God Holds a High Bar: How High Must We Jump?

Doesn’t life seem like a series of hurdles and high jumps?  Once our child is toilet trained he/she can enter preschool.  With each grade of school we’re tested and tested before being promoted.  To prepare for college or graduate school we must master the ACT or SAT or MCAT or LSAT.  When we’re out in the world earning a living, we must jump through hoops for the promotion that will ensure that we can afford a bigger house or just the basics of insurance and a car that runs.  Even approaching retirement means we calculate if our savings are high enough or deep enough to carry us around the track.

God too holds a high bar.  But God’s bar works differently than the worldly standards that track our days.  God’s bar takes many shapes which we at Trinity will explore through our summer sermon series:  “God Holds a High Bar.”  We’ll look at God’s bar of faith, doing justice, loving others, committing ourselves to Christ, and serving the lost/lonely/last. 

In Luke 7: 1-10, a centurion – a soldier of authority in the Roman occupying force (ie. often considered and “enemy” of Israel) – sends Jewish elders to Jesus asking Jesus to come and heal one of the centurion’s servants or slaves.  First, this request is a remarkable commentary on the centurion’s compassion and care for one of his own who would be considered last in the hierarchy of society.  Second, the centurion’s faith in Jesus as a healer is also remarkable.  Third, the elders point to the centurion’s worth and love of the Jewish people as a rationale for why Jesus should heed the centurion’s request.  But the centurion contradicts such status or worth accorded to him, saying “Lord [notice his regard for Jesus’ worth], do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof.”  (Luke 7: 6b) And with that, and from a distance, Jesus heals the servant/slave.

According to this healing story, the centurion, although a man of authority, is humble and modest and in response, Jesus exclaims, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” (Lk 7: 9)  God’s bar of faith here does not depend on the centurion’s ability to command his troops.  God’s bar of faith here does not depend on the centurion’s accomplishments such as building a synagogue for the Jewish people.  God’s bar of faith is not a hurdle or high jump which we, like the centurion, must master.  God’s bar of faith is a response to the centurion’s faith – his trust in Jesus the person who can heal.  The centurion’s faith is a gift which he neither “deserves nor earns.”  In contrast to the worldly bars to promotion and advancement, God’s bar or standard of faith is manifested when we cling to and trust in the person of Jesus with our utmost confidence, putting our “all-in-all” into our commitment to following or running along with Jesus our Christ. 

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Shelley