As humans and especially as American’s we never like to admit that we are not worthy of God’s love. There is nothing we can do to make us worthy of God’s love, mercy and grace. He is the one who makes us worthy through our faith and humility. Instead of pride and arrogance, humility and faith lead us to Christ. If we want to be healed by God, we must accept the humility of our realty and ask God to make us worthy of His love.
At that time, as Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, beseeching him and saying, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, in terrible distress.” And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.” But the centurion answered him, “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 am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard him, he marveled, and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such faith. I tell you, many will come from east and west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.” And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; be it done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that very moment.
Matthew 8.5-13
Today’s gospel, my brothers and sisters is one of the most difficult for us to hear in our hearts. It is difficult because the message is one that as human beings in general, but especially as Americans, it’s very difficult for our hearts to hear the challenge of this morning’s gospel. You just heard the story of the centurion who went to Christ and asked Christ to heal his servant. That’s a beautiful image of faith and belief in the power of God. That’s not the difficult part of the gospel. The difficult part of the gospel is what comes next. Christ says, “I’m going to come into your house.” “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,” the centurion says. Wait a minute. “I’m not worthy for you to come into my home.”My brothers and sisters, we don’t want to admit it. We don’t want to hear it, but the absolute truth is that we are not worthy of God’s love. There’s absolutely nothing we can do on the face of the earth, that we can make ourselves worthy of God’s love and his mercy and his grace. All we can do is call upon his love and mercy.
But unfortunately, our tendency through all of human history … It is not unique to you and me. But through all of human history, our tendency has been that we think we’re special. We think somehow because we have won in our case the spiritual lottery of being in the church, we think somehow that makes us special. Somehow that makes us better than other people. Somehow that means that we have some guaranteed blessings from God. And in this morning’s gospel, the message is quite clear. We are not worthy and it’s a difficult message for us to hear. But my brothers and sisters, the words that follow when Christ says, “there has been no faith that I’ve seen like this. Nothing greater than this faith.” And from that moment, his servant was healed.
You see, my brothers and sisters, it is God that makes us worthy. I wrote in your bulletin and you’re going to hear if you’re paying attention in the rest of divine liturgy over and over again, we ask God, make us worthy. We thank him for making us worthy, though we are unworthy to approach him. Even before we say The Our Father, make us worthy to dare call you, Father. You see, my brothers and sisters, until we embrace that pure humility of our heart, we will not understand God’s grace. So long as we think God’s grace and his mercy and his love is something we deserve because either we are special or we have done all the right things, we will not understand his mercy and his grace.
And if you do not believe me, look again into the scriptures. One of my favorite stories is the Prodigal Son. I bring this out over and over. Remember, it was the older brother who did everything right. He thought he deserved the father’s good graces. He was the one that found himself in hell that day, not the sinful brother who repented. The other story when Christ says, “He who was without sin cast the first stone.” Over and over and over again, Christ is reminding us. It’s not what we do. Nothing we do makes us worthy. He chooses to make us worthy in his love and his mercy and his grace, even when we don’t deserve it. And then Christ continues. “I say to you, many will come from east and west and sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gashing of teeth.” You see, my brothers and sisters, when we act special, when we place ourselves above the others, as the Jewish elite did the Pharisees, the scribes, the Sadducees, all of these elites put themselves above the others. They were the ones that deserved God and they found themselves on the outside.
It was the sinful Gentiles, you and me in our repentance that we humbly approach God and say, “God, forgive us. Bless us. Have mercy on us. Heal us.” Christ says, “Go your way and as you have believed, so let it be done to you.” And the servant was healed in that same hour. My brothers and sisters, if we want to be healed by God, then we must accept the humility of our reality and ask him to make us worthy despite our sin, in spite of our arrogance, let us with humility approach Christ to dare call upon him and to ask him to forgive us and to heal us. And then we pray that we’ll hear the words, good and faithful servant, faith and humility, not pride and arrogance. This is what leads us to Christ. Glory to God for all things.
