The Roman Centurion

July, 13, 2003, Matt 8: 9-13, Acts 8: 9 -25

12 years ago I took my eldest on a business trip to Laos and Cambodia. While I worked she hung out with missionary friends there, and stayed on in Phnom Penh with them for a fortnight after I came home. But the last few days she grew quite ill and had to be helped onto the plane back to Bangkok where she stayed overnight, awaiting the connecting flight to Melbourne next morning. When she woke up she was too sick to get out of bed, and phoned me here for help. So I rang Qantas and said: “my 16 year old daughter is booked on your Bangkok/Melbourne flight to take off in an hour only she’s too sick to fly. Her non-refundable, non-transferable advance purchase ticket expires then. Can you help us?” This wasn’t a routine request for customer assistance. This was full on begging. I was a nobody and she was booked on cattle class. Airlines get trailer park trash doing this to them all the time, and after a while our grizzles start to sound like Patsy Cline’s I Fall To Pieces on endless replay.

After what seemed like an eternity of praying while I waited, the receptionist came back with “There are seats on tomorrows flight. I’ve booked her for then.”

What happened there? I approached an institution, recognizing their authority, conceding my helplessness and was rewarded with kindness. Qantas didn’t serve a customer, they gave away a ticket.

In this gospel reading, the centurion was a thoughtful, caring and kind man. He was also a powerful military leader who had a hundred soldiers at his command. But with all his proven accomplishments, past achievements, and positive aspirations, he still felt unworthy, undeserving, and found it unseemly that the Lord should enter his house.

The centurion knew that Jesus was the goods. He had authority over sickness and suffering, and the centurion was very concerned about his servant who was at the point of death. He may have been a big tough army major, but possessed loving-kindness.

A little boy once explained the meaning of that term loving-kindness to his teacher and his fellow students: “Well, if I was hungry and someone gave me a piece of bread that would be kindness. But if they put butter and some sprinkles on it, that would be loving-kindness.”

Think about your faith: is it as solid as a Silver Birch that is unwavering, focused, immovable, growing steadily– oblivious to hot days and cold nights? Or is it more like the delicate African violet. The smallest disturbance bruises a leaf, the slightest variance in moisture causes our faith to wilt? How can we strengthen our faith in troubled times when we sometimes have a difficult time under normal conditions? Sometimes we feel a sense of being overwhelmed when things start coming at us from all directions. When pressures increase, we often find that our faith starts to waver. Is it possible to strengthen our faith in troubled times? Is it possible to have strong, unwavering faith? Today’s scripture points out that it is possible.

Of Jesus’ 35 recorded miracles in the Gospels, 26 were acts of healing, deliverance, and restoration. And of these 26 instances, only 7 people had asked Jesus personally; others were brought or approached by Jesus – 3 for themselves, 3 on behalf of their children, and the centurion for his slave. Only the centurion in all the Gospels acknowledged his unworthiness before Jesus, while others were usually very up front, to the point about their requests.

In the Matthew account, he spoke to Jesus calling him, “Lord” which was a sign of his belief in Jesus’ deity. He says, “Lord, my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering.” He defined the need clearly to Jesus. It was not vague and generalized. In The Message Bible he says, “Master, my servant is sick. He can’t walk. He’s in terrible pain.” He stuck to his point when making his request.

this centurion recognised in Jesus ultimate authority, because Jesus was under the authority of God. And so he told Jesus to just say the word

Jesus marveled at the centurion’s great faith in Him. The centurion from young had no Scriptures to read, no rabbi to teach him, no great tradition, regular training, nor profound theology to guide him. The guy was a culture vulture. The centurion did not have the glorious history of the Jews, and to them he must have looked like someone who stumbled off the set of a Stephen Spielberg movie. But he had the simple knowledge of Jesus; he may not have the traditional upbringing of a Jew, but he had the clear understanding of who Jesus was; maybe not cultural sophistication, but he had the evidence of faith in Him. Nor was he liked, since occupying armies are usually hated. The Centurion is running neck-and-neck with the weather channel when it comes to popularity.

(Reverse-tithing story.

To this day Phil hasn’t been able to buy the equipment.

Do we place obstacles in the path of miracles?)

The centurion could have let many obstacles stand between him and Jesus. Pride (I’ve 100 trained soldiers and I run this place), doubt, money, language, culture, distance, time, self sufficiency, power,…but he didn’t. He didn’t let these barriers block his approach to Jesus. What keeps you from Jesus? What stops you from knowing that He really wants to meet your need? This passage shows that Jesus doesn’t call the qualified. He qualifies the called!

The Centurion learnt that the Lord can Work With You On Your Terms: Jesus was willing to meet people and work with them in their situation and in their culture. He knew the centurion did not have the same background as the Jews who had a long religious history and who was from a totally different background. That didn’t matter to Jesus. He met him on common ground. The man wanted him to simply “send His word” and heal the servant. Jesus didn’t argue with that. He said, “Go, it shall be done just as you believed it would. His servant was healed at that very hour.”

What are you believing can happen when you pray? Do you believe just for a partial or limited answer when you could believe for the total answer? Remember Jesus’ exact words “It shall be done just as you believed it would.” One of America’s most productive 20th century churches, the Crystal Catherdral, would never have been built if not for this realisation. Its founder, Robert Schuller had just come from the eastern states and met a fisherman who kept the little ones and threw back the big ones. “Why do you do that?” he asked. The fisherman took a long time to answer, and when it eventually came, it was still an enigma “My fry-pan in only one-third of a metre across. I can cook the little fish on it, but not the big fish.” Schuller was about to suggest the guy buy a bigger fry-pan, then realized that the fry-pan of his own ministerial life had been too small. He had confined God to one-third of a metre church growth miracles, throwing away the huge catch that Jesus had planned for.

The Centurion was a foreigner, having to appeal for help in a different culture, far from his native land. It’s reminiscent of Pierino Marciano in 1935, forced to leave his native Italy due to the heinous government of Benito Mussolini. Pierino took his wife and family to America, arriving virtually penniless, supporting them with the only available job as a day laborer on the wharves of New York. Earning $5 a day for back-breaking work, he rented a tiny apartment in the slum quarters of Brockton, but an industrial accident crippled him, and he died shortly after, throwing a spanner into the already worn cogs of the family’s migration plans. On his death bed he called for his eldest son, 16 year old Rocco and told him it was all up to him, to see the family through. Before dawn the next morning young Rocco walked down to the piers on NYs lower east side, to get in line for a scarce day job. Though powerfully built he was very short and as a devout Christian abhorred violence. So he was hustled by adults competing for valued employment. Trying to ignore stand-over men, he was hit on the jaw, but took it without flinching. His assailant suffered a broken hand, saying the boy’s chin felt like rock, earning the boy the nickname Rocky, and a new respect from fellow-workers. He didn’t get much trash talk after that.

In the Great Depression $5 barely fed his family, but the cost of living has never reduced its popularity.

So the boy began moonlighting in Manhattan gymnasiums as a sparring partner to champions who wanted human punching bags. Only Rocky stood the test and actually drew complaints from the champs that he hit them too hard. After a few years he lost this job when he knocked out a champion in practice a few days before his world title bout against undefeated 3 time champion Jersey Joe Walcott. Promoters looked everywhere for a new opponent, but boxers need weeks of preparation and there were no takers for the daunting job against Walcott. In desperation they looked at the lad who had immobilized the challenger, reluctantly offering him the bout, now seen as a lay down misere for the champion who was 7 inches taller with a much longer reach.. When Walcott stepped into the ring he was 30 to 1 on to knock Marciano out. Rocky was offered at 20 to 1, with no takers except for the boy’s parish priest who unbeknown had placed the lad’s savings on the line. This was the biggest rattle of the dice since David took aim at Goliath.

Rocky managed to stay out of range for the first 6 brutal rounds, but by 7th he had already been knocked down once. In the12 th he was again hit to the canvas and didn’t think he could get up until hearing his mother at ringside yell “if you get up now Son, I promise you can win this.” Rocky jumped to his feet, to be greeted by a marauding Walcott moving in for a quick kill. His mothers promise seemed unattainable since never in world title boxing history, even to this day, has a challenger had ever got up from 2 knockdowns to win a fight. In round 13 Rocky saw that his bigger opponent had dispensed with conventional defense. Noticing Walcott’s unguarded jaw, Rocky hit him with the kitchen sink. Walcott went down like a sack of potatoes and the referee raised the challenger’s hand in victory. Rocky Marciano was now heavyweight champion of the world.

But at the post-fight interview, when Marciano told how he saw Walcott’s unprotected chin, he was contradicted by Movietone news footage showing that Walcott had in fact never lowered his guard, rather Marciano had instead found a way through an impenetrable defense. Asked how he got up from the second knockdown, the young man related his mother’s promise about winning if got up. But this also was refuted by his mother saying “Son, I was calling out that he’s too tough, so stay away.” When the confused interviewer asked for an explanation of both these strange phenomena, Marciano reached for the prayer book in his corner and said “Somebody up there likes me.”

Who’s been knocking you about? A violent relationship, a tyrannical boss or just a series of tragic events. Do you feel like you’re down for the count. Are people telling you it’s too tough, to stay away? Or can you hear the still small voice telling you to get up and keep going, with the assurance that you will get what He sent you for.

No matter how heavy the blows, how formidable the opponent, whatever punishment you’ve suffered, Hi divine resilience is ready to lift you to your feet. Regardless of what the world does, Somebody up there likes you.

K Gray