Your Faith Has Healed You!

 

 

TUE EP Reflection 100620 (Luke 7: 1-17)

As I was reading this story with Jesus miracle, I was drawn to the Centurion’s faith, which got Jesus’ commendation. I couldn’t help it but remember Jesus’s words in Luke 17:6: "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you.” Why did Jesus spend so much time telling us about faith? Is it because our life in this material world is so limiting that the life in the Kingdom of God seems like utopian to us? Paul talks about the veil saying that the Gospel is veiled to those who are perishing (2 Corinthians 4:3-4) Could it be that we are blind to the worth of Christ that a miracle is needed so that we can see and believe? Yet on the other side of the same coin Jesus says in John 20:29: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet Believe.” This idea of faith is fascinating but also, I am keenly aware that it is very important to the life of a believer to understand fully the hope of which we are called to.

In this verse, the centurion displays a high quality of faith which Jesus commended. This Centurion belonged to the army of Herod Antipas. A centurion had between 30-60 men. The Romans were very skilled at war, so the centurion was the backbone of the army, leading men directly into combat. It was a dangerous job, and no doubt, it was an important position with great authority. This particular centurion seemed to understand power and skill. He believed that as it was with him, Jesus could accomplish healing in the same way that he gets stuff accomplished using his soldiers. His point of reference is his authority, He knew nothing of the world Jesus came from, but he understood the principle of power/authority and skill and believed Jesus could heal his servant. The centurion believed Jesus had the power to heal with his word, in the same way that his authority accomplishes things carried out by his soldiers. There was a big trust there in who Jesus was, and how powerful His authority is.

I can see why Jesus would commend the centurion’s faith: “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” Do we have the same faith? What makes one’s faith great? The Bible defines faith as the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Heb 11:1. I think the centurion was spot on. In his mind, His expectation about the healing of his servant was simply incontestable. In the same way, we have faith that the doctors will operate on our bodies and do a good job. Or we can board a plane and fly without thinking because we have total faith that the pilots know what they are doing and we will get there without fail. I don’t know if our faith is that high always like that especially when it comes to healing.

I recently watched a YouTube documentary of Dr. Eben Alexander, a neurosurgeon who died and came back to life so he can understand that the power of healing is beyond this world and belong to God who is the author of everything. What I took away from it, is that when all our efforts in our power has been exhausted, we often succumb to some kind of lethargy just accepting whatever destiny life will take us to. He was a man who was struggling with his faith, yet without all his medical knowledge, which he could not use because of his brain dysfunction, combined with an odd prognosis from his doctors, they all waited for the inevitable end of his life. They had done all that they could possibly do. This man came back not because there was any possible medical explanation, he was not expected to heal, and then the unexpected happened. His brain did recover and rebuilt itself and healed from its ailment. He tells us that his brain was not functional enough to support any brain activity that could be responsible for all the experiences he has had over a period of seven days. His healing came from beyond this world!

Luke is telling us a story of a faith filled centurion, I see now a faith filled neurosurgeon who understood the power of healing that comes from Jesus, the light of the world. Perhaps our faith can increase even if our life within our finite world makes it difficult for us to imagine it and believe it even when we haven’t seen it yet.

That is our challenge! Have faith in Jesus the Son of God!

Amen.