Sermon Title:  Does Faith Heal?

Sermon Text:  Luke 7:1-10

Sermon Date:  Second Sunday of Lent, March 12, 2006

 

Sylvia mentioned that reading last week’s passage from “The Message” gave a deeper meaning to the words.  So let’s begin with last week’s reading.

 

Matthew 9

35Then Jesus made a circuit of all the towns and villages. He taught in their meeting places, reported kingdom news, and healed their diseased bodies, healed their bruised and hurt lives. 36When he looked out over the crowds, his heart broke. So confused and aimless they were, like sheep with no shepherd. 37"What a huge harvest!" he said to his disciples. "How few workers! 38On your knees and pray for harvest hands!"    

Matthew 10 - The Twelve Harvest Hands

1The prayer was no sooner prayed than it was answered. Jesus called twelve of his followers and sent them into the ripe fields. He gave them power to kick out the evil spirits and to tenderly care for the bruised and hurt lives. 2This is the list of the twelve he sent:

Simon (they called him Peter, or "Rock"), Andrew, his brother, James, Zebedee's son, John, his brother, 3Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, the tax man, James, son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, 4Simon, the Canaanite, Judas Iscariot (who later turned on him).

    5Jesus sent his twelve harvest hands out with this charge:

    "Don't begin by traveling to some far-off place to convert unbelievers. And don't try to be dramatic by tackling some public enemy. 6Go to the lost, confused people right here in the neighborhood.  7Tell them that the kingdom is here. 8Bring health to the sick.  Raise the dead.  Touch the untouchables.  Kick out the demons. You have been treated generously, so live generously. 9"Don't think you have to put on a fund-raising campaign before you start. 10You don't need a lot of equipment. You are the equipment, and all you need to keep that going is three meals a day. Travel light.   11"When you enter a town or village, don't insist on staying in a luxury inn. Get a modest place with some modest people, and be content there until you leave. 12"When you knock on a door, be courteous in your greeting. 13If they welcome you, be gentle in your conversation. 14If they don't welcome you, quietly withdraw. Don't make a scene. Shrug your shoulders and be on your way. 15You can be sure that on Judgment Day they'll be mighty sorry--but it's no concern of yours now.”

 

 

            The story of God equipping those God calls continues.  From Adam now to the twelve disciples, God called and God equipped.  Jesus went up to the men he chose, called them by name and then taught Evangelism 101 before sending them out.  That’s what this passage tells us – how to offer hope to others.

            Hearing it from the Message gives another perspective.  John the Baptist asked people to repent before being baptized.  Jesus instructs the disciples to give to the people, in order that they be converted.              “7Tell them that the kingdom is here. 8Bring health to the sick.  Raise the dead.  Touch the untouchables.  Kick out the demons.”

            Offer this to the people in your own neighborhood.  Not because Jesus didn’t care about the Gentiles, but because he believed that evangelism began outside your door, not in the far away suburbs.  It is about living out your faith and sharing it with your neighbors.

            So it is interesting that our passage today is not about the faith of a Jew, but instead one of those Gentiles.  A Roman soldier.

            Hear the passage:  Luke 7:1-10

 

 1When Jesus had finished saying all this in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. 2There a centurion's servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. 3The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. 4When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, "This man deserves to have you do this, 5because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue." 6So 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. 7That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. 8For 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." 9When 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." 10Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well.”

            Jesus was amazed.  Jesus learned something on this day and he was surprised.  It is true.  Jesus was absolutely surprised by the faith shown.   After all, this Roman soldier wasn’t part of the targeted group.  But he had faith anyway.  This Roman centurion, whose background and circumstances ought to have it difficult for him to have faith, a man whose occupation prized brute strength and the ability to rely on one’s self, a man whose background was paganism, a man hated by the Jews because he was a Roman.  (“Surprised by Faith”)  Yet he was different.

      And his faith surprised Jesus.  Steve Zeisler suggests a brief definition of faith: Faith is a willingness to bet your very life on the promises and character of God.   And he says that if he were to try to pick a synonym for "faith,"  he would choose the word, "adventure." Faith is not a dry theological concept bound up in stodgy churchianity. Faith is a risky, adrenaline-pumping adventure.  (“Surprised by Faith, by Steve Zeisler from www.esermons.com)

And this man had faith.  Unexplained faith even.  He had appartently never heard Jesus preach.  He had only heard of him from the Jews he knew.  His faith began in the relationships he had with them.  You remember, he built their synagogue.

“You see, in the first century the synagogue system was the most important institution in Judaism for spreading God's truth around the known world. The temple service and the rituals that Jews participated in excluded Gentiles. In fact, the book of Acts records a riot that took place when the rumor circulated that Paul had allowed a Gentile to come near the temple.  However, the synagogue system was uniquely a place where even Gentiles could come and listen to the Bible being taught even if they couldn’t enter into the rituals. When Paul began to preach throughout the Roman Empire, the earliest Christians were Gentile believers called "God-fearers," those who came and sat at the back or listened outside the window; at synagogues to hear the word of God taught. So in the time and place in which this centurion lived the major thing he knew of, that God was using to spread light in the world, was the synagogue system; and he used his money, his reputation, and his influence to build a synagogue. “ (Zeisler)

            Think about this Roman centurion.  He builds a synagogue for the Jewish people who were known to hate the Romans.  He is a friend to them as well.  He respects them enough to believe in this man Jesus who is said to have the ability to heal.  He doesn’t know that first hand, he only knows it because his Jewish friends told him about it. 

            Another thing to remember is that in those days slaves had no rights and in some ways no worth or value.  The centurion had no obligation to find health care or healing for his slave, but this is no ordinary Roman.  He cared very much about his servant and was willing to risk embarrassment, harassment or whatever else might come his way by going to the Jews, to see his servant healed.  He wanted healing for his servant so desperately that he was willing to risk his own reputation to get it.  And he believed that Jesus didn’t even need to be in the same room with the servant to heal him.

            This is what surprised Jesus.  Do you wonder if Jesus would be surprised by your faith?  Would Jesus be amazed at the amount of faith you have?  Would Jesus be amazed at your actions or reactions in the area of faith and healing?

            Candy has been one of my best friends since grade school.  Twelve years ago her sister Christy was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.  Christy was a young mother to three, wife of a high school principal, elementary school teacher.  And devoted follower of Jesus Christ.

            She sought the normal medical help but the cancer was too advanced and it offered little hope for recovery.  Still Christy and her best friend from high school Pam sought healing through non-medical ways.  They held prayer services around Christy’s bed, absolutely confident that she would be healed.  They brought in people professing to be healers, she drank carrot juice by the boatload and numerous other things, always claiming that God would heal her.  Her sisters worried about some of the attempts.

            Christy died at the age of 40, two days before her son’s 16th birthday.  I was concerned about Pam and what would happen to her faith in all this.  Pam had been so absolutely convinced that Christy would be healed and now that hope was gone.  Would her faith be gone too?

            At the funeral Pam dispelled any doubts I had and let everyone there know that her God was an awesome God.  Christy had been healed.  Absolutely.  She was now dancing and singing with her Lord Jesus, and as her son said, “making carrot juice for everyone there.”  She was basking in good health even though we would be left to carry on without her.  She shared with us a letter she had written to Christy the day she died in which she said, laughing through her tears, “Christy, we were faithful.  We believed as we needed to believe and we were faithful.  And God is faithful as well, always with us, always loving us, and God will be with Dale and the kids as well.  For we were faithful.”

            Does faith heal?  Absolutely.  Does faith always heal us of our illnesses and demons, in that we, like the centurion’s servant, are freed from them….here and now?  Yes and no.  We all know stories of people who are able to overcome  their illnesses, but Ecclesiastes 3 reminds us that there is a time for everything…even death.  We will all leave this earth to live in heaven.  That is a given and quite frankly, something to look forward to.

We cannot always choose our illness or trouble, but we can choose how we live with it, cope with it, and show others that regardless of the circumstances our faith in Jesus Christ is enough to get us through it.

      I do not know why or how some are physically healed and others are not but I know this in the very depths of my soul:  God will not abandon us in times of trouble and our faith in God brings the strength we need to deal with the trouble.

      Theologian Oswald Chambers said the average view of the Christian life is that it means deliverance from trouble.  But in fact it means deliverance in trouble.

      On March 9, 1873 Preacher Charles Spurgeon said these words in a sermon:

      “Go to him without fear or trembling; ere yon sun goes down and ends this day of mercy, go and tell Him thou hast broken the Father’s laws – tell him that thou art lost, and thou needest to be saved; tell Him that He is a man, and appeal to His manly heart, and His brotherly sympathies.

      “Pour out thy broken heart at his feet; let thy soul flow over his presence and I tell thee He cannot cast thee away.”

      In this season of Lent, my prayer for each of us that our faith will be strengthened so that when we are challenged, Jesus won’t be at all surprised in our faith in him.

 

Prayer:

 

Loving Jesus:

When our prayer has been answered we are overwhelmed with thanksgiving.  When our prayers have not been answered in the way we hope, we don’t understand or are filled with despair.  Yet deep down in our souls we know that having given you our lives, you work within us and through us.  So we know that you desire for us all good things and that you will not cast us away.

 

Help our faith in you to grow.  Help us have the courage to share our faith with others.  We pray that we too will have the faith of the centurion and use it in ways that give you glory and honor.

 

Amen.