Many Will Come From the East and the West

A centurion in Capernaum came to Jesus about his servant, who was paralyzed and suffering. Jesus offered to come and heal him. The centurion said he did not deserve to have Jesus under his roof; a word would be enough. He knew about authority, he explained, because he had it. He told soldiers to go and they went. Jesus was amazed. He said he had not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.

Then he said something about Abraham. Many will come from the east and the west and take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside. He was telling a crowd of Abraham's physical descendants that a Gentile officer of the occupying army was going to sit at Abraham's table, and some of them would not.

The lesson Jesus draws from Abraham's life is the one Paul would later spell out: the children of Abraham are those who share Abraham's faith. Not his bloodline, not his customs, but his trust in a God who says the word and it is done. The centurion believed that Jesus' word had authority over distance and disease, and Jesus counted that as kinship with the patriarch.

The table is wider than the family assumed. It still is. Whoever you are, wherever you came from, the seat beside Abraham is offered on the same terms he received it: believe the one who speaks.