Jairus

“Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but say the word and my soul shall be healed.”

This awkwardly phrased line from the new English mass translation* comes from the account of the healing of the daughter of the centurion Jairus. Jairus, though a Roman, was a patron of the Jewish synagogue in Capernaum (which was where Jesus based his operations). Indeed, Luke's gospel tells that the people “strongly urged” Jesus to go help Jairus when his slave was ill. He must have been special – it's not everyday that an occupied people urge their leaders to go help the occupiers.

When Jesus was near Jairus's home, Jairus sent out his servants with the message “Lord...I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof. Therefore, I did not consider myself worthy to come to you...say the word and my servant shall be healed.”

Jesus “was amazed at him.” He told the crowd “not even in Israel have I found such faith.” When the messengers return to Jairus's house, the slave is in good health.

There's a lot to dig into in this passage. We could discuss the faith of a non-Jew. We could admire Jairus's concern for his slave, and criticize him for owning slaves. We could appreciate the role that the Jews play and the respect they clearly have for Jairus. We could reflect on the line “Jesus...was amazed at him” and realize that even Jesus could be surprised.

I want to focus on Jairus's famous line.

First off, “enter under my roof” is awkward phrasing. We can all agree on that. It probably comes from an old Roman or Palestian expression for entering someone else's home. The Spanish mass translation is much better: Señor, no soy digno de que entres a mi casa...” (Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter into my house/home).

We speak that line, in Spanish, at every mass here in Andahuaylillas. But it has very special meaning to me when it's our turn to host Monday night mass. Here I am, telling Jesus that I'm not worthy for him to enter my house, and here He is bursting into our midst in the miracle of the bread and the wine. And the altar isn't anything special, it's the same coffee table that I put my feet on in the evenings when I watch movies, read a book, or draft blog posts. We don't even change the table cloth!

In Jesus, we have a king who ignores our sense of unworthiness. “I'm not worthy that you should enter my house,” I say. “I know,” Jesus responds, “but I'm entering anyways. I love you that much.”

I am amazed a Jesus. I wonder if, like he was with Jairus, Jesus is ever amazed at me.

*Assuming I remembered the new mass translation correctly. I've been doing mass in Spanish for the last 21 months, and I've probably forgotten some of the responses in English.