The Roman Centurion Had Faith

When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.” Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?”

The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that moment.

-Matthew 8:5-13

After some of the conversations I've had on the web and the struggle of trying to make binding connections with other people and communities who believe in Yeshua (Jesus) as the Jewish Messiah, I have to take time out from the process and remind myself why any of this is important. As we see in the scripture from Matthew, for a brief moment in time, the Jewish Messiah and a Roman Centurion, two very different and unalike people, connected through the medium of faith. In fact, Yeshua holds up the Roman Centurion to his own Israeli people, as an example of faith:

When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith..."

That's really an astonishing statement if you think about it. The Roman Centurion was a person who had faith but who had no reason to have such a faith in Yeshua or in the God of Abraham. And yet he did. Even the Messiah himself was "amazed" at the Centurion's faith, it was so unlikely and uncommon.

I say all this because a common Jewish and Christian faith in the Jewish Messiah and in the God of Abraham seems in short supply. While we struggle over our distinctiveness, we ignore the faith and love which is supposed to bind us. When Paul wrote neither Jew nor Gentile in Galatians 3:28 he wasn't obliterating the distinctions between Jews and non-Jews, but rather illustrating that we all have standing before the Messiah, despite our differences.

If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. -Galatians 3:29

If we claim to belong to the Messiah, along with all the differences and distinctions we have as individuals and that define us as Jews and Gentiles, we (according to Paul, anyway) are all "Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise". In other words, Jews and Gentiles who have faith in Yeshua as the Messiah have something in common. You don't always see that in our conversations. You more often see the opposite.

I spend some time alone in the building where my congregation meets for Shabbat services in the morning before anyone else arrives. It's a good time to read and pray, if only for a few minutes. This morning I was wondering, especially after this past week's conversations around Messianic Judaism, "Judaically-aware" congregations, and Bilateral Ecclesiology, if we are experiencing faith. I've been wondering if I've been experiencing faith lately. I know that I've let these conversations divert me from something much simpler and essential. If you, as a Jew, wear tzitzit, and I as a Gentile do not, am I less a person in God's Kingdom and is my faith made of an inferior material?

The Bible says "no", but in all these conversations, I sometimes feel otherwise. No one has really said it as such but what we do talk about with such zeal seems to overshadow what our faith is supposed to really be expressing. I sometimes forget the fact that, according to Yeshua's own words, "...many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven." I suppose that will include me, though I suppose it wouldn't be so terrible if it didn't. Maybe people like me are only the catalyst or conduit for the Jewish people to be able to sit down with the patriarchs. I sometimes imagine myself in those days, after having arranged "the party", backing off and just watching it from a distance.

Yet if Peter could witness Gentiles receive the Holy Spirit and enter "the community of saints", why can't the same thing happen today?

While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. The circumcised (Jewish) believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.

Then Peter said, “Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptized with water. They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.” So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days. -Acts 10:44-48

I recently purchased The Concise Book of Mitzvoth compiled by The Chafetz Chayim. In the Preface of the book, he writes that our (well, he's speaking to a Jewish audience, actually) intent is vital if people are to obey God. It's not enough to perform the actions, people must obey God with the express intent of doing so. If not, the actions, in and of themselves, do not "count" as far as performing the mitzvoth and must be performed again.

We discuss and debate the roles of Jews and Gentiles in the "Messianic movement", Christianity, or whatever label you want to hang on people who have faith in Yeshua. But if we focus on the mechanics and the minutiae and yet lack the proper love and intent to obey God and to treat each other with the same love as God has for each of us, what do we really accomplish?

Justin recently wrote the following in his blog:

My friends, all of these books, papers, blogs and lectures that we have done will one day disappear; before they do, are you sure that your faith in Him is solid? Are you standing on the Rock, or what someone else has represented as the rock? He is the Good News! Be not afraid, all who call upon the Name of the Living God will be saved! Omein.

After a two week hiatus from my congregation and particularly after this

past week which, in addition to some rather pointed Internet conversations, contained a number of personal trials and challenges, I was a little nervous facing my group again as a teacher. I'm supposed to be a "leader" of faith, but often I find the greatest faith, not in the intellectual and educated conversations that are put forth on the web, but in a kind and loving person's prayers for sick children and lost souls. Of course, it's not just faith that is an essential ingredient:

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. -1 Corinthians 13:1-3

The Roman Centurion had faith, but how much faith do we have? Paul writes that even beyond faith and hope, love is the greatest, but do we love?