This week … I’ve been going back and forth, vacillating
At times I'm convinced ...
The other shoe is gonna drop
Something bad is going to happen
Something - really - bad
Then I hear the whisper of hope
Look what I'm going to do
...
Just say the word, Jesus
There’s a story I recently re-read. It's a story of a soldier who lived centuries ago. His title - centurion.
He was an important man in the Roman army so many years ago.
This story was written for me, today.
Go ahead and read it.
Maybe you'll skim it over and not really think much about it, how it relates to you,
cause, well … you’re not a centurion in the Roman army in the year 3 AD (give or take a year)
Yet, I love this story, in all of it's ancientness.
I love this snippet of a biography of a man who lived centuries ago.
A powerful man.
Soldiers under his authority who obeyed his every command.
Probably a wealthy man who seemed to have it all.
A beautiful home.
Servants and slaves who ran the home.
And then there was this one.
"a most valued slave who was deathly ill"
Here was a man. A Roman centurion meant to be respected, probably feared, in charge.
And he found himself desperate. He found himself without being able to fix some thing. He had no answer. He didn’t know what to do next or who to call for help. I’m sure he had the money for the best physicians … he had resources at his disposal. And none of them were working. Nobody could help. Nothing worked.
One of his slaves, a very important commodity in his home, was lying on his death bed. Remember, this was a time when slaves and servants were integral parts of a wealthy and prestigious family's functioning.
Yes - this is a subject that frightens us today, repulses us to think that a man, a woman, a whole family should ever belong to another. Yet here is this soldier, who is desperate for his slave, whom he valued. Desperate for help.
Desperation leads us to do many things. It leads us to spend money we don’t have. It leads us to anxiety-induced illness. It causes families to fall apart, when they should be coming together. Desperation has the potential of stripping us bare of all we are - using up all the resources we have.And then Jesus comes along.
This soldier-man, he had heard of Jesus. Maybe he had met him at some point while guarding the temple. His status in the military would have placed him in the know. He would have known all about this rebel rabbi named Jesus from Nazareth.
But what he had heard and possibly even witnessed, had obviously impacted him.
There’s one smart guy.
Not missing Truth when it’s right in front of him.
He recognized the real thing, possibly because he had searched for it everywhere. And the answer was not to be found.
All he did find was that there was nothing to heal this disease afflicting his servant.
There was no more coin to be paid, no more effort to be expended to save this valued member of his household.
There was no other answer
So in his desperation, in his surrender of heart, he trusted the Truth when he saw it.
Say the word, Jesus.
He knew that this Man, God incarnate, the Divine in the flesh, just had to speak and the disease would be gone. He recognized the authority, the spiritual authority that Jesus had over the affliction that had affected his household.
Jesus.
With a word is able to cure disease, break addiction, remove oppression.
The centurion recognized Truth standing before Him.
He acknowledged the power and sovereignty - God in the flesh.
He believed that if God is Who He says He is, He is able, with a spoken word to transform a disease-ridden body to wholeness.
Jesus ... able to break the grip of addiction, heal a dissolving marriage, eliminate chronic pain, eradicate cancer.
God is able. He is able to do this.
As Jesus whispers in my heart
look what I’m going to do
I'll surrender my will, my timing, my way muddling through desperate nothingness.
I will respond...
