3rd Epiphany
Matthew 8, 1-13
When he came down from the mountain, large crowds
followed him. And
behold, a man with leprosy approached him, and kneeling down
before him said, “Lord, if you are willing, you are able to make me clean.”
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Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him
saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.”
And immediately he was cleared of his leprosy. And
Jesus said to him, “See that you tell no one. But go and show yourself to the
priests and offer to them the gift that Moses commanded as a testimony of your
cleansing.”
When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a Roman captain,
leader of a hundred soldiers, approached him, pleading with him and saying,
“Lord, my boy lies at home, paralyzed, suffering great pain.”
Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.”
The centurion answered, saying, “Lord, I am not
worthy to have you enter under my roof. Just say a word, and my boy will be
healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. If I say
one word to this one—‘Go, ’ he goes, and if I tell another ‘Come,’ he comes. If
I tell my servant ‘Do this,’ he does it.
Hearing this, Jesus was amazed and said to those
following him, “Amen, the truth I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel
with such great power of trust. And I tell you, that many will come from the
east and from the west and will take their places at the feast with Abraham and
Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of the heavens. But the sons of the kingdom will
be cast out into the darkness of [godforsaken] external existence, where there
will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”
And Jesus said to the centurion, “Go home. Let it be done to you as you have believed.” And the boy was healed in that hour.
3rd Epiphany
January 22, 2012
Matthew 8: 1-13
The small child trusts that the world is a good place. When
it gets sick, it suffers in the moment; but deep in its soul, it knows that
soon things will get better.
By the time we are adults, things get more complicated. Our
illnesses may be chronic. Our hopes may have been dashed so many times that our
souls are chronically despondent.
The gospel reading speaks of two souls whose relationship to
illness and to the divine world is the opposite of despair. In fact the nature
of their relationship, both to their illness, and to the divine world, is so
healthy that it makes physical healing possible. For indeed it is the unhealthy
soul that is the ultimate cause of bodily illness.
The leper suffers from a chronic disease that destroys the
human form. Yet he does not wallow in that pernicious form of egotism we call
self-pity. Instead he humbly states to the One Higher that if it is God’s will,
he could be cleansed. It is not even a request; it is a simple statement, a
testament to his trust that God knows best.
The Roman centurion was actually in a position of great
power over this itinerant Jewish healer. Yet he too recognizes his place in the
great hierarchy of the universe. Not only is he willing to humbly ask for a
healing on behalf of his servant; he is also willing to acknowledge that the
Logos, the Word of God, commands great power, even at a distance.
The words at the communion echo those of the centurion. We
humbly acknowledge that the dwelling into which Christ is entering is
unhealthy; but even greater than our humility is our trust in the power of God
to heal our souls. For we know that all true healing comes from God.
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