by CCW | 23 February 2014 16:00
What wonderful words! Here we see the power of God’s Word which goes forth not only to create but to restore and heal. Here we have a double healing, a healing within Israel and a healing outside of Israel, a healing touch and a healing word, the word tangible and visible, we might say, the word audible and intelligible. Jesus heals the leper by “put[ting] forth his hand and touching him,” touching the untouchable, the leper, and then says, “I will, be thou clean.” Here is the Word and touch of Christ near and at hand. Then, there is the healing of the Centurion’s servant, a healing from afar, by the simple power of the Word spoken and passed on, as it were, down through the ranks of the Roman legion!
It is not that Jesus is unwilling to make house calls. “I will come and heal him,” Jesus said. The Centurion’s response to this captures our attention and, more importantly, Jesus’ attention. The healing power of God in Christ reaches down through the centuries; it is not confined to time and place. Such is the meaning of God and here we see something of the marvel and the wonder of what God ultimately seeks for us. We are healed and restored, defined and dignified by his Word.
The Centurion is an Officer in the Roman Legion in charge of a cohort of one hundred men. It is from this term that we get the word ‘century’, applying the concept of one hundred to years, one hundred years. This Centurion has an essential insight into the meaning of Christ’s divinity and what that means for the healing of his servant. His words capture the essential teaching about who Christ is and who he is for us.
Jesus says he will come down and heal the Centurion’s servant. It is the Centurion who responds with wondrous simplicity, “Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof; but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.” It is an insight and an acknowledgement of what belongs to true divinity. It is not constrained and limited by the realities of the finite but effects what God wills for us from afar as well as near at hand. Word spoken and Word tangible. This is what this Gospel shows us.
And Jesus marvels at the faith of the Centurion, meaning his insight into the truth of God revealed in Jesus Christ. Jesus says “I have not found so great faith, no not in Israel” and goes on to convict us of all our unbelief pointing out that “many shall come from the east and the west and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob,” deliberate references to the revelation of God to Israel, and says that “the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness” and “there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Why? What is the problem? Our spiritual blindness and deafness to the Light and Word of God. We presume that God is only what we want him to be for us. This denies who God is in himself and who he truly is for us. The very thing that the leper and the Centurion see in Christ is what we deny.
We are challenged and convicted of our unbelief by this Gospel story but only so as to take to heart the words of this humble Centurion and to apply them to ourselves. They become a meditation and a prayer. “Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof; but speak the word only, and my soul shall be healed.”
(Rev’d) David Curry
AMD Service of the Deaf
February 23rd, 2014
Source URL: https://christchurchwindsor.ca/2014/02/23/sermon-for-sexagesima-200pm-service-for-atlantic-mnistry-of-the-deaf/
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