Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: Acts 10,21-35. 4. Sunday after Epiphany

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

Acts 10,21-35 1014

3. Sonntag nach Epiphanias 016

Titus, St. Paul’s disciple, Bishop of Gortyn, Crete, Martyr in Gortyn 96/107

Paula, Widow of Rome, † 404

26. Januar 2014

1. O King of Heaven, Jesus Christ, we render thanks unto You, that You have gathered unto Yourself a Church from among Jews and Gentiles, and from our mouths have prepared praise unto Yourself. Keep us in that heavenly wisdom which You have revealed unto the wise. Grant us Your Holy Spirit so that we may reverently seek You and Your reign. Help us to follow after Your Word as our miraculous guiding star. Cause us to confess Your Holy Name before friend and foe. Govern us by Your Holy Spirit, so that the Christian joy kindled in our hearts may ever increase. Hear our sighings and our prayers. We graciously receive the offerings which You have given us: the gold of faith, the frankincense of prayer, and the myrrh of our contrite hearts. Save us from all shameful paths of sin, and let Your good Spirit lead us in paths of pleasantness. After this life, grant us all to attain that great New Year, the jubilee of everlasting life: then will we be praising You and the Father together with the Holy Spirit, forever and forever. Amen. (Löhe 456-57).

2. When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a Roman centurion came forward to Him, appealing to Him: „Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.“ And Jesus said to him: „I will come and heal him.“ But the centurion replied: „Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one: ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another: ‘Stand here,’ and he stands, and to my servant: ‘Do this,’ and he does it.“ When Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who followed Him: „Truly, I tell you, I have not found such faith with anyone in Israel. I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the reign of heaven, while the sons of the reign will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.“ And Jesus said to the centurion: „Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.“ And the servant was healed at that very moment. (Matthew 8,5-13).

3. Our Gospel Lection for this morning touches on a clash of cultures. On the one side there was the Greco-Roman culture of the Roman Empire with its emphasis on architecture, engineering, philosophy and political legislation. On the other side there was the Judaic culture with its emphasis on the Mosaic law, monotheism and the promise of the messiah. The Romans, in general, looked favorably upon the Judaic culture, and tried to let the Jews keep and follow their laws and customs as much as possible. The Jews, in general, tolerated the Roman pagans in their „holy“ land, but they made it clear that they held Judaism as superior to Greco-Roman culture.

4. This clash of cultures can be seen in the New Testament Gospels and Epistles. In Acts 10, the Apostle Peter explains to the Roman centurion Cornelius that: »it is unlawful for a Jew to associate with or to visit any Gentile« (Acts 10,28; Deuteronomy 7,2-3). The Jews wouldn’t even enter into a Gentile’s house, lest they make themselves unclean (John 18,28). The apostle was referring to Deuteronomy which only specified the seven Canaanite Gentiles whom Israel under Joshua dispossessed from the land. By the time of the New Testament, the Jewish elders applied the specific situation of Deuteronomy of Joshua’s era to include all Gentiles, including the Romans.

5. This puts Jesus’ response to the Roman centurion in Matthew 8 in its context. Upon hearing the centurion’s plea for mercy and help, Jesus intended to go and enter into that centurion’s Gentile house, saying: »I will come and heal him« (Matthew 8,7). As a rabbi and teacher, Jesus would be expected to avoid that house if possible so as to not defile himself and pursue the ritual cleansing that would need to follow. This centurion, serving in Palestine, knows well the Jewish customs and traditions. He knows that if Jesus returns home with him that Jesus would make Himself unclean. The centurion respects Jesus and His culture, saying: »No, Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter my house; just say the word, and my servant will be healed« (Matthew 8,8).

6. Even in our enlightened culture, there still exists clashes among cultures. There are groups of people we find less palatable to associate with than others. We still shun certain activities. As late as the 1920s it was common in many Lutheran circles and churches to forbid common entertainments, such as dancing, the theatre and public games. When doing historical research on Valparaiso University years ago, I read articles where shortly after the Lutherans had purchased the university in 1925 that a number of students wanted to know if they would be allowed to continue having dances, theatre groups, fraternities and sororities on campus. The new university president, Dau, who had been a professor at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, sought to dissuade such activities because they were seen as sinful. I had a great-grandmother who refused to greet anyone with the word „hello“ because it contained the word „hell“ in it. When the men in the family came over to play cards each Saturday night, she would sit in her room upstairs because she considered playing cards evil. Such things might seem silly or antiquated to us in the 21. century, but 100 years ago many denominations, including many Lutheran churches and pastors, held similar opinions: You did not associate with actors, dancers or others in such questionable vocations.

7. Jesus challenged long-held traditions and commentary on the Mosaic law. If a Gentile was sick, He was going to that person’s house and heal him, even if it was the Sabbath day of rest. Jesus showed acts of mercy to both Jews and Gentiles. He went to the Jews first, showing mercy and preaching the gospel, and followed such activities up by doing the same for Gentiles nearby. Years later, the Apostle Peter would preach the gospel to a family of Gentiles, saying: »O Cornelius, you know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit any Gentile, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without objection« (Acts 10,28). Now Peter had received a Divine vision and heard the very voice of the Holy Spirit telling him to do this very thing (Acts 10,9-20), but he also saw how Jesus Himself associated with the unclean and the Gentiles during His years of ministry.

8. Shortly after this event in Matthew 8, Jesus tells the Pharisees at a banquet in Chapter 9: »„I desire mercy, and not sacrifice“; for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners« (Matthew 9,13). Jesus referred to the lost sheep of Israel who had strayed away or been driven away from the strict traditions of the Pharisees. Jesus also meant the pagan Gentiles who had little or no knowledge of the Holy Scriptures abd the Gentile God-fearers who worshiped the Lord of Israel. Pious Jews were not above referring to the pagan Gentiles as „dogs“ (Matthew 15,26), and Jesus had mercy to show even such Gentiles. More so, this centurion who seemed to be a God-fearer, for he loved Judea, the Jewish people and even built a synagogue for them in Capernaum (Luke 7,1-5). Jesus would show him the mercy of God and His love for all people.

9. This centurion understands the way the world works. Those in authority issue commands to those below them, and they are carried out. As a centurion, he had the authority of his word to make things happen. It is enough for Jesus to just say the word, and the centurion’s servant would be healed. He has a solid grasp of God’s omnipotence who in Genesis said: »Let there be ...« and the particular thing spoken of came into existence at once. The centurion had faith in Jesus’ authority and word to accomplish the same.

10. This Gentile has more faith than Jews in Israel! Many Gentiles with faith in Jesus will dine with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the new heavens and earth, while many Jews will be cast out into the eternal darkness (Matthew 8,10-12).

11. Jesus draws everyone’s attention to faith and faith’s subject. The Apostle Paul powerfully writes of this faith and its subject in our Second Lection for today: »The gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile. For the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel from faith in faith, as it is written: »The righteous will live by faith.«« [Habakkuk 2,4] (Romans 1,16-17). The centurion’s slave lived by faith. Cornelius and his family lived by faith. All Christians live by faith. Faith, however, is not the subject of the verb: faith is not the thing that does the saving. The gospel is the message that creates faith, and faith trusts in Jesus who is the Subject of the verb and the one who does the saving. We could easily replace „faith“ with „Jesus“ to get the real force and meaning of the Gospels and the Epistles: The righteous will live by Jesus. Our Lord is the one who heals and saves. He sends the Holy Spirit to create faith in people when they hear the gospel preached. Thus the apostles argue that Gentiles who believe in Jesus are true sons and daughters of Abraham. This is to say that Gentiles who believe in Jesus are now considered men and women in Israel and citizens in the chosen nation of God. The Roman centurion in Matthew 8 believed in Jesus, and so do we. His word makes it so, both for the centurion and for us: we are healed and saved by Christ alone and His authority as the Christ and the only-begotten Son of God. Amen.

12. Let us pray. O Lord God, who reigns over all creation; let the earth rejoice, let the many coastlands be glad, let Your holy and beloved people give You praise so that we are uplifted by the Holy Spirit that in Christ Jesus we have everlasting life. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

Soli Deo Gloria

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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27. Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

Löhe, Wilhelm. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Wartburg Publishing House, Chicago circa 1912. Concordia Publishing House; Concordia on Demand.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Monday, January 27, 2014

Acts 10,21-35. 4. Sunday after Epiphany

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