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Jesus: kind even to occupying soldiers

October 17, 2024
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Daily Scripture

Matthew 8:5-13, Luke 18:15-17

Matthew 8
5 When Jesus went to Capernaum, a centurion approached, 6 pleading with him, “Lord, my servant is flat on his back at home, paralyzed, and his suffering is awful.”
7 Jesus responded, “I’ll come and heal him.”
8 But the centurion replied, “Lord, I don’t deserve to have you come under my roof. Just say the word and my servant will be healed. 9 I’m a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and the servant does it.”
10 When Jesus heard this, he was impressed and said to the people following him, “I say to you with all seriousness that even in Israel I haven’t found faith like this. 11 I say to you that there are many who will come from east and west and sit down to eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the children of the kingdom will be thrown outside into the darkness. People there will be weeping and grinding their teeth.” 13 Jesus said to the centurion, “Go; it will be done for you just as you have believed.” And his servant was healed that very moment….

17 This happened so that what Isaiah the prophet said would be fulfilled: He is the one who took our illnesses and carried away our diseases [Isaiah 53:4].

Luke 18
15 People were bringing babies to Jesus so that he would bless them. When the disciples saw this, they scolded them. 16 Then Jesus called them to him and said, “Allow the children to come to me. Don’t forbid them, because God’s kingdom belongs to people like these children. 17 I assure you that whoever doesn’t welcome God’s kingdom like a child will never enter it.”

Daily Reflection & Prayer

A Roman “centurion,” a foreign invader, commanded 100 soldiers. He held military authority but saw Jesus as a healing authority. Matthew didn’t explain it, but the Roman sensed that Jesus’ kindness and power to heal crossed all human limits. Jesus was kind to children, which may not seem strange to us but was. “In the ancient, status-ordered world, children were at the bottom of the ladder. In both Greek and Latin, the words for children meant ‘not speaking’; children lacked the dignity of reason.” *

  • Jesus’ kindness crossed many boundaries. Just before the story of the Roman centurion, Matthew told of Jesus touching “untouchable” lepers with healing (cf. Matthew 8:1-4). In the gospels, we often see Jesus’ disciples surprised (and at times upset) by his willingness to cross boundaries. ** Social shunning still happens in 2024 based on race, age, gender, socio-economic or educational level, religion, sexual orientation, disability, personal quirks, or looks. Oh, yes—also political beliefs! How is God calling you to live up to Jesus’ example in touching the leper today?
  • Too often, Christians focus their ministry to God’s world either just on spiritual changes (eternal salvation through Jesus) or else just on social changes (making the broken conditions of life in our world better). Jesus clearly did both. How can studying Jesus’ pattern of ministry help you avoid trying to make a false choice between spiritual and social action?
Prayer

Lord Jesus, you were a healer whether the illness and its healing were physical or spiritual. I sometimes need both, and so does the world around me. Grow me into a servant who lives out your holistic mission. Amen.

GPS Insights

Picture of Joe Walker

Joe Walker

Joe Walker serves as a Tech Producer at Resurrection, after interning last summer in Resurrection's Creative Central. He has a passion for camera work, so he gets to help out with recording, editing, and producing with the church. He graduated from Lee’s Summit North High school in 2023 and from the MCC Blue River Fire Academy in December 2023. He wants you to know he has a wonderful Mom and Dad, as well as two younger siblings. When he has free time, he loves doing things like camping, backpacking, rock climbing, playing drum set or piano, making cool videos, going to the gym, and spending time with his close friends.

 

When reading Luke 18, I couldn’t help but smile after reading the all-too familiar line; “Allow the children to come to me.”

Growing up, my mom would read me and my siblings bible stories, and I really enjoyed this one in particular. As a kid, it felt good hearing that Jesus had an eye for all people, including the little ones like me.

As I read these verses now, I hang over Jesus’s words, “…whoever doesn’t welcome God’s kingdom like a child will never enter it.” As I try to navigate this change into living as a young adult, I tend to accidently lose touch with my inner child. I often find myself unknowingly separating the two, almost as if the me now and the me then are two different people, complete strangers. The other day, while driving to work, I was somehow reminded of my old love for building forts in the woods. That thought quickly morphed into an image of 19-year-old me being great friends with 10-year-old me. I imagined the two of us doing all our old favorite things together.

This happy thought slowly became somewhat saddening, as I realized that we are the same person, and that I had simply changed since then. I’m not saying change is a bad thing, but I am saying that I think all of us can unknowingly lose our grip on those child-like traits. Traits like being curious, creative, observant, and joyful. Traits like being an explorer and a dreamer.

Maybe it’s the growing up part, and the stresses that come with it, or maybe it’s the preoccupation of change that can distract us from those small and innocent traits that make us who we are. Knowing this, I’ve been trying to make an effort to keep these traits alive in me. It isn’t always easy, but I find a lot of joy in continuing to be creative, curious, and observant. I feel God working through me most when I’m being an explorer, and a dreamer. I think this could’ve been what Jesus meant when he told his disciples, “…whoever doesn’t welcome God’s kingdom like a child will never enter it.”

© 2024 Resurrection: A United Methodist Church. All Rights Reserved.
Scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible ©2011. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
References

* Ortberg, John, Who Is This Man?: The Unpredictable Impact of the Inescapable Jesus (p. 24). HarperCollins Christian Publishing. Kindle Edition.
** “Miroslav Volf [Miroslav Volf, Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation (Nashville: Abingdon, 1996), cf. chap. 1] noted that the tendency to exclude the other, which religious leaders in Jesus’ day often regarded as great virtue, was regarded by Jesus as great sin. This often surprised the disciples.” From Ortberg, John, Who Is This Man?: The Unpredictable Impact of the Inescapable Jesus (p. 94). HarperCollins Christian Publishing. Kindle Edition.