Patrick Comerford
We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and this week began with the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity (15 September 2024).
I am back in Stony Stratford after our weekend in Belfast for a family celebration, having taken a flight back to Luton yesterday afternoon.
The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Ninian (ca 432), Bishop of Galloway, Apostle of the Picts, and Edward Bouverie Pusey (1882), Priest and Tractarian. Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:
1, today’s Gospel reading;
2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
Luke 7: 1-10 (NRSVA)
1 After Jesus had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. 2 A centurion there had a slave whom he valued highly, and who was ill and close to death. 3 When he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, asking him to come and heal his slave. 4 When they came to Jesus, they appealed to him earnestly, saying, ‘He is worthy of having you do this for him, 5 for he loves our people, and it is he who built our synagogue for us.’ 6 And Jesus went with them, but when he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to say to him, ‘Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; 7 therefore I did not presume to come to you. But only speak the word, and let my servant be healed. 8 For I also am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, “Go”, and he goes, and to another, “Come”, and he comes, and to my slave, “Do this”, and the slave does it.’ 9 When Jesus heard this he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, he said, ‘I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.’ 10 When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health.
Today’s Reflection:
Movie trivia is one of those subjects that make for great rounds in table quizzes.
For example, it is said that when that great Biblical epic, The Greatest Story Ever Told, was being filmed almost 60 years ago (1965), Telly Savalas shaved his head for his role as Pontius Pilate. He kept his head bald for the rest of his life, as we all know from the 1970s television series Kojak.
The Swedish actor Max von Sydow said that the hardest part about playing Christ was the expectations people had of him to remain in character at all times. He could not smoke between takes, have a drink after work, or be affectionate with his wife on the set.
The director George Stevens was such a perfectionist that he did many takes of John Wayne’s single line, ‘Truly, this man was the Son of God.’ There is an apocryphal story that at one rehearsal Stevens pleaded with Wayne to show more emotion, to show some sense of awe. At the next take, Wayne changed his line to, ‘Aw, truly this man was the Son of God.’
But have you ever noticed how centurions show up frequently in the Gospels (see Luke 7: 1-10; Luke 23: 47; perhaps cf Luke 3: 14), and in the Acts of the Apostles (see Acts 10: 1; 30-32, 42-44; 27: 1-3)?
Roman soldiers and officials play such positive, even devout, roles in Luke and Acts that we have to ask why Saint Luke writes like this. So, for example, there is a series of devout centurions whose intervention at significant points leads to the furtherance of the Gospel.
It is surprising that these figures in the Roman occupation are portrayed in such positive ways in the New Testament, including the Gospel reading this morning (Luke 7: 1-10). They respond to Christ by recognising his identity and, at times, with faith.
In the seasons of the Church Calendar, we are in Ordinary Time, and in our weekday cycle of readings from Saint Luke’s Gospel, supplementing the Sunday readings from Saint Mark’s Gospel, we read of how Jesus deals with ordinary people, in ordinary situations that each of us can identify with in our own ordinary, everyday, true-life situations.
Today’s Gospel story deals with some everyday questions that we all come across in our lives: compassion and healing, humanity and humility, power and authority, how employers treat the workforce, who is an insider in our society and who is an outsider?
The first group of people who come to Jesus are some Jewish elders (see verse 3). They might not expect Jesus to have much time for a centurion. This man represents the foreigner, the outsider, perhaps even the oppressor. He does not share their language, their culture or their religion.
We might expect these elders, probably Pharisees, to speak up only on behalf of someone of their own religion, even their own brand of religion.
But the Jewish elders come to Jesus, not on behalf of the dying slave, but on behalf of the centurion. They come not on behalf of the powerless one, but on behalf of the powerful one. They speak up for him, not because he might return the favour … but because he has already done them favours.
He has been not just kind and gentle, he goes beyond that – he loves the people. The word they use here is ἀγάπη (agape), love of the highest form, love that the New Testament sees as love for God and love for humanity.
The second group of people sent by the centurion just as Jesus is near his house are the centurion’s friends (see verse 6). They would know that it was against Jewish custom for Jesus to enter a gentile’s, a Roman’s, a centurion’s home.
Yet this story comes at a strategic place to show that this centurion is a man of good character. Immediately before this (Luke 6: 46-49), Jesus warns about the foolish man who builds his house on sand – the centurion, however, builds with eternity in mind.
And immediately after (Luke 7: 11-17), we have the story of the widow of Nain and the death of her only son. The centurion, for his part, must surely know that despite what Jesus may do, the slave too will eventually die, even if in old age, so his only motivations can be love and compassion, like the love of a parent.
This centurion can say do this, can say do that, but there is one thing he cannot do. He cannot give life itself. He recognises his limitations. He knows that he is dependent on Christ. In other words, he knows he is not self-dependent, he has to depend on God. He is a man of moving humility.
The centurion in Capernaum is not Jewish, he is an outsider. We do not know how he prays, or how he lives, or how he worships. It is enough for the people of Capernaum, and for Jesus, that he loves the people. He builds a place for the people to worship, to learn and to meet. He cares for their needs, physical and spiritual.
And Jesus responds to this deep and genuine agape. He goes to his house, where he finds a man of great love and compassion who truly has great faith.
But why should we be surprised?
I imagine this centurion already knew about Jesus and his disciples, and that Jesus and the disciples knew who the centurion was.
It is probable that Capernaum was the hometown of Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John, as well as the tax collector Matthew. Earlier in this Gospel, we read how on one Saturday Jesus taught in the synagogue in Capernaum and then healed a man who was possessed by an unclean spirit (see Luke 4: 31-36). Afterwards, he also healed Simon Peter’s mother-in-law there (Luke 4: 38-39).
When we have finished reading this morning’s Gospel story, we do not know the after-story. We do not know about the future faith of this centurion, whether he changed roles, changed his lifestyle, left politics and the army life behind him. We do not know.
We do not know about the future of the slave. We know he is found in good health … but for how long? Did he live to an old age? Did he gain promotion, or even his freedom? What about his later religious beliefs? We do not know.
We do not know either what happens afterwards among the elders and friends sent out to Jesus. They arrive back late, after everything is over (see verse 10). But are they transformed? Do they move from respecting the centurion because of what he has done for him, to respecting him as an individual? Do they move from seeing him as an outsider to seeing him as an insider? Or will he remain on the margins, no matter how polite they may be about him … and no matter what Jesus does in his life?
This surprising story tells us that those we perceive as our enemies, as outsiders, as strangers, as foreigners, can teach us so much about trust and faith. In the end, this story is reminiscent of Christ’s teaching in the previous chapter: ‘Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you’ (Luke 6: 27).
If we concentrate on healing and the miracle potential of this story, we may just sell ourselves short and miss the point of the story. Indeed, we know very little about the healing in this story, it tells us nothing about a healing ministry, it just tells us that when the elders and friends return to the house they find the slave is ‘in good health’ (see verse 10).
Perhaps the real miracle is to be found when we wake up to the reminder once again that Jesus is concerned for those we regard as the outsider, those we treat as the other, those we exclude.
Who are our modern-day Gentiles? Those we describe as unbelievers, agnostics, atheists or secularists? These are the people the Church needs to listen to and to talk to today, just as Christ listens to the centurion’s delegates and friends, and eventually to the centurion himself.
Jesus commends the faith of the centurion. He has seen nothing like it, even among his own people. He commends the centurion for his faith, and invites us to embrace that calling to live as people of faith.
It is interesting in all of this that seemingly the slave is not aware of any of this. The slave plays a rather passive role in the story.
So, we should note that Christ does not discriminate against the centurion, or against the slave. He makes no distinctions, no categorisation, allows no compartmentalisation. We do not know the religion, the ethnicity, the sexuality, the age or the cultural background of the slave.
Christ does not allow us to hold on to any prejudices or attitudes that tolerate racism, sexism or ageism. We judge other people’s worthiness every time we withhold compassion or refuse to stand up for justice in solidarity with the oppressed, the ostracised, and the under-served. Will we take our cues from Christ and let God’s compassion and justice demolish the dividing lines we draw to protect ourselves?
This story, which follows Saint Luke’s account of the Sermon on the Mount, challenges us to put the Sermon on the Mount into practice, to consider what it is to be a disciple of Christ, to place ourselves under his authority, which includes accepting his values so that we also value the other, the outsider.
Today’s Prayers (Monday 16 September 2024):
The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘The 5-finger prayer from the Diocese of Kuching, Malaysia.’ This theme was introduced yesterday in reflections as told to Rachel Weller, Communications Officer, USPG.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 16 September 2024) invites us to pray:
Thumb (people who are close to you): Heavenly Father, we thank you for our close friends and family and we ask for your protection of them.
The Collect:
Almighty and everlasting God,
who called your servant Ninian to preach the gospel
to the people of northern Britain:
raise up in this and every land
heralds and evangelists of your kingdom,
that your Church may make known the immeasurable riches
of your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post Communion Prayer:
Holy Father,
who gathered us here around the table of your Son
to share this meal with the whole household of God:
in that new world where you reveal
the fullness of your peace,
gather people of every race and language
to share with Ninian and all your saints
in the eternal banquet of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s reflection
Continued tomorrow
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
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