“HE PERFORMS MARVELOUS THINGS FOR YOU”
Saint Matthew 8. 1-13
The Third Sunday after The Epiphany: 25 January Anno Domini 2009
Fr JW Watson S.S.P.
The venerable and blessed John Gerhard is correct when he positions both the Leper and the Centurion as models of prayer and faith. They are. The Leper's prayer is almost perfect: "Lord, if you are willing, You can make me clean." Had he added "but if You want me to stay a Leper for Your own good, albeit hidden to me, reasons-I'm good with that too-Your will be done-Praise the Lord." That would have been the perfect prayer had it been prayed sincerely from the heart and lips. Still, the point is not on the prayer of the Leper but upon the goodness of the God/Man Christ Jesus! The Leper was an outsider and no longer permitted, according to Jewish law, to be part of the worshipping community. Nonetheless the Lord had come to him by the Holy Word and the Spirit had created faith in his heart-enough faith to believe that Jesus could heal him of his hideous disease. He had no fear of Jesus, Whom he believed to be the Christ of God-fear such as the Hebrews had when the Law-Giver Moses came down another mountain with tablets of death. The Leper viewed Jesus as the waters of cleansing which could clean him of his sores the same way the Word spoken through Elisha bonded with the cleansing waters of the Jordan for the leper Naaman.
You my flock, sin daily when you fail to pray in faith, by faith, to your Lord Jesus that He can, and does desire to heal you from your frailties. You sin because your fallen nature desires healing rather than the Lord's will be done. You also trespass His Divine Law when you fail to come to him, like the Leper did, first, but rather resort to your own resources-be they financial, medical, intellectual, familial or pagan in nature. You do not love the Lord your God with ALL your heart, soul, mind and strength. But, notwithstanding Gerhard's point, neither did the Leper. Jesus' love-Grace-covers the Lepers sins and yours. Christ's perfect prayers, perfect communications (communion) with the Father, with the will of the Holy Trinity, satisfies your weak and erring prayer life. By faith in Christ, through the Word and its creating force, Jesus' Gethsemane prayer is now yours! You are graced to repeat it every time you pray the "Our Father."
While prayer is efficacious and God's desire for you, prayer is not a means of Grace, that is, prayer doesn't feed you Jesus but rather says "thank you Lord" after you've tasted and seen that He is good! Prayer is response, step #2, in a two-way dialog between the lamb and the Shepherd. Step #1 is the Lord's initiating work of creation, salvation and sanctification. Christ Himself, when He intervened visibly during His three-year public ministry (or during His entire 33 year visible and local presence) was nothing but GRACE IN THE FLESH. But also His spoken and preached and inscripturated WORD is a means of Grace, whether His form, His appearance, is seen with the eyes or not. The Roman Centurion from Capernaum knew that and believed it! Thus do we read from Saint Matthew's pen (after all Matthew was there in person to see it all and hear it all) Jesus "marveling" at the Captain's faith. The Roman had faith that Jesus was Messiah (as he had heard and learned and believed through the Old Testament Scriptures and the preaching and teaching of Jesus which also had somehow been communicated to him) and had faith that Jesus was good, and, most importantly, had faith in the Word.
Living by sight, trusting the eyes, will always get on "into trouble" and is the antithesis of faith-as the Apostolic Writer to the Hebrews would record. Greeks wanted wisdom, and Jews demanded a "sign," that is, more and more (maybe perpetual) physical, visible, and powerful miracles. Neither of these demands of empiricism would be given by the Savior. The Jews already had their Moses, their "shock & awe" of the Laws power. The Jews also had the Word, by Moses, that God would raise up one like unto Moses (a Man) who would also be God, who would preach the Good News and forgive sins-and SIN! The Jews rejected this servant, this Cross bearer, and instead embraced glory and power-two of the devil's parlor tricks. Most Romans, certainly most Roman soldiers and politicians, also looked for power, pomp, and control. While the Centurion too wished the Lord heal his sick servant, which would be a powerful act indeed, the difference is that the Centurion needed no outward signs of energy and force-no razzle-dazzle; no sizzle and burn. True faith, born of the Holy Ghost, says "Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed."
The Captain knew who this Nazarene Rabbi really was; he believed that the Master had complete mastery over life and death and over sin and forgiveness. This is the faith which the Spirit works in each and every one of you through the same Word; through the Word and not through the visible, touchable, photographable, scientifically verifiable Lord Jesus.
Gerhard, again, is right in praising the Centurion's faith, after all Jesus truly MARVELS at it. But, the Centurion was sinner. This Roman builder of synagogues (a good work to be sure) had a faith which was every bit as susceptible to failure as Paul's or Peter's …or yours. You set your eyes not on the Centurion, and heaven-forbid, not on your own faith, but on Christ-the author and perfector of your faith. Look not to Capernaum and a wonderful soldier, but rather to the Crucified One. It isn't the belief of the Centurion which saves, or your belief, rather it's the perfect obedience (born of the faith of The Only begotten Son in His Father) which saves. Christ's life of faith is the antidote to Adam's mistrust and doubt. Christ's life of servanthood and His substitutionary death to pay for your weak and defective faith saves!
The Centurion too, like the Leper, was an outsider to Jewish worship. Being a Roman, a gentile, he was a true "outsider." It is no coincidence that the Leper before, and the Italian Gentile after, both have Jesus in the center, on the mount, the high ground of service, healing, and forgiving-the high ground of Grace which would become Calvary. The ceremonially unclean and the ethnically unclean, both signify what was to come by the further Grace of God: "And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven."
This inclusion of dirty Lepers and goyim Roman invaders points to, and foreshadows all of you dear Saints. You are as diseased with sin (and perhaps medical infirmities) as the Leper. You are as foreign to the original righteousness of Adam as the Captain was to the Tribe of Judah.
Good story? Well, yes, good, Godly, but story? NO!!! Fact!!! Reality!!! Your status with God!!!
The Word splashed onto your infant heads; the Word taught you at your mother's knee, in many & different Sunday School rooms, the Word Preached to you at Mass after Mass, the Word placed onto your tongues and drunk with your lips, the Word spoken into your ears by Absolution, the WORD, the WORD, the WORD, gives you Jesus' Work of perfection and bloody death of perfection. You are cleansed from all your horrible puss-filled and rotting sins. You are healed from all of your incapacitating and hell-bound paralyses.
Your healer is Jesus. Your forgiver is Jesus. Your brother, your table host, is Jesus. Clean and restored sit now and dine with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Eat and drink and be loved with the Prophets, Kings, Apostles and Martyrs.
In the Name of The Father and of The + Son and of The Holy Ghost
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