ALL ARE WORTHY
When Jesus heard this he was amazed at [the centurion], and turning to the crowd that followed him, he said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” – Luke 7:9
In our text from Sunday, we heard about two remarkable healing stories. In one, Jesus brought a man back from the dead when he saw the grief of the man’s mother, a widow. In the one before it, Jesus healed the slave of a centurion, a leader of the Roman army. The resurrection story comes second in the reading, and for good reason. First, it’s a story that takes someone from death to life. That is huge. Jesus does not only heal, he also destroys death. Second, the story is about someone with great need: a widow, who we’ve discussed would have had extremely limited options to sustain her life after the death of both her husband and her son.
In fact, in that light, the first story seems not only less significant, but maybe a little unfair. Why would Jesus let a centurion, a representative of the oppressor, get what he wanted? Why would Jesus go out of his way and risk defilement in a Gentile’s house – and not even for the man of power himself, but for one of his slaves? Does it really matter that a group of respectable Jewish men went to Jesus to vouch for the centurion? Isn’t it possible they’d been coerced to speak well of him, especially knowing how much they owed him (he’d helped build their synagogue)?
In other words, why on earth should Jesus even care? Couldn’t his time and energy be spent elsewhere?
We often try to decide for Jesus who his worthy of his love and care. We are especially good at finding reasons why we, or people like us, deserve Jesus’ special attention and concern. We don’t have to dig too deep to find the selfishness hidden in that drive. If Jesus shows love to people unlike us, it stands to reason that Jesus might not show love to us, either.
In the sermon, I talked about the universal nature of grief. No matter who we are or what our lives are like, we all know grief – especially right now. We might try to rationalize it or compare it, but folks, this isn’t a pity competition. It’s just hard. We all face losses big or small, and it hurts.
Knowing that, we revisit Jesus’ decision to hear the centurion’s request and heal his slave. Jesus doesn’t particularly care whether he should care for this man. He only knows of the pain of sickness and the fear of loss. He knows the depths of grief and sorrow and he knows he can do something about it. The amazing thing for Jesus isn’t that he might be called on to help in such an unlikely situation, but the bold faith demonstrated in the way the request was made. Jesus never doubted the centurion’s care for his slave. Similarly, he never hesitated in showing love in the face of suffering.
Jesus doesn’t see people as worth or unworthy of God’s love. Neither will we.
Let us pray:
Send us out, God. Grant us the strength and compassion we need to care for all people in your name. Free us from bias and judgement that tempt us to restrict your love to our boundaries. Make us joyful healers in the name of your Son, Jesus. Amen.