astonishment at this man, Jesus.  The servant, who had been about to die, is now fully well.  It's an incredible miracle.

Jesus didn't ever meet the servant.  He didn't go to the centurion's house.  Luke doesn't even record him giving a command for the servant to be well again.  We've got some doctors in the congregation here at HTG.  Why not find one over tea and coffee afterwards and ask them how many times they've diagnosed and successfully intervened in the case of a critically ill patient without seeing or touching the patient.

As well as doctors, we have a lot of young kids here at HTG, a lot of Calpol customers.  How do you assess if a child needs Calpol?  Probably the first thing you do is touch them to literally get a feel for their temperature.  Is there a fever?  Maybe they're teething.  But Jesus had no means of diagnosing or physically treating this servant.    The servant went from being critically ill to carrying on as normal with no diagnosis and no treatment.

Jesus' power and authority is truly astonishing.  And it's that power and authority that make Jesus worth following.  He is the son of God.  Let's not lose our astonishment at Jesus.

One man you would expect to be astonished and excited about this healing is our author, Luke.  After all, he was a doctor himself.  We can imagine him conferring with his colleagues at the practice… they're all scouring the peer-reviewed journals to see if anyone has ever known anything like it.  But in fact Dr Luke records very little about the healing – only the bare minimum in fact.  And that's because he has a much more important point to make.  It's the point Jesus himself made at the end of the account, and it's our second point now, which is

2 – A centurion displays amazing faith

2There a centurion's servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. 3The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. 4When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, "This man deserves to have you do this, 5because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue." 6So Jesus went with them.

The centurion sends some Jewish elders to Jesus to ask him to heal his servant.  Perhaps they didn't think Jesus would respond to a request from a foreign, gentile captain in the occupying Roman army – this guy is firmly in the category of outsider as far as the Jewish community is concerned.  So they try to persuade Jesus.

'Yes, he's a Roman, but he's a great guy, he built our synagogue.'  Okay maybe he only did that because he got the occupying forces' memo about winning the hearts and minds of the people you occupy.  'No, it's more than that; he loves our nation.  He deserves your help.'  Jesus plays along and goes with them.

[Jesus] 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. 7That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. 8For 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.

So it seems like the Jewish elders didn't quite stick to the script.  Perhaps they weren't well enough briefed.  The centurion hears word that Jesus is on his way, or maybe he can see it all happening – maybe the barracks with his residence is on a hill at the edge of town and he can see a crowd heading his way.  Anyway, he sends some more people, friends this time, to intercept Jesus with a more tightly controlled message:

Lord, [a title of respect that is at the very least equal to 'Sir' and more likely equivalent to 'Rabbi'… certainly a term of considerable respect from a centurion to the homeless preacher son of a carpenter] don't trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. 7That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed.

Say the word, and my servant will be healed.  These friends tasked with carrying this message must have shared a few glances when they were being told what to say.  On their way to Jesus they must have murmured amongst themselves, 'Are we really going to stick to this?'  'That's what he told us to say.'

But the centurion has thought this through.

8For 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.

This is a man who knows all about authority.  He is under the authority of senior officers.  He himself has authority from above, ultimately from Caesar, and he exercises his authority over those under him.  He tells his soldiers to come and go, and they come and go, and he tells his servant what to do and he does it.

He recognises that a man who can do the things Jesus has been doing is a man under the authority of a higher power, exercising the authority of that higher power.  It's the obvious logical conclusion from the evidence of Jesus' miracles.  Nevertheless, when this message comes to Jesus, Jesus is somewhat taken aback.

9When 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." 10Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well.

Jesus' reaction is to turn to the crowd of people around him and say, 'Let this be a lesson in faith to everyone because this Roman soldier's faith is greater than any in Israel.'  In other words the faith of this gentile, this non-Jew, is exemplary even to God's own historical people, the Jews.  There's just a hint here of the promise of the blessing of God going out to the nations through the offspring of Abraham.  We read about that in our first reading in Genesis 12, and it would become a major theme of the sequel of Dr Luke's gospel account, the book of Acts.

But what was so amazing about the centurion's faith?  Why was it that the crowd of Jesus' followers should aspire to imitate this faith?  Let me highlight four characteristics of this faith that we would do well to copy.

His faith was humble – The centurion wanted Jesus to know that even with his worldly rank, even though he'd built the synagogue, he considered himself unworthy either for Jesus to come to his home or even for him to appear before Jesus in person.   Jesus was talking in chapter 6 about hypocrites who couldn't see the plank in their own eyes – but this centurion was well aware that he was unworthy of the presence of Jesus.  He's just like Simon Peter in chapter 5, who said, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man."  His faith was humble.

His faith was logical – We might imagine that this centurion had seen his share of disturbing events.  Perhaps war, as we remember today.  Certainly at least the illness of his servant.  But he looked at Jesus and trusted in him on the basis of the facts.  Here was a man who, against all expectations, could teach and heal with authority.  Here was a man who could banish illness with a command, so the centurion trusted him.  His faith was logical.

His faith was simple – He believed Jesus could help and he asked Jesus to help.  There's not much more to faith than that.  It's not something you either have or don't have – it's just simple trust.  Just like the faith you had in your chair when I told you to sit down earlier.  Jesus offers us forgiveness and a fresh start, right with God.  Faith is simply saying, 'Jesus, I believe you have the authority to offer me these things.  Please forgive me and give me new life.'   His faith was simple.

His faith was expectant – The centurion was not afraid or ashamed to bring to God in prayer the Big Ask, the thing he dearly wanted, the thing closest to his heart.  In a life of faith, trusting in Jesus, we should also pray the big prayers, bringing to God what is dear to us, knowing that he has promised to work for the good of those who love him.  His faith was expectant.

Jesus marvelled at faith like that.  The only other time Jesus marvelled at something was at the stubborn unbelief he encountered in his home town of Nazareth in Mark 6.  This is the high end of the spectrum of responses Jesus encountered, first place, top of the class.  So Jesus turned to the crowd and asked them, 'Will you learn from this faith?  Will you copy this faith?'

And that is Luke's question for us now.  Perhaps you've been a Christian for many years.  Will you learn from this faith?  Perhaps you're on the outside looking in, wondering if Jesus is a man you can put your trust in.  Will you copy this faith?

Like the centurion, we know of Jesus by report.  We know of Jesus from eye-witness accounts.  But we've also got a huge advantage.  He knew Jesus as a man who taught with the authority of God and healed with the power of God, a man with the credentials to proclaim the kingdom of God.

But we know about Easter.  We know Jesus not only as the man who has the credentials to proclaim the kingdom of God but as the son of God who by his death and resurrection made the kingdom of God a reality.  Not only that but we know Jesus as the king of the kingdom.  We know him as the risen Lord and Saviour.  And as if that wasn't enough, we have the guarantee of the Holy Spirit of God – a gift promised to all who put their faith, their simple trust, in Jesus.

So Jesus performed an incredible healing.  But that wasn't the big lesson from Jesus, and so it wasn't the big emphasis from Luke.

Dr Luke tells us nothing more than the fact that the servant was healed.  We're left to imagine the astonishment, the praise and the joy in the centurion's household.  The main thrust of this passage is that a centurion displayed amazing faith.  "I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel."   Will you learn from this faith?  Will you copy this faith?