A Soldier s Faith A Sermon for Veterans Sunday Matthew 8:5-13

Transcription

1 A Soldier s Faith A Sermon for Veterans Sunday Matthew 8:5-13 Rev. Michael D. Halley November 9, 2014 Suffolk Christian Church Suffolk, Virginia Twenty-second Sunday After Pentecost ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Matthew 8:5-13 New International Version When Jesus had entered Capernaum 1, a centurion 2 came to him, asking for help. Lord, he said, my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly. Jesus said to him, Shall I come and heal him? The centurion replied, Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just 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. When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then Jesus said to the centurion, Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would. And his servant was healed at that moment. 1

2 Page 2 The Word of the Lord: Thanks be to God! Let us pray: Blessed Lord, who by Your Spirit caused all Holy Scripture to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear, read, mark, and inwardly digest these words that we may embrace and hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which You have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen. 3 As we know, relations between the Israelites and the Romans in the first century were very fragile. The Romans first got involved with this part of their empire about sixty years before Jesus birth. And while the Roman government generally tried to keep peace and good relations with their occupied lands, it was inevitable that there would be tensions. The centurions in the Roman army, who commanded a battalion of one hundred soldiers, were often the face of Rome, so to say, and they are spoken of favorably in the pages of the New Testament. On this particular day, Jesus returned to the city of Capernaum, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, and where he based his ministry. As Jesus ministry became more and more public knowledge, it was not unusual for people to approach him with various requests. So there was nothing out of the ordinary, really, when this centurion came to Jesus, pleading for help for his servant who was ill. Well, the servant was more than ill, he was suffering terribly. And the centurion s compassion for his servant was great, because he went to Jesus himself and did not send one of his soldiers to carry out this task. I note with some interest that Jesus readily agreed to go and heal the man. After all, Jesus had been given this power to heal so that he could demonstrate God s power and presence in his own life. That s what he was here on earth to do. Once when John the Baptist made inquiry about Jesus

3 Page 3 ministry, Jesus said to go tell John that the blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. (Matthew 11:5, NIV) But the centurion unexpectedly, in my opinion, said, and I am paraphrasing, No, Lord, don t come to my house, for I am not worthy to host you. I do believe, however, that you have all power to just say the word and my servant will be healed. I understand authority, for I have lots of authority over my battalion of soldiers, and I believe you have even more authority than I do. Jesus was taken aback (MSG 4 ), he was amazed (NIV), astonished (Phillips 5 ), and surprised (GNT 6 ) at what he had heard. Jesus did not often encounter such complete trust and faith, even from those who should have had faith. Such faith! And from a soldier! And such tender care of the people under his command! Jesus goes on to say, I tell you that many people will come from east and west and sit at my table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of Heaven. But those who should have belonged to the kingdom will be banished to the darkness outside, where there will be tears and bitter regret. (Matthew 8:11-12, J. B. Phillips) Do you catch the significance of what Jesus is saying? He is saying, in effect, Here you are, a man from a pagan country, Rome, and you have more faith than those who live here, brought up in the faith, the very people who are supposed to know all about God and how he works. 7 The faith of a soldier, who was not supposed to have faith, exceeded that of those who were brought up in the faith. And the result is that those who thought they would inherit the kingdom of God may find themselves on the outside looking in, with tears and bitter regret.

4 Page 4 It s a sobering thought, isn t it? Sometimes we Christians get downright smug, don t we? Do you recall what smug means? Let me remind you: smug is when we show the annoying quality of people who feel very pleased or satisfied with their abilities and achievements. 8 So, I took this one step further to show the seriousness of what Jesus is talking about, and I looked up some synonyms of smug : complacent, egotistical, pompous, self-righteous, self-satisfied, conceited, and holier-than-thou. 9 Is this our meek and gentle Jesus talking like this? Is he saying that we who think we own the kingdom need to think again? Is Jesus saying that God is going to bring in a whole bunch of people that we would deem unworthy and they will take our place at the banquet table, people from all over the world, from many different cultures and having vastly different customs and languages? Such faith! And from a soldier! The story is told 10 that on the morning of June 6, 1944, Franz Mueller, a German soldier, and six of his comrades found themselves in the middle of a division of American paratroopers. They stumbled across two American soldiers attending to a third soldier, who was dying from his wounds. Franz spoke English and he told the Americans he was taking them prisoner. But the dying American couldn t be moved, so everyone sat down to wait for his inevitable death. Shortly thereafter, the two American soldiers knelt beside their friend and began to pray the Lord s Prayer. After they had spoken a few words of the prayer, Franz knelt and joined in. Another German soldier who spoke English joined in, too. The other five Germans didn t speak English but they recognized the rhythm of the prayer, so they prayed in German. For this small moment in the midst of chaos and death, God s kingdom broke in: nine soldiers of two enemy armies, their politics and national loyalties suspended momentarily, were praying together -- four in English and

5 Page 5 five in German. Such faith! Paul wrote to the Corinthians, God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting our sins against us. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:19). This is the hope and faith we have in Christ: that in Christ we can have faith and be reconciled with each other and with all peoples. Do you have such faith? Do you know the Lord in the fullness of salvation and service to him? If not, then why not today? Believe the Gospel and let your life be transformed, that we all may be more like Jesus. As we have our closing prayer, I will use the Armed Forces Prayer 11, written by Terence Cardinal Cooke, Archbishop of the Archdiocese for Military Service, : O God, almighty and most gracious, we acknowledge Your dominion on earth and in the heavens, and the infinite love manifest in Your relationship with all people. As the Creator, You have made the world and invited us to share in its development; as the Redeemer, You saved the world and invited us to participate in its salvation. Give to the men and women of the Armed Services the wisdom and courage to so live and sacrifice that, with justice maintained and true liberty safeguarded, all people everywhere may be possessed of that peace which You alone can give. As they are called to engage in dangerous missions, be with them, their constant support and their ultimate goal. May they know Your continuous care and protection as they give of themselves that others may know security and peace. Amen.

6 Page 6 +==+==+==+==+==+==+ All Scripture references are from New International Version, NIV, copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc., unless otherwise indicated. +==+==+==+==+==+==+ Sunday Sermons from Suffolk Christian Church are intended for the private devotional use of members and friends of the church. Please do not print or publish. Thank you. Suggestions for sermon topics are always welcome! 1. Capernaum (kuh-purr-nee-uhm, or village of Nahum) was located on the NW shore of the Sea of Galilee. It was the city in which Jesus based his itinerant ministry. It is mentioned 16 times in the biblical record, only in the Gospels. The city was abandoned in the 900s A.D. See Capernaum, by George W. Knight, in Holman Bible Dictionary, edited by Trent C. Butler, c A centurion was an officer in the Roman army, nominally in command of one hundred soldiers. Centurions are mentioned four times in the New Testament: Here, in Matthew 8:5, which we are looking at today; In Mark 15:39, a centurion who witnessed the crucifixion identified Jesus as the Son of God; In Acts 10:1, the conversion of the centurion Cornelius marked the beginning of the church s outreach to the Gentile world; In Acts 27:3, the centurion Julius, who treated the apostle Paul with courtesy. Centurions were normally career soldiers who formed the backbone of the Roman army. See Centurion, in Holman Bible Dictionary, cited above. 3. This prayer comes from the African Bible Study method originated at the Lumko Institute of South Africa. This Bible study method was introduced to the wider world at the Lambeth Conference, a gathering of bishops of the world-wide Anglican Communion convened every ten years by the Archbishop of Canterbury. (The first such conference took place in 1867.) I learned of this Bible study method at a conference I attended in Lynchburg, Virginia, November 2-4, 2009, Interim Ministry for Today s Church, conducted by the Center for Congregational Health ( Wake Forest, North Carolina. 4. The Message (MSG), copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

7 5. J. B. Phillips New Testament (PHILLIPS), The New Testament in Modern English, 1962 edition, by HarperCollins. 6. Good News Translation (GNT), copyright 1992 by American Bible Society 7. Romans 8:12, The Message, cited above. 8. Smug, Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 9. From I could not find the original source of this story, but it was quoted in a sermon by the Rev. Randall Updegraff Spleth, Senior Minister of Geist Christian Church in Indianapolis, Indiana, preached on November 10 and 11, 2001, 11.Terence Cardinal Cooke (March 1, 1921 October 6, 1983) was an American Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of New York from 1968 until his death. As Archbishop of New York, he served concurrently as Archbishop for the Military Services. Information taken from Wikipedia.org. His prayer for the armed forces may be found at several locations on the internet. Page 7