#13: Monday, 18 March 2019

**Luke 7:1-17**

Have you ever found yourself asking God to do something for you, perhaps a healing or a new job or something else that you really want, and thinking: "After all, I really deserve this"?

The companion question appears when disaster strikes: "Why me?" This phrasing actually means "I didn't deserve this." Today's reading examines whether we receive what we truly deserve.

The opening story features familiar characters. Jews appeal to Jesus to heal a Roman centurion's servant -- unusual given their antagonism toward Roman occupiers. Their motivation? The centurion funded their synagogue. He sits on important councils, appears on television, and enjoys prominent social standing.

Yet his servant lies gravely ill. The Jewish leaders reason he merits divine intervention given his generous philanthropy. Jesus, they argue, could easily accomplish this healing.

The passage illustrates how often we approach God similarly, advocating for those we believe deserve assistance based on their status or circumstances.

Notably, Jesus does heal the servant -- but the writer emphasizes this occurs "because of the man's faith," not because of merit. The healing aligns with Jesus's mission: announcing the kingdom and providing healing to the sick and oppressed (referenced in Luke 4).

An important detail: the servant was "about to die" -- critically ill, essentially at death's door. This severe condition becomes significant later.

Luke then presents a contrasting story. Academic scholars call these narrative segments "pericopes" (pronounced per-**IC**-o-pays) -- Greek terms meaning "around" and "to cut," like clipping newspaper snippets.

This second account describes a different healing with no crowd advocating for it. The subject was a poor widow whose son had died. Widows faced severe economic hardship after losing their husbands in that society.

The passage captures a transformative moment: "his heart went out to her, and he said: 'Don't cry'." These words reveal profound compassion -- Jesus helps not because someone deserves assistance, but because he witnesses their need.

This mercy extends to everyone: major donors and ordinary people, the prominent and the forgotten, those whose names appear "on the office door in gold letters" and those whom society overlooks.

Following the first healing, Luke records no particular amazement. The centurion received expected help.

After the second healing, Luke explicitly states: "They were all filled with awe and praised God, saying ... God has come to help his people."

The distinction matters: Jesus actually raised the young man from death itself.

Remember the earlier detail -- the servant was "about to die." The gap between imminent death and actual death held no significance for Jesus, who authored life itself.

Jesus neither debated euthanasia nor discussed "dying with dignity" concepts. Such discussions miss the Christian point entirely. The faith-centered conversation should emphasize **living** with dignity, not dying with it. Living represents active human choice; dying happens to us. True dignity emerges from honoring the Life-Giver throughout our existence.

Modern communities witness authentic awe when Christians respond to sickness and mortality with "courage, compassion and generosity." This stands opposed to our cultural surrender to death-centered thinking.

**Prayer:**

Help me, please, Lord Jesus Christ, to live with courage and clarity, with hope and wholeness, in the face of sickness and death. Amen.