Luke 7:11-17

[0:00] Soon afterward, he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow.

[0:18] And a considerable crowd from the town was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, Do not weep. Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still, and he said, Young man, I say to you, arise.

[0:35] And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, A great prophet has arisen among us, and God has visited his people.

[0:50] And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated.

[1:11] Well, there is nothing quite like being around something big as it is getting underway.

[1:22] I think of rock bands and music groups and performers, those who knew them when they were just rising, finding their legs and ascending to great fame.

[1:46] When we come to our text today, Luke 7, verse 11, the fire has been lit on this itinerant Jewish preacher and wonder worker, Jesus.

[2:07] And he's only been playing the small joints. You see him here early on. Discovered, but not yet discovered.

[2:21] There are certainly indications in this narrative, if you look at the paragraphs on either side of our text, that you are looking at Jesus here at a very early moment and in the initial phase of his ministry.

[2:42] Notice, it's the healing of the centurion's servant that takes place in chapter 7, verses 1 to 10. And from the other synoptics, we get a clear sense that that moment was early on in the ministry of Jesus.

[3:00] During his Galilean ministry, when he had just come forth from the town of Nazareth and began to travel the small neighboring places, having really been looked at in his own town as one who wasn't yet worthy of the big time.

[3:23] The narrative following our text places you with a word to John the Baptist and his indicating question of whether Jesus was the one.

[3:36] So, at some point, Luke has put this text here while John the Baptist was still alive and while there was considerable question in regard to who this emerging one was.

[3:51] Jesus the Nazarene. It was an early day. But the excitement was already being generated.

[4:03] Just take a look at three simple moments leading up to our text. Chapter 4, verse 37. And reports about him, that is Jesus, went out into every place in the surrounding region.

[4:23] Word was beginning to travel about this one who was healing and teaching, who with words and works was gathering a following.

[4:37] Hadn't released anything yet on the big label, but it was in play. Chapter 5, verse 15.

[4:50] But now, even more, the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities.

[5:04] But, as is his pattern, verse 16, he remains in desolate places. Chapter 6, verse 17.

[5:16] And he came down with them and stood on a level place and with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem.

[5:27] Now, they're moving north. The word has traveled through the gazette that he is there and they are finding their way to him. Even the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases.

[5:43] And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured, and all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came out from him and healed them all. Early, yes, but excited, most definitely.

[5:58] The buzz on Jesus was in play. The road show was the rage.

[6:12] Yet, there is something in our text, as we open it now, 7-11, that is yet enigmatic about him.

[6:24] Something I have thought on this week and am growing in my appreciation of him. In the midst of that rising swell, he went to a town called Nain.

[6:43] Nain is a small town, even today. Unlike Pastor Jackson, who now travels Asia Minor and sees these things firsthand for himself, being the gifted world man that he is.

[7:00] I'm relegated to my computer and Google Earth and things to see what these places look like. And I've been to Nain this week, and even to this day, it is there and is of no great importance.

[7:18] You know how movies begin over water. I'm guessing 95% of every movie begins over water.

[7:32] If the film starts in 7-11, the nearest body of water, the Sea of Galilee, probably some 30 miles, a little bit to its north and east.

[7:44] So the plane comes in over the Sea of Galilee and begins to drop across what is the northern hill country in an arid world and travels for 30 miles.

[8:00] You are yet now arriving over Nain, a small, small, rural village. And in that day, probably a singular path to it, a county road, this is like County H or NN, built somewhat into a hillside, not a mountainous region by what I could tell, and probably 12 or so miles south and east of even Nazareth, the place where Jesus was born.

[8:40] It's a small town. I've begun to love that about Jesus when he was beginning to be all the rage.

[8:58] Something here for us. Those of us who live in the center of things need to be reminded that we are not.

[9:12] We have a tendency, having found our way to one of the ten great universities of the world Chicago, within a five iron from here.

[9:29] Or if you're Doug Rothschild, maybe a pitching wedge. Those of us who live in the center of things need to be reminded we are not.

[9:40] For all the cultural strengths of Chicago, and all of our internal desires to play on the big stage, the work of God goes on in places like Nain.

[10:09] Recently I was speaking with one of our former interns, who now lives on another continent. You want to be tucked away in a place where nobody knows you're there?

[10:22] He's there. And he was lamenting the fact that he was there. Or at least speaking rather candidly with me in private, longing for the possibility one day of maybe returning to Chicago and all the exciting things that are happening and all the usefulness for the gospel.

[10:50] I finally looked at him and I called him by name and I said, have you stopped reading your Bible? This is not the center of things. God is more likely to get something magnificently done in Dixon, Illinois than he will on my block.

[11:09] That's the way God works. Let's continue to remember it. Now, of course, cities and culture are wonderful things, but it is those who live at the center of things who need to be reminded that they are not.

[11:28] And so 711 says, soon afterward, he went to a town called Nain. Notice who went with him. His disciples.

[11:40] By this time, twelve in number at least, and a great crowd. Now, we've actually watched that crowd emerging over the previous chapters.

[11:54] So what you have is really a rock star in the making on his way to the next town along the stop.

[12:04] It's a bit like Bob Dylan leaving, you know, the Star Plaza and heading up to play the next night in Kalamazoo. here he comes and the entourage is with him and they are moving to the small rural village and it is a party.

[12:24] It is happening. It is where the action is because everywhere he goes, things are happening. So the excitement is high.

[12:35] The movement is there. And Luke lets you in on that in verse 11. And then with a word that arrests the reader, he shifts your eyes off of him for the first time.

[12:52] It's the word behold. Now, I haven't traced this word in Luke to see if he uses it the way it seems to me that he uses it here as this moment of clarity for the reader to direct their attention to something equally or more stunning.

[13:13] But as he drew near to the gate of the town, behold! Reader, be arrested! And your attention for a moment moved from this emerging man named Jesus.

[13:30] And suddenly it's as if we're part of the crowd walking into Nain and we look beyond Jesus to the gate itself to the road and coming at us directly, verse 12, a man who had died being carried out the only son of his mother and she was a widow and a considerable crowd of the town was with her.

[14:00] a dead man who was the only son that's the the commas there are important the only son and and of the woman another comma and she a widow and yet almost identical language although the English text makes it look different with great crowds and considerable crowds nearly the same phrasing a great crowd is with her I mean can you imagine this on the screen Jesus moving ascending vibrancy gathered people with him quick pace important steps lively bunch filled with joy about to be intercepted at the narrowness of this entrance by an equally great crowd dressed in black a young man on a is it beer is that how you pronounce it and his mom and she a widow what a contrast

[15:35] I mean you move from an early exciting moment in Jesus ministry where his entertainment even of a town like name is rather enigmatic to this electric contrast you move in one sense with a famous person and his big lighting entourage and they are going to meet immediately a single woman who's now lost all and the entire funeral procession headlights on like this death meets life you have the man and his twelve men and his many followers and you have a woman and her only man now dead and an equal number of followers

[16:49] I can't imagine the disconnect the most awkward of all passings I mean on a road today you run into a long funeral procession on a road today if you have any decency about you yet you pull your car to the side you allow them to move through their day if you are like the ever increasing American you have no decency left and you make that passing in the anonymity behind your pain glasses if they matter not for you have things to do but there's no escaping the gate in name and this passing there are no windshields there are no pull offs death is coming to you to capture the the nearness and the immensity of the grief you need to remember the first century is not quite like ours a burial at this time of time frame would have been hours after death not days after death deuteronomy 21 when one was on a tree you would make sure that you would they would be buried before sundown ananias and sapphira in acts chapter 5 i mean they they die and they take them out to be buried i mean just the way of life and the body as we looked at last week is such that burial was soon in fact funeral customs!

[18:48] of that early moment would have really consisted of three stages and the first one the shiva was like seven days long there would have been after the after this young man expired and by the way being a young man he's not listed here as an infant it's not the word for an infant it's the word you would get that is used for Saul when he's standing as a man at the age of Stephen's stoning this is someone on the cusp of all of life it's the word that you get for Eutychus who falls out of the window this is a young man that has got all of life before him he's been dead now for just a few hours his body has been anointed with oil he's been wrapped via his appendages he's been laid on this beer and either carried or rolled on his way through the west moment of name because up there even to this day into the hillside are the tombs that would have been there!

[19:58] and for seven days there was to be mourning so what you have here is a hastily assembled crowd what what you have this in the nearness of the grief it is somebody saying did you know that so and so age 23 just passed away you're kidding I saw him yesterday yes and his funeral is in three hours and there's a leaving of the field a putting off of your responsibility a dressing for the occasion and a movement in the nearness of grief that is what you have here nobody's thought yet beyond the shock the raw exposure of death there's been no real sense yet of what would become a 30 day period of mourning certainly nobody is thinking yet of what happens a year from now at that time of life where the family would return to the grave open it up after the flesh and everything had decomposed and put one's bones in an ossuary where they would be stored none of that process of the grieving is underway he has died he is gone there is a dead man there is a despairing mother and there is

[21:22] Jesus the the the action of 13 to 15 surpasses anybody's wildest expectation and when the Lord saw her he had compassion on her and said to her do not weep and he came up and touched or maybe even more appropriately took hold of the beer and the bearer stood still and he said young man I say to you arise now this is what Luke wrote and the dead man sat up and began to speak and he gave him to his mother those actions of

[22:36] Jesus six in number are almost put out in like Ron Howard directed slow motion when he saw her he had compassion on her and he said to her then he took hold and he said to the young man and he gave him to his mother!

[23:03] he said he talked about the dancers now mingling with the mourners that's that's the moment when when the man in black says why am I dressed this way I went to a funeral and a resurrection took place the shock of the death would only be surpassed by the shock of the life and the questions of the event and the day and this one this one Jesus I think I asked somebody last week after the Lazarus text

[24:03] I said you know it's interesting they don't say a lot about what happened to the crowd at the Lazarus resurrection and the person said to me oh well that's clear I mean there's a whole history of like zombie movies I mean when somebody is raised from the dead anyone who's living they just run away I thought that was probably pretty appropriate there would have been that response of where am I and what have I seen and have I seen it but for the mother her son now was given back to her in some sense as it emerges all those conflicting moments finally give way to celebration it's true it's really true he was really dead and he's not he is my son and he's here I am not alone and I don't know why but the road show came to town and they'll read about it thousands of years later the most striking feature for me

[25:23] I have to say is this phrase in 13 when he saw her he had compassion on her you know this word compassion is almost this kind of internal roiling of the intestines where it's you're just completely in play he his internal heart went out to her in ways that just precipitated his action he didn't just feel for her he wasn't just sad for her he he was moved for her interestingly and I love this the same word is used in in the healing of the two blind men but at that point there's this dialogue back and forth that you discover that they have faith in him and then he heals them it's also used in

[26:38] Mark 1 where there's this question of well I know you're able to heal me I know you're but the question is are you willing to heal me and Jesus said well what do you mean if I'm able or willing do you believe I can heal and then the person is healed it's also used in a moment where this demon possessed person this person has just been agitated by the spiritual harassment and possession of the underworld and they say why are you tormenting us so there are moments when Jesus is moved by compassion and heals people and it's connected to the individual's belief there are moments when Jesus is moved by compassion and he heals people almost as a rebuke to those harassing people in unbelief but here he heals and raises without any connection to belief he saw he had compassion and he raised him he does this because he wants to do it it is in his nature to have compassion now think about that that means he can have compassion on whomever he pleases regardless of your state there's a prayer that's prayed every

[28:12] Sunday morning in this church at our beautiful quietly opening communion service it's called the prayer of humble access let me read part of this to you because most of you are still sleeping you should be here okay let's not do that here's the prayer of humble access we do not presume!

[28:38] to come to this your table merciful Lord trusting in our own righteousness but in your abundant mercies we are not even worthy to gather up the crumbs from under your table but you are the same Lord whose eternal nature is to have mercy grant us therefore gracious Lord and it goes on I love that each week I sit in these rows and I repeat that line but you are the same Lord whose eternal nature it is to have mercy the God of the scriptures it is in his nature to be compassionate and you see that in this healing I think of Jonah's words I knew that you were a gracious God and merciful I knew that it was in your mercy and in your character and in your nature to help people who are distressed what an encouraging word for us today

[29:48] Jesus can heal and all that's required is that he look on you with compassion that's all that's required just to look Spurgeon put it this way if misery be my qualification for mercy then I am a fit object for thy compassion are you miserable today may you be a fit object of his compassion let's just apply this apply the compassion of Christ I want to ask you without spiritualizing the text but understanding it fully what have you lost what do you grieve what do you weep over if anything what do you want what seems inescapably irretrievable for you he looked he had compassion he said do not weep imagine now

[31:42] Christ metaphorically meeting you at the gate maybe maybe you are the young man who bears within your body the!

[32:04] indication that death is coming he can heal imagine you're the parent who was lost child or spouse he can raise Luke writes for the purpose of giving Theophilus a sense of sure footing under his feet that Jesus is who he says he is and does what he says he does maybe you need assurance today that God exists now don't hear me wrong he's under no obligation to heal you physically at all in fact he didn't heal everybody in Nain who are you kidding don't put that on God my guess is they had a funeral in Nain later that week somebody but this healing was done so that everybody would know that there is one who has life within him in some sense that he can actually do more for you than he's done for this widow or son do you not know that he was willing to die for you do you not know that while he says to this one arise and in a moment in our text a prophet has arisen that when they come to Luke 24 they will say at the tomb he has risen and that

[34:18] Jesus will confirm to his nearest followers did you not know that I had to suffer and die and rise so that you would go forth into the world to proclaim I am the source of life and can give life so even if you die you will live even if you have lost it can be restored are you lost have you lost have you lost I think of Jesus and his compassion you say well he did it for name and he did it for the apostles but you know come on today we're 2000 years later hey you haven't nobody's explained to you the compassion of Christ then Hebrews tells us particularly that there was a priesthood that had to go all the time to be offering sacrifices to mediate for the well-being of others and then the writer of the

[35:22] Hebrews says in chapter 25 but he laid his life down one time so that he continually stands to intercede for everyone what is the nature of Christ today he is compassionately standing at the right hand of the father interceding for you because it is his nature he's doing that now and so all we really need all we really need is the ability to have our life cross his path just let me get in front of him who knows what he'll do but he can do it because it is with his nature to be compassionate and so you sit here today with with a flood of real need and I'm telling you he can see call upon him be like the blind man who just feels that he might be near enough to save

[36:33] Luke tells us he's not that far away he's very near you he is within the sound of your voice even the voice of your heart if you cry to him this morning lord have mercy he will because it is his nature you we are nain we're an insignificant outpost well not the center of things and yet he passes by well the response on that day was amazing verse 16 and 17 three responses fear sees them all

[37:34] I bet it did fear sees them all number two they glorified God look at those two phrases a great prophet has arisen among us this early word via Zachariah on the birth of his son John the Baptist in chapter one is now applied by Luke under the visitation of Jesus this prophet it reminds me of first king 17 where Elijah heals the widow's son very similar story in fact in a very geographically similar area and Jesus already in

[38:35] Luke chapter four connected his own ministry to that of Elijah when he told the story of how God when he came mercifully came to the widow from the out country and met her need he didn't go to the big place and meet the presumptuous needs of those who felt they already knew him so Jesus has already connected his own ministry to that of Elijah now there is a miracle that almost mirrors the miracle of Elijah no wonder the people say a great prophet has arisen among us I mean our parents used to tell us bedtime stories of Elijah centuries before and now here we are in the same geographic proximity and it has happened in our own day this is a great prophet who has risen!

[39:21] among us I think of Jesus in Luke 24 when he arises and he actually uses the same word here rising it was to prove that the Christ should suffer and die and rise again that one even greater than Elijah by the Baptist own words the one greater than the Baptist is Jesus and then this phrase God has visited his people later in Luke chapter 19 44 Jesus will weep he tells the women here not to weep he'll weep and he'll weep in chapter 19 over their rejection of him and he will say of them did you not know the hour of your visitation and

[40:26] I say that to you today Jesus stands ready to meet your every need and he says do not weep I'll meet it but know this he will weep if you reject him I think of psalm 103 verse 13 the Lord is compassionate upon all those who fear him it's there for you and then look at this word third response 17 this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding countryside I guess I'm feeling that way now this month this Easter season I challenged you last week to find some way to creatively express to others something of the miraculous power of

[41:32] Jesus for present day life given the truthfulness of the resurrection are you in some way spreading that word it's interesting when Spurgeon preached a sermon I read this week on this chapter he actually ended up chiding his congregation he said you know people are coming in to the church they're sitting in the chairs their needs are great and they would just want someone to comfort them with the truths of Christianity and no one was speaking to them of it and I think of our own neighborhood our own families even this day people that God might bring across our path are we spreading the word of the compassion that is in Christ for all people this ought to be what we are doing indeed as it is in his nature it has to be in our nature is it possible that it is in his nature to have compassion and yet we would disconnect why would

[42:41] Holy Trinity Church be concerned about the world because it is in my nature as Christ lives in me well I pray that for some here today you would just call upon him for mercy he'll find his way to you he is not far from you and may he turn your mourning into dancing our heavenly father we thank you for this time today and your word this intricate little narrative I pray oh lord that you would use it to bring life and to renew life and to all those who are called by your name we commit ourselves to you in

[43:44] Jesus name amen