Next Level Faith

The Sunday morning message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on October 8, 2023.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 8:5-27.

            We talk a lot in church about the importance of having faith in Jesus Christ.  And I would think that most of us, maybe all of us, would say that we do have faith in Jesus Christ.  But here’s the thing:  what do we mean when we say that?  What does it mean for us to say we have faith in Jesus Christ?

            It has to be more than just belief that Jesus exists, right?  Because, as James says, even the demons believe that.  They’re not happy about it, and in fact, they’re scared of it, but they believe it.  So when we, as Christians, say we have faith in Jesus Christ, we have to mean more than just that.

            It seems to me that there are various levels of faith in Jesus.  Faith that Jesus exists would be the lowest level, probably.  And in our Bible reading for today, we see some more levels of faith in Jesus Christ.

            First, let’s look at verses eighteen through twenty-two.  Two people come up to Jesus and say they’ll follow him.  The first one, a teacher of the law, says, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”  

            That sounds great, right?  I mean, that sounds like a really strong statement of faith.  “I will follow you wherever you go.”  But Jesus responds, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

            And we never hear about this teacher of the law again.  Now, maybe he did follow Jesus.  Maybe he really did follow through on what he said.  But I doubt it.  If he had, it seems like we’d have heard about it.  In fact, it seems like he’d have had a prominent role among Jesus’ followers, if he’d actually followed Jesus wherever Jesus went.  

            Then another person comes up to Jesus.  He wants to follow Jesus, too.  But he says, “First, let me go and bury my father.”

            Jesus won’t accept that.  Jesus says the time to follow is now, not sometime in the future.  And again, we never hear about this person again.

            It seems like both of these people had faith in Jesus.  They claimed they wanted to follow him.  But in fact, they only wanted to follow Jesus when it was convenient for them.  They had faith–but not enough faith to put following Jesus first.  Not enough faith to stick with Jesus when things got hard.  Not enough faith to truly follow wherever Jesus led them, no matter what.

            Next, let’s look at verses fourteen through seventeen.  Jesus heals Paul’s mother-in-law.  People hear about it, and lots of people are brought to Him.  Jesus drives out the demons and heals all sick who are brought to Him.

            Those people had faith in Jesus, too.  But what really was their faith in Jesus?  They had faith that Jesus had the ability to heal them of their physical ailments, and that is faith.  But did they have faith that Jesus was the divine Son of God?  Did they have faith that Jesus could heal them spiritually?  Did they have faith that Jesus could give them salvation and eternal life?  If they did, we’re not given any indication of it in our reading.  They had faith that Jesus could heal them physically, and they were happy when that happened, but that seems to be all the farther their faith took them.

            Now let’s look at verses twenty-three through twenty-seven.  The disciples in the boat.  Now, you’d think that if anyone had strong faith in Jesus Christ, it would be the disciples, right?  I mean, the disciples were hand-picked by Jesus.  They were the inner circle.  They were the ones Jesus told things to that He did not tell anyone else.  They were the ones who got to see things no one else got to see, hear things no one else got to hear.  If anyone should have faith in Jesus Christ, it should be the disciples, don’t you think?

            And yet, what happens?  As soon as they get into trouble on the boat, the disciples panic.  They’re scared to death.  They wake up Jesus, who of course says, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?”  And He calms the storm.  And listen to what the disciples say:  “What kind of man is this?  Even the winds and the waves obey him.”

            The disciples had faith in Jesus Christ.  They had enough faith to leave everything to follow Him.  They left businesses, they left homes, they left families, all to follow Jesus.  And they did have enough faith that, when what they saw as an emergency happened, they ran to Jesus for help.  But they did not have enough faith to trust just being in the presence of Jesus was all they needed.  Their faith was not that strong.  They needed to have Jesus physically act to be able to really believe in Him.

            And finally, we look at the story at the start of these Bible verses.  The centurion.  Now, understand, the centurion was not one of the people of Israel.  The centurion was a Roman soldier, so named because he was in charge of a hundred soldiers.  And yet, this non-Jew, this non-Israelite, comes to Jesus and tells Him about how his servant is suffering.  And when Jesus offers to go to the centurion’s house and heal the servant, the centurion says there’s no need for that.  I know you don’t have to come to my house to heal my servant.  All you have to do is say the word, and my servant will be healed.

            Now that’s faith.  Even Jesus was impressed with the centurion’s faith.  We don’t know whether the centurion understood about salvation and eternal life.  Just like with the others, we never hear about the centurion again.  But this is a man who knew Jesus had the power to do anything he wanted to do.  Jesus did not have to be in a certain place.  He did not have to lay hands on someone.  He did not have to use magic words or do anything dramatic.  All Jesus had to do was say the word, and whatever Jesus wanted to have happen would happen.  That kind of power can only come from God.  So I have to believe that the centurion believed that Jesus was the divine Son of God, whether he ever put it into those terms or not.

            Four stories.  Four sets of people, each at a different level of faith in Jesus Christ.  And I’m sure there are many other levels of faith, too, and we could go through the Bible and find stories that illustrate those levels of faith, too.

            So, what level of faith do you have today?  And what level of faith do I have?

            It’s a question each of us has to answer.  Do we have the bare minimum faith that the demons have, believing that Jesus exists, but no more?  Do we have enough faith that we think following Jesus sounds good in theory, but not enough to actually follow through on that commitment?  Do we have enough faith to believe Jesus can make our lives better on earth, but not enough to believe in salvation and eternal life?  Do we have enough faith to run to Jesus when we get into trouble, but not enough to be content to just live in His holy presence?  Or do we have enough faith to know that Jesus has unlimited power, and we can trust Him to do whatever He decides to do?  Do we have enough faith to know that Jesus has power that can only come from God, and that following Him will lead to salvation and eternal life?

            Now, if you’re at one of those lower levels of faith, don’t beat yourself up for it.  Don’t think that you’ve failed, or that you’re a bad Christian, just because you don’t have the faith the centurion showed.  When you look at our stories for today, Jesus did not criticize the people in any of them.  

Well, I guess you could argue that He criticized the disciples.  He did refer to them as “You of little faith.”  But I don’t hear that as an expression of criticism as much as an expression of disappointment.  I think Jesus was hoping the disciples would have more faith and understanding than that.  But I don’t think He was mad at them because they did not.  And there’s no record at all of him criticizing the others.

So whatever your level of faith is, don’t beat yourself up for it.  But I hope that those of us who are at those lower levels of faith are thinking, how can I make my faith stronger?  How can I feel closer to Jesus?  How can I get to where I truly do believe that Jesus has unlimited power?  How can I get to where I can trust Jesus to do what’s right?  How can I get to where I truly believe that following Jesus will lead to salvation and eternal life?

But the fact is, we already know the answers to those questions.  We do it by prayer.  We do it by reading the Bible.  We do it by reading things written by people of faith.  We do it by talking to people of faith.  We do it by doing as much as we can to make faith part of our everyday lives.

But understand, this is going to take some time.  It’s going to take some commitment.  There’s no short-cut to faith.  There’s no microwave version of it.  It takes time to make our faith stronger.  It takes determination.  It takes a willingness to do whatever we need to do to get closer to Jesus.  

And it takes one more thing.  It takes a willingness to change.  Because it does not matter how much we read or who we talk to, if we’re not willing to make any changes in our lives, our faith in Jesus is not going to get any stronger.  Because that’s what faith in Jesus does–it changes us.  It drives us to be more like Jesus.  And the stronger our faith is, the more like Jesus we try to become.  And we cannot become more like Jesus if we’re determined to stay where we are.

So let’s not stay where we are.  Let’s be willing to change.  Whatever our current level of faith is, let’s be willing to change.  Let’s be willing to do whatever it takes to make our faith stronger.  Let’s do whatever we can to get closer to Jesus Christ.  It won’t be easy.  It will take some time.  But it will be worth it.