“Made Worthy”

Matthew 8:1-17

November 12, 2006

Carlene Mattson, First Vice President of the National Down Syndrome Congress, tells a story about her son Jeff, who as born with Down Syndrome. She writes, “several years ago, Jeff played in a special Little League for kids with disabilities. After many seasons of watching from the bleachers and rooting while his big brother played ball, Jeff’s opportunity finally arrived. When he received his uniform, he couldn’t wait to get home to put it on. When he raced out from his bedroom, fully suited up, he announced to me, “Mom, now I’m a real boy!” Though his words pushed my heart to my throat, I assured him he had always been a “real boy.” (Carlene Mattson, Focus on the Family, April, 1993, p. 13)

There is something that every person in this world has in common, something that is part of our human nature. All of us, regardless of age, race, nationality, religion, able-bodied or disabled, has a deep and abiding desire to be worthy…just to be worthy…of ourselves and of others. We long to be worthy. We want to fit into the group. We want to be a part of the whole. We want to be seen as valuable. We want to be seen as accepted. And so in our effort to be worthy, we spend our life seeking the worthiness we crave so much. And so we go to school and earn degrees, because that is what society has deemed as being worthy. Society tells us that those with higher degrees of learning are much more worthy than those who have lower ones or none at all.

Or we spend our time working to build our portfolio or the amount of things we have because society has deemed that being worthy is directly related to the size of our net worth. Rich people are certainly more worthy than poor people. Or we seek out more prestigious jobs because the better the job you have the more worth you have to society. Or we fill our lives with accomplishments and accolades, because society says that the more we are recognized and awarded for what we do the more worthy we are. And the list goes on and on to the point that one day, like Jeff, we too can say to society, “Look, now I’m real person.”

The problem with basing our worth on society’s standards of worthiness is that it assigns our worth to temporary things. Our identity as a worthy person is now dependent upon what we have done, what we do, and what we have. The danger is that we begin to see ourselves by how society and others see us. Our own self-identity becomes dependant upon what society and others deem as being worthy.

But there is a problem with seeking worthiness through the eyes of society or others. The problem is that we know that we are not always worthy. We don’t always measure up to society’s and others standards of worthiness. We all have some kind of disability, some kind of limitation, whether physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, or even relational, that can at times keeps from seeing ourselves as truly worthy, acceptable, or valued. And the worthiness we crave and desire so much continues to elude us.

At times we find ourselves not fitting in as much as we want. At times we find ourselves on the outside looking in. At times we begin to believe that we will never be worthy, accepted, or valued, and if we cannot be worthy, accepted, or valued by society and others, how can we possibly be worthy, accepted, and valued by God.

But our text for today points us to something different. It points us to a new way of understanding worthiness. Our text today joins together three stories. On the surface they are healing stories of a leper, a Gentile servant, and a woman, and they all point to the authority of Jesus. But on a deeper level these three stories taken together show us something about God and God’s kingdom.

If there was anyone not worthy it was the leper. Not only was he a person who was diseased, but his disease also meant that he was a social and religious outcast. In the society in which the leper lived, there was a clear boundary separating him from everyone else. Not only was he not welcome, but he was also not worthy of acceptance. His place was on the outside looking in forbidden from even coming near to anyone else.

And yet, he knew something that we sometimes don’t know. He knew that there is only one person who not only has the authority to make him worthy, but also the power to make him worthy. And so he comes to Jesus with outstretched leprous arms, seeking the restoration to wholeness, the worthiness that he craves. And Jesus was willing. Jesus was willing to cross the taboo line and touch the leper restoring him both as valued and important part of society and as a human being.

Then there is the Centurion and his servant. Sure the leper was bad, but the Centurion was not much better. As a Gentile and part of the Roman military machine, the Centurion certainly is not worthy of special treatment. Oh sure, the Centurion had tremendous authority. As a military officer, a Centurion was in charge of one hundred men, but he was also the backbone of the Roman Army. The rank and title of Centurion carried a lot of prestige and power – militarily, financially, and socially. Most of the senior officers were relatively inexperienced. They were usually aristocrats who were members of the Roman Senate. The real professionals of the Roman Army were the centurions. As highly experienced soldiers, they were indeed the best of the best.

And yet, in spite of his great prestige and power, he too, like the leper, knew that he was not worthy. Regardless of his position in the Roman Army, he was still an outsider in Israel, an unwelcome occupier in a foreign land. And yet, he too knew that there was someone who could do for him what he could not do for himself. And so he comes to the Jewish Messiah seeking the restoration to wholeness, hoping beyond hope that Jesus would consider him worthy enough to heal his servant. And Jesus was willing. Jesus was willing to cross the nationalistic line from Jew to Gentile and include this Gentile Centurion in his kingdom work restoring him and the servant both as a valued and important part of God’s kingdom and as human beings.

And then there is Peter’s mother-in-law – a woman; also on the fringes of society, also considered not worthy by societal standards. Unable to even ask for help, Jesus acts on his own, doing for this woman what she is unable to do for herself. Jesus touches her and heals her restoring her as well back into society and as a human being. Simply because it is Jesus’ will to do it.

In all of these stories, we are told something different about being worthy. In all of these stories, we encounter people who are not worthy in the society in which they live, and they know it. All of them know that they are not worthy to have Jesus restore them to wholeness. But, they also know something else, something that we must always remember. All of them would have been wrong if they thought that they needed to be worthy in order to seek Jesus’ healing.

In these encounters with Jesus what we discover is the truth about God and God’s kingdom. What we discover is that the kingdom of heaven, the very will of God, reaches out beyond the margins, reaches out beyond the boundaries of society and even the established religious community, and makes people worthy. It is in the depths of our unworthiness that we can be assured that we have been made worthy. Made worthy not by our own authority, but by the authority of the only one who is worthy, the one who took upon himself the unworthiness of the world and made it whole. Amen.