Change of Heart, Change of Mind: A Sermon for 3 Pentecost

Today, we continue our “Miracles in Matthew” sermon series with Jesus’ healing of the Roman centurion’s servant. This story is sandwiched between last week’s healing of the man with leprosy and next week’s healing of Simon Peter’s mother-in-law. We now find Jesus and his disciples in the city of Capernaum, which many consider to be the home base of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee. 

But today’s miraculous healing involves a Roman centurion approaching Jesus with news that his servant is “lying at home paralyzed, in terrible distress.” The implication is that the centurion recognizes that Jesus has the power to heal, and that he is hoping that Jesus will make his servant well.

We first need to recognize the difficulty that this presents to Jesus, similar to that of the man with leprosy approaching him. The centurion (and his servant) are not only Gentiles, but the centurion is employed by the Roman army. This foreign occupying force was considered to be the enemy of the Jewish people – politically, culturally, and religiously. So, the Jews who were present for this encounter – including Jesus’ disciples – would have experienced a combination of insult, shock, and disdain when the centurion approached Jesus with this request. How dare a member of Rome’s occupying army ask Jesus to do him a favor? Who does he think he is? And who does he think Jesus is?

The translation that we have today has Jesus saying, “I will come and cure him.” But New Testament scholar Daniel Harrington prefers to translate it as “Shall I come and heal him?” And without getting in the weeds of his exegesis, I believe that Harrington makes a compelling argument. Harrington’s reading of the encounter is that Jesus is initially a bit surprised, if not even put off at the request. In other words, “Shall I, a Jew, who your people are oppressing, defile myself by entering into a Gentile house to heal your servant?” Again, Harrington’s exegesis of this passage makes a strong case for Jesus initially resisting the centurion’s request. 

 I find this Jewish-Gentile confrontation to be similar to the story later on in Matthew’s gospel when the Canaanite woman asks Jesus to heal her daughter, who was tormented by a demon. Initially, Jesus says to the Gentile woman, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” Not one of Jesus’ best moments. But the Canaanite woman calls him out by saying, “Yes, Lord. For even the dogs eat from the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” Jesus is clearly moved by her response, and says, “O woman, great is your faith. Let it be done to you as you wish.” I believe that Jesus was deeply transformed by this encounter. The Canaanite woman helped Jesus change his thinking about his mission, namely, to whom he was being called to serve and save. Even God incarnate was humble enough to be transformed in his thinking. 

So, back to our story today. I interpret Jesus’ response to the centurion as mirroring, and even prefiguring, that of the Canaanite woman. At first, Jesus is a bit scandalized by the request. But, like the Canaanite woman, the centurion surprises Jesus with his level of intuition and faith. Rather than giving in to the obvious conflict of interest that he has posed to Jesus, the centurion, who has already referred to Jesus as “Lord” once, again calls him “Lord.” We are not to understand this usage of the title “Lord” as being theological in nature, but rather, it is a title showing respect, admiration, and simply good manners. For a Roman centurion to refer to an itinerant Jewish peasant as “Lord” is shocking to say the least. Clearly, this centurion sees something in Jesus that most did not. And clearly the centurion had a healthy dose of humility and open-mindedness himself. We don’t know if he was aware of Jesus’ recent healing of the man with leprosy. But word had likely spread about Jesus. But there were still many more doubters than there were believers. 

Anyhow, the centurion offers a solution to Jesus’ predicament of entering into a gentile’s home, and thus defiling himself. Dare I say, like the Canaanite woman, in this moment the centurion is actually seeing the bigger picture more clearly than Jesus is. He shockingly proposes that Jesus need not enter into his home, but rather, to simply “speak the word, and my servant will be healed.” 

Matthew tells us that when Jesus heard the centurion’s proposal, he was “amazed, and said to those who followed him, ‘Truly I tell you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith.’ And the servant was healed in that hour.’” 

The miracles in this story are twofold. The first is obvious – Jesus heals a paralyzed man without even being in his presence. Jesus simply speaks the word from afar, and the centurion’s servant was healed. A miraculous healing indeed – even more remarkable than the one last week. 

But the other miracle in this story is the miracle of transformation that Jesus himself undergoes. This transformation wasn’t instantaneous – it was something he was wrestling with throughout Matthew’s gospel. Later on in the story, in the encounter with the Canaanite woman, Jesus said that he was only called to save “the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” So his encounter today with the centurion didn’t completely change his thinking on this issue. But it was the beginning of Jesus’ growing into his realization that his mission and ministry was to all sheep who were lost – not just those within the House of Israel.

Some will bristle at the idea that Jesus may have been wrong, or that he might actually come to see things differently than he once had. But that would negate the Christian doctrine that says that Jesus was truly and fully human alongside being truly and fully divine. Jesus felt hunger, grief, pain, and Jesus’ understanding of his mission expanded during his earthly ministry. As such, Jesus can serve as a model for us – if Jesus expanded his understanding of who he was called to redeem and reconcile, if Jesus changed his thinking on an ages-old tradition and understanding of who God’s people were, then can’t we? 

So, I don’t think that the primary takeaway for us today is, “Wow, Jesus healed a paralyzed person who wasn’t even in his vicinity – just by saying, “Go, let it be done for you according to your faith.” Indeed, that part of the story is remarkable, and worth our consideration. And so is the centurion’s faith and persistence. But that is for another sermon.

Today’s sermon is about the miracle of transformation of hearts and minds. I believe that Jesus’ heart and mind was transformed by his encounter with the Roman centurion, just as it was later on by the Canaanite woman.  And this serves as a model for us today. None of us can hear this story and learn how to miraculously heal people’s physical ailments from afar by simply speaking a word. Believe me, I wish that were the case, as I’m sure we all do. 

But we can hear this story and be inspired by the fact that Jesus Christ – God incarnate – was transformed by an encounter with someone who was profoundly “other” to him. This encounter challenged Jesus’ thinking about how he should see and engage with those outside of his tribe. And he was humble enough to stand “corrected” – and to be “amazed” by the faith and persistence of the centurion. 

Did the centurion have anything but his own interest in mind when he begged Jesus to heal his servant? Who knows, but probably not. We don’t know what happened to the centurion or his servant after this story. We don’t know if they became followers of Jesus or not. But we do know what happened to Jesus. Jesus began the process of widening the circle so to speak. Jesus began to have more and more encounters with people outside of his tribe who were seeking what he had. They were seeking healing; reconciliation; forgiveness; redemption; a new creation. And by the end of his earthly ministry, Jesus had come to recognize that his mission was deeper, wider, and broader than even he had ever imagined. His final Great Commission at the end of Matthew’s gospel was for his disciples to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” There would never be a person who couldn’t receive Jesus’ healing, reconciliation, forgiveness, and redemption. 

And we must remember that the healing of the centurion’s servant, and the healing of the Canaanite woman’s daughter is our healing story too. We must remember that as Gentiles, we are the outsiders who have been welcomed into the fold of the people of God. It is only by God’s grace that we have been included in God’s story of salvation history.

To be honest, I have felt like an insider my whole life. But today’s story reminds me that I am not an insider. I am the centurion. I am the centurion’s paralyzed slave. I am the Canaanite woman, and I am here demon-possessed daughter. I am someone who is in desperate need of healing. And I am someone who is a beneficiary of Jesus changing his mind and allowing even us Gentiles into the fold. Thanks be to God that the faithful, persistent centurion and Canaanite woman pushed Jesus on this issue. And thanks be to God that Jesus was humble enough to listen and be transformed. And may I too listen and be humble enough to be transformed in my thinking, so that I too may expand my understanding of who is worthy of God’s mercy, love, and grace.