Under Authority

To put this morning’s gospel reading in the context of the gospel according to Saint Matthew, the gospel has already recounted Jesus’ birth, His baptism, His being tempted in the Wilderness, a number of healings all at once which were related to His growing fame, and His Sermon on the Mount in which He teaches how we ought to live.  At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Saint Matthew tells us that “the people were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” 

So the Jewish people saw Him as one who performed mighty deeds and spoke with authority. As Jesus came down the mountain after His Sermon, He encountered a Roman centurion. This is the lesson we heard this morning, and it speaks to the mighty deeds of Christ and His authority. It might seem unlikely that a Roman centurion would seek help from a Judean preacher or healer. And if he did, it probably would not come in the form of a request. The centurion would have had the authority to make Christ come with Him and do what he asked of Him. But this is not what happened.

It is likely that this centurion was a God-fearer like Cornelius the centurion in the book of Acts. There were a number of gentiles who were impressed by Jewish worship and their manner of living, and sought to emulate such things in their own lives. They prayed, fasted, and gave alms even though they were not circumcised and therefore not part of the covenant given to Abraham. 

This centurion would likely have heard about Jesus as His fame was spreading with the working of miracles, but his faith surpassed the faith of others. Indeed Christ says of this man, “Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!” What made his faith so great? This centurion understood authority because of his place in the authority structures of the Roman army. “I say to this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it.” He sees Christ as having authority like this. 

So he comes to Christ and asks Him to heal his servant. He does not bring the servant to Jesus, He doesn’t even accept the idea of Christ coming to his home because he knows that he is unworthy of God coming into His home. He doesn’t ask Christ to send one of His disciples as he would send a soldier to do his bidding. He sees Christ’s authority as greater than this. Christ has authority over all of creation, and this man knows it. When Christ says, “go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you," the centurion knows this to be true. He knows that this man Jesus Christ is able to command the paralysis to leave his servant even from a great distance and it will be done.

But furthermore, this centurion understands authority in a Christian sense. He, as one who has great authority, also serves those under him. When his servant becomes ill, he doesn’t hesitate to personally go seek help for him. 

By contrast to the centurion, the disciples took much longer to learn these same things. Later in this same chapter when the disciples are on the sea and a storm hits and they fear for their lives. The Lord rebukes them saying, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” They don’t really understand that the Lord has authority over the wind and the sea. They want His help, but they still marvel when He is successful in calming the storm. Likewise, they don’t understand authority in a Christian manner. Right before His triumphal entry into Jerusalem leading to His crucifixion, His disciples want to discuss their place in a hierarchy. Christ responds with, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

So what should we take away from this story in terms of authority? The first thing that we should understand is that we are all under authority whether we like it or not. Saint Paul speaks this morning about having been slaves to sin, to uncleanness, and lawlessness, and says that we have been set free and are now slaves to righteousness. There is an authority over us in the world and it seeks our destruction. Christ comes to make us free from that authority by coming under His authority that always seeks our salvation. 

But being under Christ’s authority does not mean that Christians do not sin. We lament in the Akathist of Thanksgiving that “all nature obeys Thee, but I do not.” The wind and the seas obey Christ without a thought. We, on the other hand, have freedom in our relationship to God and we often still use it to rebel. When we look at our human relationships, we see authority at work all the time. Whether it is to spouses, parents, employers, or teachers, we know that we are under authority. And very often we obey these authorities better than we obey God. We do this because we want to maintain the relationship. We want to stay married so we do what our spouses ask. We want a roof over our heads, so we obey our parents. We want money in the bank, so we obey our boss. We want good grades so we obey our teachers.

What is it about our relationship with God that makes it so hard to obey? Put simply, we often fail to believe and to have faith in Him; and the allure of the world is still too strong. We don’t see His handiwork in the world, we don’t hear His voice, and so we hesitate to trust Him, especially if it means having to change how we live. But His work in the world is evident the more we look for it, and His voice is heard in the scriptures, in the church, in the sayings of the fathers, and in the sacraments. We must simply incline our ears toward Him.

If we don’t try to live a life of constant remembrance of God, of gratitude for the good things that He has done for us, and service to others; if we don’t keep calling ourselves to prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, the world will call us away from God and fill up our lives with things both important and trivial so that there is no time, no energy, no will to live according to Christ’s commandments. If we, however, rise from bed each day, devote some time to prayer and spiritual reading, eat according to the fasting rhythms of the church, show mercy and love to those whom God brings before us, keep prayer always close to our hearts, minds, and lips, we will still find time for all that is important or necessary in this life. 

This kind of obedience is on display in our other relationships which often demand more time and attention than we give to God, but when given to God we will find ourselves the recipient of God’s grace and love for mankind who came to serve us and to give Himself as a servant to all who call Him Master.