[Matthew 8:5-13]
Love Your Enemies
By the Reverend Tom Paine
Preached at Westminster Presbyterian, Chehalis
June 16, 2024
Lesley and I really enjoyed the American Revolutionary War drama “Turn” that the AMC network produced. Even though I majored in history in college, I tended to focus on 20th century history, and particularly European and military history. The show brought me back to material I learned earlier but not all of it sunk in. It made some of the famous characters from our history come alive.
And a part of our history that I had forgotten was that while our Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4th 1776 it really wasn’t approved by all the colonies until August 2nd. And do you want to know what happened 20 days after that? The British took New York City. And that city was occupied for seven years. Imagine being free, just for a moment and then, you’re not.
An occupation like this happened to the Jews as well, but not just to one of their cities, it happened to all the Jewish cities. The Jews had lost their freedom to the Greeks under Alexander the Great. But after Alexander died, with one of Alexander’s sons in charge of Palestine, the Jews revolved and kicked the Greeks out.
And they were free – until the Romans showed up and then they were occupied – again. Imagine how you would feel if you had been free and all of a sudden foreigners were in charge again. Oh, and you needed to pay for them to be in charge too. Your taxes would pay for the occupying army.
That’s what is going on all during Jesus’ lifetime. It is why some hoped Jesus would be this revolutionary leader who would lead a second revolt to kick out foreign troops. And Jesus was a Revolutionary. Make no mistake about that. But Jesus was here to challenge something a bit bigger than Rome. He wanted to change us – all of us – Jesus wanted to right what was wrong within humanity itself.
Welcome back to our summer series on passages that don’t come up in the Revised Common Lectionary. This one, from Matthew, doesn’t. But, like others, it has a parallel that does come up once every three years. It is in Luke. In these accounts, as you heard, Jesus cures the servant of a military official. But I think it is easy for us to slide past the word Centurion without thinking about it too much. This wasn’t just a soldier but a foreign soldier. This was a foreigner occupying soldier. And not just some low-ranking spear carrier either.
The Roman military was a well-oiled machine. At its heart were the officers known as centurions. Centurions commanded a unit of around 100 soldiers called a century. Six centuries made a cohort, and ten cohorts made a legion. So, this was a person of influence in Rome’s occupying army. And, in the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus had just preached, he had said, “You have heard it said in the Old Testament law that you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy, But I say to you, ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven.’ Jesus has someone seeking him out who everyone, except the collaborators in Jerusalem, would likely see as an enemy. A gentile enemy. A pagan enemy. A leader of their enemies.
Luke and Matthew tell the same story but slightly differently. Luke has the centurion go to the local synagogue officials in Capernaum to ask for Jesus’ help. His servant is sick, deathly ill. The officials went to Jesus and urged him to help because the centurion had been an unusual occupier. They said he loved their nation. He had even helped them build their synagogue. Matthew doesn’t relate any of this.
He simply has the centurion go to Jesus. Either way, what is clear, is that the person who everyone in the region would have seen as the most powerful person around is one who instead saw Jesus as the powerful one. Jesus was the one with the real authority. But would he help?
I have been blessed in my life to not have too many people who I considered enemies. Working in the USAF for about three decades and in the church for about two and a half decades, while most of the people have been wonderful there have been a handful who I look back on now and understand they probably did not have my best interest at heart. A handful of them, I recognized even as it was happening. And, honestly, love was not the emotion that filled my heart then. It is still hard to feel it now.
The reason we remember a teaching such as “love your enemies” is this is not what is normal for us. It goes against our nature. If someone not only has a bad opinion of us but also is actively working against us, wants to see us fail, or maybe even wants to see worse happen to us – love is not what would be considered a normal human reaction. But, it is important to remember, that God has been loving people who did not return that love – even worked in the opposite way – for quite some time. Really since the beginning of humanity. And it isn’t to affirm evil thoughts or evil intent. And it isn’t because God likes being hurt either. But it is because God foresees there is a possibility, even at a very low point, for something better. There is a chance for healing. There is a chance for reconciliation. There is a chance for help. But it is going to take a divine first step. Or, in the human case, it is going to take God’s children taking the initiative. Because returning evil for the evil, makes us not that different. What makes us different is wanting something better – not just for ourselves but for them.
Jesus always practiced what he preached. He doesn’t balk at going to see or help a Roman centurion. There is no one out there that God doesn’t love. But what made this story stand out, what made it memorable, quite interestingly wasn’t the action of Jesus as much as it was the action of the so-called enemy.
The Roman, we remember from the passage, said, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only speak the word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man with 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.” And Jesus responded, “Such faith I have not encountered in all of Israel. Your servant is well.” And indeed, he was.
I think it is important to pause and consider what the Centurion was exhibiting – because we talk about it all the time – but I don’t know how much we really soak it in. So often, Christians are challenged today to prove their beliefs – like they were presenting a scientific paper. People ask for evidence. They ask us for sources. They tell us to prove what we believe like it was a math problem. But do you want to know what happens in Scripture? Let me take just a few examples. God provides manna and a guiding light in the wilderness – to a people who had just seen the ten plagues. And they turn from God again and again the wilderness. Elijah calls on God to consume a water drenched sacrifice in front of the king and the prophets of Baal. God does. And Hosea, his contemporary wrote that the people’s faith faded away like the morning dew. Jesus, fed five thousand men once and four thousand men at another – which if you add in women and children were tens of thousands fed miraculously, and how many stood by him during Holy Week? If humans have shown anything in the Bible is witnessing a miracles absolutely doesn’t make people believe in God or become good people.
I think our lesson Matthew presents us with a different approach—faith as a deep conviction within that doesn’t need any external confirmation for validation. It seems to me that is what genuine faith is like. It’s a decision you make, no matter what the circumstances of your life, believing that God is utterly faithful to you, loves you, and intends good for you. And nothing can separate us from that love. If that is our starting point, it makes all the difference in the way we experiences the world around us and especially the way we experience other people.
This doesn’t mean that if we just have faith, we get what we want. God doesn’t become a magic genie, even if our requests are as unselfish as the Centurion’s was. Good people, like the Centurion, ask for things in faith all the time. But as the Apostle Paul put it, God does, in the end work all things together for good, for those who are called according to God’s purpose. In other words, God is always in relationship with us now. And sooner or later, God will work things for the good for those who keep faith.
So, why does the lectionary give us Luke’s account instead of Matthew’s? I think sometimes the lectionary leaves out uncomfortable verses and there are some uncomfortable one’s in Matthew’s account. Before healing the Centurion’s servant Jesus warns those around him that some who think they are insiders because of their heritage, or because of where they were born, or because of where they worship – are not safe. But none of that has anything to do with faith. None of that has anything to do with God. And if they lean on those things, depend on those things, they will end up in a place where they won’t find God. If instead we lean into faith, as the centurion did, we will find good. And, in the end, we will find the one who created us with an intent, a purpose, and a future for us.
You know the funny thing looking back at the Revolution now – is who are our friends? Aren’t they our former enemies? The British are some of our closest allies. And the cycle repeats. The same thing happened in our Civil War. The same thing happened in Mexican-American War, the Spanish American War, World War I, and World War II. Just in the short history of our country, we have found people we thought were our enemies can be good friends. Again, Jesus urging us to love enemies isn’t about being doormats or about affirming evil intent for us in some way. But it is being bigger, wanting better, for everyone, even including those who may hate us today.
The next time a centurion comes up, probably a different centurion, was at the foot of the cross. That centurion, after Jesus died, said, “Surely this was the Son of God.” Even the last people we might expect can turn in a good way.
Brothers and sisters, we live in a world today where people divide themselves over all sorts of topics. May we find a way to heal those breaches. May we be peacemakers. May we be reconcilers. May we show the type of love that has been shown to us.
And through it all, may we keep faith, utter trust, that God remains with us, intends good for us, and is working all things according to God’s divine purpose, especially for those who love the Lord and keep their faith.
To God be the glory, forever and ever, amen.
What Draws Attention 