"They Say..."

Introduction

Good morning, everyone! I figured we could ease into the sermon today with a story first. This is admittedly a story that will mostly appeal to our aerospace engineers, but for those of you who aren’t, hopefully this is at least somewhat interesting to you. But there was a man named Robert Cannon. He was a bright individual that ended up earning his PhD from MIT and later taught there before moving on to Stanford, where he served as the chair of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He is known for his work on hydrofoils, which he worked on in the 50’s and until fairly recently, remained the fastest version of them. He is perhaps even more well-known, however, for his co-founding of NASA’s Gravity Probe B. If you’re unfamiliar with the specifics, here is what NASA’s site says: “NASA's Gravity Probe B (GP-B) mission has confirmed two key predictions derived from Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, which the spacecraft was designed to test. The experiment, launched in 2004, used four ultra-precise gyroscopes to measure the hypothesized geodetic effect, the warping of space and time around a gravitational body, and frame-dragging, the amount a spinning object pulls space and time with it as it rotates. GP-B determined both effects with unprecedented precision by pointing at a single star, IM Pegasi, while in a polar orbit around Earth.” Please do not ask me to explain what that all means, because I have no idea. I’m not smart enough to even begin to understand that. What grabbed my attention about that story, however, is that this project almost never happened. There were lots of obstacles to it, with lots of delays and funding issues, but I’m talking about the very first meeting between the men that ultimately started the project. Three men decided to meet to talk about the possibility of using gyroscopes for this project. Leonard Schiff wanted to ask Robert Cannon about gyroscopes, because he was an expert in them and wondered about their precision. He told Cannon that they would need a gyroscope that had drift rates less than one degree per million years. Cannon responded that the best gyroscopes out there at the time were being used in submarines, and their drift rates were only at one degree per year (so, literally a million times worse than what they would need to be). Schiff concluded that this was only a thought experiment then, and seemed to quickly lose hope in any possibility of being able to carry out this enormous project. However, as they continued talking, Cannon suggested a new idea: if they did the experiment in orbit, it would reduce the drift rate by a million times. Now all of a sudden, there was some hope for this project, and ultimately about 45 years later, it successfully launched and concluded, proving their hypothesis. That is a somewhat random story, but we’ll come back to this in a little bit, I promise.

We are continuing our series in the Gospel of Luke, and we are entering some fun territory, where tensions concerning Christ are going to begin mounting. And it all starts with what people hear about Jesus as he ministers throughout the area. Certainly, this could be expected. I mean, people talk about stupid stuff going on in town, right? “Did you hear so and so took out a second mortgage? Or that this person isn’t speaking to their uncle’s girlfriend right now? We find stuff to talk about, especially in smaller towns! So it’s not really a surprise then that a guy going around, teaching brilliantly, healing people of their sicknesses, and associating with outsiders garners some attention.

We pick up where Jesus has just finished preaching to large crowd and has healed some more people. Our passage today is really two stories being told to make one larger point about who Christ is. What I find so fascinating about this passage is what each encounter reveals about people and their perceptions of Christ. The first story has a centurion with a sick servant that he wants healed. What each person says gives us an understanding of what the rumors were about Jesus, but also how they understood him as a person. There is some strategic planning here by several people, each one constructing a careful argument for Jesus to hear. Let’s take a look at each one of these people and glean what can.

The Centurion Says...

We see first that the centurion “heard about Jesus” (vs. 3). Right away we can infer that the centurion did not know Jesus personally, but had heard some reports or perhaps even just rumors about him at this point. Whatever he has heard, it gives him hope that perhaps his ill servant could be taken care of by Jesus. When you need something from someone, you just go ask them, right? And the man he wanted to speak with had just come into town! Notice then, the peculiarity of the centurion. He doesn’t go out himself to make this request of Jesus, he instead sent him elders of the Jews.

Why? Is he too busy? He can’t be bothered to do it himself? I think the context tells us what is actually going on. If we look at vv.6-7, then we see that he views himself as unworthy of Jesus even coming into his house! As Jesus approached, in fact, the centurion sent friends to tell him this! So he still was avoiding making direct contact with Jesus even as Jesus was on his way over to his house. The centurion recognizes Jesus’ power and authority, and in light of the magnitude of such, sees himself as totally unworthy of Christ. He bows to Christ’s authority, knowing that in the same way that he can command his soldiers, Jesus commands disease (vv.7-8). That’s the good, healthy part of the centurion’s understanding of Christ. There is however, a wrong understanding of his position before Christ. The reason he sends Jewish elders is because of a false understanding of who Christ is. I think the text is clearly communicating that the centurion believes that Jesus belongs to the Jews exclusively. In his mind, Jesus is really just ministering to the Jewish people. At that time, Gentiles or non-Jews were viewed as unclean and “good” Jews wouldn’t associate with them. The centurion then is trying to maintain distance, but is also desperate for the miraculous power of Jesus. He’s being bold in his own right, even though he is indirectly interacting with Jesus. We see then that the centurion essentially says that Jesus is capable, but is he willing?

The Jewish Elders Say...

We do not know much about these men, but the elders clearly have some sort of positive relationship with the centurion. Not only are they comfortable going to Jesus to plead on his behalf, but they also seem eager to do so. Clearly, they deeply respect the centurion. The fact that they do associate with this Gentile is also telling of just how upstanding this man must be. That respect is the motivation for their going to Jesus to plead with him. Notice the approach they take with Jesus though. They attempt to convince Jesus that the centurion is worth expending the healing power he has.

They do this with two statements about the centurion. The first one is that the centurion “loves our nation”. They want to prove to Jesus that the centurion is worth listening to because he is basically “one of them”. The centurion loves Israel, apparently, and they think that because he supports them that this should overcome any barrier there might be between Jesus and helping a Gentile. In their eyes, just like the centurion’s, there is a sense that Jesus is ministering to Jews only. Their understanding of God (and of themselves) is that He only favors ethnic Israel. But we see repeatedly throughout Scripture that what God actually favors are those who embody what Israel was always supposed to be. This explains why we see at times God pronouncing judgement on ethnic Israel and blessing Gentiles elsewhere. We see one example of judgement in Amos 2:

“The LORD says:

I will not relent from punishing Judah

for three crimes, even four,

because they have rejected the instruction of the LORD

and have not kept his statutes.

The lies that their ancestors followed

have led them astray.

Therefore, I will send fire against Judah,

and it will consume the citadels of Jerusalem.

The LORD says:

I will not relent from punishing Israel

for three crimes, even four,

because they sell a righteous person for silver

and a needy person for a pair of sandals.

They trample the heads of the poor

on the dust of the ground

and obstruct the path of the needy.

A man and his father have sexual relations

with the same girl,

profaning my holy name.

They stretch out beside every altar

on garments taken as collateral,

and in the house of their God

they drink wine obtained through fines.

Yet I destroyed the Amorite as Israel advanced;

his height was like the cedars,

and he was as sturdy as the oaks;

I destroyed his fruit above and his roots beneath.

And I brought you from the land of Egypt

and led you forty years in the wilderness

in order to possess the land of the Amorite.

I raised up some of your sons as prophets

and some of your young men as Nazirites.

Is this not the case, Israelites?

This is the LORD’s declaration.

But you made the Nazirites drink wine

and commanded the prophets,

“Do not prophesy.”

Look, I am about to crush you in your place

as a wagon crushes when full of grain.

Escape will fail the swift,

the strong one will not maintain his strength,

and the warrior will not save his life.

The archer will not stand his ground,

the one who is swift of foot

will not save himself,

and the one riding a horse will not save his life.

Even the most courageous of the warriors

will flee naked on that day—

this is the LORD’s declaration.

Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Am 2:4–16.

The judgement coming from the Lord in this passage is coming to His so-called favored people because they fail to act like the Israel that God chose and called them to be. In Exodus, God says that the Hebrews will be a kingdom of priests unto Him and that they will be a holy nation. But what follows that statement, if you remember from our Exodus series a while back, are a bunch of laws and ethical concerns that God lays out that serve to determine what it means to be a kingdom of priests. It was not, at least primarily, their ethnicity that made them a people of God. Further proof of this comes when we look at how Gentiles were sometimes received into Israel. The fact is, anyone was allowed to join Israel, even the enemies of Israel. The only condition is that the men in the family be circumcised. We might look at that and think that it’s just a ritual that they have to perform, but in actuality, it is a symbol of them being brought into this same covenant with God that Israel has. We see women joining Israel, as well. Rahab and Ruth both become part of God’s people, and it is because of their faith that they are included. We also know this to be true, if you’re still not convinced, because this was the crux of Jonah’s issue with God: that God would be willing to bless and save those outside of Israel, even those who have served as oppressors to them.

A quick aside: it is of course true that being part of ethnic Israel meant something. We see Israel fail repeatedly in their efforts to be that kingdom of priests, and God does judge them for that, but He also comes alongside them and restores them, time and time again. God does not abandon His people, even when they fail to live as His people.

So the elders aren’t completely wrong, but they probably have it mostly wrong. It is not support of Israel that makes one righteous, but righteousness that makes one righteous. It seems they are trying to include the centurion but still doing so at an arms length. They’re wanting an exemption on a rule that Jesus never set, that only they themselves had set. The centurion’s support for Israel might be admirable, but we’ve seen demonstrated again and again that God wants people who write His law onto their hearts. Their statement, as short as it is, is a fundamentally flawed way of saying that the centurion deserves to have his request granted. Their need to justify his request to Jesus indicates a misunderstanding of Jesus’ ministry and his very person.

Alright, that was just their first argument for why Jesus should hear the centurion’s request. The second one is probably even more problematic. They say that the centurion “built them a synagogue”. This guy has financially supported them and their beliefs. Inherent in this statement is a regurgitated form of what we already discussed, that they are trying to present this centurion as functionally Jewish, so that Jesus might be convinced to bestow his blessing upon his servant. But there is also a sense that they are arguing that Jesus should do this thing for the centurion out of obligation. In their eyes, this man has supported their country and has also financially sacrificed for their beliefs, for God himself. They argue that the centurion is worthy because of his alliance and contribution to the things of God.

Their belief here is something many of us struggle with. We often fool ourselves into thinking that if we read our Bibles, pray, go to church, and be a nice person, then we are sort of guaranteed certain things in life. We have this unspoken arrangement with God, where we do what we think He wants us to do, and He will bless us. Some believe in extreme blessings, that by giving money to God through the Church that we purchase a right to great wealth and that God will give us tenfold whatever we gave to Him. This is heretical! We do not believe that we can earn the favor of God. We believe, like the centurion, that we are unworthy, that nothing we could possibly do would be enough for us to make God “owe” us.

We hopefully recognize that in this context, but still many of us believe we are afforded smaller blessings. We might think that God isn’t going to make us rich, but maybe we hold onto this false idea that God will protect us from all tragedies and discomforts, so long as we do our part. As long as I’m a good Christian, then no terrible illness will befall me or I’ll never lose my home, or my children will never despise me. These are not promised though, and whether they happen or not is not an indication of where we stand before God. The Bible often affirms the reality that sometimes the wicked prosper while the righteous wither. If you have been at Kish for very long at all, you have heard it said that none of us are good, none of us deserve anything good from God. Any good we receive is purely out of the goodness of God’s heart and has absolutely no bearing on our own hearts. If God treated us as we deserved, well…I shudder to think of what that might look like.

The elders have bought into this idea, and they try their very best to convince Jesus that the centurion is a good man that is worthy of his blessing, and that Jesus owes this man for his financial sacrifice.

What does Jesus say though?

Jesus Says...

Jesus doesn’t verbally respond to most of these statements and actions by the centurion and the elders. However, we still see certain ideas communicated by Christ. To recap the statements or beliefs of the others, they are:

Gentiles are unworthy of Christ

Supporting the things of God gets you an “in” with Christ

Sacrificing for the “cause” obligates Christ to answer people

What Jesus says instead though is that:

All may approach him

Your faith is what matters and

He is willing

Right away, I want to point out the obvious: Jesus was clearly willing to help this man. He hears the request and goes. We believe in a God that hears us and he intervenes in the centurion’s life. By the way, have you noticed we’re talking so much about the centurion and not so much the servant, the one who is actually in need of care from Jesus? Luke loves to write about the miracles Jesus performed, as I think he clearly sees the hope that is offered through them to people in all sorts of different circumstances. However, Luke also knows that this was not Jesus’ priority. Jesus did not primarily come to heal and to restore the sick, but to seek and to save the lost. Miracles were a part of that larger mission, and that context is important.

Which leads to the next point. Jesus was astonished at the man’s faith! Why was it so startling? Well, the man had never met Jesus and felt he was unworthy of meeting Jesus. Despite that, he believed that Jesus was powerful enough to heal his servant, even if he never met him. He explicitly says that he doesn’t want Jesus to come into his house! “Just say the word”, he says. He recognizes the authority Jesus has, and sees it as far superior to his own authority over his soldiers. Jesus finds this remarkable because in Israel, many felt like they had to earn that good favor from God. Many would have felt that if you want God to answer your prayer, you will need to get your life together and “be religious”. It was common thought that you needed to make yourself worthy before God. The centurion understands that he is not worthy, but that God is able.

The last thing Jesus indirectly says is that he is approachable, knowable. A key part of Jesus’ ministry was to bust open the doors of salvation, making reconciliation with God possible for all who believe. In the Hebrew Scriptures, we are shown that in order to gain access to God, you need a priest to go on your behalf, offering sacrifices. In Christ, however, we have God incarnate, who also serves as our priest. Jesus coming doesn’t mean we no longer need a priest, he IS the priest. The priest who took on flesh, offered himself up as a sacrifice for our sins, and who now intercedes on our behalf before God the Father. We have direct access to God, but it is through the god-priest.

This is direct access to God. We no longer need another person to go through to gain access; we have it in Christ. Having this direct access changes everything. It is a much more personal relationship, one where we can actually know the person. It is only through these direct relationships where we pick up the smaller details that make for a better story or picture of the person.

Going back to our story with Robert Cannon, there is another detail to it that I left out. I happen to know that this meeting, where they discussed some of the most advanced concepts of their day, took place in the nude. Sorry if I have painted any unpleasant or unwanted pictures n your mind. But I know this little detail, because Robert Cannon was my wife’s grandfather, and I knew him personally. So whatever unwanted pictures are in your head, believe me, they’re far worse in my head. Oh I should mention that this meeting took place at the Stanford University Pool, in the 50’s, where there was a “no swim trunks” rule. Yeah, I don’t know either…the 50’s were weird, man. Nobody knows what was going on back then. But that detail likely only comes from knowing him personally, and there are far more details that I have that color the story. I know, for instance, that Diana’s grandpa would be delighted to know that one of his stories made into a sermon. I can imagine his smile, wearing his OTLTA hat, which you probably don’t know what that is, but it was a fond saying of his in an acronym: “One thing leads to another”, which was a commentary on how he saw life unfold for him and something that He delighted in God about. He was in awe of how such small actions could snowball into amazing things, like a nude meeting ultimately bringing about the confirmation of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. It is through that personal relationship that I know of those things. You all have stories about people that are impossible to give the fullest meaning to if your audience doesn’t know that person. You have to experience the person yourself to get that greater insight.

You may look at the centurion and say that this man never experienced Christ directly, because Jesus never goes in the house. Remember, he sends out his friends to make the request of Jesus. But do you really think that the centurion never experienced Jesus directly? What else would you call the experience of going to check in on your sick servant that you care for deeply, only to discover that he is suddenly quite healthy, that your request of the most powerful person you’ve ever heard of, has been granted, despite him never even having stepped foot in your home? Is that really not a direct experience? For those of us who belong to Christ, we have had a direct experience with him, even if we have never physically met him. How else do you explain the powerful transformation that took place, that transfer from the kingdom of darkness to that of light? That place where greed, envy, lust, or hatred consumed you to now being in the Kingdom of Heaven, where love and mercy abound?

The World Says...

We are going to quickly look at the last part of this passage, a new story about a widow whose only son had just died. Sure, Jesus healed the sick and the blind, but there was still life in them, a small glimmer of hope residing within them as they still drew breath. This man is dead. There is no more breath. There is no more hope. Kurt Vonnegut is famous for his phrase “So it goes and so forth”, a dismissive, flippant remark made after he would describe some terrible tragedy. And his point in doing that was to communicate that life is random and some people get stuck with the bad, some with the good, but that ultimately none of it really matters anyways. Vonnegut would say that, ultimately, you are alone anyways. In Jesus’ day, those on the bottom of the social order probably would have identified with what Vonnegut said in the 20th century. They already had so little power, so little chance to advance up in society. There is a real sense in which, if you can’t advance in life in some way, you lack hope. If there’s nothing to aspire to, then what can you even do in life? I sound morbid and depressing. Good! That is what this poor woman was facing. Already widowed, she was likely financially distressed. Her son was the only security she might have in life, as he would be able to work and provide for her. Of course, relationally, she also has no support from her home. Both husband and now son, are dead. I am reminded of Naomi in the Hebrew Bible, but she was fortunate to have Ruth there to comfort her and who sacrificed her own prospects to be with Naomi. Who did the Widow of Nain have? A crowd of people? Maybe, but we’re not told of any obligation they have to her and it is possible they are just mourners. Society, and previous experience of others’ would say, that she had no one. The world would say she had no hope, no chance of restoration.

Jesus Says...

But the world is wrong. Vonnegut is wrong. Jesus did not “happen” to be coming to Nain that day. We are told that soon after dealing with the centurion, he headed to Nain. And just at the precise moment where the son is to be buried, Jesus arrives. To this point, Jesus has cast out demons, he’s healed fevers, paralysis, leprosy, but he has never raised someone from the dead. But Jesus has authority over life and death, and as the centurion said, all he has to do is simply say the word, and this man will be raised. Jesus demonstrates once again, that he is both willing and able to raise this man.

But Jesus doesn’t just raise him. Again, these two stories aren’t even about the miracles. We see Jesus show concern. The God Incarnate, the God who rules the galaxies, the one who knows all things, had compassion on this lowly woman. And he speaks to us when he speaks to her in saying, Do. Not. Weep. Jesus is not against us expressing emotion, heavens no! He’s expressing emotion here in this very passage! But Jesus is telling the woman, and because it is recorded in Scripture for us to read 2,000 years later, he is telling us, that he cares. He cares about little old me! And you! And because he cares, hope remains. The world says some things or perhaps some people are irredeemable, but Jesus says that he can restore the unrestorable.

The World Retracts

Friends, we are all headed into a tough season as a church. Many of you have probably already felt like you are in a tough season, and our news of the Tonjes’ feels especially heavy. But we learn in these stories that Jesus is intimately aware of our needs, that he has compassion on us. We see that we cannot earn his good favor, but all are invited to join him at the banquet table. What we need however, is a belief that these things are true, that Jesus is who he says he is. We didn’t dig into it, but it’s pretty interesting that both of these stories are very similar to stories about the prophets Elijah and Elisha. There are notable differences, but all we need to take from it is that Jesus in our passage today, demonstrates in every way that he is superior to those great prophets. And the people of Nain experienced it firsthand. Fear seized them all, the text says. They have never seen anyone like Jesus before. And it gets them shouting in praise, because they get it. No man could deliver someone from this tragedy. But this is not an ordinary man. “This is a great prophet”, they exclaim. “This is God himself visiting us, the people of Nain”, they say. Something came alive in them that day. They were woken from the stupor of their mundane tragedies. A widow losing her only son? That’s sad, BUT “so it goes and so forth...”. Until suddenly, IT doesn’t go and so forth! Suddenly, everything is different. All the hope that vanishes as we witness tragedy after tragedy, the suffering we experience zapping away any sense of aspiration, it all being so commonplace that it isn’t even worth remarking on…suddenly, Jesus says, “Do not weep. I say to you, ‘arise’!” And hope floods back in and totally transforms the community. They retract what they previously understood to be true of the world.

Jesus was there, intentionally, with a purpose. And he is here, with us, intentionally, and with a purpose. It is not our job to discern that purpose, and certainly not today. But as we sit here today, all I want for you to take away from all of this, is that the Children of God know God. And he cares for us, he has compassion on us. We are not alone, we are not experiencing some random event that is insignificant to the cosmos. We are known and we are loved, by the most powerful being in all of eternity, and he makes himself available to us.

Our challenge is believing that. The centurion did not believe he was worthy, but he believed that God was able, that he was compassionate. And Nain was transformed when they experienced Christ, awoken to an ancient work, planned from the beginning of time by God. What will we say, Kishwaukee, as we walk through this? Who do we say Jesus is, in the midst of our suffering? Do our actions and words, even in our grief, match the hope that we have experienced in Christ? Do we present Jesus as knowable to the rest of the world, still trapped in those mundane tragedies?