Pentecost 2 (Luke 7:1-10) “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.”

Faith is substance and evidence. Belief is strongly held opinion.

The people who met Jesus interpreted his words and deeds in the context of strongly held opinion. For most people who met Jesus, their beliefs were rigid, inflexible and uncompromising. These beliefs also defined their personal identity.

When Jesus taught or acted outside the parameters of belief, people reacted with frustration, bewilderment and fear. The people so identified with their beliefs that they felt Jesus’ presence as a threat to their very identity.

A Pharisee was a Pharisee first and foremost. A Pharisee so strongly identified with the unique tenants of his belief system that he felt justified in opposing and combating all other belief systems and the people who espoused them. The more extreme sects armed themselves and prepared  to use force to impose their beliefs on other less aggressive members of their own sect as well as the members of rival sects.

Jesus did not come into the world to settle disputes over belief. Nor did he intend to impose any system of belief by force. Jesus came into the world to find the lost and restore the lost to union with the Father. Jesus came to initiate a process of faith.

The Roman Centurion had grown up in a culture that did not place a high value on belief. Romans, for the most part, valued pragmatism and power. They also identified loyalty as the preeminent virtue for a citizen and for a soldier.

The Romans admired the Jews’ single minded loyalty to their god. They also valued the moral ethic of Moses and the Prophets. Some Romans studied the scriptures and made donations to the synagogue out of their admiration for the god of Israel.  But, the Romans were bewildered by the incessant and bitter religious disputes amongst the various sects within the Judaism of the First Century.

The Roman Centurion in this account was a commander of 100 men. He was a Centurion because of his accomplishments and because of his loyalty to the Empire. He expected excellence from his subordinates. And, he expected they give him the same loyalty he gave the Emperor.

When this particular Centurion head the stories of Jesus, he responded from the place 0f pragmatism, power and loyalty. He perceived in Jesus a man in whom he could trust and a man who acted from principle. He saw the universal compassion of Jesus did not succumb to debates over religious, political or economic belief.

The leaders of the synagogue presented to Jesus a case for helping the Centurion that expressed the commonly held belief that God is obligated to help the righteous and to punish the unrighteous. Normally, the leaders would classify a Roman Centurion in the unrighteous category since he served the pagan Emperor. They also assumed Jesus would react from the same set of beliefs. They presented a case for helping the Centurion as a reward for his good deed in paying for a synagogue to be built.

The Centurion did not think in these terms. He thought in the terms of loyalty and pragmatism. He knew Jesus healed everyone regardless of their beliefs or social status. He placed his faith in a person not a system of belief or a sect. He made his request from the context of personal loyalty.

Jesus responded to the Centurion’s message with astonished delight. In a society of endless conflict over belief, Jesus now encountered a man who valued loyalty and faith. It was exactly what God had revealed through Moses and the prophets. It was exactly what Jesus had come into the world to give.

I can only imagine the great joy that Jesus felt. Even his own disciples lacked that kind of faith.

Not much later, in the midst of controversy and conflict,  Jesus would ask out loud:” when the Son of man returns will he find faith on the earth?”

Jesus found a man who valued loyalty and who had grown into faith. Jesus also recognized that most people most of the time live from the place of rigid inflexible uncompromising belief. Jesus holds up to us the example of the Roman Centurion as a man who lived from the place of grace by faith.

Jesus longs to say of us what he said of the Centurion: “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.”