A New Foundation

Luke 7:1-10

·         An interesting thing about Luke 7 is that it follows Luke 5 and 6 J

·         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.

·         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!

·         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

·         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:

·         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.

·         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.

·         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).

·         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.

·         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

·         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:

·         “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.

·         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.

·         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?

·         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.

·         That is what the Sermon on the Plain was all about and it is what Jesus saw and commended in the centurian.

·         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.

·         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.

·         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.

·         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.

·         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.

·         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.