Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
What is known as the Great Commission, the great command or appointment, is that part in the Gospel narrative in which Jesus sends His Apostles out into the world with the words, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” (Matt. 28:19). The task of the Apostles was to spread the good news of salvation to all people of all nations. What they preached was the salvation which is given us through Jesus Christ, “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved,” (Rom. 10:8). The assignment given to the Apostles, which remains the mission of the Church to this day, is to preach the Gospel, the good news of our salvation, teaching people to place their faith in God’s mercy.
Having this in mind, it’s always interesting when we read in the gospels how Jesus was amazed at the faith of those to whom the Apostles had not yet preached to, those that were not not even of the chosen people, that is, the faith of the Gentiles. We are given such an example in this morning’s gospel (Matt: 8:5-13) reading when a Roman soldier, a centurion -probably a pagan- approaches Jesus with a request, for neither himself nor even a fellow, high-ranking officer such as he was, but a request for his lowly servant.
He doesn’t come to Jesus with a lengthy, overdrawn plea, but rather he comes straight to the point and says, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented.” At once Jesus replies, “I will come and heal him.”
Now, there is a tradition among the Jews that a Jew would be defiled if he were to enter the home of a Gentile. We see this, for instance, during Jesus’ trial when He was led into the Roman Praetorium to stand before the Roman governor Pilate, but they themselves would not go in “lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover” (John 18:28). So then, it might be that this centurion was very familiar with this Jewish custom and had this tradition in mind and that’s why, out of respect to this local belief, that he didn’t ask Jesus to go to his home.
However, we are led to believe that this was not the centurion’s reasoning, rather he was simply a man who had placed his faith in God. In fact, his faith was so great that Christ declares with astonishment, “I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel” (v. 10). Although this centurion came to Jesus with humility and meekness it was something else that helped his understanding of faith. And that something else he describes when he says, “For I am also a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, ‘Go’ and he goes; and to another ‘Come’ and he comes…”. “[And so] only speak the word, and my servant will be healed.” It was the centurion’s understanding of authority, and more specifically his obedience to that authority, which provoked those words from Jesus in praise of this man’s faith.
Truth be told, we all understand the concept of authority. The problem, however, is that not everyone wants to submit to it. It is in our church that we confess Jesus as being not only the Savior of the world, not just the only begotten Son, but we confess Him as ABSOLUTE TRUTH. After all, He says about Himself in the Gospel, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” (John 14:6). Subsequently, our faith in God and allegiance to Him is not so that He can bring us happiness, so that He can lead us to the truth. Moreover, our faith and participation in the Church is not so that we might be revealed the meaning and purpose of our lives on this earth. Rather, it is our faith and belief that Christ is the Truth, He is the Resurrection and the Life and our purpose is to submit to Him knowing that if only He speaks the word we will be healed, our sins will be forgiven and we will be saved. Amen.
