Mt 8:5-13 Faith of the Centurion

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.

Centurion in town

A centurion comes up to Jesus when he walks into town  – a Roman gentile, emblematic of the hated occupying force… How’s this going to go? Will Jesus respond to his request? What about the politics of this?

There is a simple exchange – “Lord, my servant lies at home paralysed, suffering terribly.” Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?”

This is all about human need and connection. The centurion cares about his servant’s terrible condition and is looking for a solution. Jesus connects and responds with an offer of help. No politics  here.

What follows is an amazing twist. This “outsider” centurion has an incredible insight into how faith is supposed to work. So much so that Jesus says he is in a class of his own in the faith department – take that, religious establishment!

It’s almost as if the centurion has invented some language here. “Come”. “Go”. All simple. This is how it works. Jesus picks up on this language and says “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.”

Subjects of the Kingdom

Let’s unpack a bit more. Jesus says “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”. He is talking about people coming (there’s that language again) from far away places to take their place in the kingdom. These people are not the traditional or ethnic expected invitees – the Jews. These people are from the nations, I.e. the Gentiles, from outside. Could it be that this what is foreshadowed in verses such as Isa 43:5-8, 59:11 and Ps 107:2-3?

Yet the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, to a place of darkness, sorrow and regret. So who exactly are these subjects of the kingdom and why are they cast out? Kingdom language is common in the Bible. There is a king, a realm, and the subjects. Through the history of the people of Israel, kingdoms were quite fluid. More than once a kingdom was transferred from one king to another (1 Sam 28:17, 2 Sam 3:10, Lam 2:2, Dan 2:39). The Old Testament also speaks of a coming new kingdom (Isa 32:1, Isa 9:6-7) and, spoiler alert, Jesus is the new king.

Weeping and Gnashing

Now, what is this “weeping and gnashing of teeth” all about? In the NIV version of the  New Testament, the word “gnashing” appears seven times , of which six are in Matthew. It’s a favourite phrase of his (Mt 8:12,m13:42, 13:50, 22:13, 24:51, 25:30). Luke also it (Lk 13:28) and there are many parallels there to this passage:

There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. (Lk 13:28-30).

All of the references associate teeth-gnashing with weeping, and most of them with being outside in the darkness. There is obviously a well-known reference being invoked here. First of all, what exactly is “gnashing”? Gnashing is grinding. You are grinding your teeth out of anger, not out of agony. See Acts 7:54. You’re upset. See also Ps 112 where the faith of the righteous is compared with the vexed teeth-gnashing of the wicked.

In ancient times banquets were usually held at night in well-lit rooms. If you were excluded, you were said to be cast into the “outer darkness of the night”. Orientals didn’t even like to sleep without the light on, so being stuck outside in the dark was a terrifying prospect.

Faith class 

So what is Jesus saying here? He wants to get the attention of his people, the Jews. It’s almost like he is having the gentile Centurion stand up in the front of the classroom.

Class, listen up. See Andronicus here, this is what faith looks like. Pay attention class. If you want to graduate, learn it like he has. The fact that your fathers are old boys of the school doesn’t count. Thank you Andronicus, you can sit down now”.

Listen up, indeed. This kingdom is for people who want to follow the king, not the hereditary land-owners. The rules have changed, faith in the king is the new currency.

Rethinking Evangelism

 


The Message

There was this guy who appeared one day who started preaching a message he called “the good news”. A lot of people heard, some became followers, and then he got killed by the Romans.

The message lived on through His followers over the next several decades, and spread throughout the whole Mediterranean world, despite significant opposition at times.

Today, Christians still preach a message. But is it the same one that the first guy taught? Or has it become hopelessly syncretised with culture and politics? Or has it been systematised and simplified (ie dumbed down) for efficient consumption and replication? So, the question is, how is evangelism going in the twenty-first century and does it need a rethink?

Growth Parables, Growth Paradigms

There are two short parables in Matthew’s gospel that show Jesus’ thinking about how the kingdom of heaven grows.

He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”

He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.” (Mt 13:32-33).

 So how does the kingdom of heaven grow exactly? How can we evangelise in the most effective way in our churches? What are the best programs, resources and techniques? Answer: none of the above.

There is some seed. It gets planted. And then we wait. Or you can use yeast!

That’s it. We plant the seed. The good news of the gospel, the way of God’s kingdom. And we let it do its work. We don’t coerce. Or manipulate. Or trap. Or scare people. It’s good news, remember? Things like “blessed are the poor in spirit”, or “the meek shall inherit the earth”. That’s the way Jesus started out.

The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

because he has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

and recovery of sight for the blind,

to set the oppressed free,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Lk 4:18-19)

There it is again, that “good news”. Freedom sounds good. Getting your sight back sounds good. Freedom from oppression sounds good – certainly a lot better than “you’re lost and you’re going to hell” which has become the essential locus of evangelism in the evangelical world.

Worth knowing that the “eu” part in the εὐαγγελίζω (euangelizo) means “good” (think eulogy, euphemism, even euphonium etc). So, if you want to share the good news make sure it’s actually good.

Fun fact, in Roman times, the euangelion was a political announcement. The king, or the emperor is coming to your town, or has ascended to the throne. Jesus employed this device as he brought the message of a new king, a new kingdom and a new way of life.

The problem for many of us though is that we just can’t get out of a “lost/saved/we have to convert you to our church” paradigm when we think about the euangelion. Yes, this is why Jesus died, and sin is a massive problem, but this formulation of the gospel misses key parts of the overall story.


Conversion Engineering

The enemy of Jesus-style evangelism is industrialised big-church evangelism, engineered to garner those “decisions”. From the sawdust trails of the Great Awakenings, to the Billy Sundays, to the Billy Grahams, to the Bill Brights, packaged, decision-oriented programs, meetings, tracts, TV shows and so forth have all revolved around creating sufficient angst for the individual that can only be resolved by whatever analgesic act the “evangelist” is touting – a walk down that trail, a seat on that bench, a coming forward, a prayer, even a baptism. The long-term stats on these conversions really aren’t that impressive, but is it any wonder? You would never make a life-long marriage commitment after a one-hour date, so why should a life-long commitment to following Jesus, possibly involving the enduring of persecution be thought to be possible after a one-hour sermon? Jesus just didn’t seem to operate that way.

Many groups set growth goals and make various plans to try to achieve those goals. This approach can be quite deeply ingrained in our personal and corporate church cultures. On the surface this looks OK – vision and planning are good things, right? However, there are traps that get armed in this process.

Trap #1: Ministry Imbalance

In the time of Ezekiel, God made it clear to the shepherds of Israel how He would go about looking after his sheep:

I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice. (Ezk. 34:16).

 Yes, God is concerned for the lost, it’s the first group on his list. But not the only group. There are strays to find, the injured to bind up, the weak to be strengthened.

Jesus, at the beginning of his ministry unrolled the Isaiah scroll and picked out the passage we mentioned earlier:

The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

because he has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

and recovery of sight for the blind,

to set the oppressed free,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. (Lk 4:18, Isa 61:1,2).

 Good news + freedom for prisoners + healing + recovery + freedom of the oppressed = Jesus’ ministry.

If Jesus preached that today, he would be accused by some of having a “woke” agenda! Point is that the gospel is for people both inside and outside the group. However, when evangelism is highly prioritised then those inside sheep get neglected.

Now what about what happens after happy conversion day… Are we as organised, intentional and serious about the ongoing spiritual formation and growth and needs of the new babe-in-Christ as we are in the initial acquisition process? Maturing takes time, nurturing, encouragement, intentionality, love and effort. To ignore this is shameful. To prioritise conversion over retention is the heart of Simon the Sorcerer (Acts 8:18-23).

Trap #2: Unhealthy numerical focus

There is something that is just so alluring about numbers. Be it a bank account savings balance, social media follower count, or church growth statistics. We can draw graphs, make projections, and can feel that little glow of satisfaction as the numbers creep up. We like to know the numbers. King David fell into this trap.

So the king said to Joab and the army commanders with him, “Go throughout the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and enroll the fighting men, so that I may know how many there are.”

But Joab replied to the king, “May the LORD your God multiply the troops a hundred times over and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king want to do such a thing?” (2 Sam 24:2-3)

 Joab felt something was off, and he was the general of the army they were counting – you’d think he’d want to know! David got his census done anyway and received the report. But then we are told that:

David was conscience-stricken after he had counted the fighting men, and he said to the LORD, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, LORD, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.” (2 Sam 24:10).

That episode cost 70,000 lives (2 Sam 24:15). David saw his error saying:

I have sinned; I, the shepherd, have done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? Let your hand fall on me and my family. (2 Sam 24:17).

 Finally, David remembered his roots, and what the heart of a true shepherd should really look like. It was wrong for David to count the people because they were not his to count  (cf Ex 30:12).

Numbers have always had a depersonalising way about them, be it an actuarial statistic or a concentration camp tattoo. We give names to our children, not numbers. Jesus only worked with a few. Paul didn’t same to care that much either about the size of the crowd (1 Cor 1:16), but what they had in common was a simple desire to simply preach the message of the kingdom.

Trap #3: Measurement Pride

Apart from a few verses in the beginning of Acts there are no hard numbers in the New Testament about church growth. Three thousand on the day of Pentecost is a remarkable figure (Acts 2:41), so remarkable that the glory can really only go to God. The Lord really was adding to their number (Acts 2:47), and the Jerusalem church grew to a size of 5000 men, plus presumably a lot of women as well (Acts 4:4). But then the reporting of numbers stop. The point has been made – God was with them spectacularly. No more reports on congregation size, just accounts of the amazing things happening as the Holy Spirit conducted proceedings. If Paul boasted at all it was in his weaknesses. He refuse to boast the way the world boasts (2 Cor 11:18). “You want numbers – I’ll give you numbers… 39 lashes 5 times, 3 times beaten with rods, stoned once, 3 shipwrecks, 24 hours in the open sea” (2 Cor 11:24-25). Paul goes to great lengths to make this point in 2 Corinthians, he is not going to do business the way the world does, or the way the false apostles do. No, he lived the way of suffering, of service, of distress, of weakness. No measurement pride here.

Perhaps we are incapable of resisting the lure of the counting of souls to our account? We can say that “God added” x people to our group, but why are we saying it?

Trap #4: Stifling of Creativity

Finally, one problem with programmatic evangelistic methods is that they tend to stifle and quench creativity. Are we still doing the same old things evangelistically we did twenty or thirty years ago? Is everybody in the group doing the exact same evangelistic tasks? Well, the culture has driven right past us in the fast lane. They aren’t listening to the same old approaches anymore. What are they listening to? What are they attracted to? What do they need? Are we listening? Do we even know? Do we think about it? Paul was good at this. He had to be – three different audiences in Acts 17 alone. The Thessalonians were not the Bereans. He preached Messiah to the Jews (Acts 17:3) and an unknown God to the Athenians (Acts 17:22-25). He did his research too (Acts 17:23).

In case we have missed it, “church” is kind-of “on the nose”in many quarters these days, so invitations to come along there may not work that well any more. But perhaps ears prick up when you talk about a radical “equality” rather than a hierarchy. That has currency in the culture. Or show regard for the marginalised and get involved in a community project. Concern about justice issues, human rights and so forth. These sorts of things are totally consistent with the gospel and could be a path-way worth exploring evangelistically. Not to mention that people don’t need too much convincing that the world is in a bit of a mess and are ready for some good news. Go on! Shape that message! Love is always good. The meekness and gentleness of Christ as an antidote to a “muscular’’, “strongman”, “toxic” style of leadership. Oh, and don’t be all judgy (Rom 2:1-3, Mt 7:1-5). There are many possibilities.

The Slow Way

What if we were to simply and intentionally live out what we read in the Sermon on the Mount in our interactions with others. To actually love people, serve them, be compassionate, be there. And then one day the opportunity will arise for some deeper discussion. And if the person doesn’t respond, well you just keep on loving, serving and being compassionate, and maybe things will be different in a couple of years. There will be opportunities to open the Scriptures with people to meet  needs as they arise. Living life with people means there will be needs that can be ministered to. That does seem to be the way Jesus did it. There are probably a lot more  “living water” conversations (Jn 4:1-24) than “warn and plead opportunities”.  (Acts 2:40).

Paul gets the idea also:

What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building. (1 Cor 3:5-9)

Paul seems to be genuinely comfortable with the idea that he is just a simple co-worker. A seed-planter. A God-partner who is happy to pass the ball. He is convinced that it is God who makes those seeds grow. The thing about seeds is that there is no quick pay-off. You put them in the ground, and you have nothing to show for it but dirt under your fingernails for quite a while. One day there is a sprout, but you better keep on watering it because full-grown mustard trees can take quite a few years (Mt 13:32).

What if you were able to come up with a setting in which you could share and discuss in your day the things Jesus taught that revolutionised the religion of his day? And you did it for a year, with absolutely no “conversion agenda”, but instead just focussed on teaching the good news and allowing the Holy Spirit to do his work? What would that look like a year down the track? Chances are a lot of the poor, imprisoned and blind people would stop by. History tells us that Jesus’ way draws people. They get to listen. They get to figure out in community with others how this all applies to them. They get to engage, to think, to wrestle. That is going to lead to a deeper engagement with the Scriptures and changes in the heart. Then one day, “So what do I need to do?” moments can arise. People do think about these things (Lk 13:23, Acts 8:26-39, Acts 16:30).

This may all seem terribly inefficient and oh-so-slow. But isn’t that how seeds grow? Much better to start slowly, plant those seeds and allow God to cause the growth. Build relationships and intentionally nurture, than to have a “big push” with boast-able numbers only to lose many of those “converts’’ a few months later.

Now don’t get me wrong. I believe we have wonderful news to share and that we need to share it. But I believe our real goal is to creatively make the gospel attractive (Tit 2:10) and form Christ in people (Gal 4:19), understanding that it is God who makes the seeds grow. Constantly reevaluating, rethinking, reshaping our presentation of the gospel for our particular cultural moment.