In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
Prior to today’s reading the Lord gave the Sermon on the Mount—chapters five through seven of Matthew’s Gospel—which is our best summary of the Gospel and how to live a Christian life: I strongly encourage you, read it and re-read it. Having given the Sermon, the Lord descends the mountain and is approached by a leper (8:1–4) and heals him. And now the Lord enters Capernaum. Having spoken to the faithful remnant of the Jews he comes down to the Gentiles who will be grafted in to Israel through his death and Resurrection, for all who come to him will be strengthened and comforted since Capernaum means “house of comfort.”
And the centurion waits. He does not approach the Lord on the mountain for he knows he is not of the Judeans and he must wait for his comfort to come. And yet he is of great Faith; unlike the four carrying their friend to the Lord, (Matthew 9:1–8; also Mark 2:1–12, Luke 5:17–26) he knows that Christ can command the healing by a word. “Lord,” he calls out, “my servant is lying paralysed at home, in terrible distress.” Christ knows his faith and wants to set him as an example to his disciples—to you and to me—and replies with a remarkable phrase, “I will come and heal him.” Not only that he will heal, he has done that just a few verses earlier, but that he will move himself and come to the one who is sick. And the centurion replies,
Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I am 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 he does it.
For the centurion has come to realise that he is not worthy that the King of kings enter his dwelling: yet, paradoxically, this statement shows that Christ has already entered his heart. The centurion has pushed out his own ego from his heart—not out of fear or compulsion as he would his military commanders and the Emperor, but out of love for God and love for his own servant. He knows what it is to have authority and power, and recognises that in Christ. And in response the Lord shows his disciples—you and me—that not only the faithful remnant will constitute his Church but that he may call whomever he desires to a life of faithfulness.
Here and now, in this town and in this region, there are those whom the Lord already describes as having such Faith who are coming “from east and west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven.” Are we, already disciples of the living God, marvelling at their Faith or are we to be “thrown into the outer darkness; [where] men will weep and gnash their teeth”? Do we welcome the strangers or do we dismiss them as being outside the Church, unworthy of recognition until they become one of us? We have been together the Lord with his teaching, with his death and Resurrection, and others come with faithfulness: what is our response?
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us live the life of Faithfulness by not only knowing but living the Gospel so that we may recognise Faithfulness demonstrated by all, let rejoice in the Lord “who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (First Timothy 2:4) And let us, therefore, “sit,” together with them, “at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven.”
To our crucified and risen God and Saviour Jesus Christ be all glory, honour and worship, together with his unoriginate Father and the All-holy, Good and Life-giving Spirit. Amen.
Brethren, the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly sanctuary. For a tent was prepared, the outer one, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the Presence; it is called the Holy Place. Behind the second curtain stood a tent called the Holy of Holies, having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, which contained a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant; above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail. These preparations having thus been made, the priests go continually into the outer tent, performing their ritual duties; but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood which he offers for himself and for the errors of the people.
— Hebrews 9:1–7
At that time, as Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, beseeching him and saying, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, in terrible distress.” And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.” But the centurion answered him, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I am 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 he does it.” When Jesus heard him, he marveled, and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such faith. I tell you, many will come from east and west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.” And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; be it done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that very moment.
— Matthew 8:5–13