Such Faith!

Luke 7:1-10

Today I will be preaching on faith and particularly on the story of a man whom Jesus said had great faith. Jesus said, “I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!” That is quite a compliment coming from Jesus! It is interesting who he says this about. He did not say it about one of his apostles. He did not say it about Peter, James or John. He did not say it about the Pharisees, who were very religious people. He did not say it about the Sadducees who were the religious establishment  at the time, the head of the state religion. He did not even say it about the Essenes, who were the semi-monastic group who live on the shore of the Dead Sea. We thank them for the treasure trove of the Dead Sea Scrolls. They were a very devout, ascetic group who saw the Pharisees and Sadducees as compromising the faith of the Scriptures. Jesus said this about a Roman soldier, a centurion. There is no modern equivalent of the Roman centurion in today’s army. There were eleven grades of centurion which roughly corresponded to modern military ranks ranging from sergeant to major. But he was an officer in the Roman army, and the Roman army was hated by most Jews as an occupying force. It would be the way that most Palestinians would feel about Israeli officers today. So it was a controversial statement for Jesus to say that this Roman soldier had more faith than any religious Jew he knew. Let’s examine his faith.

1. First, the centurion’s faith was prompted by a difficult situation. He came to Jesus for healing. Faith often is born out of difficulty. One might even say that faith needs a desperate situation to come to light. When everything is going fine, most people don’t feel like they need God.  That is why most people here in New England do not attend worship service. They don’t feel like they need it. That is why religious faith is waning in America and in the Western world. Most people feel like things in their lives are going along alright without faith in God.

When it comes to healing for example, which was the situation that prompted this centurion’s faith, people do not think they need faith. They need medical care. That is why we are having this big to-do about health care and medical insurance in our country. Healthcare is important to people; faith, not so much. Faith only becomes important to some people when medicine reaches the limits of it abilities to cure. Then they call they call for the preacher. Difficult times bring people to faith … sometimes. The truth is that these days many people do not turn to God even then. God is so absent from some people’s lives that even in crisis they do not turn to God.

But some people do. Religious people do. Crisis prompts some people to great acts of faith. To connect this to financial stewardship, we can look at the story of the widow’s mite. One day Jesus was in the temple and saw a very poor woman put two small coins into the offering plate. These coins were all she had to live on. Most people would call her foolish, but Jesus praised her. She had faith in God to provide for her needs. When this poor woman was in financial crisis she responded by faith in God. Such faith!

When crisis comes in our lives we also respond in faith. Maybe not in as great a faith as the poor widow or the Roman centurion, but we respond in faith. That is a good thing. Some people think that faith is a sign of weakness.  I had a person tell me that they thought that faith in God was a crutch for weak people and that is why they did not need religion. My response is that admitting our weakness is not bad when the truth is that we are weak. I have no problem in admitting my weakness. The apostle Paul prayed about a physical ailment that he had. He records God reply to him in 2 Corinthians 12. God said to him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Then Paul continues and says, “Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10) Faith is born when we give up our arrogant self-sufficiency and admit we can’t do it by ourselves and we need God.

2. Second, the centurion’s faith was motivated by love. In our story the Roman was not seeking out Jesus for healing for himself. He was seeking healing for his servant. The second and third verses in our passage say, “And a certain centurion’s servant, who was dear to him, was sick and ready to die. So when he heard about Jesus, he sent elders of the Jews to Him, pleading with Him to come and heal his servant.” That is true in our lives as well. Personally I would rather be sick and dying than have my wife sick or have by children sick or grandchildren sick and dying. I pray much more fervently for the healing of one I love than for myself. And I do not think I am unusual in this regard. This is human nature.

Faith and love go together like peanut butter and jelly, ham and beans, or like marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers. Our faith in God is motivated by love. That is why we pray for people. That is why we share names of folks we know and lift them up to God in prayer as a community of faith. We do it out of love. The greatest commandments are to love God and love our neighbor. That is what we are doing in prayer. We love people and we love God. And so we bring the people we love to the God we love in prayer. Many people do not pray to God - even in times of crisis – because they never developed a love for God. They do not know God’s love for them, and therefore they do not think to ask for God’s help.  This centurion loved his servant and he loved God.

Verse 5 says that this Roman centurion loved Israel and even built the Jews in his community a synagogue to worship in. It seems clear that his soldier is what the Book of Acts calls a God-fearer. He was a Roman stationed in Palestine who came to have faith in the God of Israel. He did not convert to Judaism, but he believed in the God of the Jews. That is why he went to Jesus when his servant was sick. He could have prayed to the Roman gods and goddesses. But he didn’t. He came to the one whom some people were calling the Messiah, and some even whispered was the Son of God, the man who called God his Father. This man’s faith that Jesus was able to heal his servant was motivated by love. And to tip my hat to the financial stewardship theme here, our giving to God is motivated by love. We should not give to God out of guilt or even out of obligation. We give out of love for God. God has given so much to us! How can we not give to him in return?

3. Third, the centurion’s faith was exercised in humility. Faith is humble. That is why I think that a lot of what masquerades as faith these days is not really faith in God. It is ideology. It is religious legalism. It is rules, and rituals, and self-righteousness. That was the religion of the Pharisees and Sadducees. This centurion had faith expressed in humility.

When asked to come and heal the servant of the centurion, Jesus went to his house. When the man heard that Jesus was coming he sent some of his friends to intercept him with this message: “Lord, do not trouble Yourself, for I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof. Therefore I did not even think myself worthy to come to You.” How different that is than people’s attitudes today. People expect God to arrange the circumstances of their lives the way they think is best. When they ask God to do something, they expect him to do it. And if it is something big, like the healing of a loved one, if God does not do it, they get upset. Humility is not a characteristic that is valued these days. What people like now is boldness and assertiveness. Self-esteem is the new highest virtue. God forbid that we feel or do anything that might lessen our high opinion of ourselves!

This Roman soldier was not nurturing a fragile ego. He was humble. He genuinely believed that he, a Roman officer, was not worthy for this Jewish peasant to come into his home. It is interesting to contrast this with other’s opinions of him. The Jewish elders who approached Jesus on the centurion’s behalf told Jesus that he ought to do what the centurion asked because, in their words, “the one for whom He should do this was deserving, for he loves our nation, and has built us a synagogue.”  Do you hear their mentality? They thought the Roman centurion deserved an answer to his request. They thought he had earned it because he had built a synagogue. I have seen this same attitude among Christians. They think that if they have contributed a lot of money to the church then they deserve special treatment from God and others. But to his credit, this Roman did not think that way. He exercised his faith in humility.

This is an important quality for us to have in our faith. We tend to get our feelings hurt. It happens in families. It happens among friends. And it happens in church. We get angry. We are offended. When we get our feelings hurt what is really being wounded is our pride. That is a good thing. We should want our pride to be hurt over and over again until there is nothing left. That is God’s way of producing selflessness in our lives. But what do we do? We do just the opposite. We withdraw and lick our wounds. We built up an emotional wall a little higher to make sure it doesn’t happen again, so we will not be hurt again. I can’t tell you how many people I have known who have gotten hurt by something that happened or did not happen in a church and they quit completely. And they never darkened the door of any church again. During my ministry I have heard story after story like that. I want to shake them and say, “You missed a wonderful opportunity! God was working in that situation to tear down your wall of self, and you prevented him too protect your ego.” I don’t ever come out and say those words because they would not be able to hear it, but that is what I think.  God wants to develop faith in us, and the way he does it is by humbling us. It hurts, but it is a good hurt. We can’t have faith without humility.  This Roman centurion had great humility and that is why Jesus said he had great faith.

4. Fourth, the centurion’s faith submitted to the authority of God. After telling Jesus that he was not worthy for Jesus to come under his roof, the man continued in his message to say this: “But say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man placed under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”  In response to that statement it says, “When Jesus heard these things, He marveled at him, and turned around and said to the crowd that followed Him, “I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!”  

Faith is submitting to the authority of God. That is another thing we Americans do not like. Every once in a while I see the bumper sticker that reads: “Question Authority.” That is the American way. We don’t like anyone telling us what to do. Especially the government.  And very especially when it comes to religion. That is what the while “spiritual but not religious” movement is based on. And that is what the new atheist and anti-religion movement is based on. And it is true that human authority can be often misused. Power corrupts and all that.  Personally I want as little government authority intruding into my life as possible. That is how I bend politically. But we must not extend that anti-authority attitude to God. We can extend it to religious bureaucracy, dogmatism and legalism. I think it is good to question religious traditions and practices. That is how we grow spiritually. But when it comes to faith in God, we submit to Divine authority.

Faith is trusting completely and utterly in God without reservations and exceptions. That is the only way we can approach God. God is King. He is Sovereign. He is not a President. He is not elected by us and is not answerable to us. God cannot be impeached or recalled like some human politician. We Americans have a hard time with the concept of a king. Our nation is based on rebellion against the British monarchy. We like balance of power between the different branches of our government. We do not like it when a leader oversteps his or her bounds.  And we unconsciously carry that attitude over into our spiritual life and our relationship with God. We easily fall into rebellion against God and we do not even know what we are doing or admit we are doing it. We call it freedom. But freedom from God is not freedom. It is bondage to our own human ego.

This Roman centurion knew about authority. He was a soldier under authority and having authority over those beneath him. And he recognized Jesus’ authority and submitted to that authority. That is what it means to call Jesus Lord. It is not just a title. It is a practice. And when we submit our lives to Christ, then God can do great things in us and through us and for us. That is what happened in our story. As soon as they returned to the centurion’s home, they found the servant “who had been sick.” That means he was not sick any longer. Such faith this Roman solder had! Pray that we might have such faith.