Luke 7:1-10
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An interesting thing about Luke 7 is that it follows
Luke 5 and 6 J
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In Luke 5, as Jesus teaches and demonstrates his
inclusive gospel of grace, it is
becoming increasingly clear that the new wine of the gospel can not be
contained in the old wineskins of the Jewish religion and all that it has become
under the Pharisees, Scribes and Sadducees.
·
Luke 6 starts with tension continuing to rise
between Jesus and the Jewish religious leaders – expressed in a dispute over
what is lawful on the Sabbath.
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The fury and plotting against Jesus grows and he
responds by spending a whole night in prayer and then selecting and calling the
12 apostles, who are to be the patriarchs or pioneers of a new people of God
who would convey his power and his love to the world.
·
He then preaches the Sermon on the Plain (not that
kind of plane J),
which is a shorter version of the more famous Sermon on the Mount in Matthew.
The Sermon is a manifesto for Christian living, a manual for discipleship.
The Sermon on the Plain
·
Those who aspire to be disciples need to love their
enemies (6:27-36), and not just in a theoretical or sentimental fashion, but in
a practical, radical and sometimes costly way. “Do to others as you would have
them do to you”, Jesus tells them.
·
Disciples must not judge or condemn others
(6:37-42). Their attitude to the faults of others must be governed by a humble
attitude to their own faults and weaknesses. They are to forgive the trespasses
of others and to give generously to meet their needs, following the example of
their teacher and being fully trained in his ways.
·
Disciples are reminded that the goodness or badness
of a tree will be demonstrated by the fruit that it bears (6:43-45). They are
called to live in a way that is fruitful, a way which feeds health and spreads
goodness, drawing on the good which is in their hearts.
·
Finally Jesus warns the disciples that it is not
enough to call him “Lord, Lord”: they need to do what he says (6:46-49).
Hearing the words of Jesus and putting
them into practice is like being a man who builds his house on a firm
foundation of rock. To merely hear his words without obeying them is to build
without a foundation and to court disaster.
·
So we come to chapter 7 with the scene set for
someone to demonstrate the kind of discipleship that Jesus has been describing.
This example is immediately provided, not by Simon Peter or John or any of the
12, but by a most unexpected person; a Roman centurion; an officer in the enemy
occupying army.
·
Even Jesus is amazed and encouraged by this man’s
faith and applauds him as a wonderful example of the kind of discipleship he
has just been calling for!
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What was so interesting and exemplary about this
man? What was it about him that Jesus and Luke found so exciting and
encouraging?
The Centurion’s Qualities
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The first interesting point is that the centurion
was already living in pretty much exactly the way Jesus had set out in the
Sermon on the Plain:
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He is loving his enemies. The elders of the Jewish
people tell Jesus “he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.” The
synagogue referred to is the one in Capernaum, where Jesus had already preached
and healed (Luke 4:31-37).
·
His compassion also extends to his household staff,
to an unusual degree. When a slave or servant became sick and close to death in
Roman society, they would no longer be of value and could expect to be disposed
of like a lame animal.
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This centurion is different. He highly values this
slave/servant and is prepared to risk embarrassment in seeking his healing by
the charismatic young Jewish rabbi he has been hearing about.
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In spite of the power and authority of his position,
the centurion is also humble, acknowledging his defects and unworthiness in
Jewish eyes, not demanding and claiming not to deserve anything from Jesus
(7:6).
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The Jewish Elders (respected senior members of the
community) DO think the centurion’s good works qualify him to receive Jesus’s
attention “This man deserves to have you do this” (7:4), they tell Jesus.
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We know that good works do not save us, however
Jesus is not dismissive of the centurion’s case. He likes what he has heard
about this man and is intrigued and compassionate enough to go along with the
request. Perhaps he also senses a teaching opportunity for the Jewish Elders
and his own disciples.
Amazing Faith
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Before Jesus reaches the house, a message is brought
to him by the centurion’s friends and it is this message which so impresses and
encourages Jesus that he is amazed. It deserves to be read out in full:
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“Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve
to have you come under my roof. That is why I did not even consider myself
worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I
myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go’,
and he goes; and that one, ‘Come’, and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do
this’, and he does it.” (Luke 7:6-8)
·
These are the words, or rather, this is the faith
that amazed Jesus. It is a faith he has not found anywhere in Israel. Here is a
man who not only calls Jesus ‘Lord’ but puts that belief into practice and
recognises Jesus’s authority, not just over people but over sickness and death.
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The remarkable thing which has happened here is that
a new foundation of faith in Jesus, of belief in his saving power and
authority, has been added to this man’s qualities – and it is this faith which
he is commended for and which brings life instead of death to his servant. It
is faith like this which provides a new wineskin fit to contain the new wine of
the gospel of grace.
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I’m reminded of the Las Arenas shopping mall in
Barcelona – formally a bullring, a place of ritualised death as a form of entertainment,
which was raised up in a remarkable feat of architecture and engineering and
had a new foundation added as part of its transformation into, well, into a
shopping mall and entertainment complex (I recognise the limitations of this
parallel J).
Lessons for today’s church?
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Outsiders may be forgiven for thinking the focus of
Christianity is on following a set of legalistic rules. It isn’t! The important
thing is living faithfully; putting our belief in the Lordship of Jesus into
practice in every aspect of life.
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That is what the Sermon on the Plain was all about
and it is what Jesus saw and commended in the centurian.
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What church can become (and this is how a lot of
people see us) is a self righteous bunch of people who are convinced they
have correct beliefs and are consequently superior to people who do not share
these beliefs.
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When this attitude prevails there is little priority
for engaging with and serving the world in the way Jesus envisaged. Its the
kind of religion the Pharisees had developed. An old wineskin which cannot
contain the new wine of the gospel.
·
We all want to build a better world and as
Christians we want that to be a world like the Kingdom of God, with the values
Jesus expressed so passionately in the Sermon on the Plain.
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And it’s tempting to look at the sorry mess society
is in and decide to walk away and build somewhere else. Or to say this will
have to be pulled down before we can build something better in its place.
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But a third option is that we can be inspired by the
vision and achievements of Richard Rogers and his team who transformed Las
Arenas, and by the example of our centurion who added faith in Jesus to underpin
the good life he was already living.
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Instead of walking away from society or pulling it
down we can give it a new foundation, by preaching and demonstrating a gospel
of grace, reaching out to all people, including people of goodwill who don’t
yet acknowledge the Lordship of Jesus.
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Together we can lift this place to a new level – one
that pleases God, one that is full of faith and one that brings joy and glory
to Jesus.
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