Luke 7:1-10 Galatians 1:1-12
Galatians
is one of my favorite of Paul’s letters to his far-flung congregations. It has the section comparing the fruits of
the Spirit to the fruits of the Flesh, which has been powerful and inspiring to
me as I struggle to work through the anger and impatience that have, at times,
seemed to overwhelm me. It echoes Jesus’
call to reconciliation and forgiveness in the hopes of restoring communities
and relationships with gentleness. And
in this letter, when Paul speaks of the freedom that comes freely from grace
rather than from the impossible task of living the righteousness of God … I
actually feel like I understand it. That
gives me hope.
But
the letter starts off on quite a different note. Paul usually begins his writings with a
greeting followed by some words of thanks to God for the congregation he is
addressing and an expression of his confidence in them. This time, he lets go with a rebuke that
comes to a head with a powerful curse.
Not a good way for things to start.
And
yet, the body of the letter does not show anger. Despite the harsh words, Paul does not seem
to be raging at the people. What he does
express is his disappointment, his frustration, and his worry that these
gentile believers are being led astray by other missionaries who have missed
the heart of the gospel by focusing too much on details. (The particular detail in question is the
need for believers to be circumcised in order to fulfill Jewish righteousness…
which I wouldn’t know if it weren’t for other scholars who spend a lot of time
focusing on the details of scripture.
But, they assure me that it is so.)
Paul disagrees quite strongly with that requirement, and accuses them,
basically, of being blind to good news of Christ’s grace.
It
reminds me a bit of the Hindu story about six blind men who thought themselves
very wise and knowledgeable until, one day, they got into an argument.The
object of their dispute was the elephant. Now, since each was blind, none had
ever seen that mighty beast of whom so many tales are told. So, to satisfy
their minds and settle the dispute, they decided to go and seek out an
elephant.
They hired a young guide and set
out early one morning in single file along the forest track, each placing his
hands on the back of the man in front. It was not long before they came to a
forest clearing where a huge bull elephant, quite tame, was standing
contemplating his menu for the day.
The six blind men became quite
excited; at last they would satisfy their minds. Thus it was that the men took
turns to investigate the elephant's shape and form.
As all six men were blind, none of
them could see the whole elephant and approached the elephant from different
directions. After encountering the elephant, each man proclaimed in turn:
'O my brothers,' the first man at
once cried out, 'it is as sure as I am wise that this elephant is like a great
mud wall baked hard in the sun.'
'Now, my brothers,' the second man
exclaimed with a cry of dawning recognition, 'I can tell you what shape this
elephant is - he is exactly like a spear.'
The others smiled in disbelief.
'Why, dear brothers, do you not
see,' said the third man -- 'this elephant is very much like a rope,' he
shouted.
'Ha, I thought as much,' the fourth
man declared excitedly, 'This elephant much resembles a serpent.'
'Good gracious, brothers,' the
fifth man called out, 'even a blind man can see what shape the elephant
resembles most. Why he's mightily like a fan.'
At last, it was the turn of the
sixth old fellow and he proclaimed, 'This sturdy pillar, brothers' mine, feels
exactly like the trunk of a great areca palm tree.'
Of course, no one believed him.
Their curiosity satisfied, they all
linked hands and followed the guide back to the village. Each now had his own
opinion, firmly based on his own experience, of what an elephant is really
like. For after all, each had felt the elephant for himself and knew that he
was right! And so indeed he was. For depending on how the elephant is seen,
each blind man was partly right, though all were in the wrong.
Of
course, we tend to assume that Paul had the whole picture and it was the
missionaries who had the wrong end of the … tail? But, before we judge them too harshly, we
should probably look at ourselves. I,
for one, am a detail person. I may head
into any given situation in life with a fairly good understanding of the larger
picture, but once I get going, I often get lost in the details. And more than once I have gotten so caught up
in following the little things through to their end that I find myself
completely off-track when I finally step back again for a more holistic
perspective.
I
don’t know if any of you have experienced the same thing, but I have noticed
that our society, as a whole, and many of the smaller groups that we are part
of quite often seem to get distracted by pesky little details. Take, for example, the discussion among
scholars of the story we read from Luke today.
Each person seems to focus of one aspect of the story and make that
particular piece the center of its meaning.
I suspect that they all see things differently in the light of their own
life and experience, and so we get this “sturdy pillar” from E. Louise
Williams:
Authority and power have a primary place in the story of
Jesus and the centurion; in fact authority is a recurring theme throughout
Luke’s Gospel.
Roman centurions were accustomed to trading on their
authority and power. They could command
their servants and order those under them to do whatever they wished. They could enhance their own honor by
associating with important people. And
when they did a favor for someone, they knew they could ask for one in
return. It was the culture of the day,
and they had a place of authority in it.
The centurion’s first approach to Jesus regarding his sick
servant was exactly what one would expect in such a society. The centurion had been generous to the Jews
in Capernaum and had even financed their new synagogue. Now, in return, he asked their leader to
approach Jesus on his behalf. It was an
honor to Jesus to have such important people make the request and to have them
name the centurion as someone worthy of Jesus’ favor.
But then, just when the centurion was ready to receive a
home visit from someone who would enhance his prestige and who had a reputation
for healing – he sent a second unexpected message. First, the centurion confessed his own unworthiness. Second, he asked Jesus not to come to his
house….
The centurion took the lower place, and Jesus praised him
for it. This Roman gentile had grasped
something that Jesus’ own disciples were having difficulty understanding…. The centurion glimpsed an authority that was
like no other authority he’d seen, and came to faith without ever meeting Jesus
or hearing him speak.[1]
Centurions show up rather frequently in the
Gospels and in Acts. This in itself is not surprising, since centurions would
have been a part of the Roman occupation force in Judea and Galilee in the
first century. What is surprising is that these representatives of Roman
occupation are portrayed in quite positive ways.
The centurion in Luke 7:1-10 fits this surprising profile. He is a Gentile (and presumably Roman, although not all members of the Roman army were ethnically Roman), who seeks Jesus out for the healing of his slave. This oppressor of the Jewish people initiates a conversation with a Jewish healer. He sends Jewish elders to speak on his behalf to Jesus to prove that he has been a patron of the Jewish people. Then he sends his friends to keep Jesus from coming to his house, expressing confidently and with an analogy from his own role in the Roman army that this Jewish healer, Jesus, is able heal from a distance….
The centurion in Luke 7:1-10 fits this surprising profile. He is a Gentile (and presumably Roman, although not all members of the Roman army were ethnically Roman), who seeks Jesus out for the healing of his slave. This oppressor of the Jewish people initiates a conversation with a Jewish healer. He sends Jewish elders to speak on his behalf to Jesus to prove that he has been a patron of the Jewish people. Then he sends his friends to keep Jesus from coming to his house, expressing confidently and with an analogy from his own role in the Roman army that this Jewish healer, Jesus, is able heal from a distance….
Somehow, it seems fitting in this surprising
story that Jesus himself is surprised and amazed at the trust this centurion
demonstrates. He is surprised to find faith in a centurion that surpasses what
he has seen in anyone from Israel. And we can learn something from Jesus’ own
surprise at the specter of an enemy soldier proving to be a model of faith for
the people of God.[2]
And
this “fan” from Carol Cook Moore:
Healing is not a result that can be bartered
any more than can increasing one’s patience, joy, or charity. The work of
healing is a sacramental work through which the power of life coming from death
interfaces with the brokenness of body, mind, or spirit. We cannot explain
healing any more than we can explain the presence of the risen Christ in the
breaking of bread and the drinking of wine. So what does it mean to trust that
Christ is present especially when there is great evidence to the contrary? You
see, the Centurion demonstrated allegiance and faith in God. Yet this is not why
the servant is healed. On the contrary, it is the gift Jesus finds in the
midst of being interrupted on his way somewhere. It is the example that he can
lift up for those who are watching and listening as the power of God marches
through human barriers that allow us to think we do not need to help someone
because they are not one of us, they are on the outside or they are undeserving. [3]
At
the heart of this story is the good news of God’s new way of living, and it
includes all three of those pieces … and more.
What it tells us (and this is, I suppose, my own interpretation) is that
in the realm of God all people are equal and equally welcome to share in the
freely-offered, live-giving grace and love of God.
All
people are equal and equally welcome to share in the freely-offered,
live-giving grace and love of God.
What
I do wonder is what Paul would think of us … and I say this without any sense
of judgment at all. Are we a people who
get so caught up in the details of living out our lives together that we lose
sight of the hope and the promise at its heart?
Or are we holding onto that promise of freedom, reconciliation, and
grace? Do we follow the path of worry
and performance into the cul-de-sac? Or
do we trust God’s love and step forward in faith to ask for God’s healing word?
I
think those are important questions to ask, especially as we continue the
process of working out the vision and priorities that will guide us and the
structure that we think will support that mission.
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