“I have not found so great faith, no not in Israel”
Epiphany is commonly said to be the Christmas of the Gentiles. With the coming in of the Magi-Kings, not only is the Christmas scene of Bethlehem completed but it goes global, we might say; it is omni populo, for all people. And while the Feast of Epiphany celebrates the journey of the Magi to Bethlehem, Epiphany as well launches us on the journey of the understanding in what we might call the break-out from Bethlehem, the journey of the soul to God. Thus, on the first two Sundays of Epiphany we find ourselves first in Jerusalem in the Temple with Jesus at the age of twelve and then at Cana of Galilee with Jesus and Mary at the wedding feast miracle of the water made wine.
The teaching of Epiphany as doctrine and not just event has to do with what is made manifest to our humanity through Jesus, at once “God of God” and “Light of Light” but also God with us. The focus is on the essential divinity of Christ albeit revealed through his humanity and in his engagement with us. In that lies the further Epiphany of God’s will and purpose for our humanity. And that is something universal, something for all. That sense of the universality of Christ’s coming is shown today in the Gospel story of a double healing; one within Israel in the healing of the leper, and one outside Israel, as it were, in the healing of the centurion’s servant. The one healing is direct and by word and touch; the other is indirect and by the power and truth of God’s Word alone in Christ.
But the real miracle lies not simply in the healings of the leper and the servant sick of the palsy – a weakness and lack of muscle control – but in the exchange between Jesus and the centurion and, especially, his words of faith that excite such great wonder in Jesus himself. Here Jesus wonders in astonishment at the centurion’s response to his simple statement that “I will come down and heal him”.
The miracle is ‘a miracle of insight’ into the mystery and truth of God who is not and cannot be subject to the constrictions and limits of our finite world but who makes himself known through the world and through us. The centurion, a Roman officer in charge of one hundred soldiers, recognizes that God is not subject to us at the same time as he alludes to the operations of God’s Word by way of an analogy to the passing of directions down the line of military command He recognizes something about the power of God’s Word that transcends the limits of human speech and human customs. “To whom will you liken me”, God says in the evening lesson from Isaiah, “and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be alike?” … “for I am God, and there is no other; I am God and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning … I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it” (Isaiah 46. 5, 9b-10a, 11b). Epiphany makes known what God seeks for the whole of our humanity. The miracle lies in the faith of the centurion, a non-Israelite. “Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof; but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed”.
The leper too had recognized in Jesus something of the power of God but his request is more conditional. “If you will, you can make me clean”. Jesus’ response is by touch and by word. He “put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean”. This testifies at once to the idea of the healing touch and the healing word. But the centurion places no conditions, as it were, on Jesus. “Speak the word only”. That is enough. This excites Jesus’ wonder and elicits a kind of criticism not only of Israel but all of us when we fail to recognize the sovereign power and freedom of God’s Word in itself. “I have not found so great faith, no not in Israel”.
What does this mean for us? The Epistle reading, which is the continuation of chapter twelve of Romans for the last three Sundays, points us to the power and truth of the goodness of God, reminding us not to be wise in our own conceits, and bidding us to love our enemies, as it were, feeding your enemy and giving him drink, and thus overcoming evil with good. Of course, the phrase that “in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head” should trouble us. Does our doing good towards those who are our enemies mean a benefit for us but judgment upon them? Are we doing good to benefit ourselves while getting back at our enemies? Or is it the idea that there is always the question about our openness to the goodness of God which purifies like fire all of the obstacles that we place before ourselves in our animosities and resentments, in our holding on to our enmities? The challenge here is in the last line of the Epistle. “Be not overcome of evil” – thus seeking the hurt of others – “but overcome evil with good”, a question of intention.
The centurion’s faith is his openness to the radical power and truth of God’s Word in Christ Jesus. He seeks nothing more and nothing less than that Word in its own sovereign motion without condition. “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”, we pray, “according to thy will” and “according to thy word”. The real miracle and the greater healing is that Word alive in us.
“I have not found so great faith, no not in Israel”
Fr. David Curry
Epiphany 3, 2023