The Faith That Made Christ Marvel

Ju days.

Know about selvation.

And the relation of the mystery that was from Molly

toity in the Balkans, and the history of glory of

Jesus Christ is see if you wish, my dear brothers

and sisters in Christ. On many Sundays, when we read

the Holy Gospel, we find that the.

People amazed by Christ.

But in today's Gospel, it's Christ who is amazed. A

Roman centurion comes to Christ. That fact alone give us

a little lause. He's not one of the disciples. He's

not a ruler of the synagogue. He's not a scribe.

He's not a.

Teacher of the law. He's not a son of Abraham

going through the flesh. He's a Roman officer or a foreigner,

a representative of the occupying power, a pagan, a man

outside the visible boundaries of the covenanial life of Israel.

And yet when he speaks to Christ, it is the

Lord who marvels.

And that stands very much apart from our usual encounter

with Christ.

We often read the crowd's marveling Christ, or they're marveling

at his words.

They're marveling and his miracles or his teaching.

For here Christ marvels had a man, and what does

he marvel at Not the man's rank, not his intelligence,

not his power, But he.

Marvels at his faith.

Verily, I say to you, I have not found so

great faith, not even in Israel. This is a gospel

that is beautiful but is also dangerous.

It's dangerous to us, it's dangerous to our plight, it's.

Dangerous to our complacency, and it's dangerous to any commonies

that we place.

In religion that is not joined to the living and faith.

The first thing that we see in the Centurion is

that true faith recognizes of the authority of Christ. The

centurion comes to Jesus because his servant is sick. He's

grievously tormented, and already there's something slightly noble here. This

is a man of rank pleading for somebody beneath him.

He's not asking for his son, or his wife or himself.

He's asking for his servant.

In the world of the Roman Empire, the servant could

have been treated as disposable.

But this man.

Carries the suffering of his servant as though it were

his own. His authority has not made him cruel, his

power has not made him in deferent. He comes before Christ,

not as a commander barking in order, but as a

man begging for mercy for another. And the Lord says,

I will come to child him. But the centurion answers, Lord,

I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my

roof to speak the word only, and my servant chlity healed.

This is the heart of his faith.

He doesn't need Christ to enter his home or to

lay hands on.

The sick man.

He doesn't ask for a sign, he doesn't demand tangible proof.

He believes that the word of Christ is in He

explays that he too, that he is a man under authority,

and he has holds under him, and he says to

one go he goes, another coming comes and he says

to his servant, do this, and he does it. When

the centurion understands from his own life, he knows what

command means.

He knows what legitimate authority is.

When it speaks, the command is not merely a say

in the air. It sets things into motion. A soldier hears,

no obeys, an order is given and is carried out.

And by this earthly image he recognizes something far greater

in Christ. He sees that sickness itself is under Christ's authority.

It's not limited by distance, it's not dependent on the

assistance of another, but by his own command. Saint John

Christian says that the centurion did not bring the servant

because he knew for certain that even a mere command

was enough to raise the servant. Ah.

That is the key. Oh.

The centurion does not imagine that Christ's power is magical,

that is dependent on place, that it depends upon a

ceremony or original. He sees authority, He sees lordship. He

sees that Christ's word is effective because Christ himself is Lord.

And this matters for us because it is possible to

honor Christ with our lips while we resist his authority in.

Our own lives.

We may call him Lord, but then treat his commandments

of suggestions. We may confess and as God, and then

negotiate with him about our own obedience.

We may now his power but doubted in our own lives.

The centurion's faith exposes this contradiction. He says, speak the

word only.

That is faith.

That's not simply believing Christ exists, that's not simply.

Admiring his teaching, but resting his entire.

Trust on his word, and he joins this great faith

with humility, as he says, Lord, I am not worried

that thou shouldst come under my word. This isn't a

false modesty, It's not self hatred. When we recognize the

authority of the One True God.

It's spiritual clarity.

The centurion sees Christ, and therefore or he sees who

he is.

Truthfully, the centurion may.

Have authority over all sorts of people around him, but

he believes himself unworthy to even receive Christ under his ruth.

And because of that, he's already received Christ inwardly in

his heart, his mouth, his house may not have been ready,

for his heart was open and prepared. And how great

is the faith of this pagan centurion compared to the

crowd Pharisee simon his house Christ entered into bodily, but

in whose heart there is no place for him. And

this brings us to the next great mystery of this gospel.

The centurion is not merely an inspiring individual. His faith

to him inspires us. But in him the whole future

begins to appear. Christ turns to those following enemies, says,

many will come from the east and the West, and

will sit down with Abraham, Isa and Jacob and the

kingdom of Heaven.

What an astonishing thing to say. A Roman soldier.

Asked for healing, and Christ speaks of the nations entering

into the kingdom.

One gentile believes. And suddenly the horizon widens.

Out of Judead into the entire ends of the earth,

East and west, gathered together, those far off are brought near,

and the table of Abraham is open to those who,

according to the flesh and falconer.

Abraham was calling, was that in his seat all.

The families of the earth would be blessed. The faith

of the Centurion shows that this promise is flowing. This

Christ walks on his earth. He had not lived. The

Centurion had not lived inside the preparation of Israel.

He'd not been raised under the law.

He'd not heard the prophets, he not sung the songs.

He'd not spent his white life awaiting him side. And

he's seen no miracles.

But hearing only a report of Christ, he believes more

deeply than many who were seeing him before their eyes.

Saint Jerome says.

That in the person of the Centurion, the faith of

the gentiles is preferred.

To that of Israel.

Howardly he may be an alien, but inwardly he belongs.

And so after we have seen the death of humility,

the larity of his faith, the power of his.

Trust, the white hand of.

The king, and he can understand why Saint John Chrysistem

refers to the Centurion as the first fruits of the Gentiles.

He's that first ripe fruit of.

A harvest that will soon fill the entire known world.

And he stands in the dworway of.

The nations, and behind him the Greeks, the Romans, the Syrians,

the Egyptians, ethiope is, all of the known world, every

language in every land will be entering in and sitting

before the table. Abraham and I and Jacob gathered into

that one true Deenom. And this is where the Gospel

must convict us, brothers and sisters, because if we are

not careful, we will hear this passage only as a

judgment upon others. Are those in Israel who did not believe.

But the Gospel is not given to flatter us. It's

not given for us to rejoice.

In our place. Now the are the words who were received.

Much we have the Orthodox faith we have the scriptures,

we have the Fathers, we have the liturgy, the Holy icons,

and we have the mysteries of which we receive.

The grace of God.

We have the entirety of the inheritance that Christ bestowed

on his apostles.

And this is true.

It's precious, the gift that we can't even describe with words.

But the sons of the Kingdom and this gospel were worn.

That Israel can be worn, and so can we. The

dangers not that the Orthodox faith is lacking. God forbid

the dangers that we may possess the fulness of the

faith and yet failed to live by it. We might

have the true Church and still not have the humility

of the Centurion. We might have the right doctrine and

not trust the word of Christ.

We may know the services and not obey the Lord.

We may stand inside the House of God, yet not received.

Him into our heart. This gospel is.

A rebute to complacency, and it's a rebute to triumphalism.

It's not over orthodoxy, not to the church, God forbid,

but to triumphalism, to the pride that takes the treasures

of God and exults ourselves that He gives that weave

unworthy see and we turn them into a reason for

despising the mocking authors.

The centurion wasn't Orthodox, he wasn't even a Jew. It

is a Roman Paine.

And Christ praised his faith before all of visord. That

fact must live in our conscience. It doesn't mean the

truth doesn't matter. Truth matters eternal. But what it does

means when we possess that truth without humility, or we

take that truth and be aflied without love, that can

become a judgment of this as it was on Israel.

And if Christ could marvel the faith of a pagan.

We must be very careful who we mock, or belittle

or dismiss. Let it not be the very people that

we are calling into the church.

We may sometimes meet people who.

Don't have the fullness of the teaching, but who pray

with tears, people who don't know the fathers but know

how to forgive, People who don't know the canons, but

who can trust God and their suffering. People may never

stood through the divine liturgy that they can say with

their whole heart, go and only.

Speak the Word. And to these people we can do.

We must bear witness to the fullness of the faith,

that we must do it with humility, not contend with

gratitude for what we've been given, not arrogance of our place.

We must have that sobriet be in our hearts, and

not self congratulation on our lips. Because the question on

the last day will not be whether we possess the

holy things out arly or whether we received them inwardly,

Not whether Christ entered into our ability, but whether he

found room in our hearts, and, having made his abode there,

whether we truly then ministered him in the least among us. So,

brothers and sisters, as we depart today, let us not

boast your sons of the Kingdom.

Let us instead show where we are of the sons

of the Kingdom.

Let us not merely possess the faith of the apostles,

but let us be possessed by the truth of Christ.

And let us not belittle the faith of others. When

we should first.

Ask our own faith whether it would cause Christ to marvel.

And may the Lord grant us the humility of the centurion,

the trust of the centraliating, living faith of being who said,

speak to the.

Word owner.

Highcho used to be his own word for the est

go by way, as though I should leave so deep

time to be the then father and son the Holy Spirit.

Am