(for the first part, on the Epistle.)
...And now we have, in the Gospel for the day, the constraining motives and
reasons for all forgiveness. The first incident therein mentioned is the
healing of the leper, a circumstance throughout so striking, that surely it must
be familiar to the thoughts of every Christian, and to which his own heart will
supply him with the best explanation and commentary. For I suppose there can be
no one who, feeling himself polluted with sin, and unclean in God's sight, does
not often in his prayers bring to remembrance this account, and the prayer of
the leper, "Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean:" and who does not feel
strengthened and comforted by the gracious answer which it received. And,
indeed, this seems to be brought out by the Collect for this week as the one
great lesson of encouragement which we are to derive from the appointed Services
of the day; for there is an evident allusion, not only to both the miracles
recorded in the Gospel, but especially to the words of the Text, in the prayer,
"Mercifully look upon our infirmities; and in all our dangers and necessities
stretch forth Thy right hand to help and defend us."
When He
was come down from the mountain,
that is, after delivering His Sermon on the Mount, great multitudes followed
Him. And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped Him. The
expressions in St. Luke are still, stronger, "Behold, a man full of leprosy,
when he saw Jesus, fell on his face and besought Him." But in the very words of
his prayer all the Evangelists agree, Saying, Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst
make me clean. Here he acknowledges Christ as God, full of all power, as
if he had said, "I am unworthy, I dare not ask, but if Thou art willing Thou art
able." And Jesus put forth His hand, and touched him, saying, I Will;
be thou clean. He not only granted the very words of his request, but
also, in so doing, "touched him...' According to the Law, whoever touched
a leper became himself unclean; but Christ, in this proof of His power as God,
showed that He was above the Law, and could not be rendered unclean; but, at the
same time, in thus doing He seemed to say that He took upon Himself the curse of
the Law, the penalty of his sins: "Himself made sin for," as the Prophet had
said, "the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." "Himself took
our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses." For leprosy was made the
outward sign which represented sin. And by touching, on this and other
occasions, our Lord showed that it is by Himself as God and Man united, the Word
made Flesh and dwelling among us and within us, and by uniting us to Himself,
and the communication of His own sacred Body, that all restoration and healing
must be. By His own life-giving touch He healed him. He granted the very words
of his prayer, but over and above his prayer added also, in tender pity, His own
most sacred Body. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus saith
unto him, See thou tell no man, but go thy way, show thyself to the priest, and
offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them. He sent him
thus to bear evidence of His Godhead to the Priests, and also of His obedience
to the Law, that, however unbelieving the Priests and Pharisees might be, it
might be "a testimony unto them," even as He has now sent forth His Gospel "as a
witness to all nations." He was to tell no man, but to go to the Priest,
for our Lord first of all appealed to "the House of Israel."
How full
of instruction is all this incident to us, when by prayer and meditation we
bring it home, as it is intended we should do, each one to himself. The same
power is present to heal when we feel and know ourselves to be "full of
leprosy." And the like humiliation of ourselves, and the like faith, will
be heard as it then was. But, alas! leprosy of soul and uncleanness in the
sight of God is not so known and felt as bodily disease would be. Otherwise
there is the same remedy, the same nearness to that all-healing Presence, the
same will to restore us. Nay, far more; there is the same life-giving Body in
the Holy Eucharist, ready to communicate Himself to us, as He touched the leper
and made him clean. And then there is the same lesson of obedience that we may
continue in that holy fellowship. "Show thyself to the Priest," as Moses in the
Law commanded, and "offer the gift;" but to us it is not the command of the Law
only, but also of the Gospel; and the gift is not that of dead animals, but, as
the Church says to us at this season, in the words of St. Paul, "I beseech you
by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice."
Another
incident is mentioned in the Gospel of to-day, which is put by St. Matthew
together with the former miracle, that of healing the centurion's servant, which
intimates the calling of the Gentiles, as the former circumstance implies the
witness of Christ to the Jewish nation, and the true fulfilment of the Law. And
perhaps we shall better understand this by taking the account of St. Luke
together with that of St. Matthew; for that of St. Luke, according to his
manner, enters more into detail or particulars. And when Jesus was entered
into Capernaum, there came unto Him a centurion, that is, a Roman captain,
who probably had command of the soldiers who were stationed at or near
Capernaum, as the chief city in that part of Galilee, and who had no doubt heard
much of our Lord's teaching and miracles, for Capernaum had been lately the
usual place of our Lord's resort. He came unto Jesus beseeching Him, and
saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.
But we learn from St. Luke that the centurion did not at first come himself, but
sent unto Him the elders of the Jews to entreat for him. For, being a Heathen,
he knew that he was considered legally unclean by all of the Jewish nation; and
much more, he might think, must he be esteemed to be so by so holy a Teacher;
and, indeed, his own lowly heart within bore witness to the Jewish Law, that he
was by nature spiritually unclean in the sight of the Most Holy God. And these
elders of the Jews, when they came, earnestly besought Him, says St. Luke,
inasmuch as this captain, although a Gentile, was well worthy, they said, for he
loved the Jewish nation, and had built their synagogue for them. We think it
much for a Christian to build a church for Christians, but he had done so for
those who looked on him as abominable and their enemy. This circumstance of his
great apparent piety may seem to us remarkable in a Heathen soldier, but we have
another Roman centurion mentioned in the Acts, Cornelius; of whom it is said
that he was "a devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which
gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway." [Acts x. 2.] It is
an awful reflection how much in that time of great manifestation, when the
Gospel was first preached, those who, had the least religious advantages
appeared so much better than those who had the highest. Heathens and Publicans
were far more prepared for the Kingdom of Heaven than those Priests and
Pharisees who had, in their hands and in their heads, the oracles of God, and
lived amidst the privileges of divinely-appointed worship.
And
Jesus saith unto him--perhaps sends word to him by these elders, saying--I
will come and heal him. It appears from St. Luke, that it was by means
of friends that the centurion now sent again a second time, on learning that
Christ was coming to his house, as if he were quite overcome with something of
awe and alarm, so as to have forgotten his own distress in a sense of the
Majesty of God. "When He was now not far from the house," says St. Luke, "the
centurion sent friends unto Him, saying, Lord, trouble not Thyself. For I am
not worthy that Thou shouldest enter under my roof. Wherefore I did not think
myself worthy to come unto Thee." And then St. Luke's account of his words falls
in exactly with that of St. Matthew, as here given. The centurion
answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldest come under my roof;
but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under
authority, having soldiers under me; and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth;
and to another, come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this; and he doeth it.
That is, if even I who am myself but a servant of others, yet without moving or
going from place to place have those, under me that execute my commands when I
only speak the word, how much more must it be the case that Thou, Who art the
Lord of all, can perform all things at a distance by Thy word? It is
evident from this remarkable confession of faith, that God Himself, Who alone
makes known the mystery of Christ, the "Father which is in Heaven, had revealed"
to this Gentile what "flesh and blood had not" told him, and, what Christ
Himself had not yet openly declared, that He was the Son of God,--that great
saving truth which St. Peter afterwards confessed, which is the very Rock on
which His Church is built. The High and Lofty One Who inhabiteth eternity had
come to dwell with this Gentile, because he was of a meek and lowly spirit; for
none but the Holy One could have made known to his heart this saving faith. He
was "pure in heart," and therefore he had the blessing and power vouchsafed to
him to "see God." He must, in faith, have seen "angels ascending and
descending on the Son of Man," like "an Israelite indeed without guile," or else
he would not have compared the power of Christ to his own ordering of
attendants, and saying, Come, and go, and do this. He must have seen that
ministering spirits, the unseen powers of Heaven, were in humble service waiting
on Him to Whom he sent. His words imply this; they have no other meaning. But
that, as his servants attended on him and obeyed him, so diseases and death and
all things else served Christ, and hearkened unto the voice of His words.
When
Jesus heard it, He marvelled; He was as one struck with admiration and
wonder. His manner of turning to the crowd, as St. Luke describes His doing,
was expressive of this feeling. Such faith, and, that in a Gentile, was
so unlike what our Lord had yet met with, He called attention to it as very
remarkable by His whole demeanour, and said to them that followed, Verily, I
say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. This
Gentile had surpassed them all, those who had the Law and the Prophets, the
whole substance and sum of which was Christ; there had been no instance among
them of such faith. A Jewish nobleman, at this same Capernaum, a little before
had sent, saying, "Sir, come down ere my child die;" he did not say, Speak the
word, but, Come Thyself. He believed that Christ was able to perform miracles
of healing, but not that He could heal by a word at a distance; he believed not
that He was God, and he was reproved; for Christ said unto him, "Except ye see
signs and wonders, ye will not believe." So was it with the hard-hearted
Jews. And Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, and one of the wisest and best among
them, had before this come by night, saying, "We know that Thou art a Teacher
come from God, for no man can do the miracles which Thou doest, except God be
with him." But he was very slow to believe the things of Heaven, because
he saw not that Christ was God. But how different was this centurion, the great
marvel of God's grace!
And here
it may be observed what the effect is upon the whole conduct, when God is
acknowledged by man; his faith in Christ as God was spoken, not by these words
only, but by the whole of his character, in that remarkable humility which
distinguishes him from others. The Jewish elders said, he is worthy, for he
hath built us a synagogue; but how different was his own sense of worthiness!
He was overwhelmed with a sense of his own nothingness, because he believed
Christ to be God. Our Lord, therefore, at once marked him out as the great
token of the calling of the Gentiles. He was poor in spirit, and, as such, the
first to enter the Kingdom. He that humbleth himself shall be exalted, shall be
the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven; for his humbling himself is an
acknowledgment of God. He had built for the Jews a synagogue with poor earthly
wealth; but out of that synagogue, and from the temple of the Jews, there grew
for him "a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens," even the Church
of God which the Jews should not enter. He was not an Israelite, not a
disciple, not a follower of Christ, but a Heathen soldier in his place,
belonging to a tyrannical, wicked empire, brought up himself among false gods,
and in the stronghold of Satan's kingdom. But now in Galilee he had caught some
glimpse of that Light which had "sprung up in the region and shadow of death."
He might, on some occasion perhaps, have been as a stranger among the crowd, and
heard the blessed words that fell from our Lord's gracious lips, and seen some
of His works of mercy. He may have seen His eye upon himself amidst the crowd,
and found it ever after in his own heart; --he may have learnt this His love and
mercy for this poor dying slave (or rather not dying, perhaps, but pitiably
suffering) from the same fountain of mercy;--he may have learnt this love even
from what he had seen and heard in our Lord Himself. He might, perhaps, have
heard His Sermon on the Mount; he may have pondered day and night on the words,
have recalled them again and again with the countenance and the accents of Him
that spake. He may have compared them with the wisdom of the Gentiles, and may
have found that all the learning and boasted virtues of the world were light as
vanity itself, but as dust in the balance, when weighed with one sentence which
he may have treasured of Christ's words. When Scribes in the crowd mocked, he
may have trembled, unseen, and alone; when the rulers of the synagogue were
filled with envy, he may have been deeply moved with Divine love; when they
looked proudly on, he may have been humbled to the ground. Something of this,
and far more of the same kind, and many such little incidents, may have
occurred. It is not at all improbable. Or it may have been otherwise. It
may have been that he had never seen Christ at all, nor heard His words himself,
but had known only of Him from others. But very much he must have understood
concerning Him, in whatever little had come before his notice; that he should
have thus perceived that it was, indeed, the Almighty God come down from Heaven,
in wonderful condescension, to attend to the wants of His afflicted creatures.
He knew that He, to Whom he thus sent at a distance, could work whatever He
willed in his own house; and, therefore, he must from this have known that
Christ was in his own house, that He was a God that was near "and not afar off,"
wherever He was; [Jer. xxiii. 23, 24] that His all-seeing eye, and His
love, and His power were with him and all about Him; or else he never could have
made such a request as that, saying, Speak the word only, and my servant shall
be healed. And therefore it must needs have been that the all-subduing,
all-hallowing, all-endearing Presence of Christ was ruling his own heart and
life. For otherwise how could he have known that Christ by His mere will and
word, had power of life and death, and over all the distresses of that servant
over whom he was watching? "No man," said our Lord Himself, "can come to Me,
except the Father Which hath sent Me draw him." [St. John vi. 44] Surely,
therefore, it was a constraining power in his own heart, and nothing else, that
led him to acknowledge, that gave him eyes to see, and ears to hear God in
Christ. And of this we may be certain; that however religious persons may
appear to be, however learned in the Scriptures, and zealous for the Church,
yet, if they have not a temper of mercy and humility, they do not know God.
Lowliness and compassion and the fear of God are so marked in that man, that
they must have deeply worked within him. However, whatever the circumstances of
this soldier may have been, and his dealings with his own heart, that he should
have become thus enlightened, they will be all known on the great Day of
Judgment. But among men, had it not been for this sickness of his servant;
he would have been never known or heard of, although he was, as it were, the
first from among us Gentiles to lead the way and enter into the Kingdom. From
this we may see what a secret it all is with God--only to be known on that day
when "many that are first shall be last, and the last first."
When the
soldiers and the Publicans came before John the Baptist, asking what they should
do in order that they might be meet to enter the Kingdom, they were told by him
to avoid the particular sin which beset them in their station in life. This was
their preparation of heart, that they, might be able to discern the Lamb of God,
that taketh away sin. This centurion might have been one of them. At all
events, it is remarkable how in him was found the opposite to the sins of his
station: so does the Grace of God make strong in weakness. As a Roman
captain he might have despised, that conquered nation; he might have thought
that our Lord, as a humble Galilean, might have waited on him. But oh, how
different was the case! Again, though he might have known he was
considered unclean by the law of Israel, yet he might have presumed on having
built a synagogue; but it was far otherwise. And further, what might one have
expected in a Roman soldier but cruel and tyrannical selfishness? but he is all
full of compassion; his distress is not for himself, but for another; one might
have thought that such interest was for a dying child; but no, it is for an
afflicted slave. Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, says, "My daughter is
dying, but come and lay Thine hand upon her, and she shall live." But this
man, though used to command, having soldiers and servants waiting for his
orders, says, "I am not worthy to come to Thee, or I would come. I am not
worthy that Thou shouldest come under my roof, but speak the word." From
all this we may see how it is that believing in Christ as God is all in all,
because it affects every thought of a man's heart, every action of his life, his
whole character and disposition.
Such,
then, was the faith of which our Lord spake, that He had not found such in
Israel, and to this He added those memorable words which are like the first dawn
of, the Epiphany. And I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and
west,--even we, may we add, of the far West, give thanks unto Thy name, Who
makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to praise Thee--they shall come,
and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of
Heaven. But the children of the kingdom, i.e. those Jews who consider
themselves as such, and with them all those who abuse those privileges which God
has given them, shall be cast out into outer darkness: into spiritual
darkness, the forerunner of death. "For the whole world" shall "shine with
clear light," but "over them only spread a heavy night, an image of that
darkness which should afterwards receive them;" [Wisd. xvii. 20, 21] of which it
is said, There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
And
Jesus said unto the centurion--who had now, perhaps, come himself, having
before sent first the Jewish elders, and then his own friends--Go thy way;
and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed
in the self-same hour.
