"Just say the word,"

Sermon on Luke 7: 1-17

Rev. Caela Simmons Wood

First Congregational UCC, Manhattan, KS 

February 7, 2021

I don’t know if this story happened just like this, but I do know there’s truth here for us:

Once upon a time, a roving prophet went into a town called Nain and as he entered the town he saw a funeral procession, with a crowd gathered ‘round. A widow was there, weeping and mourning because her only son had died. The prophet, consumed with compassion for the woman, reached out and touched the stretcher with her son’s body on it and the prophet said, “Young man, rise up!” And the widow’s son did just that. The prophet reunited mother and son and all the people around were shocked by what they had seen.

Just a little while before this all happened, the prophet was in another nearby town and another healing took place. Now, you and I might not be too surprised by a story of a great Jewish prophet having compassion on a widow who has lost her only son. Because we’ve done our homework and we know that Jesus stood in a long line of prophets who proclaimed compassion and care for society’s most vulnerable. And a widow who’s lost her only son is very vulnerable. So it’s not a surprise Jesus helps her, right?

But this other story. The one in Capernaum. It may surprise us a bit. Because in this story Jesus heals to help someone not on the outskirts, but an insider. This Roman military officer was a member of the elite. A powerful member of an occupying army. He asks Jesus to heal his doulos - his servant or someone he enslaved. (We don’t know, incidentally, which one of those is correct because our concepts of servant vs enslaved person don’t translate to directly to Jesus’s culture and time.) 

The officer appeals to Jesus as an insider. “Look,” the officer says, “I get you. You’re a powerful dude. I’m a powerful dude. We say ‘jump’ and people jump. I know that you can heal my doulos. You don’t even have to trouble yourself to come all the way to my house. Just say the word and it’ll be done.”

Knowing Jesus as we do, we might expect him to challenge this powerful Roman. Perhaps he’ll ask him a hard question or encourage him to re-evaluate his life in some way. 

But Jesus doesn’t do anything like that here. Instead, he commends the officer for his faithfulness. Jesus says the word. And it is done. The doulos is healed. 

I’m troubled, incidentally, that Jesus didn’t check on the healed man in any way. Shouldn’t he have freed him? Or at least ensured he was being treated well while in servitude? This story is very similar to one in the Gospel of John where Jesus heals the SON of an official from Capernaum - so maybe something got lost in translation and the doulos isn’t a doulos at all. We just don’t know for certain. 

But what we do see in this story is Jesus as a powerful dude chummying up with another powerful dude. It’s not the version we think of most often when we think of our favorite prophet, is it? We like the Jesus who stands in solidarity with the oppressed. We cheer for the Jesus who heals the outsider. We sometimes don’t remember these stories of the Jesus who ALSO has compassion for the privileged, the powerful, the oppressor. But here he is in the Gospel of Luke doing just that - loving everyone, absolutely EVERYONE, indiscriminately. That’s good news for us since we all fall into the category of EVERYONE, yes?

The other thing I can’t help but notice as you and I sit here together in different places this morning is that Jesus heals this man remotely. “Just say the word,” the officer says, “And it will be done.” And so Jesus never even sees the man he heals. Never walks into the house. Never touches the man. Never even meets him. He’s a remote healer. 

In these two stories, then, held here side-by-side in Luke’s Gospel we have an incredibly comprehensive prophet. He has compassion on the outcast and the elite. He listens to powerful men and disempowered women. He ministers in front of a crowd and when no one is around. He cares for those who have accomplished important things like building synoguges and those who don’t have their own Wikipedia articles. He is here for Jews and Gentiles alike. He is a prophet in word and deed - healing by simply saying the word or by laying a hand on the widow’s son’s stretcher. Jesus is here for all of it and for all of us. No exceptions. 

“Just say the word,” the Roman officer says. And we are reminded that Jesus not only says the word but IS the word. 

“In the beginning, was the logos,” remember? “And the logos was with God, and the logos was God.” Logos in Greek is a more expansive concept that our English “word.” It’s not just words we say but also doctrine, theology, reasoning, understanding. And in the Christian tradition, it’s one of the names we have for Christ. The logos. The Word. 

“Just say the word,” the Roman officer says. 

Words have power, don’t they? That’s why that silly little saying about sticks and stones has never made any sense to me. Because we know words can hurt and they can heal. Not just the words we say out loud, either. Even the logos inside our heads - the insistent voices that play on a loop in our heads. If we’re lucky those voices encourage us, but, all too often, they are voices of doubt or even shame. 

Words have power. Can you think of a story - perhaps in your own life - when words had great power? Perhaps it was a positive word that lifted you up. Or perhaps it was a hurtful word that brought you low. A healing word, a word of comfort. A fierce, burning word of inspiration in your heart. We’d love it if you shared your story in the chat so we can hear it. 

The story coming to my mind is one I recently heard on The Michelle Obama Podcast. [1] She was talking with her friend and mentor Valerie Jarrett about when they first worked together in Chicago, decades ago now. At the time, Jarrett’s daughter, Laura, was maybe five years old. Obama recalls how Jarrett could instantly switch from “boss mode” to “mom mode” if the phone rang. Obama says she could be in an intense meeting with Jarrett and they’d be working on a huge project and if Jarrett’s secretary patched Laura through, everything changed. Jarrett would turn away from the meeting slightly and answer the call with a mother’s enthusiasm and joy, “Hi, baby. How are you?” She never rushed her daughter or sounded impatient in any way. For those moments Laura was on the phone, she was the only person in the world who mattered.

Jarrett chose her words and tone carefully for Laura, of course. But she didn’t realize at the time that her words were also impacting others. Obama, not yet a parent, was watching and learning. Pondering how she might one day, too, balance the demands of paid work and parenting. The words of a leader like Jarrett created a culture there where children mattered, parents felt supported, and everyone was invited to think about their own words and tone the next time they took a phone call from a child, spouse, parent, friend, stranger. 

Words create worlds. 

Words heal. Words open up new possibilities. Words connect. Words invite. I mean, I may be biased cause y’all know I love words, but isn’t it lovely that we call Jesus “The Word”? 

The Word of God’s love that takes on flesh and dwells among us. The Word that arrives with compassion for everyone - insiders, outsiders; people of all faiths or none at all; those we understand and those we don’t; those who are accomplished and those who’ve never done anything much.

When we call Jesus, I imagine him like Valerie Jarrett. Switching from “boss mode” to “mom mode” in an instant. “Hi, baby. How are you?” And just like that, with those words, you’re the only person that matters. 

When was the last time you let the Word change you? Have you ever just basked, really basked, in the presence of Christ’s love and allowed it to hover over you like a mother hen’s protective wing? 

If we allowed ourselves to turn to this presence - to be shaped by this Word - more often, how might it change our lives? How might it heal the world? 

“Just say the word,” the Roman officer says. And Jesus heals.

The prophet heals. 

NOTES:

[1] Michelle Obama Podcast. Episode 7, Part 1: Valerie Jarrett and the Importance of Mentorship