Sermon for the Third Sunday after the Epiphany
When Jesus heard it, he marvelled
From the “beginning of signs” which we heard last week, we come not to one but to two miracles and to what is, perhaps, an even greater wonder. Jesus marvels at what the Centurion says. Why? Because his words are such a profound illustration of divine grace at work in human hearts.
From that “beginning of signs” to the double healing of the leper and the servant of the Roman centurion, we come to the penultimate Sunday of the Epiphany season this year, a season which varies in length along with the Trinity season according to the movable date of Easter. At the very least there can be two Sundays after Epiphany or at the very most, six Sundays. This year we split the difference with four, though next Sunday will be somewhat eclipsed with Candlemas. The double healings in today’s Gospel are epiphanies, to be sure, and emphasize, yet again, the sense of the universality of Christ in his divinity, the sense that what is made manifest is for all people. It is for Jew and Gentile, for young and old, for Europeans, Asians, Africans, and the peoples of the Americas; in short, there is a global reach to the Epiphany idea that the “infinite power, wisdom and goodness” of God is known, glimpsed and participated in universally through the distinctives of culture and language. In a way, Jesus himself seems to marvel at that realization.
The exchange between Jesus and the Centurion is undoubtedly a critique of Jewish chauvinism – the idea of the superiority of one culture over another – but that doesn’t justify in the least the kinds of Christian chauvinism that have bedevilled our world as well. To be sure, Jesus here contrasts the faith of the centurion with that of Israel. Is his remark a criticism of the leper who from within Israel, it seems, said, “Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean”? Such a statement, surely, is just as wonderful as the centurion’s “speak the word only”. In a profound sense, these two miracles complement one another. Each are a kind of Epiphany marvel, an opportunity to delight in the insight of each about “the infinite power, wisdom and goodness” of God for our humanity. They both sense this. I find it hard to choose one over the other.
Jesus marvels at the centurion’s insight because it so refreshingly captures what also properly belongs to the Jewish relation to God’s will for our humanity (and not just for Israel). His remark is not directed, I think, against the leper whom he has cleansed but against the people of Israel in their complacency and spiritual chauvinism. He is making an important but general observation that challenges us about God’s will for our humanity.
