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.
The double healing here is about an awareness of the power, wisdom and goodness of God in Christ by Jewish leper and Gentile centurion alike. Jesus’ critique of Israel is equally a critique of Christian arrogance and complacency, indifference and ignorance, and, by extension, to the arrogance and aggression of the religion of secular atheism or the religion of technology.
There is a further wonder. It has to do with the military, with the idea of the things of God being conveyed to us not just through the created order, not even just through the humanity of Jesus in his words and deeds, but through the secular institutions of our lives. The great take-away is that God’s grace cannot be contained and limited and yet can work through a range of conduits. “The quality of mercy is not strained,” not constrained, as Shakespeare puts it in his play The Merchant of Venice. God’s will and actions are not constrained or limited to the laws of nature however much he upholds them and yet works through them. The centurion grasps that what underlies all and every form of order is the divine word. “Speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.”
What the Epiphany Gospels show us is the divine will for our humanity and, like last Sunday’s miracle at the wedding feast of Cana of Galilee, the faith of the centurion in the power of Christ’s word places him at the banquet of heavenly love. “Grace does not destroy nature but perfects it.” The miracles need to be understood within that theological frame without which they are but mere show, “a tale full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
Here Jesus marvels at grace moving in the lives of others. What can this possibly mean except that God delights in us when his grace is alive in us? “Lord, if thou wilt” and “Speak the word only;” only so shall we be healed and restored to communion with God and with one another. Jesus marvels at the wonder of our wanting to participate in the life of God. It is a strong testament not only to the grace of God but about our response to it, the response of Jew and Gentile alike. Christ is for all. He marvels at the divine grace which seeks our good and our perfection. It is found in his will for us.
When Jesus heard it, he marvelled
Fr. David Curry
Epiphany 3, 2020