6/10/07 - Pentecost 2 - Luke 7:1-10

APPROACH THE LORD
- In humility
- With confidence

One day Abraham and his wife Sarah were going about their day as they normally did when suddenly three unexpected visitors showed up next to their house near the great trees of Mamre. Abraham and Sarah immediately prepared a meal for their guests and waited on them while they ate although they didn’t know that one of those visitors happened to be the Lord himself. After they were done the Lord’s two companions went on their way while the Lord remained with Abraham overlooking the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. There, on a hill near his home, the Lord revealed to Abraham his plan of destroying those wicked cities for their unrepentance. By that time Abraham knew he was standing in the presence of God. But although Abraham knew it was the Lord himself, “Abraham approached him and said, ‘Will you really sweep the righteous away with the wicked?... Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing… Will not the Judge of all the earth do right’” (Gen. 18:23-25)? What a confident prayer! To approach the Almighty God and make that kind of request! But Abraham did not just approach the Lord in confidence, he also demonstrated a very appropriate measure of humility. “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty” (Gen. 18:27-28)? And after God granted his request, Abraham asked again and again and again and again. Six times he approached the Lord with a greater request than the one before it. And although Sodom and Gomorrah were eventually destroyed anyway because there were not even 10 believers living there, the way in which Abraham prayed to the Lord is an example for all of us to follow: he approached God with confidence but also in humility.
This story of Abraham’s prayer is a beautiful parallel to our text for today. Because the Roman centurion in Luke 7 displayed the same kind of Christian faith in his prayer that Abraham did centuries before: he approached Jesus with confidence and in humility. It’s interesting to note, though, that the humility of the centurion was a far different approach than what the Jewish elders took.
“The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, ‘This man deserves to have you do this, because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.’” The Jewish elders thought the centurion deserved to have Jesus heal the servant. Why? Because he was such a good person! Look at the way this Roman loves the Jewish nation! Look at the synagogue he has built for God’s people! Look at who he is and what he has done! For once he deserves to have something good done for him! This was a valid argument from the elders’ point of view. The centurion, however, knew better. “[Jesus] was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: ‘Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you.’” The centurion knew it didn’t matter who he was. It didn’t matter that he loved the Lord’s people or built their synagogue. He realized that he was still a sinner. He understood that his actions didn’t obligate Jesus to do anything for him. In fact, his actions deserved just the opposite. The centurion makes that clear in the three things that he says, “Don’t trouble yourself… I do not deserve to have you come… I do not even consider myself worthy.” That’s the prayer of a Christian. That’s the proper attitude of humility a Christian should show whenever approaching the Creator of all things. Falling down in respect and honor and awe. Pleading for the mercy of the King to listen to one of his lowly servants.
Compare this kind of attitude to the way you approach God in your prayers. I imagine over the years you have become more and more bold in your prayers. And because you have become familiar with praying, humility has long been forgotten or humility is implied at best. And I’m simply taking a page from my own prayer book here and assuming that many of you make the same mistakes. The problem is: we tend to talk to God as we would talking to one of our friends here in this life instead of talking to the Lord himself. But remember: the Lord isn’t your buddy. He may be your best friend, but he is your best friend like a father may be his three-year-old son’s best friend. There is a love there, there is a bond there, but the son still calls him “Dad,” not by his first name. The son still shows his father respect and does not consider himself on the same level. He still asks and pleads and begs and submits to his father’s decisions. This is the relationship we have with our Father in heaven but to an even greater extent. He is the Creator, we are his creatures. He is forever in perfect glory, we are always sinful. He is the King, we are the servants. So we should be ashamed to talk to him as if he were one of our friends or one of our siblings or our spouse. The Lord is God. He owes us nothing. In fact, who we are what we’ve done take us even farther away from his glory. The Lord deserves all the honor and respect we can possibly give him every time we pray. It is a pompous thing to approach the Lord in anything else but complete humility. And I would think most of our prayers are nowhere close to that.
And so what a gracious God we have. What a gracious God we have! Because he listens to our ramblings anyway! Even when we don’t show him the proper amount of respect, even when we don’t come to him in humility, he listens to every one of our prayers nonetheless. He listens to us because he listens to the “one who speaks to [him] in our defense: Jesus Christ, the Righteous One” (1 John 2:1). Because we have faith in Jesus as our Savior from sin, the Father promises - he promises - to hear us out. No matter how imperfect or improper our prayers may be. He forgives us for those sins, he listens to our pleas, and he does for us whatever is in our best interest - all because of his Son, our Savior. He considers you to be his child all because of his Son, our Savior. He wants you to pray to him in every way in any situation all because of his Son, our Savior. And so “in [Jesus] and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence” (Eph. 3:12).
That’s the second part of a Christian prayer: humility and confidence. And the Roman centurion in Luke 7 gives us a wonderful example of that aspect of prayer as well. “Say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.’” The centurion showed confidence in two ways: first of all, he was confident that he could approach God through faith in Jesus, and secondly, he had confidence that the Lord could do exactly what he asked.
There was no doubt in his mind. He knew the Lord was powerful enough to do anything, even bring a person back from the brink of death without ever laying eyes on the individual before. And the centurion knew that the Lord was loving enough to do this also. The Lord wants to care for his people. He wants to do what is best for us. He wants to protect us from pain and sorrow and loss. The centurion didn’t think twice about asking Jesus to perform an incredible miracle. He knew the power of the Lord’s love and he knew the love that motivated the Lord’s power. And so it was only natural for the centurion to approach his Savior with the Christian confidence of a child.
Do you see how simple this confident prayer is? When it comes to the actual request, the centurion says, “Just say the word.” “Jesus, if you just say that he is healed, I know that he is. I don’t want to tell you how to do it - I just know that you can.” What a wonderful attitude to have, isn’t it? The centurion didn’t tell Jesus how to fix the problem. He simply says, “I believe you can do it any way you want.” Something for us to keep in mind. Don’t worry about telling the Lord how to fix your problems. Don’t bother giving him instructions or time restraints or options. This is the Lord you’re talking to. He knows how to do things, he knows when to do things, and he knows if to do things or not. I think it would be wise for us in our prayers to say, “Lord, if you want to do it, then it will be done. I don’t know how - and I don’t want to tell you. I don’t know when - and I don’t want to give you suggestions. I don’t know if you will - and I don’t want to tell you that you should. But I do know you can, and so I leave it in your loving hands.”
This brings us to the final application of the centurion’s prayer for our own prayer life: he didn’t assume that Jesus would say “Yes.” He knew Jesus could but didn’t know for sure if he would. That has to be a key component in all of our prayers too. Just because we think it’s in our best interests or it’s for the good of his kingdom or there’s no reason why God wouldn’t want to do it - makes no difference. “Instead,” the apostle James reminds us, “you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will’” (James 4:15). It is important for us to admit we don’t know what is best. It is important for us to bend to the will of our Father and trust in him to do what is right. Ask the Lord, request, beg, plead, but then surrender. Resign yourself to the fact that the Lord has heard your prayer, he will take it into consideration, and then he will do whatever it is for your good. And you can be sure he will, every time. He is your Father, after all. A Father who loved you so much that he gave up his only Son to die on the cross for you. And you are his child. A child who has approached him in humility because of your sins, but also one who has come before him with confidence because of his love. These are the prayers the Lord loves. And you are the people the Lord loves to hear them from.
Amen.

“May the name of our Lord Jesus Christ be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” - 2 Thess. 2:12