Friends in high places

This man didn't get to be a centurion in the Roman army by being dumb.  He wants a healing for someone who is important to him and so he uses the tried and true method of making use of his friends in high places.  I won't disparage his intentions; I won't suggest that he made friends with the local Jewish leaders in order to have this ace in his pocket when he needed it.  This isn't an episode of House of Cards.  None the less, this centurion doesn't hesitate to make use of the friends he has cultivated in those high places...or at least the friends he suspects will have influence over a Jewish rabbi with an extraordinary reputation.

These Jewish leaders want Jesus to understand just how worthy this Roman soldier - the enemy of the Jewish people, the occupiers of promised Jewish land, the oppressors of the Jewish race - is to receive whatever healing Jesus might be able to bring.  They list his gifts, his friendship, his generosity to their people.  He is worthy of your attention.

Furthermore, notice that the soldier asks nothing for himself.  He asks for a slave.  I will not call into question the Roman's intentions here either, even knowing that young male slaves were not acquired to wash dishes way too often in Roman society.  If this point is of no importance to Jesus, it will be of no importance to me. Just as Jesus is not distracted by this possibility, neither will I be.

But knowing what we do about Jesus' message to the people of Israel, to the people of Rome, to the whole of creation; knowing what we do about Jesus' ability to forgive even the ones who executed him; knowing what we do about Jesus' command to love..........well, I have to wonder what Jesus was thinking about this claim that the soldier was 'worthy.'

Of course he was worthy.  He was a child of God, created by the Divine Creator out of love and now called into a new and authentic life by the Son of Love named Jesus.  Of course he was worthy, but not because of what he had done........for better or worse......but because God made him and therefore Jesus loved him.  I wonder if Jesus was chuckling inside as he began the journey to the soldier's house.

Even more, I wonder if Jesus can still chuckle at our insistence on making ourselves worthy: running around, doing good deeds, correcting the behavior of others and working, working, working at keeping the rules.  Or, has Jesus' love gained a tinge of frustration at our dense, recalcitrant need to do the work that we are incapable of doing and which is not necessary from the very beginning.

When Jesus says we are loved, we are loved.  End of story.  When we live as if we truly believe, trust and desire that love, our lives are transformed.  That is the story that Jesus is telling regardless of what story we manage to hear.

It is so difficult to leave behind all that we have been taught at the knee of wisdom in this competitive, death dealing world.  It is difficult to trust that this Jesus can, does, will, and will always love us.  Daily we need to return to that passage from John, 'for God so loved the world that God sent Jesus..not to condemn the world but so that the world might be saved through him' (John 3.16-17 paraphrase).

He had always had friends in high places - very high places.

It has never been about being worthy.

It has always been about being loved.

Amen.  Thank you Lord Jesus.