Would Jesus Discriminate?

A Liberating Word, sent to us by Rev. Steve Aschmann of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Erie:

Matthew 8:5-13

This passage describes how Jesus healed the servant of a Roman centurion. It is a scandalous miracle that speaks volumes about Jesus’ compassion.


First, it was outrageous that he responded to a request to help a commander of the enemy soldiers occupying and terrorizing his own country. Secondly, this request came from a gentile; that is a non-believer. Thirdly, and perhaps most interestingly, is the implied relationship between the Centurion and his “servant.”

Episcopal Priest Tom Horner was one of the first scholars who dared to make the point that both Matthew and Luke use the Greek work pais to refer to the Centurion’s servant rather than the word doulos, which both writers use in other places when referring to servants.

The implication is that there is a different kind of relationship here. The word pais is used elsewhere in Greek literature to refer to a man’s younger male lover. Many contemporary scholars, including Theodore Jennings at Chicago Theological Seminary, have concluded that this is exactly the meaning that Matthew and Luke are seeking to communicate.

Here, Jesus is asked by a military officer of an occupying army to heal his intimate servant who is paralyzed. The centurion tells Jesus that he doesn’t need to come to his home to perform the miracle. As a person with authority himself, he recognized that Jesus was a person with spiritual authority who simply could give the command and it would be done.

So, did this centurion not want Jesus to come to his home because it was messy? Or had he worked with the Jews long enough to know that entering a gentile’s home would make him unclean? Or was it the relationship that he feared might be scorned by Jesus?

I do not think it was the latter because the centurion is the one who spills the beans. He tells Jesus matter-of-factly what kind of relationship this was. Without this note the readers of the story would have thought it very odd. No powerful military leader would ever have gone out of his way and humbled himself for a mere servant. The identifier is the only thing that makes sense.

Note that far from rejecting this request because it came from a gentile or because of the relationship between the two men, Jesus commends the centurion’s faith, saying, “In no one in Israel have I found such faith.” (v. 10)

People who have been marginalized and excluded have to exercise great faith to come to God when others say they can’t. Here, early in Matthew, we find a stirring example of how that is done: with humility, courage and determination.

Blessings,

Michael Piazza
Hope for Peace & Justice