Who has Real Faith?

Geoff Davis

The walk of faith is constantly filled with paradoxes. Think about it! We must surrender to win. We must fall to rise. We must bow to be blessed. We must die to live. And if you are a Paratrooper, you must jump from the aircraft for the parachute to open. We are constantly bombarded with this or that view of faith. ​

Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance of what we do not see.” On top of this, we often ask God or others what we must “Do” to fulfill God’s purpose in this life. That is a bit backward. Instead, by believing in Him and His promises, He will work through us…and the best fruit of that work is when we are entirely unaware of it. Indeed, it is transparent to us when we fix our eyes on Jesus, and others see His work in us as we are focused on Him…and not those around us from whom we might want affirmation or approval. 
 
Yet, faith is many things to many people. Faith for some is an enduring slog in this fallen world while hoping for better in the next. Others come initially convinced that all they need is “faith,” and they can have whatever they want. I remember hearing a man say he was “believing for a Mercedes Benz.” Haven’t we all been to both places? It is easy to fall into a transactional faith of if-then while missing the more profound lessons of transparent dependency God wants us to have. 
 
So, who has real faith? Is it in routinized, familiar religious culture? Is it in willfully believing in whatever our situation may be? Is it something deeper? At root, Jesus puts it simply in John 6:29, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” 
 
Our “doing” of faith is believing Jesus. Too often, this gets flavored by our preferences and misses a more profound truth. If we truly believe, will that “belief” in action survive actual trials and adversity? After becoming an Army Ranger long ago, I understood why Jesus praised the Centurion in Matthew 8. Most of us, on the surface, know the story well. Roman Centurion shows faith by believing Jesus has the authority and power to heal and trusts that He can do it…and He does. Yet, I do not think we grasp the kind of radical love Christ is calling for in this generation. So, how do we understand what that might be? 
 
First, let’s break down some icons! For years, I had this icon of a pristine Centurion being recognized for his seeming faith by our Lord in Capernaum. As a young officer, I felt it validated my life journey in an era of anti-military feelings. It made me feel “superior” in my faith because I, too, was a “Centurion,” having been a company commander.  But after many years of serving and working on the Middle East/South Asia issues, I also understood something else. When Jesus entered the village and a Roman Company Commander, the Centurion, asked Him to heal his servant, I suspect it was a little different in operation than how most people read in the Word, based on their personal experience. 
 
The Spirit wants to break all our false presuppositions of His reality and sometimes His iconoclastic words and actions. Breaking our idols can be offensive to us. After being in Sadr City, Iraq, with one of my close friends, and later at a remote outpost in Southeastern Afghanistan, my views shifted. I realized what it might be like if Jesus were physically walking among us amid a low-level insurgency where civil order is stitched together by a corrupt and worldly religious establishment, clashing clans & tribes, and trying to get by under an occupation that showed little flexibility, nor desired to learn the culture… sound familiar? And the Zealots, the terrorists of the day, (Lestes in Greek), were not simple thieves. They were like Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi’s followers, killing and disrupting where they could while avoiding a stand-up fight with the professional Roman Soldiers they could not beat head to head. They saw themselves as freedom fighters, while the Romans and collaborating religious authorities saw them as terrorists. Would this sound familiar to those deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan? 
 
To understand the feelings related to events 2,000 years ago, let’s drop back a couple of decades! I was flying along the Afghan-Pakistan border on July 2005 as we listened on the Guard Channel to the wistful search for missing SEAL Matt Axelson, who was part of the team remembered in former SEAL Marcus Luttrell’s book Lone Survivor. As I gazed out from the Crew Chief’s jump seat, I saw tiny mud-walled villages that seemed to come from another millennium. The CW4 Pilot-in-Command said over the intercom, “Sir, someday I expect to see Jesus walking out of one of these places.” He fitted context into the images he saw. We felt like time travelers looking back at an ancient era. Let’s reverse the story of faith and put it into a context of uncertainty, anxiety, anguish, hope, fear, and desperation. Think of it like this...   
 
Like the Jewish rebels who fought their occupiers in the Bar Kochba Wars, the Afghans had their stories . . . Their Mujahadeen drove the mighty Soviet Union out after nearly a decade of bloody insurgency. That was followed by a religious and tribal conflagration leading to the rise of the Pashtun Talib, or student uprising, the Taliban. We know the rest of the story. After the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., the U.S. military descended into the graveyard of empires seeking revenge and justice. Like the fraught Roman occupation of Palestine, it seemed an endless series of frustrations to the men and women on the ground who had to do their mission. Drip, drip, drip…
 
Imagine you were the Commander of A Co, 1st BN, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR). Your mission was to maintain security and allow the community’s economy to function in Paktika Province, a barren moonscape along the Pakistani border. Endless patrols searched for the enemy. However, as your predecessor warned you, the enemy was in plain sight. The problem was figuring out who they were and what they would do. Could you stave off conflict by strengthening the economy? It seems rational enough… if you were from New Jersey. This was different. 
 
Week after week, you led your command team into various villages. Nearly everyone was respectful and hospitable—even to your face, but you knew insurgents were in your midst. For the local, besieged citizens, you could feel the underlying resentment, despite the smiles of children or thanks for medical care that saved lives. You knew that they were always watching. But you never knew if a roadside bomb would kill or wound your Soldiers or when the random mortar rounds or rockets would land in your outposts. What to do? The Mission.
 
Deployments for those Roman troops were different from ours today. They often lasted many years instead of six, twelve, or fifteen months. Indeed, when their twenty or more years of service were complete, Roman Soldiers often became members of the local communities where they had served. 
 
Palestine was considered the armpit of the Roman Empire, just like the U.S. Army had less endearing terms to describe life in Afghanistan. But, like the Roman Soldiers stationed in Palestine, the American Soldiers in Afghanistan quickly realized they were in an entirely new world driven by other values than they were used to in America.  Add to that the typical pettiness that people show each other on top of the kinetic conflict. They soon found themselves swimming in a local soup of mixed motives and generational anger, which could be taken out on some young Soldier who didn’t ask to be sent there. He was only doing his job. Yet to them, he represented the epitome of evil—the sum of all their troubles. For the Romans then, and our troops in recent history . . .  let’s contemporize the story in Matthew 8.
 
As the Commander of A/1-508 PIR, you exercise authority locally and positionally. You also fulfilled the missions of your commanders to maintain order and security. That duty in any counterinsurgency is messy and fraught with uncertainty, even as you bond with the locals and perhaps gain respect for pieces of their culture. 
 
You lead on a Forward Operating Outpost far away from the central Garrison in Kabul. You have no competent physician apart from the MEDEVAC flights. Then one of your best Senior Noncommissioned Officers (NCO), your First Sergeant, goes down with some nasty local disease you cannot manage. He becomes ill in the one month that rains shut down the dry riverbed road networks and most helicopter flights. He is dying, and you are desperate. The Medics’ supply of antibiotics and intravenous solutions is not making a difference. He must have contracted some ancient version of MRSA dredged up by the bombing and endless firefights. You requested a MEDEVAC, but nothing can fly. The message to you as the Company Commander is, “Deal with it.”
 
On top of this, you are aware of a seemingly dangerous religious movement rising that seems to echo the same feelings the Roman Centurion likely had about the rise of the messianic movements in Palestine. In your recent experiences, many religious leaders could be bribed with projects or money from the Commanders Emergency Response Program (CERP) Funds. Same as the Romans with the Palestinian locals. You have been getting reports from informants and your outposts of some crazy zealot-like preacher who is talking about love and mercy and a Creator God who appointed Him the Messenger. Really? All hell may break loose because you have intelligence that the insurgent Talib and Haqqani network zealots seem to be flocking to hear his message about another Kingdom. Another Kingdom? 
 
That would threaten the ISAF Coalition, just like the rise of the Jesus movement in Palestine could be seen to threaten Rome’s authority. The crazy preacher had no visible Army and was followed by a rabble of old men, desperate women, and other weak souls who lived hand to mouth and only wanted hope, bread, and healing as if that were possible. You heard that he fed and healed the locals who attended his teachings. Did he have much money as Bin Laden had? It was a paradox compared to the insurgents you faced in combat. Who is this? Healing? And my friend is dying. 
 
Now this teacher or crazy prophet is coming to the zone, your garrison. Crap. He begins teaching at a gathering in a village near your Combat Outpost. ISAF wants an update and any data your unit can gather. But how do you approach this potentially volatile situation? On top of this, you have a First Sergeant near death. You and he are losing hope for a MEDEVAC to the Combat Surgical Hospital at Bagram outside Kabul. 
 
As Commander, you issue an order for your troops to assess the impact of the visiting preacher with possible insurgent ties. Then, you load one of your Quick Response Force platoons into gun trucks for the short ride to the village. They will stand overwatch at the primary egress points if there is a firefight. Mortar teams stand by for indirect fire in case of an ambush. 
As you enter the village, kids come out to beg for candy. That is a good sign. If the children run away, you know there will be trouble. You get closer and see the strange preacher holding court…speaking in a language you barely understand, while your interpreter struggles with the countercultural message he hears.  
 
As the American Officer in charge, you boldly come to the edge of the group to observe. The tone this preacher uses is disconcerting. No anger. His voice is gentle. Then He looks at you. In that terrifying realization, you see that this man is not ordinary. The eyes. It is hard not to look away. Suddenly you wonder. Is it true? Can He heal my First Sergeant? Am I willing to set my pride aside because I have no other hope? 
 
As the Teacher comes toward you, murmurs erupt within the crowd of Pashtun villagers and traders. Why is the Teacher going to this foreign occupier? Will He curse the American? Standing before you is a nondescript ordinary-looking man in a dust-covered Shalwar Kameez. Yet, He is different from all the so-called teachers and preachers you have heard about on this deployment. Your layers of kit and body armor suddenly seem heavy.  Rather than bringing Him in for questioning and gathering biometric information, you continue thinking about the First Sergeant. You instantly decide you care more about your NCO than what the chain of command, your troops, or the locals will think of you. You are ready for your fellow Officers and Soldiers to mock you for going to the local weirdo who could be dangerous…heck, the local religious leaders hate Him…but He never speaks ill of America, nor does He advocate any insurrection. What to do? 
 
You decide to talk with Him. You’ve already drunk many cups of tea over the months with local men you suspected of collaborating against your men. You have nothing to lose, since you know they will hate you and mock you no matter what you do. So, like the Centurion, you set aside your pride and positional power and ask for this Teacher’s help. This teacher-prophet said He would go to your NCO. Steeped in the hierarchy of power and born a commoner, you understood a lot about “place” and social status. You respond, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you in my house, but Say The Word, and my First Sergeant will be healed….”
 
In that era long ago, everyone who read Matthew 8 knew about the Roman occupation and chafed under its yoke. Many hated the Romans bitterly. We know the rest of the story. However, we do not have all of it. Imagine what the insurgency supporters felt when Jesus proclaimed that this heathen enemy leader had the most incredible faith in all of Israel. Wow! The Lord was a radically loving leader. He gave meaning and life in the most unexpected places. He rejected the politically-wise and popular course of action to tell the Centurion his man was dying because they were cursed for subjugating God’s people.  Yes, He said the Centurion had the GREATEST faith. Another Wow. Zealots and those quietly sympathetic to the insurgency were shocked, likely seething in some cases. Yet, Rome’s soldier grasped the Power (dunamis) and the Authority (Exousia).  He knew what he had seen, and rationally trusted. Still, it was so revolutionary. It would be as if a Salafi Imam in Paktika Province, Afghanistan, walked into a group of desperate wounded 508th Paratroopers and healed them without rancor or judgment. How would that have gone over in July 2005? 
 
In the end, the Centurion had his worldview rocked in a way that would look quite familiar to a modern-era Company Commander deployed to the Sandbox in Southwest Asia. The Centurion believed in Jesus and thus “Did” the work of God. RLTW!

©2023 Geoff Davis ARR.  Reveration is the weekly devotional ministry of First Cause.  If you would like to receive these devotionals go to www.firstcause.org and click on the “Click here to receive weekly devotionals” box.  Unlimited permission to copy this devotional without altering text or profiteering is allowed, subject to the inclusion of this copyright notice.     
 
© 2023 Geoff Davis, Republic Consulting LLC