Luke 7:1-10

Healing the Unworthy

Proper 4C/ 2^nd Sunday after Pentecost

May 29, 2016 (Memorial Day Weekend)

This is the kind of thing we see in our Gospel reading today. A centurion has a servant who is sick and dying.  He is Roman soldier in a prominent military position, a Gentile, mostly likely a worshipper of Roman gods but apparently has some respect towards Judaism.  He hears about Jesus and sends some Jewish elders to Him asking Him to come and heal the servant. These Jews come to Jesus, pleading for Him to come and basically tell Jesus that this centurion is a good man who deserves what Jesus has to give. He is worthy of this healing.

But really, what does it mean to be worthy?  What does he really deserve? They tell Jesus says that he loves the nation, which is significant because it’s not his native land, he’s not Jewish.  He’s even built a synagogue. That probably wasn’t cheap, nor easy to do.  And he actually has some compassion for his servant, who is probably a slave, at a time when it was easy to treat them more like property than with dignity as another human being.  It’s all pretty impressive really, especially from a Gentile.

But it isn’t until this centurion sends friends to Jesus that the Lord marvels at him. He didn’t presume to come to Jesus because he knew he wasn’t worthy. Not worthy of approaching Jesus, not worthy of having Jesus under the roof of his house, not worthy of having Jesus heal his servant. This is where Jesus flips everything upside down.  It’s because the centurion isn’t worthy of anything good from Jesus, and that He knows His unworthiness, that Jesus comes to Him with healing.

Let’s be honest with ourselves. More often than not, while we know better, we function more like those elders of the Jews who pleaded with Jesus that the centurion’s worthiness is because he loves our country and built the synagogue. So is that what God really cares about? It’s Memorial Day weekend here, a patriotic time where we tote the flag and our Christian foundations. So do we feel like God ought to bless us because we love our country and have built churches here.  Like God owes us more than what He has already given us.  There’s words for that – greed, envy, selfishness, idolatry, a different gospel.

This is whole thing about the Gospel. Jesus comes for the unworthy. He dies for those who deserve death. Grace is God’s undeserved favor.  Undeserved.  You don’t get what you deserve, which is the wrath of God, eternal death. Jesus gets what you deserve as He hangs upon the cross.  This is why He says, “My Lord, My Lord, why have you forsaken Me.”  God forsakes His Son, He turns His gracious favor from Jesus and because of Jesus, He looks at you. 

 We get mixed up pretty often, don’t we?  We pray and pray and often times feel as if God’s owes us something because of what we’ve done. I’ve been good this week God, I deserve next week to be good.  I helped someone out at the grocery store, so I deserve someone else to help me out. I put a big chunk of money in the offering plate, or donated a bunch of time, so I deserved to be blessed by God with health, wealth, and happiness. Someone is more important in church if they are on the Board of Elders of Ministry Council. It’s the unchristian and sinful idea of karma, which is simply self-righteousness - If I do good, I deserve good. If I do bad, then I deserve bad. And all in all, I try to be a good person, so God should give me what I deserve, what’s coming to me.

When the Holy Spirit gathers us together each week for worship, we come thanking God and giving Him praise because He doesn’t give us what we deserve. We justly deserve God’s temporal and eternal punishment – punishment both here on earth and into eternity.  What we are saying here is the same thing as the centurion, “I am not worthy to have you under my roof.”  Lord, have mercy upon me a sinner. Do not give me what I deserve.  Instead, give me Jesus.  The confession of our unworthiness is a confession that there is someone who is worthy, and that is Jesus. If you don’t recognize your need for a Savior, then what’s the point of having a savior. If your sin isn’t that bad, then Jesus isn’t that good. If you are worthy all by yourself, then Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead for nothing.

This is a hard lesson we need to learn, and we need to reminded of on a regular basis. God doesn’t owe you anything good because of you. He owes you everything good because of Jesus. God does not promise you an easy life. He promises you Jesus. God does not promise that you will be happy. He promises you the peace of God that passes all understanding. God does not promise that you have all that want. He promises that Jesus gives you all you need. God does not promise that you will be healed of your sickness or advert your impending death.  He promises deliverance from sin and death, He promises the eternal life of the very Son of God. St. Paul writes in our Epistle, “God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father…” (Galatians 1:3b-4)

Beloved in Lord, you are worthy to stand before a holy and righteous God without fear or worry and without any merit of your own. By faith not by deeds you are worthy. Luther once wrote concerning Communion, He is truly worthy who has faith in these words, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.  You are worthy because of faith. Because faith receives the worthiness of Jesus.