Sunday June 6, 2010 Luke 7:11-17

Welcome, I hope each of you had a nice 3 day weekend. Our text for this week comes from Luke. In the previous verses Jesus has healed a centurion’s (Roman) servant. Jesus and his disciples plus others set out on a journey.

V11-12 The large group including Jesus is traveling to a town called Nain. As they approach the city gates they meet a funeral march coming out of the city. A man had died and he was an only son. His mother was a widow. Since her husband had died his land holdings had gone to his son. The son was supporting the mother. Now that the son has died the land will pass to the next male relative and the widow will have very little to live on. Her means of support has died. This was a Levitical law. With the mourning mother is a large crowd. As the procession had passed through town many had joined in. At that time every man who met a wedding procession or a funeral march was bound to rise and join in. The two large crowds coming from opposite directions meet just outside the city gate. Jesus’ group would have stood to the side to let the funeral march pass.

V13 When Jesus saw the grieving mother he had compassion for her and told her not to weep. A common saying at Palestinian funerals was “Weep with him all you who are bitter of heart.” Jesus says “Do not weep”, do not be bitter for he will live. Jesus did a spontaneous act of compassion, it wasn’t calculated.

V14 Jesus then stepped forward and touched the bier carrying the dead man. The crowds would have been horrified as no one was to touch a dead body, only the family. This made him ritually unclean and he would now have to go through rituals to purify himself. The bearers of the bier stood still and Jesus said to the dead body “Young man, I say to you, rise!” At this point the crowd would have been so silent at what was going on that you could have heard a pin drop. All eyes are fixed on Jesus touching the bier and his words.

V15 To everyone’s amazement the dead man sat up and began to speak. I wonder what he said. Sometimes I wish the authors would have included more information. Jesus then gave him to his mother, literally and significantly. The widow now had her son back. She also had her means of support back. The property would stay with her and her son.

V16 Fear seized all of them. They had just witnessed the impossible. The crowd began to glorify God (not Jesus) saying “A great prophet has risen among us!” They also exclaimed “God has looked favorably on his people.” This meant that they realized God had visited his people. But why the statement about a great prophet? In the Old Testament another great prophet had done the same thing in almost the same location. In 2 Kings 4:8-37 the prophet Elisha had passed through this area so often that a couple had given him a room in their house to use and food when he stayed there. After some time their son was stricken with an illness and died. The mother went out looking for Elisha and when she found him told him of the young boy. Elisha returned with the mother and raised the boy from the dead. Elisha was a great prophet and now another has come who can raise the dead in the same vicinity. The crowds would have immediately made the connection, as being able to raise the dead was a very rare occurrence.

V17 Word of this event spread throughout the country. Had an event like this happened today, talk of it would spread like wildfire.

In verse 13 Jesus saw the woman and had compassion for her. Think about that statement. Our God sees our distress and has compassion for us. He doesn’t stand idly by observing but enters into our sorrow with us. He then moves to comfort us. In this case he returned the man to life and to his mother but we know this rarely happens so how does he comfort us? In this instance he is showing the crowd that there is life after death. He raises this man as a forth telling (what prophets did – they forth told what was going to happen) of what his mission will accomplish. On the cross he will deal with our sin, defeat Satan and defeat death. His resurrection is a vindication of that mission – God’s stamp of approval. If Jesus is living after his death, so are we. Unfortunately this man would die again, but Jesus used him as an example of what was coming. Jesus was bringing eternal life with God and him. Our comfort is the knowledge that we enter into eternal life. We will be together again. While there is sadness now at our loss there will be joy at our reunion and we can rest in that knowledge. As hard as it is Jesus says “Do not weep” for all will someday be restored and we can believe in that promise.