This is the text of a sermon preached at Central Methodist Chippenham on 15th September 2022. The Church requested that we hold a memorial / thanksgiving service for the life of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
When it was suggested that we postpone our harvest
festival and instead have a service to remember and pay tribute to her majesty
the Queen the Bible passage from Luke’s gospel we’ve heard came to mind. (
It is a fascinating story.
Jesus was returning to Capernaum after preaching and
ministering elsewhere. Capernaum was a minor trade centre and toll station
where roads crossed the Galilee. Jesus enters Capernaum where we must assume
the centurion, this Roman officer, was based. He was clearly quite well off as
he had servants or slaves – depending on which translation of the Bible we
read. One of his servants was seriously ill and close to death. The centurion
had heard about Jesus and therefore when he heard Jesus was back in town, the
centurion sent a deputation to Jesus:
3 When he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish
elders to him, asking him to come and heal his slave.
Note that. He sent Jewish elders. Which shows he must have been well
regarded by the Jewish community. Luke then tells us:
4 When they came to
Jesus, they appealed to him earnestly, saying, ‘He is worthy of having you do
this for him, 5 for he loves our people, and it is
he who built our synagogue for us.’
The Centurion mentioned in
the passage, must have been something of an
exception, as he clearly has close ties with the Jewish community in Capernaum.
Remember the Jewish elders say to Jesus about the Centurion:
‘This man deserves to have you do this, 5 because he loves our
nation and has built our synagogue.’ Luke 7: 4 – 5
This doesn’t mean that the Centurion was a practising Jew. I suspect that would not have been
permissible to a Roman officer. But clearly the centurion felt able to assist
the Jewish community in Capernaum.
As is often the way with the
Gospels, Luke doesn’t give us much information about the Centurion. There are
several unanswered questions. As I’ve said we may wonder about whether he was a
practising Jew or not. And then we might wonder why he was in Capernaum?
According to J L Reed in his book “Archaeology and the
Galilean Jesus: A Re-examination of the Evidence”, at
the time of Jesus Capernaum had a population of around 1,500. It was a fishing
village on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. Given this would a Roman
legion have been stationed there? Perhaps our Centurion had his home there and
was based elsewhere? Or perhaps he was retired?
Another question. How could a
Centurion afford to build a synagogue?
As you may know centurions were
officers of the regular Roman army. They had worked their way up through the
ranks and were promoted for their dedication and courage. These veterans
commanded 100 men each within a legion of 6,000. Therefore, there were 60
centuries in a legion, each century under the command of a centurion.
A centurion received pay that
amounted to more than 20 times the pay of an ordinary solider. A centurion
received around 5,000 denarii a year whereas a common soldier received around
200 – 300 denarii a year. Within a legion there were five senior centurions who
received 10,000 denarii a year and the chief centurion received 20,000 denarii
a year.
My point is, centurions were
comparatively wealthy. Our Centurion could well have been able to afford to
build a synagogue in place like Capernaum for in a small town like Capernaum
the synagogue would not have been much more than a large house.
We can only speculate why the Centurion was living in
Capernaum and we can have an informed guess about how he managed to pay for the synagogue. But one further question
must be Why did he do what he did?
As I said earlier, it is
unlikely that he was Jewish. In fact, careful reading of the passage seems to
confirm this. If he was Jewish, he would have felt able to welcome Jesus into
his home. But given that he sends people to Jesus with a message, suggests that
the Centurion was sufficiently sensitive to Jewish purity laws that forbade a
Jew entering the home of a Gentile. He wanted the help of a Jew (Jesus), but he knew
that a Jew could not enter a Gentile home. Though as we know, Jesus was not
concerned about such things.
Again, why did the centurion
do what he did? Why did he send for Jesus?
A soldier is always aware of
the chain of command. And although a centurion was a relatively senior officer
in the Roman army he was himself
“a man under authority with soldiers
under me; and I say to one, “Go”, and he goes, and to another, “Come”, and he
comes, and to my slave, “Do this”, and the slave does it.’ Luke 7:8
The Centurion had his own authority but he was
under the authority of seniors. No doubt he recognised authority when he
saw it. And in Jesus he saw someone who was under authority – God’s
authority.
9 When Jesus heard
this he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, he said,
‘I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.’
Jesus is astonished at the second message. And we
are astonished at his astonishment! Normally in the gospels Jesus says things
that surprise people. This is one of the few places where Jesus himself is
surprised. And the reason is the sheer quality of the Centurion's faith. It is
the simple clear belief that when Jesus commands that something be done, it
will be done. The Centurion regards Jesus like a military officer, with
authority over sickness. If Jesus says that someone is to get well, they will
get well. What could be simpler?
Where the centurion got his faith we do not know.
If he had lived in Capernaum for a while, he had no doubt heard of Jesus and
even perhaps seen him perform remarkable cures already. Whatever the reason,
the Centurion recognised that in Jesus there was a power at work that could
carry all before it.
This story isn’t about the healing of the slave –
though of course that is miraculous. This story is about the nature of faith.
And how a powerful person such as the Centurion has faith and recognises the
authority of Jesus.
Which of course brings me to Her Majesty the Queen.
It has been well documented, and we have seen it more and more in her Christmas
Day broadcasts, that Her Majesty had a deep Christian faith. This woman,
probably the most well known woman in the world, was Sovereign of 14 Commonwealth realms in addition
to the UK. She was Head of the Commonwealth itself, which comprises 54
countries with a combined population of 2.5 billion.
Whilst compared to monarchs of old her authority might be described
as “gentle” she still had authority. And yet even this powerful, wealthy, woman recognised that she too was under authority. By faith in Jesus Christ,
she was under his authority.
In 2000 she
said: 'To many of us our beliefs are of fundamental importance.
For me the teachings of Christ and my own personal accountability before God
provide a framework in which I try to lead my life. I, like so many of you,
have drawn great comfort in difficult times from Christ's words and example.' [1]
“My
own personal accountability before God”
is the recognition that she was under God’s authority.
And in
2002 she said:
'I know just how much I rely
on my faith to guide me through the good times and the bad. Each day is a new
beginning. I know that the only way to live my life is to try to do what is
right, to take the long view, to give of my best in all that the day brings,
and to put my trust in God!'[2]
I was
aware that at her Coronation she had sworn an oath before God to serve her
people. But it wasn’t until her death that I became aware of what she said in
her Christmas broadcast in December 1952. She said
'Pray for me … that God
may give me wisdom and strength to carry out the solemn promises I shall be
making, and that I may faithfully serve Him and you, all the days of my life.’
Throughout her long life, Christ’s example and teaching were acted out in the dutiful and faithful life of the Queen.
May she rest in peace and rise in glory
