I Am Not Worthy That You Should Enter Under My Roof: St. Luke 7:1-10

St. Luke 7:1-10: "1 Now when He concluded all His sayings in the hearing of the people, He entered Capernaum. 2 And a certain centurion's servant, who was dear to him, was sick and ready to die. 3 So when he heard about Jesus, he sent elders of the Jews to Him, pleading with Him to come and heal his servant. 4 And when they came to Jesus, they begged Him earnestly, saying that the one for whom He should do this was deserving, 5 'for he loves our nation, and has built us a synagogue.' 6 Then Jesus went with them. And when He was already not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to Him, saying to Him, 'Lord, do not trouble Yourself, for I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof. 7 Therefore I did not even think myself worthy to come to You. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. 8 For I also am a man placed under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to one, "Go," and he goes; and to another, "Come," and he comes; and to my servant, "Do this," and he does it.' 9 When Jesus heard these things, He marveled at him, and turned around and said to the crowd that followed Him, 'I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!' 10 And those who were sent, returning to the house, found the servant well who had been sick."

The season of Lent begins today, Ash Wednesday, with the account of the centurion, whose servant is sick, and desires that our Lord Jesus would come and heal him. The theme to this whole text is humility, and that after all is a part of what Lent is about, humbling ourselves before God on account of our sin.

What is truly amazing about this centurion, however, is that he is a man of great authority, as he relates to our Lord Jesus, through his servants, that he is a man who says to his soldiers, "Go," and they go, and "Come," and they come, and he says to his servant, "Do this," and he does it. Now, at first glance this doesn't really seem like humility, it seems like the centurion is bragging about how much power and authority he has. But that is precisely the point, for even though the centurion has all this power and authority over people, he realizes that he is not worthy to have our Lord Jesus come under his roof.

Furthermore, the centurion believes that the Lord does not even have to show up for the servant to be healed; That our Lord Jesus could heal him just by speaking the word. This centurion was not a Jew, he was a Roman soldier, but he had already demonstrated his love for the people of Israel, by building them a synagogue. This centurion also reveals he understands who has the true authority and power, for he understands that the power and authority of our Lord, Who is the Creator and Preserver of all things, is far more greater than any power that he holds. In this we are shown the centurion's humility, and that he is placing himself under our Lord Jesus' authority.

For this faith, our Lord Jesus turns to the entire crowd, and proclaims to them that no faith like this has he seen in the people of God. This is truly a remarkable statement for He is basically saying that the people of God, who have His Word and teachings, lack the faith of someone, who doesn't have these things. One wonders what produced the faith in this centurion. We can tell, since he built a synagogue, the place where God's Word was preached and taught among the Jews, that somewhere along the line, he must have heard the Old Testament of the Jews. And it was a love for this Word that he had heard, that prompted him to build a synagogue for them. And we can further surmise that since our Lord Jesus was preaching and teaching, and healing the sick, and casting out demons in the region, that the centurion would have heard the reports about Him. Therefore, the centurion has placed his faith, not in healing powers, but in the Lord Jesus Himself. And this centurion willingly places aside his own authority, to be under our Lord's authority.

One final note about his pericope. The words that the centurion states, that proclaim his humility, are part of the prayers that ministers have been praying for centuries, as part of their prayers before receiving communion. The phrase used is, "Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldest come under my roof, but speak the word only, and my soul shall be healed." The priest would repeat this phrase three times, beating his chest with lower three fingers of his right hand when he said the words "not worthy." This signified that the Celebrant, although handing the people of God our Lord's Body and Blood, the true Authority and Minister was our Lord. He is just acting on our Lord's behalf. Therefore, he speaks of his unworthiness to hold this honor, and to receive the Lord's Body and Blood, for his forgiveness.

This too, should be our attitude when we receive the Lord's Supper. We should express our unworthiness to receive the forgiveness of sins, eternal life and salvation that are given to us in the Holy Eucharist. For, on account of our sinfulness, we do not deserve to receive this gift. But on account of our Lord's Word, that is, the Words of Institution, which proclaim that the Body and Blood, given in bread and wine, are for the remission of our sins. He gives this to us freely, without any merit or worthiness on our part.

Therefore, as we enter into the season of Lent this day, let us humble ourselves before our Almighty Lord, and with ashes upon our heads, receive the Lord's Body and Blood given in bread and wine.

May God be with you!

Deacon Dulas

He Taught Them As One Having Authority: St. Matthew 7:24-29

St. Matthew 7:24-29: "'24 Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.' 28 And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, 29 for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes."

Our Lord Jesus teaches as One having authority. The question that comes from this statement is, "What constitutes authority?" Or to say it in a more Lutheran way, "What does this mean?" Let us look at this question from a civil perspective first.

We have many authorities in this life. Our first contact with an authority is our parents, as the Blessed Holy Trinity commands us, "Thou shalt honor thy father and they mother, that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth." * Our parents, were placed over us by our Heavenly Father. However, they were not just placed over us so that we might do their every bidding. Certainly if they asked us to do things contrary to our Lord's commands we would rather serve our Lord God than man. They were placed over us not to rule us with an iron hand, but to lead us into the way of Truth. In other words, our Heavenly Father gave us our parents so that we might learn to love and serve Him. This is of course easier when our parents are also loving and serving our Heavenly Father, and those who are not, are evil parents, for they are not obeying the first and greatest commandment to "fear, love and trust in God above all things." * Truly wicked parents are the ones who not just neglect to teach their children about the Lord God, but purposefully lead their children away from the One True God. This would also include those who teach their children to worship false gods, and false religions, such as, Islam, or Buddhism, or Judaism, or Hindu, or Jehovah's Witness, or Mormonism. This would also include those parents who lead their children into the false sects, who deny the Sacraments of our Lord, and teach that these are not actual means of salvation, but only symbols.

One can see from this that a true authority always has the will and command of our Lord God at heart. And there are other earthly authorities of varying degrees of earthly authority, and these authorities all flow out of the authority of parents. In other words, it is the parents responsibility that they are providing for their children earthly authorities that will obey God's commands. This includes, finding teachers and a school that will not teach their children that evolution is okay, but that the Holy Blessed Trinity created the earth in six days. This means finding a minister and a parish where the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity, and the Sacraments are administered according to Christ's institution. This means voting (since we live in a democratic society) for public officials (judges, magistrates, presidents, senators, governors, county sheriffs, and the like) who will do what is right according to God's will and command, and not according to what society dictates is well and good. If we vote for men who will only cater to societies whims, our society will continue on its present course of degradation. And we are clearly not fulfilling our roles as parents, by providing our children with good government.

These authorities all have a duty to uphold what our Lord teaches, and make this world and life, as is in their individual power and authority, a world that looks to our Lord Jesus for their hope and survival.

Ultimately, authority has to do with our Lord's Word. And our Lord is regarded as having authority, because of His teaching. This means that our Lord appeared to the people to actually know what He was talking about. It also means that He taught them as One Who was sent by God. Our Lord, in His teaching, manifests Himself to be the Son of God, the promised Messiah. And, as we learn from later in the Gospel of St. Matthew, the people at the very least recognized Him as a prophet. Prophets were sent by God to proclaim His Word. Our Heavenly Father still sends prophets. Perhaps not the type of prophets that were sent in the Old Testament, but prophets whose chief task is to proclaim the one and only Saviour, that is, our Lord Jesus Christ.

He who hears our Lord, hears the One Who sent Him, as the Gospel of St. John points out. Our Lord's authority to preach and teach comes from the Heavenly Father. The same is true today, those who preach and teach have been rightly called and ordained. There are many today who claim to be called, but in actuality have to authority to preach or teach, this would especially include females and homosexuals, the one because of their gender, the other because one who is rightly called does not live in open, manifest sin. But those who have been rightly called, should be listened to, for they have been sent by our Heavenly Father to proclaim the authority of the Son, who gives His life for His people.

Those who do not listen to these called men, and by virtue of their word regarding our Lord, do not listen to our Lord, are like the foolish person, who built his house upon the sand of false gods, and human wisdom, and the floods, and the rain, and the wind of the devil, the world, and this sinful flesh, beat against it, and they fall mightily, because their fall is an eternal one. He who listens to our Lord's Words, is like a wise man who builds his house upon the firm foundation of our Lord Jesus Christ's teaching, and the wind and rain and floods of sin, sorrow and trouble may beat against it, but it will not fall, but remains unto all eternity. Hear the Words of our Lord, and listen to Him, and He will teach you to trust in Him alone.

May God be with you!

Deacon Dulas

* Translation from Doctor Martin Luther Small Catechism and An Explanation of Christian Doctrine based on Doctor Luther's Small Catechism, Edited by Markku Sarela, Published by The Confessional Lutheran Church of Finland, 1999.