A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Matthew. As Jesus entered Capernaum, that's up in the Northwest corner of the lake, right on the lakeshore. As Jesus entered entered this city, a centurion approached him with this request. Sir, my serving boy is at home in bed, paralyzed, suffering painfully. Jesus said to him, I will come and cure him.
Sir, the centurion said in reply, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. Just give an order, and my boy will get better. I am a man under authority myself, and I have troops assigned to me. If I give a man the order dismissed, off he goes. If I say to another, come here, he comes.
If I tell my slave, do this, he does it. Jesus showed amazement on hearing this and remarked to his followers, I assure you, I have never found this much faith in Israel. Mark what I say, many will come from the East and the West and will find a place at the banquet in the kingdom of god with Abraham, Isaac, and with Jacob. While the natural heirs of the kingdom will be driven out into the dark. Wailing will be heard there and the grinding of teeth.
Then to the centurion, Jesus said, go home. It shall be done because you have trusted. At that very moment, the boy got better. Then Jesus entered Peter's house and found Peter's mother-in-law in bed with a fever. He took her by the hand, and the fever left her.
She got up at once and began to wait on him. As evening drew on, they brought to Jesus many who were possessed. He expelled the evil spirits by a simple command and cured all who were afflicted, thereby fulfilling what had been said through Isaiah the prophet, it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured. And this is the gospel of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen.
There is a startling contrast between the first reading today from the second book of kings and the beginning of the Babylonian captivity of the Jews and then this excerpt from Saint Matthew. I'm not trying to draw any parallel between the two. Far from it. Who could? All I can say is you certainly must have observed the sameness, the likeness between what we heard today from the second book of Kings and what you will read in this morning's Washington Post about Lebanon.
It's a weird story how the what has gone on in that part of the world down the centuries, and it's not over yet. I wanna come back, but remember, that's the beginning of the Babylonian captivity. And remember, this is an explicit act as we read of god's punishing his people. He didn't abandon them. He abandoned them to their captors, but he didn't abandon.
He didn't let them go completely. He didn't desert them, but he certainly committed them to a pretty severe period of trial and and repulsive suffering for the fact that they had abandoned him. Let's keep this in mind, you know, the bible isn't all roses and violin music on a serene spring evening by a tinkling brook. See, this is something we often forget. We don't like to think of God as the just judge.
We like to think of him as the benevolent father, but he's both of these things. Come back now to this wonderful story of the centurion. Now this is no parable. This is something that is supposed to have happened. I wish to bring home to you just one little point.
I'm not I mean, it it appeals to me. And that is why did the centurion go to Jesus? He was a Roman. He was above these ignorant people. Remember, Palestine or Israel or whatever you wanna call it.
That was in the boondocks compared to Rome. You couldn't get any farther, east. It was a nothing. It was just an insignificant little piece of geography that at times was like the thorn on a beautiful rose bush. But the Romans had taken it.
It didn't have much value as a piece of property. It was not a very wonderful assignment for a Roman soldier with ambition. So here we have this Roman soldier and some kind of an officer up in Capernaum, and that was a very important city at the time. The ruins are are very impressive, if you've seen them. And of his own volition, he goes to Jesus.
Now I'm not I'm not speaking or drawing the startling observation of why he, a Roman, should go and ask a favor of a Jew. That was worse than a Jew asking the favor of a Samaritan. That would pass that over, but don't forget it. The point I'm making is why did he go to Jesus with such trust and confidence that our lord could do something for him? What did he know about him?
The answer is he must have known a lot. So I can say he must have known a lot about Jesus. Because here's a man who was really putting his reputation, his honor, his prestige on the line when he, a Roman representative of the of the right might of Rome is going and asking favor of an of this a nobody. Remember, Jesus came from Nazareth. He was a son of an unknown carpenter.
He as far as any any standard that you hold up of a worldly, social, prestigious sort, you our lord flunks them. Every single one you bring up, he flunks them all. And yet here, this Roman soldier, a man in authority, probably the the highest actual practical authority in this in this very active city of Capernaum, goes to this Jew and says, come and cure my son or my slave. There's also a very interesting little sidelight there that this Roman was doing this not for his flesh and blood, but for either a slave or for a servant. That's something worth noticing.
And notice our blessed lord's reaction. He says, I will come and cure him right away. Right away. Now this contrast, you know, Sunday, I've had a few choice words to say about this wonderful wonderful story of our blessed lord being asleep on cushions. I love that because the evangelist says he was not only sound asleep in the stern of the boat, but he would back there on cushions sound asleep when the rest of the crew were beating their brains out trying to keep the boat afloat.
And there he is sleeping without with apparently no interest at all in what was happening. Whereas in this instance, our lord seems to bend over backwards going out to to do what this Roman soldier wanted him to do. He's tremendously impressed. Well, who wouldn't be? Aren't we?
And so here you have another picture of Christ. And then you have again this very astonishing development where our lord says remember, he's talking to Jews. They were the chosen people. They still think they're the chosen people. They are the chosen people.
He's speaking to them, and he says, look. He said, I have not found such trust. Notice they they use the word trust in this translation, which is a good word. He said, I have not found such trust among you people. They will come from the East and the West, the North and the South, and they will take over.
And how true that has been in the course of history as far as the Christian church is concerned. This is a wonderful story, and I think it should encourage our trust, our confidence in Jesus Christ. I'm the first one I am the first one to proclaim as loudly as I can that often in our lives, Jesus seems to be sound asleep on cushions in the stern of the boat when we are about to sink. About to sink. He doesn't let us sink, but we but it often seems that we're sure going to.
This is a fact of life. I can't explain it. And here, on this instance, our lord seems to be overwhelmingly generous and thoughtful and outgoing and eager to do what the Roman centurion wants him to do. What's the difference between these two situations? I don't know.
But I know this, I can depend on Jesus Christ. That I know. Not in my terms. See, this is the point. The trouble with all of us, we go to Christ expecting to be dealt with on our terms.
Whereas, you know, in the matter of honest fact, we have to be prepared to deal with it on his terms. Why? I have an answer to that. Because he loves us. Because he loves us.
And that is a very serious situation to be in because the when Christ loves us, he's going to love us on his terms, which means for our eternal salvation. And that's a big order. Believe me. But this is what we must never on God's earth forget, that God loves me even though at times he seems to be sound asleep on cushions in the stern of the sinking boat. In the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit.
Amen.