The Gift of Blind Faith
Rev. Richard A. Bolland

Luke 7:1-10
(June 13, 2004 Sermon Transcript)

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        Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

        Our sermon today is based on the gospel lesson we just heard a few moments ago. Reading especially these words. When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, "I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel." Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well.

        Dear friends in Christ, there is absolutely nothing like meeting somebody famous in person. Indeed, a lot of us will shell out a good deal of money to go see somewhat that we admire in concert, and to pay big bucks to have tickets there, when you could have had, for much less money, a couple or three CD’s by the same person and heard all the music. But there is something special about seeing that performer face to face, and in person.

        This last week we saw this phenomenon again, as tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands, of people wanted to be in the immediate vicinity of our former President, Ronald Reagan, even though that presence was contained in a casket. People wanted to offer their respects for a man they admired as a great person and as a good President. And so they came, and they stood often five to twelve hours just to spend a moment or two in the presence of Ronald Reagan.

        In today’s gospel reading, proximity is also an issue. It is quite a remarkable text. And it is remarkable for at least three reasons that I can think of. The first one is that this is one of just two times in all the gospel accounts in which Jesus is utterly astounded and amazed. (I’ll tell you about the other one later!)

        Secondly, it is amazing because of the blind faith of this Roman, Gentile believer, who trusts in God’s word so much that the entire conversation between him and Jesus never took place face to face. He found it completely unnecessary to be in the proximity of Christ, knowing that His word alone was sufficient.

        Thirdly, I would suggest to you that it is amazing in this text that we find ourselves precisely in the same place as the Roman centurion, for we do not see Christ face to face, even though He has promised that lo, He will be with us always, even until the end of the age. We don’t see Him as the apostles did, and we only hear Him speak through His word. And the issue is, will we believe what He has to say, or will we exist on our own conclusions.

        The nature of blind faith, I would suggest, begins this way, as it did with this centurion. Faith is humble before God. Blind faith is humble before God. The Roman centurion was a man of quite high standing and some personal power. The Roman historian Flavius tells us that Roman centurions were selected out of the very best men of the Roman army, for it was essential to have men of good character and leadership in command of those basic fighting units of one hundred. And so, this man was one of those. And his character was given witness by the elders of the synagogue in that he was willing, even to fund the entire cost of the synagogue at Capernaum. The Greek is quite obvious at this point. It says that he, himself, paid the money in order to build the synagogue.

        What’s more, having been stationed in this far-away land with these foreign people and foreign languages, he became impressed with the word of God as it was proclaimed in the Old Testament. And he became what was knows as a proselyte at the gate. That is, as a gentile who had converted to Judaism and was a man of faith.

        And we see that it was impressed upon the Jews of the day in that particular locale that this man was deserving of their support, for it is the elders of the synagogue who go to Jesus to plead their case for this man’s servant, who was literally, according to the text, at the edge of death. Unless something intervenes, this servant will die.

        Like all of his rank, despite all of his influence, and despite the fact that he was obviously of considerable wealth, not once, dear friends, does this man claim any special privileges. He never claims once that he deserves to be helped. He does not even presume to go to Jesus himself. He does not consider himself worthy to be in the presence of God. And so he does not go, but rather sends those who, perhaps, might be welcomed.

        Additionally, we are told very clearly in this text that he never asks Jesus to enter his home. He asks Him to come, and to heal. And indeed, as Jesus agrees to go, and perhaps even to enter this gentile house, which, by the way, would make Jesus ceremonially unclean, was exactly the reason for the hesitation of the Roman centurion to ask Him to come. That indeed, he sent a delegation upon hearing that Jesus is actually coming! And he says, "Stop coming! I am not worthy to have you under my roof!", this gentile says to the Jew. Such respect! Such humility! He would not, under any circumstances, render the Master ceremonially unclean.

        And so here lies the true conundrum for this man. His servant is too ill to move him to the Master, and the Master is a Jew who cannot and should not enter a Gentile home. And so we see this, the intentions of the Roman’s heart. Not only did he not see Jesus face to face at all during this entire encounter, working only instead through intermediaries. But rather we find that he never wanted, nor was it his intent, to have Jesus personally enter his house, touch his servant, and heal him. Indeed, he had faith that if God in human flesh, Jesus Christ, the righteous one, the Christ of God, would but say the word, that which he asked would be granted.

        That assumption of proximity being terribly important is often repeated by us today. Indeed, unlike the centurion, we boldly often demand the presence of God, that in the midst of our turmoil, in the midst of our strife, in the face of illness, or in the face of whatever difficulty we may be facing, we want God to show up! And if He doesn’t seem to, we probably get angry with Him because He doesn’t. Indeed, sometimes when we pray our prayers on behalf of the sick, we think, errantly, by the way, that if we get more people praying that God will more likely hear our prayer and the healing we seek will more likely be given. Now, it is a good thing to be an intercessor for those who are hurting, and so we do, and so we shall later in our service. But it does not, because of the numbers of people, mean that we gang up on Jesus so that the prayers work better.

        Likewise, there are many who believe that if you actually lay your hands on somebody who is sick, and then pray for him, that will carry more weight with God than if we simply issue the prayer of a heart seeking the mercy and healing of God. But it is not so.

        The scriptures say, The prayers of a righteous man (righteous in Christ) availeth much.

        Here we may learn, I think, a very valuable lesson from the centurion. We might, first of all, remember that, like him, we don’t merit any special consideration from God. In fact, we don’t deserve anything from God. Rather He freely and willingly gives of His mercy and grace and faith to us. Our vain attempts often always try to control situations when they seem to be spinning out of control. And sometimes we insist that we have to work everything out so much, that it is a painful testimony to our lack of faith that most things in life our not under our control. And most things in life take divine intervention for healing.

        I would suggest also, that as sinners, and all of us are, the only approach to God is not in pride, not in manipulation, but is to seek His grace without any cause that originates from us. Indeed, as undeserving supplicants, we come seeking the mercy of the only source of spiritual healing and spiritual strength, and that is God.

        I’m reminded of the parable that Jesus told so eloquently of two sinners, one a Pharisee who stood and prayed, out loud for the hearing of all, that he thanked God that he was not as other men. That indeed, he had been giving a certain amount of money to the synagogue, that he had been doing all kinds of good and righteous things. And the other man was a tax collector, who, the scriptures say, would not even lift his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, bow his head, and say, "God have mercy on me, a sinner!"

        And Jesus concluded the parable by saying, "I tell you, it is this man, the tax collector, who will be justified before God."

        Dear friends, let us deposit our good works on the ash heap of hopelessness. For in them we have no hope. Rather let us seek that which we do not have through the mercy of God, the forgiveness of our sins and the grace to serve Him with a God-pleasing life.

        It is not, I suspect, without irony, that we see a comparison being made in this particular text. For you see, the second thing that blind faith really has, is that it trusts in God’s word. Not only is it humble, it trusts in God’s word. The centurion’s trust in Christ was indeed amazing. At first Jesus is amazed. The text tells us He was amazed once before. He was amazed initially at the unbelief of His friends and neighbors in His hometown of Nazareth, as He read from the scroll of Isaiah revealing Him to be the one who was the Christ, the Messiah of God, who had come. For having proclaimed this good news, His friends and neighbors took Him out to the edge of a cliff intending to throw Him off. And the scripture says He was amazed at their unbelief.

        And then the second time is this one. A Gentile. A Gentile who seems to be exhibiting more faith than most of those in Israel would exhibit. Despite the fact that it was Israel who had the scriptures, it was Israel who had the promise of the Christ, it was Israel who had the prophets. And yet where does he find faith? In the blind faith, the unseen faith, of a Roman centurion. No wonder He was amazed.

        That faith is seen in the lack of dialog face to face. It wasn’t necessary, the Roman soldier knew, to be in the presence of Jesus. Jesus only need speak. I suppose we can conclude also that the fact that he had faith, that this man, this Jesus of Nazareth, could actually heal his servant who was on the cusp of death is a testimony to the faith he also had in Christ. And what’s more, it is underscored by the centurion’s complete faith that if Christ would just but speak it would be done!

        How often do we lack faith in the word of God? How often do we see things in the Holy Scriptures that we don’t fully understand and conclude that if we can’t understand them that therefore, it must not be so. We stack up our human reason against the plain, clear word of God, and we ask that God would reveal things to us that God has not chosen to reveal to us.

        I’m reminded a little bit of the excellent movie, "A Few Good Men." Perhaps you remember that, starring Jack Nicholson as an errant marine officer. And in the course of the trial, the lawyer, played by Tom Cruise, demanded of Nicholson the truth. And Nicholson responded angrily, "You can’t handle the truth!" You know the words by heart!

        In some ways I think that God must be frustrated with us, if God can be frustrated (I think He can!) and sometimes He look at us when we demand of Him things that He has chosen not to reveal, that we can’t handle the truth. He gives what we can handle. And so the mystery of the Trinity seems quite beyond our comprehension. And it is. Please remember who it is who speaks it. You have a choice. You can let God be God and reveal Him as He reveals Himself. Or you can whittle Him down to your own size and say that if my flawed human reason can’t figure God out, then I don’t need God. And all we have then is a man-sized God.

        Graciously, God insists on our trust to accept things we cannot fully understand. To trust when hope seems out of our reach. We too then need the faith of the centurion to trust in God speaking to us through His word. To really and truly trust in Christ’s redeeming life and death. His life as our righteousness, His death as our payment for sin. To really and truly trust in Christ’s victory of death and sin and the grave in His resurrection, that it is also our victory of death and sin and the grave! To really and truly trust in Christ’s healing word for us when we face the seemingly insurmountable, the illnesses, and the obstacles of life that just seem to be blockaded against in such fashion that no matter what our best efforts are, we just can’t seem to find a way around them.

        But I assure you, God can, and He will.

        His solution may not be according to our expectations. But it will be better than our expectations.

        And finally, know this. The gift that God gives us includes the faith of the centurion. It is not that we pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and pull ourselves up by the determination of human will, but rather that God freely and graciously and bountifully provides us with the very ability to trust those whom He calls. It is a gift of God. Therefore our prayer should, perhaps, be the prayer we have heard echoed. When Jesus heals the son of a man who’s son is demon-possessed, in Mark 9, we read about it. Jesus asked the boy's father, "How long has he been like this?" "From childhood," he answered. "It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us." "'If you can'?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for him who believes." Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, (and listen carefully!) "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!"

        That is a prayer all of us should utter every single day. We believe. Help us overcome our doubts. Help us overcome our unbelief. Help us trust. For God alone is worthy of such trust.

        Blindness can be a terrible affliction. But it can also be a marvelous blessing when we speak of blind faith that grips with an iron-like, but God-given trust, in His word. Perhaps we should remember the words of our Lord to a doubting Thomas when He says, Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

        Dear friends in Christ, let us rejoice in the trust and the faith that we have graciously received from our merciful Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen.