Clean Closets...and Other Myths

Wednesday, August 23, 2023

When Jesus returned to Capernaum, a Roman officer came and pleaded with him, “Lord, my young servant lies in bed, paralyzed and in terrible pain.”  Jesus said, “I will come and heal him.”  But the officer said, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come into my home.  Just say the word from where you are, and my servant will be healed.  I know this because I am under the authority of my superior officers, and I have authority over my soldiers.  I only need to say, ‘Go,’ and they go, or ‘Come,’ and they come.  And if I say to my slaves, ‘Do this,’ they do it.”  When Jesus heard this, he was amazed.  Turning to those who were following him, he said, “I tell you the truth, I haven’t seen faith like this in all Israel!  And I tell you this, that many Gentiles will come from all over the world—from east and west—and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the feast in the Kingdom of Heaven.  But many Israelites—those for whom the Kingdom was prepared—will be thrown into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”  Then Jesus said to the Roman officer, “Go back home.  Because you believed, it has happened.”  And the young servant was healed that same hour.  Matthew 8:5-13

I guess it was inevitable; that closet had been crying-out for years to be cleaned.   I could no longer pretend that disorganized heap of stuff would heal itself.  Besides, what else do retired preachers do?  Since Monday the task has begun to include two other rooms in the house; it will be a little while before this project is concluded.  What was I thinking?

The Roman officer may have had the same thought.  That servant of his was sick.  That presents two possibilities (at the least) as to why he went to the Nazarene preacher.  This officer may have been uniquely-compassionate for an important man, and was anxious to help him, or perhaps it was just that the servant couldn’t serve if he was bedridden; the officer’s “compassion” was more self-serving…a healthy servant would make the Roman’s life easier.  Jesus identified the officer’s request as sincere faith, so we must attest to his compassion as no less.

However, if we take into consideration that this Roman soldier’s prayer is lodged in the presence of a largely Jewish audience, we understand they were probably wondering why Jesus bothered healing the servant of a Gentile “dog”.  But Jesus, grasping this teachable moment, holds-up the humble, authentic trust of this Gentile, in contrast to the treachery of the Jewish religious leaders masquerading as faith which he would have to shortly endure.  Jesus’ teaching here was a gut-check for not just the crowd following at that moment, but for all of us…every day.   Sometimes that which we assume is our genuine faith, is just what we’ve hung in our religious closet for so long, we cannot see how crowded our “faith” is with stuff that doesn’t belong…

·       An attitude that won’t budge

·       A secret hate for an arrogant co-worker

·       Claiming a pure life, while hiding impure desires

·       …and so the myths keep rolling.

For You Today 

We all have that closet-cleaning thing to which we must attend.  Life is messy, and it creeps into our thoughts, attitudes, and selfish ways telling us the damning, but enduring myth, that we are put here on this planet to do what makes us happy. 

Like the Roman soldier’s compassion for his servant called-out his duty to do something, and my clothes closet called to me to come clean, so we are compelled to look deep into our faith, and how we’re called to be IN this world for God’s purposes – not part OF this world to serve our own desires.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road library. 

Title Image:  Russell Brownworth (own work)  Images without citation are in public domain.  

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©