How many of you here this morning came from “the wrong side of the tracks?” [Draw out some stories about being from “the wrong side”] Did the “wrong side of town” have a name? [I was born on a street known as “Hungry Hill”]
Guess what? Every one of us here has come from the “wrong side of the tracks” at one time or other. Whether you grew up on a swanky estate, a ritzy mansion, a standard suburban “splanch” (split level ranch), a shanty in the woods or a slum in the city, you were on the “wrong side of the tracks” at some time in your life. Whenever we wander out of our comfort zone; whenever we venture away from what feels familiar and safe to us, we are on the “wrong side of tracks.” Off our home turf, we feel vulnerable and threatened, unsure of where we stand, and knowing we “stand out.”
Jesus was born into a very specific “side of the tracks.” He grew up as a first-century, Torah-observing, Jewish male in Israel. All around him, however, were other “sides of the track.” In order to keep Jewish faith alive and Hebrew identity strong in such an environment, strict laws separated the people of Israel from all the other tribes and travelers who lived among them. The laws of “kashrut,” or “keeping kosher,” meant an observant Jew could never sit down to eat a meal with a Gentile. Simply to enter the home of someone who was not “observant” or in other words, observing all the laws of ritual purity and cleanliness provided for in the holiness code, meant instantaneous defilement. One reason tax collectors were so flauntily outcast and ostentatiously ostracized was because their profession required them to be in constant physical contact with the Gentile Roman rulers. By virtue of their profession, they lived in a continual state of ritual defilement.
For first century observant Jews, there were clear “outsiders” and “insiders. The “wrong side of the tracks” were extensive, encompassing any and all who stood outside the people of Israel. Yet throughout the Old Testament there are stories that show how “outsiders” could engage with and enter into a compassionate, respected relationship with those “inside” the covenant community. Here are some names: Rahab, Ruth, Uriah, Naaman, Cyrus. Over and over in The Story, the use of people from the “wrong side of the tracks” seems God's favorite way to get God’s people back “on track.”
Jesus was always wandering off to the wrong side of the tracks. He touched and healed lepers and madmen. He offered living water to a Samaritan woman with sketchy moral pedigree. Jesus engaged and enabled a Syrophoenician mother so that she might obtain healing for her daughter. And in today’s text, Jesus declared that a Roman centurion possessed a faith greater than any he had found within “all Israel.” The ultimate outsider, a Gentile Roman soldier, was proclaimed to be more faithful than those on the “in” side of the tracks. The centurion trusted Jesus enough to “just say the word,” and there would be healing. The centurion had a “just-say-the-word” faith.
The truth is: in spite of all his tribal and Torah-based identity, Jesus was “trackless.” Birds have their nests. Foxes have their holes. But the Son of Man intentionally and continually meandered across all the lines that separated people. Jesus had no “home ground.” Or more precisely, Jesus made all ground holy ground and home ground.
One of John Wesley’s favorite sayings way that Christians should feel free to “plunder the Egyptians.” For Wesley this was not a destructive activity, not some “jihad” activity, but rather a positive way of connecting our faithful following of Jesus to the missional context in which we find ourselves. “Plundering the Egyptians” meant that Chris’s followers are called to go out into the world — not stay, safe and sound, on our “side of the tracks.” Plundering the Egyptians means that we eagerly go into those places and encounter those people considered outside our neighborhood, our nationhood, our Plundering the Egyptians means learning from the world, and then, on the basis of that experience of learning, finding the best way to offer Christ to the world. To “plunder the Egyptians” is not to be in tune with the culture, but in touch with the culture while in tune with the Spirit. To “plunder the Egyptians” is not to sync with the culture, but sync with the Spirit as we synergize with the culture we're in. What did Jesus pray for his followers – that we would be IN the world but OF Spirit.
In the first century, for the first Christians, this meant crossing over the tracks that divided Jews from Gentiles. In the twenty-first century for twenty-first century Christians this means engaging a world that no longer has any ultimate faith in anything. Today we are defined by our technologies, our brands and our social network connections. People who have faith in God need to plunder the technologies, the brands, and the variety of social media to help people experience God.
If our children cannot imagine a life without an online connection, then Jesus’ disciples need to be online. Plunder the Egyptians. If the most meaningful community people commit to is only visited by hitting a “send” button, then Jesus’ disciples need to be accessed by that button. Plunder the Egyptians. If no one is doing “coffee hour” after church, but everyone is hanging out at the coffee shop that has free wireless access, then Jesus’ disciples need to be at that coffee shop or putting in a neighborhood café with that free WiFi. Plunder the Egyptians.
Plunder the Egyptians. Use the web, surf, Skype, tweet, make the “cloud” the new “cloud of witnesses.” Plunder the Egyptians and do some bloc parties. Ministers sponsor pot lucks. Missionaries put on bloc parties.
The world, no matter how unconnected or unconcerned with Christ it seems, is never the “wrong side of the tracks” for Jesus’ disciples. The wrong side of the tracks only depends upon what side you started on. Drug dealers or debutantes. CEO’s (Chief Executive Officers) or CTD’s (“circling the drain”). The marginal, the maximal. Those who hold fast to everything. Those who nothing in their fists.
In today’s text Jesus willingly walked towards a situation that would have jeopardized his standing as a Jew and marked him as person questionable religious character for the rest of his life. But the faith-inspired Roman centurion’s assertion of Jesus’ power and authority “plundered” that problem. In fact, instead of bringing Jesus down, the unclean centurion elevated Christ to a new level. The “just-say-the-word” testimony of one from the “wrong side of the tracks” put Jesus on a road that would transform the world.
The Roman centurion is but one of a long line of “just-say-the-word” characters who stepped forth in faith to change the world.
Where are the Nehemiahs who will retool from cup-bearer to brick-layer and rebuild the walls of Zion?
Where are the Ezekiels who will ride chariots wherever truth take them, to find its source in the very heart of God? (47:1-12)
Where are the Isaiahs who will let angels carry them to throne rooms of glory where, with lips kissed by burning coals, say "Here am I, send me!”?
Where are the Enochs and Elijahs who will walk with God until people see them no more?
Where are the Marys who will walk beyond the boundaries of comprehension to unknown territories of total trust and say, “Let it be.”
Where are the Centurions who will have enough faith to be “Just-Say-The-Word” disciples?
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COMMENTARY
When we find ourselves in the wrong place, taking a wrong turn or making a wrong decision, we say we have gotten “off track.” Whether physical, emotional, or spiritual, we feel disquieted outside familiar, customary territory. We crave comfort food and the well-worn paths taken with friends and family to help us get back “on track.”
In today’s gospel text Luke takes an event that would have made Jesus seem radically “off track” — visiting the home of a Roman centurion, a Gentile soldier — and yet presenting it in such a way that it would have reminded first century Jewish readers of something familiar — the prophet Elisha’s healing of Naaman (2 Kings 5:1-14). Luke gets his readers back “on track” placing Jesus’ wholly new role as prophet and healer in the tradition of Elisha and Israel’s early salvation history.
Luke’s text turns from Jesus’ preaching and teaching to prophetic power and miracles in today’s reading. The focus of Luke’s narrative narrows down to Jesus for the first half of this encounter. The disciples and other followers drop from view. As Jesus enter Capernaeum his reputation precedes him, since he is known to a certain “centurion” — that is, a Roman soldier in charge of one hundred men. Remarkably this centurion sends members of the local “gerousia,” the board of elders in the synagogue, to seek out Jesus to ask him to heal a “highly valued” servant who was gravely ill, indeed “close to death.”
This delegation of elders do the centurion’s bidding. They explain to Jesus that this Roman soldier, a symbol of the hated Roman presence that now ruled Israel, is nevertheless “worthy” of Jesus’ time and attention because he “loves (“agapao”) our people.” They further note that this centurion had, in fact, provided the funds for the construction of the local synagogue. Under first century rules of patronage and reciprocity, it is now not so surprising that these Jewish elders so readily responded to the centurion’s request that they seek out Jesus. They were themselves socially obligated by the patronage system.
Jesus apparently does not question or hesitate to respond to this request and begins traveling with the entourage of elders towards the centurion’s home. But for Jesus, or any Jew, to enter the home of a Gentile would have constituted an act of ritual defilement. Surely even the elders who requested Jesus’ presence would never have expected Jesus to actually enter into the centurion’s residence to heal the ill servant. What they must have had in mind was a scenario like that in 2 Kings 5:9-10, when Naaman stays outside of Elisha’s home and requests to be healed by the prophet.
The centurion, however, upon hearing that Jesus is approaching, is horrified, not relieved. As a Gentile he is likely unfamiliar with the story of Naaman and Elisha. He assumes Jesus intends to enter his home. To “head him off at the pass” the centurion sends out another group to dissuade Jesus from coming any nearer.
The message carried by this new entourage is remarkable. First, they reveal that the centurion originally sent out the Jewish elders to Jesus because he wanted to protect Jesus from his own unworthy, unclean Gentile presence. But as the centurion’s message continues, it reveals an astonishing faith in Jesus’ prophetic power. Just as the centurion knows that his words to those he commands will be carried out because he wields power and authority over his soldiers, so he knows that a spoken word from Jesus will heal his servant because of the power and authority Jesus has received from God. Even though the centurion does not fully comprehend Jesus’ identity, he has faith in the power Jesus emanates and the divine authority Jesus embodies.
Now it is Jesus’ turn to be “amazed,” even as the crowds he had taught have been “amazed” by his authoritative preaching. Luke’s narrative focus widens back out as he describes Jesus “turning” back to the crowd and declaring, “not even in Israel have I found such faith.” This crowd would have been shocked to hear that this ultimate outsider, an unclean Gentile and a despised occupier and Roman soldier at that, is declared to have greater faith than those who have always seen themselves as the ultimate insiders — the chosen people of Israel.