Patrick Comerford
The Season of Advent – and the real countdown to Christmas – began yesterday with the First Sunday of Advent (1 December 2024).
Before the day begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:
1, today’s Gospel reading;
2, a short reflection;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
Matthew 8: 5-11 (NRSVA):
5 When he entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, appealing to him 6 and saying, ‘Lord, my servant is lying at home paralysed, in terrible distress.’ 7 And he said to him, ‘I will come and cure him.’ 8 The centurion answered, ‘Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only speak the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I also am a man 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.’ 10 When Jesus heard him, he was amazed and said to those who followed him, ‘Truly I tell you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith. 11 I tell you, many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.’
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 many remember 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)?
A centurion (ἑκατόνταρχος, hekatóntarkhos) was a commander, nominally of a century or a military unit of 100 legionaries. The size of the century changed over time, and by the time of Christ it had been reduced to 80 men. A centurion's symbol of office was the vine staff – in contrast to Christ, who is the true vine.
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. 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 today’s Gospel reading at the Eucharist (Matthew 8: 5-11; cf Luke 7: 1-10). They respond to Christ by recognising his identity and, at times, with faith.
This morning’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?
In Saint Luke’s telling of this story, a group of Jewish elders come to Jesus, not on behalf of the dying slave, but on behalf of the centurion. They come not on behalf of a powerless person, but on behalf of the powerful man. They speak up for him, not because he might return the favour … but because he has already done them favours.
The onlookers and the early readers would know that it was against Jewish custom to enter a gentile’s, a Roman’s, a centurion’s home.
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. In Saint Luke’s account, 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.
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 Gospel writer Matthew. Jesus has taught in the synagogue in Capernaum and then heals a man there who was possessed by an unclean spirit. Immediately after this incident, he also healed Simon Peter’s mother-in-law at her home in Capernaum (Matthew 8: 15-17).
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 about the past or the future of the servant. Culturally, because of translations over the centuries, we have referred to him as the centurion’s servant or slave. But the centurion calls him ‘παῖς μου’ (pais mou, my child) in Matthew, and the word παῖς is instead δοῦλος (doulos, ‘born slave’) in Luke 7: 2.
We know this servant, child or slave is found in good health … but for how long? Did he live to old age? Did he gain promotion, or even his freedom? What about his later religious beliefs? We do not know.
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 earlier in the Sermon on the Mount: ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you’ (Matthew 5: 44).
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 later that ‘the servant was healed in that hour’ (see verse 13).
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.
Jesus commends the centurion for his πίστις (pistis), faith, trust or belief. 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 child, servant or slave is not aware of any of this, and is left playing a rather passive role in the story.
So, we should note that Christ does not discriminate against the centurion, or against the child, servant or slave. He makes no distinctions, no categorisation, allows no compartmentalisation. We do not know the religion, the ethnicity, the sexuality or the cultural background of the one who is healed.
Christ does not allow us to hold on to any prejudices or attitudes that tolerate racism, sexism, and 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?
Today’s Prayers (Monday 2 December 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 ‘Hope – Advent’. This theme was introduced yesterday with Reflections by Esmeralda Pato, the Anglican Church of Southern Africa Representative and Chair of USPG’s Communion-Wide Advisory Group.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 2 December 2024) invites us to pray:
Lord, we pray for all places suffering from violent conflicts and genocide. Bring peace where hatred reigns, protect the innocent, and strengthen people and activists working for justice. May your love heal wounds and overcome evil.
The Collect:
Almighty God,
Give us grace to cast away the works of darkness
and to put on the armour of light
now in the time of this mortal life,
in which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility;
that on the last day,
when he shall come again in his glorious majesty
to judge the living and the dead,
we may rise to the life immortal;
through him who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
O Lord our God,
make us watchful and keep us faithful
as we await the coming of your Son our Lord;
that, when he shall appear,
he may not find us sleeping in sin
but active in his service
and joyful in his praise;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
Almighty God,
as your kingdom dawns,
turn us from the darkness of sin
to the light of holiness,
that we may be ready to meet you
in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
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
No comments:
Post a Comment