Whose are You?

Text: Luke 7:1-10

The date was May 6, 1937. A huge 800-foot blimp called the Hindenburg was carrying some passengers across the Atlantic Ocean from Germany to New Jersey. At that point, the Hindenburg had only been carrying people across the Atlantic for about a year. A blimp is able to float in the air because the balloon part is filled with helium. If you know the story, you know that the Hindenburg was supposed to be filled with helium, but it was filled with hydrogen instead. So what’s the big deal with using Hydrogen over Helium? Hydrogen was much lighter than helium and much less expensive, so shouldn’t it be a better choice? There was just one problem. Hydrogen was flammable. Hopefully nothing would catch the gas on fire. Anyway, somehow there was a discharge of electricity near a hydrogen leak from the blimp, igniting the Hydrogen. A huge fire engulfed the blimp, killing 36 of the 97 people on board. Not only that, but because of the Hindenburg accident, the zeppelin industry was crushed and would never recover. No one wanted to fly in a glorified balloon that could pop, or apparently also explode? The Hindenburg is the reason why you probably haven’t seen too many blimps in your life.

I can’t imagine making a mistake as big as crashing the Hindenburg. It is one of History’s most famous failures. Even though none of us will probably never even fly a blimp, let alone crash one, I think we can relate with this idea of failure. Now I don’t know about you, but I can’t stand failure. Of all the things that I could be afraid of, failure is the one thing that I think I genuinely dread. I love to achieve, and I don’t really like to try something unless I’m pretty sure I’ll be good at it, or at least have a chance of being good. Sometimes, I don’t even want to succeed that badly, I just don’t want to fail. The fear lies in the question of, “What if I’m not good enough?”

Similarly, sometimes we can get worried that we might not live up to the standards we see in the Bible. We might ask ourselves, “What if I’m not good enough to do all the good God wants me to do?” It seems as though God has just set the bar too high for us sometimes. It starts to make us think of the Bible as this rulebook that is primarily for telling us what we can and can’t do. Sometimes, we treat holiness as though it is something we either succeed or fail at. It’s almost as though there is a holiness checklist. Do we keep the 10 commandments? Check. Do we truly love God and our neighbors? Check. Do we forgive others and not judge them? Check. Do we have the fruits of the Spirit: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control? Checks all around.

Friends, we can’t view holiness as a checklist. But to know how we are to really approach holiness, first we have to understand what holiness really means. Does holiness just mean being an extremely good and nice person and living a good life? We normally associate holiness with righteous and pious people, thinking that if we live like they do, we will be holy. In reality, though, the word holy comes from the Hebrew word Kadosh, which literally means to be set apart for a special purpose. This is what holiness means when it is used in the Bible. God is holy because he is divine and set apart from creation; holiness is just who he is. God calls Israel a holy nation because they were set apart by him for a special purpose, to be a blessing to the nations. Likewise, the church is called holy in the New Testament because it has been set apart and chosen by God to spread his good news to the world. Since God is holy and we are called to be set apart like he is, then we have to be like he is. Holiness is being like Christ.

So we try to be like Christ. We treat it as though we are at point A, and true holiness is at point B. We want the quickest route to getting to point B. But how do we get from here, where we are, struggling to be ‘good enough’ all the time, to there, being completely like Christ, being ‘good enough’ all the time? This is what makes us ask ourselves, “What if I’m not good enough?” We sometimes see Holiness is as this journey where the more we act like Jesus, the closer we are to holiness and the less we act like Jesus, the farther we are from holiness. The problem with this way that we tend to view holiness is that no matter how hard we try, failure always seems to find us as we are trying to get from HERE to THERE. We are supposed to love God with all we are, but sometimes, we may love an object, relationship, or person more than God. We are supposed to forgive people as we are forgiven, yet sometimes it seems as though forgiveness is too much to offer people. We are supposed to give to those in need and trust that God will take care of us, but sometimes we want more for ourselves and sometimes we rely only on what our own hands can accomplish. As much as we try and strive for holiness over THERE, we always seem to find ourselves HERE. So again, how can we get from HERE to THERE?

The problem we have with how we view Christlikeness is that we tend to limit it to just being about acting in the ways that Jesus did. We are supposed to act like Jesus acted but acting like Jesus isn’t enough. Being like Jesus goes much deeper than your actions. To be more like Jesus also requires an inward change of who you are. I think that the issue for us is that we are trying to put the cart before the horse, to put things in the wrong order. Our actions are not what are supposed to come first, but our identity in Christ. If holiness is not primarily about what we do, then it has to be about something else. What I have to tell you today is that holiness is not so much about WHAT YOU DO as much as it is about WHO YOU ARE, and more importantly, WHOSE YOU ARE.

So the passage we are going to be looking at today is Luke 7:1-10. In this story, Jesus will heal a centurion’s servant, and I think that it speaks to us today about what holiness truly is like. But first, let’s understand the context of the passage. This is right after Jesus gave his Sermon on the Plain. What’s that? Thanks for asking Jackson. The Sermon on the Plain was Jesus’ first big teaching moment that we have recorded in Luke. Jesus taught a huge crowd of people about how they should live. He taught about blessings and woes, showing love and mercy to enemies, choosing forgiveness over judgement, producing good fruit over bad fruit, and about having a foundation on rock instead of sand. In other words, Jesus just told this crowd all about living good, righteous, holy lives the kind of things that people might put on a holiness checklist. Right after this is where our story begins. So, if you have your bibles, turn with me to Luke 7:1-10. It goes like this,

When Jesus had finished saying all this to the people who were listening, he entered Capernaum. 2 There a centurion’s servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. 3 The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. 4 When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, “This man deserves to have you do this, 5 because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.” 6 So Jesus went with them.

He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. 7 That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. 8 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

9 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.” 10 Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well.

The first thing we see in this passage is that Jesus entered Capernaum. This was Jesus base of operations in the early part of his ministry. He healed a lot, taught a lot, and performed a lot of miracles in this town. Next, we are introduced to a Roman centurion, who had a servant who was about to die. A centurion was in charge of 100 other soldiers This man had power and authority. Yet we also see him as a pretty upright guy. He obviously cared for his servant, someone who had basically zero value in his culture. The centurion could easily find a new servant, yet he cares for the servant on a deep level. Beyond this, the Jewish elders who are sent to Jesus tell Jesus that the centurion loves the Jewish people and has built their synagogue. This guy, a roman, was the enemy of the Jews. The Romans occupied the Jewish areas and were often abusive toward the Jews. Yet this man loved the Jewish people. Already, we see something about the centurion’s character. He is a good man. He loves his servant, someone who is neglected and not worth much in their culture. He loves his enemies and shows compassion to them, like Jesus just finished preaching in the Sermon on the Plain. If anyone deserves to have Jesus come to him, it’s this guy. He has authority and yet shows that he is humble and shows love to others. He can check that off his holiness list.

Jesus goes with the Jewish elders to heal the man’s servant. But then something odd happens. The centurion sends some of his friends to tell Jesus that he is not worthy to have Jesus come to his house. Hang on a second. We have looked at this guy and heard what the Jews said about him. If anyone is worthy to have Jesus come to him, it’s this guy. Doesn’t this man want to check stuff off his holiness checklist? Yet he realizes that even a man of his status is not deserving of Jesus to come to him. He recognizes Jesus’ power and likens it to his own. This man had power over the people he oversaw. All he had to do was say the word, and it would be done for him. Likewise, there is power in words, especially Jesus’ words. If Jesus just says the word, his servant will be healed. His response was an act of faith in Jesus. Jesus’ gifts are directed toward all, and especially the poor, but the righteous—no matter their ethnic or religious background—respond with faith.

The reason that Jesus went to this man was not because he deserved him to. It’s simply because that’s just what Jesus does. He heals people and he wants to see people healed. But what was Jesus’ reaction to the man? He was amazed, the same way the crowds reacted to him when he healed people. Only twice in Scripture do we see Jesus amazed by someone, and the other time he was amazed at the lack of faith of his hometown. Here, he is amazed at the amount of faith the centurion had. Keep in mind too, this man has never even met Jesus. And yet, Jesus had not found faith so great even in all Israel. Jesus was not amazed by what the man did, he was amazed at his faith. Jesus wasn’t impressed by how the man loved his servant, or how he loved the Jewish people and built their synagogue. All those things were good, but Jesus was amazed by how the man believed in the power of God. The centurion was a holy man not based on what he did but in whom he trusted.

Holiness is not an issue of what you do. It is an issue of who you are in relationship to God. It’s an issue of your belief in God’s power to do what he promised. Holiness and faith are deeply connected. It is a strange mix of God’s grace and our response as faith. It is never either/or. It is not all God or all us. It is both/and. The gift is offered by the Holy One, but like all gifts, the gift is received or rejected. The gift is never forced. God offers his gift of himself to each of us, but we still have to accept his invitation.

Don’t misunderstand me. Salvation is by grace alone, yet works are still important in the Christian life. God made sure to include in the Bible the right way to live because it is important to him that we live in a way that is pleasing to him. That is why we have things like the Ten Commandments, The Greatest Commandment to Love God and others, and the fruit of the Spirit. However, we can’t view them as checklists anymore. It’s time that we view them as fruit. Jesus had just said in Luke 6 that you can recognize a tree by its fruit. Good works MUST be viewed as the evidence of a holy life, not the means of a holy life. Doing good works does not make us holy, but they can show that we are living a holy life. Holiness does not come from what we do, it comes from who we are, and more importantly, WHOSE we are.

At the end of the story of the centurion’s faith, we see Jesus tell the crowd that he has not found so much faith even in Israel. The Jews were the ones who were supposed to know better. Yet the centurion, who did not know much of anything about God, had more faith than anyone Jesus found in Israel. He didn’t know the commandments and the Scripture that the Jews did. But he had faith. A simple act of faith is often all it takes. The centurion never even heard Jesus say the word to heal his servant. In fact, we don’t hear Jesus say the words either. Jesus’ words were not heard directly, but the centurion’s deep faith was enough to bring the power of God to his life. Jesus call to faith is one that asks for action. By our act of faith, we are sending God the message that we trust his timing, power, and grace in our lives. When who we are becomes a people of deep faith in God, we truly start to become more like Jesus. Living holy becomes a part of our identity because we are closely connected to God. I dream of a church that has faith so deep that it can’t help but produce good works, because that’s just what the church is.

I want to circle back around to this idea of failure. Fear of failing to live a holy life is something that we may experience sometimes. But it doesn’t have to have power over us because we now realize that being holy is not something we get to by doing good works. It is something we get to simply by faith. When we view holiness this way, everything else falls into place. We love God not simply because we are supposed to, but because God first loved us and we can’t do anything else except love God back. We forgive others not simply because we are supposed to, but because God forgave us our sins first and it is who we are to forgive like our Father. We give to others not just because we are supposed to, but because God gave everything to us and giving to others is now a part of who we are. We may still fail sometimes, but failure is just a part of being human. The important thing to remember is this: we are never holy by our own means. We are holy because we have faith in Jesus and he shapes who we are. We live holy because it is a part of our identity that we now have in Jesus.

What do we do with those holiness checklists I talked about earlier? We get rid of them. Burn it, cut it up, throw it away. Holiness is not a checklist, but rather a journey we take with God. I have a motorcycle and I have a car. It is amazing how different I treat them as I take them for drives. My car is primarily just a method of transportation. It is meant mainly to get me from home to college and back again. I just go from point a to point b in it. But my motorcycle I ride because it takes me places AND I enjoy the ride. It not only gets me from point a to point B, I also take it for rides up and down hills, around curves, and all over the backroads. I genuinely love to ride my motorcycle. On my motorcycle, I am not so concerned with getting from point a to point B as much as I am just enjoying the ride.

I think that this analogy works well to describe holiness and how we view it. So many times, we are so concerned with getting through the journey that we don’t enjoy the journey. And guess what? Sometimes, the journey is not on the expressways. Sometimes, the journey takes you down the dirty backroads that may not even have lines on the pavement. Those back roads are dirty and filled with potholes. They go up and down and all around. Sometimes the road isn’t even pavement at all, but more like a dusty, gravel path. But even though there are low point in the journey, the journey is still enjoyable. Let’s treat the journey we go through with God as an enjoyable experience. God is constantly working with us and is us to make us more like him. James says it well when he says, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” The point is that we are not there yet. The point is that we still have further to go with God as he makes us more and more like Christ. And we have hope now when it comes to holiness because holiness is not as much a matter of WHAT WE DO, but of WHO WE ARE, and more importantly, WHOSE WE ARE.

I am reminded here of 1 Corinthians 13. Paul writes, If I speak in the tongues n of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, u but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.