Holy Trinity Sunday - Pastor Rolf Svanoe

June 10 Sermon - Pastor Paul Stjernholm

The Second Sunday after Pentecost – 2007 

I. Introduction

If you have ever visited the White House on a tour, and have seen the rooms often featured on television as the president has enter­tained heads of state, you get a sense of the authority of the one who lives there, though in some ways it’s a bit understated.

But if you have ever visited the Palace at Versailles built by Louis XIV, there is no mistaking the authority of the King who lived there.  The Palace is a huge complex of governmental offices built along two massive wings.  At the apex of those wings is the King’s residence where he conducted the business of governing France.

When one reads about King David or King Solomon in the Old Testament and realizes that with a word they could bring blessing upon someone or instantaneous death, one is stunned by the authority the king had.

II. The Roman centurion

Opening

The Roman centurion who asked Jesus to heal his slave was a man who was keenly aware of authority.  His existence was framed in authority.  He was a soldier in charge of a hundred men, hence his title.  He gave orders and he carried out orders.  He understood authority.

An outsider’s view

But something unique about this centurion is that while other soldiers perhaps cursed being stationed in Palestine on the frontier of the Roman Empire, this centurion found it a blessing.  The God whom the Jews worshipped was a God who made more sense to him than anything he had ever heard.  His heart found a home, and he befriended the people of Capernaum, even helping them build their synagogue.

He also brought an outsider’s perspective… the things he saw and learned from them he naturally interpreted through his own lenses of understanding.  And what he saw in Jesus was something that others missed.  He saw authority.  No one could do the things that Jesus did without the authority to make it happen.  So he put in a request on behalf of his dying slave.

Faith in Jesus

However, the more he thought about it, the more the magnitude of Jesus’ authority became apparent.  Asking Jesus to come to his home to heal his slave all of a sudden seemed like asking Emperor Tiberius to drop by… a ludicrous thought.  And even the emperor did not have the authority to heal someone… but this Jesus did.

So he quickly dispatched another servant to make what he thought was a more appropriate request of Jesus.  “You don’t have to make yourself unclean by entering my house; just say the word and I know my servant will be healed.”

Closing

You can tell by Jesus’ response that this second request took him by surprise.  Here was someone who had caught a glimpse of under­standing of who Jesus was and the authority that had been given to him, and he was an outsider to the faith!  He had not encountered faith like that even among his own disciples.  Jesus gladly spoke the word, and the centurion’s servant was healed.

III. Jesus is Lord

Opening

There are two titles that we normally give Jesus: Savior and Lord.  In my preaching I spend more time lifting up Jesus as Savior, showing that the God revealed in Jesus is a God whose love for us did what had to be done to save us from sin and death.  But make no mistake about it: Jesus is also Lord… all authority in heaven and on earth rests in those nail-scarred hands.

Our lack of faith

Unlike the centurion, we have trouble seeing that authority.  Maybe it’s because Jesus doesn’t assert his authority over us.  Maybe it’s because we have prayed prayers that have gone unanswered the way we want, and have thus concluded that Jesus does not have the authority to make it happen.  Maybe it’s because we want to make ourselves the lord of our own lives, not him.

Whatever the reason, we typically live as people who have no comprehension of Jesus’ authority and, subsequently, not a great deal of faith in him either.

Claiming Jesus as Lord

What would it look like to claim Jesus as our Lord, as the one who has authority over us?  For one thing, when we were making major decisions in our lives, we would ask the question: “What is your will for me, Lord Jesus?”  And when we’ve been given a major responsi­bility like raising children, we would ask, “Teach me to be the kind of parent you want me to be, Lord Jesus.”  Or we could change that to, “Teach me to be the kind of spouse… the kind of friend… the kind of servant you want me to be, Lord Jesus.”

And when we were in pain, either physical or emotional, or going through difficult trials, we would get beyond our initial prayer of “Take this pain or trial away, Lord,” if it seemed to go unanswered, to a prayer of faith, like “Help me learn what you want me to learn through this trial, only don’t let it rob me of my faith in you.”

Closing

Though Jesus has called those who believe in him “friends”, and invites us to ask anything of him in prayer, and though he has made himself so approachable to us, it would serve us well to also remember how the centurion saw Jesus… to realize the sheer magnitude of his authority and respond appropriately with hearts full of devotion and lives committed in service.

IV. Conclusion

There is no White House or Palace of Versailles to attest to Jesus’ authority.  Even the immensity of St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome probably says more about the authority of the Roman Catholic Church than anything else.  No, if anyone is to catch a glimpse of Jesus’ authority it will be by seeing how he is enthroned in the hearts of those who follow him.  He used his authority to save us; let us respond by bending our hearts to serve him and make him the Lord of our lives.  Amen.