When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.”
Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?”
The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will 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, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that moment.
Matthew 8:5-13
The words for this slave in Greek used for slave in this passage were pias (Matthew) and entimos doulos (Luke). Pias meant a male sex slave where entimos doulos meant honored slave. I have been studying this scripture left and right. I just keep trying to make sure that I am right in this. I mean it is a big deal, Christ healing a person no matter what is a big deal but to even hint that he healed a male sex slave that was used in a homosexual relationship that involved a loving relationship? Wow! Mind blown! This just shows that we have such a limited mind that we can't believe that God would have anything to do with homosexuality when in fact He does.
I can just imagine this scripture today. Here is a man going to the great healer. Scared for his lover that he might die, but knowing this man he hears about can heal him. Yet he is a Roman and the other a Jew. And it is not just any one that he wants healed, it is his beloved male lover. True a slave, but someone he loves and someone that he can't imagine his life without.
He approaches Christ, probably timidly at first. He does not even say come heal him, he says what is wrong with him. Christ has to ask if he wants Him to heal him. The Roman then says all you have to do is say the word and he is healed. Christ then praises him for his belief and faith. He does not mock him for his homosexual relationship. He doesn't tell him to stop it. He simply says, "Hey yall, see this, this is the kind of faith you should have!"
Christ was an amazing man, not just because He was and is God's son, but because of how He accepted people. Here He could have said, "You are living in sin, I am not going to heal your slave!" Yet He didn't! He didn't even tell him to stop living like this. Usually Christ would say to someone that He healed and was doing something wrong in His eyes, go and sin no more, but He didn't say that to this man.
So if Christ, our example of God's love in action on Earth, accepted and showed love and healing to a gay man, why can't we? Okay I do, but I am gay. It just saddens me that others don't. God is a loving God, not one of hate. And where there is hate,there is not God!
God showed love to this Roman Centurion and his male lover who happened to be a slave. God shows love to the gays now and blesses us! How else do you think we are prosperous in our lives? God shows love to us, so why can't those who proclaim Him not do the same?
Oh I know, because they don't know God, they don't know what it means to be Christ like! If they did then they would act different. To know God means to know that we do not speak for Him. To know God means to know He is the God of acceptance. To know God means to know He is a God of love. To know God means to know that we have no place standing in judgment of another.
I know that I am preaching to the choir, I know that most who read this are already accepting to gays or are gay themselves. Why else would you be reading? I wrote this though for hope that maybe, just maybe someone who isn't stumbles across this blog and gets another view and opens their ears and eyes to acceptance!
I truly believe God is sitting up there saying, "Come on yall, you are better then this! I taught love and acceptance, not hate! I never once said I hate you to one person!" Yes you just read that right, God never once said "I hate you!" He did say He hates sin, but sin is not the person! I think this is where we get off track. And homosexuality, well, it is one of those things that we are going to have to agree to disagree on.
To some, like me, it is not a sin. To others, like my parents, it is a sin. Yet it don't matter, cause in the end, it will be God who we answer to! And I look at it this way, if I live a Christ like life, I don't feel He is going to say "Lesley, you led people to me, you did right on so many levels, I forgave you of your sins, but this one thing, you being gay, it is stopping you from getting in." That would be like saying a person who is divorced and remarried is not going to Heaven.
No Christ healed a gay man, He showed love and acceptance. He praised his faith. You know what I take from that, God puts our faith in Him, our love, as more important then anything. So before you hate on a person because they are different, think would Christ? NO! He would accept them, heal them, and love on them! He was the great acceptor!
