God Has Come to Help His People

            Several weeks ago I had the pleasure of being able to preach on Mother’s Day.  That day we talked a little about separation anxiety and the natural, unbreakable bond that exists between mother and child.  Today, a little over a month later, we celebrate Father’s Day.  A special relationship exists between father and child too – special, but different. 
 

Girls love their mothers dearly, but you really don’t see a whole lot of young women saying, “When I grow up, I want to be just like mom.”  In fact, sometimes the opposite is true – there’s a desperate attempt not to turn into their mothers.  Maybe it’s just because it makes them feel older.  The situation is a little different with boys though.  There are a lot of boys that desire to be just like dad.  There’s often a tremendous amount of respect and admiration there.  Dad is often perceived as the provider, the protector, the stability of the family.  He may very well be the biggest hero in a young boy’s life.
 

Remembering my prayers when I was young, I distinctly recall praying that God not let any harm come to my dad.  “God, please don’t let my dad die” was a regular nightly prayer along with “Now I lay me down to sleep.”  Certainly I prayed that God would protect all of my family and let no harm come upon them.  And I loved my parents equally.  But it felt like if something happened to dad, the rock of the family, we all would be doomed.  It’s not an exaggeration to say I was terrified of losing him.
 

Maybe you didn’t have the same relationship with your father that I did.  I know I was one of the lucky few in today’s society.  Unfortunately, it almost seems more common today that dad is a word that is associated with things like desertion, abuse, irresponsibility, unfaithfulness, and resentment.  If that sounds more like you’re situation, you likely still had someone in your life, a mother or grandparent, whom you were then all the more afraid to lose, because they were all you had. 
 

Losing a loved one is a scary proposition that inevitably becomes a scary reality for all of us.  But Christians won’t see it as a loss.  God willingly, our loved ones know their Savior.  To lose something means to not know where it is.  We know exactly where our fellow Christians are when they depart from this world.  And the amazing thing is that we get to see them again.  That is made possible solely because
 

“God Has Come to Help His People”
 

We’ll see what that means as we study God’s Word this morning.  Our lesson for consideration today, from Luke 7:11-17, is found right after the lesson Pastor had as a sermon text last week, the story of the healing of the Roman centurion’s servant.  And both of these lessons fit well under the theme of Luke’s gospel message, which is that “Jesus is the Savior of the Entire World.”  He showed no discrimination against a Gentile in last week’s lesson and today he shows no discrimination against a woman.  I know it sounds a little funny, but Christianity was very culturally progressive in its founding.  Luke emphasizes the fact that Jesus came for all people – men and women, Jew and Gentile, slave and freedman alike. 
 

After the miracle of healing the centurion’s servant, which took place in a city called Capernaum, on the north side of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus travels south and west to a city called Nain, a name which means “Vale of Beauty.”  It was located on the slope of a mountain toward a valley – probably a breathtaking view.  But a sight had never been seen in Nain more beautiful than the one which would be revealed on this day. 
 

Jesus, traveling with his disciples, had developed an enormous crowd of followers.  Undoubtedly some were tagging along because they wanted to see more magic, another head-scratching “illusion.”  They were in it just for the excitement.  Undoubtedly some were following just because they wanted to get something out of Jesus, like he was some sort of wish-granting genie.  In addition to these though, many were beginning to understand that this man was much more than a public stunt.  All his works seemed to confirm the words he’d been speaking and the outrageous claims he’d made about himself. 
 

This procession of Jesus and his followers was about to enter the gate of the city of Nain.  At the very same moment, they ran across another procession about to enter the city gates.  This procession was of an entirely different nature though.  It was a funeral procession.  In those days funerals were held outside the city.  In fact, archaeologists have found numerous burial sites in this very location just to the southeast of Nain. 
 

This 2^nd procession was obviously a little less exciting and exuberant than the first.  As if the fact that it were a funeral procession weren’t sobering enough, notice the circumstances of the funeral.  The funeral was for the only son of a widow.  This woman had been through losses that most of us cannot begin to comprehend.  She had already buried her husband.  Now she is going through one of the more heart-breaking events that life can offer, a parent burying their child. 
 

Before we dive into the words of the lesson though, make sure you see the interesting scene that’s developing.  We have two processions.  One is headed by a corpse – death.  The other is headed by Christ – the author and redeemer of life.  In a symbolic way the two will cross paths, only to have one be victorious. 
 

When Jesus witnessed the woman mourning the loss of her son, we’re told “his heart went out to her”.  The Greek word that’s used here is a unique one that refers to the innermost fibers of a person.  The closest thing we can probably come to it today is when we use the expression that we “feel something in our gut”.  It means he was extremely, wholly affected by what he saw.  Jesus feels for us.  When we hurt, he knows and his heart goes out to us and he wants to help us.  He is compelled, out of love, to help us in the way he knows is best.  That’s what he did for this widow.
 

He said to her, “Don’t cry.”  Don’t think of this quite so much as a command, like he’s yelling at her to be quiet.  The KJV has a good way of putting it – “weep not”.  We might say, “Dry your eyes.”  Jesus immediately then takes away the cause of this woman’s tears.
 

He walks over to the coffin, which really wasn’t so much of a coffin in this day and age as it was a stretcher of sorts.  He touches this apparatus that the corpse is laying on and he says, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” 
 

What do you think was going through everyone else’s head at this point?  Jesus raised several people from the dead throughout his ministry.  You might remember the raising of Jairus’ daughter or the raising of Lazarus.  But up until this point in his ministry, there is no precedent for it.  Yeah, the crowd had seen some amazing things up until now, but this man was dead.  Jesus had cured the sick and healed the lame and blind.  But even today we give medicine to the sick and they can be healed.  Today we can sometimes perform surgeries to cause people to walk or perhaps even receive sight.  Maybe Jesus had simply been pulling a fast one on the crowds up until this point – elaborate street magic.  But even in modern medicine we have nothing that can touch bringing someone back to life.  And it wasn’t that this young man had been misdiagnosed.  This woman had been through death before; she knew death.  This would have to be a miracle.  Who did Jesus think he was to perform such an unprecedented stunt?
 

If you read our lesson carefully, you noticed that in verse 13, Luke shifts to calling Jesus “the Lord.”  It is the Lord whose heart goes out to this widow.  Earlier in the Gospel of Luke we learn that Jesus is the Lord who had authority to forgive sins (5:24).  He is the Lord of the Sabbath (6:5).  Here he shows himself as the Lord, the master even of death itself.  He is the Lord who governed these remarkably “coincidental” events of two processions meeting together at precisely the right time to provide this fantastic teaching opportunity.  It is the Lord who tells the young man to get up.  Others still doubted, but Jesus knew without a shadow of a doubt that he was the Almighty Lord.
 

Verse 15 simply states that “The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.”  Science and reason don’t hesitate at God’s command.  They bow in the presence of the creator of all things, including science and reason.  The young man fully alive and giving evidence of his life, Jesus hands him back to his mother.  Notice the uncanny similarity between this event and the event of our Old Testament lesson today.  If you recall, Elijah had been at the house of a widow whose son became ill and then died.  Elijah threw himself on the body of the son and cried out to God, “O LORD my God, let this boys’ life return to him!” (1 Kings 17:21).  The boy’s life did return to him and Elijah gave him back to his mother.  In fact, it’s the exact same words used here by Luke.  There is one distinct difference in the accounts though.  Elijah cries out to the Lord for help.  Jesus cries out to no one to work his miracle, because he himself is the Lord – the master and ruler of life. 
 

The crowd watching these miraculous events unfold had the reaction that would be only natural for being spectators of such events – “They were filled with awe and praised God.  ‘A great prophet has appeared among us,’ they said.”  They knew they were in the presence of greatness.  A man of God stood before them, a man like Elijah.  But they knew this one was an even more special man – a man with authority in and of himself.  Not only did they recognize he was a prophet, but they proclaimed, “God has come to help his people.” 
 

This is a powerful story showing both Jesus’ power and compassion, but don’t let it stop there.  Unquestionably there are all sorts of things to learn from the story, but we must understand what this account means for you and I personally.  We ask ourselves what is the dilemma in this story, the problem at the heart and core of it?  The problem in the story is that the young man, one of the story’s main characters, at the beginning of the story, is dead.  Well, why is he dead?  You might say, “The Bible doesn’t tell us.”  He could have died from some tragic accident.  He could have contracted some communicable disease.  He could have had some genetic weakness from birth.  What specific means brought about his death really isn’t important.  We all know what ultimately brought about his death – sin.  Romans 6:23 says, “The wages of sin is death.”  It makes no difference how he got there, that young man was dead because he was a sinner living in a sinful world. 
 

It may sound a bit cold and matter-of-fact, but he had it coming.  Every human alive descended from Adam and Eve has had it coming.  We “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).  That’s one of the reasons why death can become such a scary thing for humans.  When we come face to face with our own mortality, we come face to face with the cause of our mortality – our sinfulness.  Consequently, many people just choose not to think about death.  You could probably say young people in particular don’t want to be inconvenienced by morbid thoughts that might detract from the good time they’re having right now.  But it’s coming.  Death is coming.  A day from now or seventy years from now that inevitable last word, last beat, last breath is coming.  We need to think about it.
 

Our sinful nature wants to look at death and see God as a condemning ogre who only wants to punish us for our sins.  Maybe, in righteous fury over sin, he just wants death upon us because he likes to rip loved ones away from each other and show them whose boss.  But our new self knows better.  As Christians we see death as one of the most loving gifts of a merciful Lord.  You see, when God put gates protected by angels in front of the Garden of Eden, after he had banished Adam and Eve, he was doing a compassionate thing.  He no longer wanted mankind to eat of the Tree of Life, because he didn’t want mankind to live forever in a sinful, painful world.  He wanted us to live for eternity in peace, so he allowed for physical death. 
 

By nature we were spiritually dead in our transgressions and sins (Ephesians 2:1).  But “God Has Come to Help His People” and made us alive.  When our funeral procession crossed paths with his procession of life, Jesus switched places with us.  As he died on the cross for our sins, he climbed into our coffin.  And he was taken to a tomb that could not hold him.  In this charitable switch he awarded us the leadership position in the procession of life, which proceeds unyielding from this world into the next. 
 

We now fear death no longer – either for ourselves or for our loved ones who share the certainty of salvation that we have in Christ Jesus.  Instead, we look forward to the day our Heavenly Father calls us home.  The Apostle Paul mocked death in his first letter to the Corinthians.  He said, “Where, O death, is your victory?  Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:55).  In today’s lesson, Jesus proves his power over death.  Like Christ and because of Christ, no tomb can hold us either, but instead, on the Last Day the Good Lord will raise our glorified bodies.  
 

Christ makes an unmistakable point in our lesson for today – he is the Lord of Life.  If God brings us or our loved ones home to heaven this very day, praise be to God!  There is no place we would rather be than the incomprehensible glory of eternal paradise.  If God says today we continue to live on this earth, praise be to God! He has graciously blessed us with this time of grace – seize the moment and make the most of this day in service and glory to the Almighty.  Either way, the Lord Jesus Christ is in control.  He has conquered sin.  He has conquered death.  He has announced us not guilty of every last condemning sin.  That news has brought us to life.  Why fear what Christ has already defeated for you?  Amen.
 

Posted in Sermons | Print | No Comments »