SERMON SERIES

Jesus’ stated mission for his teaching was to call the Jewish people back to faithfulness. What was unexpected was what he meant by Israel. In his interaction with Nathanael, Jesus subtly and then clearly reminds us of the origin of the name Israel with imagery from Jacob’s vision of the ladder. Nathanael was surprised by how Jesus knew him so early in their relationship; he was even more surprised to hear Jesus say that what Jesus will show next is what the whole story of Israel is about…and the story is about how intimately God knows us.

The Old Testament prophets lead us to expect a Messiah who is passionate about justice…and Jesus is passionate about justice. He confronted the unjust religious system that exploited powerless people like widows. What is unexpected is that Jesus encouraged people to faithfulness and dependence on God even in an unjust system. A widow gave all she had to live on because she radically trusted in God, and Jesus appreciates people who understand that their best and only option is dependence on God.

Given that Jesus’ mission began with only the Jewish people, we could expect most of his efforts to be in preaching, teaching, and healing them. In this week’s story, Jesus unexpectedly helped not just an outsider, but an oppressor. An officer in the occupying Roman army asks for help. He sends a delegation of Jewish leaders to vouch for him, so Jesus agreed to make an exception and help. The Centurion then surprised Jesus with his respect for Jesus’ power. The Centurion said that he gives orders and they are obeyed far away, so he believes Jesus can give the order from where he is and heal. Jesus was amazed and unexpectedly said this was the greatest faith he had ever seen. In this case, what he meant by faith was respect for Jesus’ power. The occupying power recognized a power greater than his own in Jesus.

Building on last week, Jesus again encounters an outsider, this time a person with no status or power at all, nobody to vouch for her. Jesus avoided helping her at first, stating the mission of caring for the “lost sheep of Israel.” When she knelt before him and asked for help, Jesus said it is not fair to feed the dogs with the children’s food. Rather than resisting him, she stood her ground and countered that even the dogs get to eat the crumbs. Jesus was moved by her faith, in this case seen both in her humility and her assertiveness.

Jesus showed and told that faith affects our actions. Immediately before this story, he told the story of the Good Samaritan, who showed he was a neighbor by caring for another. In this story, Martha was taking care of things, and you might expect that Jesus would celebrate her work. Instead, when Martha asked him to tell her sister to get to work, he surprised Martha. Jesus said that Mary had chosen better by just being with Jesus. Ultimately, faithfulness is about being with Jesus, whether we are in action or at rest.