The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1957-03-07
One Man Looks
At God
(By Charles w. Carlson, Pastor,
st. Marks Evangelical Lutheran
Church, Oakland MarYland)

The next event in the life of
Christ that | will treat in the cur
rent series will be the encounter
that he had with the Centurion. in
Matthew 8:5-13 The centurion, as
you perhaps recall, came to Christ
and asked him to heal his servant
When Christ said that he would
go to the house of the centurion
he said that this was unnecessary,
in humility he said, Lord, l am
not worthy to have you come under
my roof: but only say the word
and my servant will be healed"
Christ's answer to this statement
is, not even in Israel have
found such faith. tell you. many
will come from east and west and
sit at table with Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob in the kingdom of
heaven. while the sons of the
kingdom will be thrown into outer
darkness; there men will weep and
gnash their teeth"
AS in so many cases of ChriSts
encounters with people, the key TO
the persons faith has been their at
titude. of humility In this case, the
humility of the Centurion shows
right from the beginning. He adj
mits that he is unworthy for Christ
to come under his roof. This is true
of all of us. but for one in a po-
sition of authority like the Cen
/, turion, this was a highly unusual
admission. The more natural re-
action would have been to have
taken social advantage of the
presence of Christ in his home,
and make big thing of it. People
in positions of authority often like
to have important people come to
their homes. because it makes them
look more important. But not the
Centurion. In the face Of the holi-
ness of the Son of God his attitude
was properly one of humility. From
this we all can learn a great deal,
for pride is a more common COM
modify in our time than humility.
Then Christs statement that he
has not found faith such as this in
Israel, and that many from east
and west will take the places re-
served for those who should have
believed is potent prophecy Most
of the Jews then, and now do not
and did not believe in this carpen-
ter of Nazareth as the Son of God.
He was not just what they wanted.
What they wanted was a warrior
king like David had been. who
would once more restore their SUI
periority in a military way. And
repentance, not a popular subject
among men of pride. he preached
Christ did not do this He preached
forgiveness, nothing easy to come
by, he lived and died a sacrifice,
refusing to strike back, something
which seemed like outrageous stu.
pidity to the proud Jews, and some
thing that has remained as a
stumbling block to many so-called
great minds" to this day.
The Jews, who did not, and will
not humble themselves then and
now will not receive salvation. For
salvation implies reliance on the
Son of the living God not as easy
as perhaps it sounds, for as | have
said many times, humility is the key
to unlocking the door, and humility
is not popular attitude of the
mind
Likewise, many of the present
day sons of the kingdom" who on
paper appear to be members of the
church, but are far from actual
membership in the Body of Christ,
because Of their attitudes, like unto
the Pharisee who listed his accom-
plishments to God in his prayer of
pride luke 18:9-14.}
And so this encounter of Christ
with a Roman commander of
soldiers has its meaning for our
time We who call ourselves Christ
ian had better examine our mo-