The Suffering

Taking a look at that video, you have turmoil, strife, fear, loss, suffering.

A little news montage that we saw is about the financial crisis that was, well, like

10 years ago now.

It's crazy.

Almost a decade ago.

And you could have easily replaced that montage with any number of events and themes.

You could have replaced it with headlines about war or famine, violence, disease, corruption,

disasters, or any other causes of suffering that you see in this world today.

Just think, if you guys watch the news, hopefully, or read the news, think about all the negative

headlines, the negative, the bad news you've read and seen and heard over the last few

months.

And while there are so many themes, what I did like about this video was I think it captures

something that is very relevant to us in Hong Kong.

The idea of financial security and stability.

It's something we all need, right?

Just that opportunity to just live our lives, to have our basic needs and our desires met.

A life of stability and gain, not wild losses that are just like being tossed by an ocean

storm.

But when people experience loss, when they encounter suffering, like the people who went

through the financial crisis, when that lifelong security net is just pulled out from right

beneath your feet, the responses can be devastating.

The effects can be absolutely devastating.

I found that the British Journal of Psychiatry actually published research not long ago showing

that in North America and Europe, at least 10,000 suicides from 2008 to 2010, around the time

of the financial crisis.

10,000 suicides were related to that great recession.

Job loss, debt, foreclosures, family finances just wiped out.

Financial security completely lost.

And on top of that, suicide and death.

And this church, this friends, is the nature of this biblical episode that Melody just read

for us.

And this little passage is short, but it's rich, very rich in content.

We're in the second week of a series called Sinners Jesus Met, as Eric explained at the beginning.

How Jesus comes into the lives of these various people.

And last week, we talked about the woman, the suffering woman, and Simon the Pharisee,

and how God meets the religious, the pious people, the people who think that they've got it all

together.

And today, we're going to look in this episode at how Jesus meets this widow.

This widow who has just lost her only son.

And if you remember from last week, just like Simon the Pharisee, and just like the suffering

woman, this widow that we read about, she was also a sinner.

She was a member of God's people who had constantly failed to fulfill his purposes for them.

If you remember from Deuteronomy, our last series, God had called his people to be this

light, this beacon of hope to reflect his character, to reflect his love, to reflect his blessings.

But they were not able to fulfill that.

And here she was, this widow, her homeland under the rule of this foreign occupying force

called the Romans, and also personally facing the loss of her only son.

And to understand just how devastating and just how terrible this loss was, we really have to kind

of roll back a bit and understand first century culture.

We need to understand the status of women in that culture.

And some of you, I'm sure, have heard and read about this.

In that time, women were very much dependent on the men in their lives to provide.

There were very few openings for women to actually earn a living.

So the obvious role of provider would have fallen to her husband.

But as the text says, she's a widow.

She has no husband anymore.

And then another key person would have then been her son.

But obviously, here we see that her only son has just died.

So think about this.

On top of this kind of decimation of her economic security, she's obviously suffering through the

actual loss of family.

She faces not only sorrow and poverty, but also loneliness.

She also faces the knowledge that her family line has now been cut off.

And the text doesn't tell us in detail, but maybe you can imagine, imagine with me, what could this

woman be thinking and feeling in this moment?

I think if I was her, maybe I'd be feeling, has God abandoned me?

Has God forgotten me?

Maybe she's even feeling a sense of shame that her loved ones, the closest to her, are dying around her.

Maybe she's even feeling a little bit.

Maybe she's feeling a little bit.

Maybe she feels cursed.

She has the stench of death on her life.

So this is the woman.

This is the widow who is in the middle of this big funeral procession.

A crowd that Luke, in writing this, he describes it as large.

Now, in that culture, in that ancient culture, funerals were a really big deal.

It was such a big deal that the study of the Torah, which was God's law, and one of the

most unassailable, most important pursuits in life, even the study of the Torah was kind

of suspended when there was a funeral.

And you had to drop that, and you had to go to the funeral.

In the town of Nain, where this is taking part, where this is taking place, the town of Nain

had probably had around 300 to 500 inhabitants, and pretty much every one of them would have

been expected to go.

It was a big deal.

But also, because of the public nature of this funeral, with all these people, basically the

entire town coming out to the procession, there would have also been this impersonal,

this impersonal nature of it all.

There would have been flute players.

This or this.

Flute players, professional flute players at that time, that would have been part of the

procession.

There would have been professional, mourning women accompanying the procession.

And this was a real profession at that time.

The women would weep and wail loudly, encouraging the people around to lament and weep with them.

And you see these professionals later in chapter 8, if you read on, and there's another situation where

Jairus' daughter is dead, and Jesus says, oh, she's not dead, she's just asleep.

And the mourning women start laughing at him.

And they're like, you're stupid.

And then they go back to mourning.

So obviously, this was a profession.

They weren't personally mourning.

It was their job to mourn.

So they could go from mourning to laughing at Jesus to back to mourning again.

So there was this impersonal nature.

There was work happening there.

There were just people that were obliged to be in the crowds.

And even a poor family at that time was expected to have at least one mourning woman and at least two

flute players, according to the custom.

So if you can visualize this scene with me, this crowd of townspeople and professionals,

you can imagine it was maybe a bit of a spectacle.

Surely not everyone was there because they genuinely wanted to be, often as we would expect in funerals today.

It was really a hodgepodge of people coming out of the town gates of Nain.

Which happened, the town gates was also an official meeting place for the area.

So there may also have been people just there about their business.

A really busy environment, if you can imagine with me.

So it is here, in this chaos, in this busyness, with a large crowd of people around him,

that Jesus intersects with this funeral procession.

The Greek word that Luke uses describing the crowd that is following Jesus

can actually be translated, a great multitude.

And that's the same description for the crowd when Jesus fed the 5,000.

So it is entirely possible that the crowd following Jesus

easily could have been over 1,000 people.

That's a lot of people.

So if you can visualize with me,

there's this funeral procession coming out of the eastern side of Nain,

coming through the gates,

wailing women, flute players, people just following, being there,

coming out of the gates of Nain.

And then coming from the east,

Jesus, from the last stop that he made.

He's coming, he's teaching, he's preaching,

he's seen as this teacher.

There's maybe 1,000 people following him.

He's approaching the gates.

And this is where they intersect.

And I found this kind of pretty cool image,

an artist, perhaps a rendition of what it might have looked at.

And no idea how historically accurate this is, obviously,

but with the colors, just the people,

I hope this helps you just picture,

there would have been a lot of people there.

A lot of people.

And it's in this busy crowd of possibly thousands of people

that Jesus does something profound.

And guys, this is a short passage of Scripture,

but these are details that I think I often overlook,

and we can easily overlook when we just kind of read through

and gloss over quickly.

So let's kind of walk through this step by step.

So I don't know about you,

but when I'm walking around Hong Kong,

I'm usually trying to just avoid hitting people.

I'm just trying to get from point A to point B,

you know, dodge around those annoying people

who have their heads down like this.

And I confess sometimes those people are me.

And then I feel like I'm right,

and people are wrong when they get in my way.

And I'm not really kind of stopping

and thinking about what's going on, you know?

It's a busy, fast-paced world.

I want to get to the place I need to be and not be late.

But here's the first thing that we see when we read the text.

We read that Jesus sees the widow.

Now think about it.

In order for Jesus to really see someone in a crowd of 400,

I mean, this is a crowd of over 100 before me right now,

and I have a hard time seeing some of you guys.

It's easy for you to see me.

I'm kind of sticking out like a sore thumb.

But I really have to focus at some of you guys to really see you.

So Jesus must have been looking intently.

His mind would have had to stop

and think about what he was really looking at.

This procession that was unfolding before his eyes,

it wasn't just like that video montage we just saw.

You know, a bunch of news clips,

a bunch of bad news,

and then you forget about it.

You switch the channel to ETV or something like that

and think about whatever else.

Jesus actually sees the suffering at the center of this crowd.

He sees.

The second thing.

What does Jesus do next?

The text says his heart went out to her.

His heart went out to her.

It's not just his attention going to her,

but it's his love, his care, his concern, his feelings.

A more literal translation is that he felt compassion.

And the Greek word, it carries this sense

that you're actually deeply affected in your bowels.

That deep.

And you're affected in your inner being.

There's sympathy.

There's empathy.

There's compassion.

Jesus feels like he is suffering with the widow.

That's what compassion means.

So he sees.

He has compassion.

And thirdly, it's not just that his heart goes out to her,

but it's clear that he physically goes to her.

He acts.

So that he can now say these very interesting words to her.

Don't cry.

A more formal translation would be,

do not weep.

Interesting.

Now, in that moment,

you'd probably be thinking,

if you were eavesdropping,

Jesus, that's so insensitive.

How can you tell a woman who's just lost her husband

and her only son to not cry?

She has professional criers for crying out loud.

Right?

Jesus.

Come on, man.

Get it together.

I would never do that.

You would chastise your husband if he said that.

You would chastise your wife if she said something like that

at a funeral.

But guys,

Jesus isn't just some schmuck

who's kind of throwing out some empty platitudes,

some nice words of comfort

so that he can feel like he's done his duty

and move on.

Obviously not.

Just one chapter ago,

he told his disciples this.

He said,

Blessed are you who weep now,

for you will laugh.

Blessed are you who weep now,

for you will laugh.

And Jesus can say that word of comfort to the woman

because he knows that he is literally

about to demonstrate that.

So fourthly,

what does Jesus do?

He actually goes up to the bier.

He acts.

And the bier is basically an open coffin.

So the body would have been completely visible.

So that's actually accurate in that sense.

An open coffin,

and he touches it.

He touches it.

And this was another inappropriate thing

that's a really inappropriate thing to do

because it would have broken

all the Jewish ceremonial purity laws.

You know,

you were not supposed to be touching dead bodies.

But if you read the New Testament,

when you read the Gospels,

you'll see over and over again

that Jesus,

when it comes to actual human suffering,

actual human need,

when those things are at stake,

he didn't worry about ceremonial matters.

And so he commands the man

to return to life.

He says,

get up.

And he demonstrates his authority,

his power over death.

Now at this point,

if I were Jesus,

I think this would have been

a great kind of end of the movie

or end of a great scene.

and just drop the mic

and you'd be like,

that's right.

And you just walk out, right?

That's how I would do it

if I was a Hollywood actor.

That would have been kind of cool, right?

That would have left the spotlight,

the limelight,

the glory to Jesus.

But there's one last thing

that Jesus does.

Number five,

he gives the son

back to the mother.

Interesting.

Because I'm pretty sure

the son and the mother

would have found each other.

I'm pretty sure

she would have been,

she would have realized

that she wasn't dead anymore.

Because the text actually says

he started talking.

Why does Jesus do that?

I think the thing

that is amazing

is that the most important thing

in this whole interaction

is not that Jesus

did this miracle,

as amazing as that

in and of itself is.

The most important thing

is that Jesus saw the widow.

He felt compassion

for the widow.

He went to the widow.

He spoke,

he comforted the widow.

And he returned the son

to the widow.

And in this entire movement,

this pattern,

this action,

the center of Jesus' attention

is who?

The widow.

The sufferer.

And this is the principle

that comes out so clearly

when we meditate

and we look at Jesus' action.

That those who suffer

are at the center,

the center of Jesus' attention.

So how are each and every one of us

suffering today?

How do we bring this

to our world,

to our lives today?

Indeed,

some of you

may have suffered

great loss.

Deaths of loved ones.

Loss of financial security,

just like the widow.

I'm sure some of you

and people close to you

have gone through that.

Others of you

may have never faced

this kind of suffering,

like just completely similar

or analogous to the widow.

But if you consider

all the various dimensions

and facets

of the widow's suffering

and the widow's experience,

I think we can all relate

in some way.

We can all see

how her experience

reflects and touches

our lives in some way.

I think we all suffer

loneliness in some way.

we all face

the uncertainty

when things happen

in our lives

and whether we'll be able

to fulfill our potential,

whether we'll be able

to make it,

to make a living,

to survive,

to thrive,

to flourish.

We all wrestle

with our ultimate

significance

and maybe

sometimes

we even wonder,

perhaps like the widow did,

God,

have you forgotten me?

God, you seem far away.

And when catastrophe hits,

like it did for the widow,

these questions and doubts

are often just amplified.

But even in the day-to-day,

in the mundane,

I believe we all face

suffering and sorrow

in its various forms.

We're either directly suffering

or we know somebody

close to us,

a loved one

who is going through it

and you are just

grieving with them.

Or you realize,

even if you're not suffering

in the moment right now,

that any moment

in this broken,

imperfect,

sinful,

financial crisis-prone world,

that at any time

disaster can strike,

health,

accidents,

financial crises,

could hit at any time.

And when we look

at the widow's suffering,

when we kind of think

about her mental

and emotional state,

there's something

really interesting

we can learn from.

You see,

in modern times,

we often think about

life and death

as kind of a binary state.

I mean,

it's pretty obvious,

you know,

generally,

that you're either alive

or you're dead.

But in Hebrew culture,

in that Jewish culture,

there was actually

this third in-between state,

a state between life

and death.

In this state,

a person was considered

half dead.

Half dead.

Not in a physical sense,

not in the sense

that the widow

had been beaten

half dead,

but because she had

suffered such

a catastrophic,

life-altering loss

that she had entered

into this state

of living death.

That was her mindset.

And interesting, right?

Because in the New Testament,

we read that

we are dead

in the sins

in which we walk.

We are dead

in the sins

in which we walk

following the course

of this world.

You see,

our sin and separation,

the writers

of the New Testament

say,

our sin and separation

from God

actually put us

in a state

of living death.

When I'm walking

in my sin,

I'm basically a zombie.

I'm like the walking dead.

We are physically alive.

I'm alive,

but spiritually dead

and destined

for eternal death.

So when we think

about suffering,

when we kind of

take a step back

and we actually

look at our lives

on an eternal scale,

the suffering

is just as clear

and maybe even more.

God's Word says

that each

and every one of us

has this sense

of eternity in us.

It's the sense

that you have

deep, deep down

that there is something,

there is something

more to life

than wealth

and status

and comfort

and relationship

and anything else

that we think

will make us happy.

It's that reality

that all of those things

will go to the grave

with us

when we die.

And there must be

something more.

God's Word says

that we were created

to worship God

with our entire lives

and for all of eternity.

But when we chose

to worship ourselves

instead,

when we turned away

from God,

selfishness,

sin,

and death

entered into our lives,

entered into this world.

So God's Word says

that our separation

from God

is the ultimate

suffering

because we can

no longer

fulfill

the purpose

of worshiping God.

That's why

from Deuteronomy,

the last series,

all the way

to now

in Jesus' time,

the people of God

could not

do it.

They were suffering

the inability

to live

according to the way

they were created.

And instead,

they were seeking

and worshiping

things that would

never satisfy

their souls.

They had rejected

God,

the only one

who can satisfy.

So whether it's

sort of present

immediate suffering

or suffering

on an eternal scale,

I want to ask

you guys right now,

and I want us

to take a moment,

think about

what your suffering

personally looks like

right now.

Whether it's

physical

or mental,

emotional,

spiritual,

what does it

look like?

Is it a sickness

or some condition

that just won't

go away?

Is it anxiety

and worry?

Is it the fact

that some days

you just don't feel

like anyone

really knows

and understands

you?

Not even your

spouse

or family member.

They feel distant

and you feel

alone.

Is it a feeling

of emptiness

and discontentment?

Is it just

a sense

in your gut

that something's

not quite right

in life?

Or is it just

the fact

that in some way

everything you

do

and achieve

in this life

will fade away?

And it all

just seems

pointless sometimes?

That's one

that really gets

me.

You know,

when I'm tired,

when I'm busy,

when I'm stressed,

there's just

that voice

in my head

that's just like,

what is the point?

Why even bother?

other?

So be honest

with yourself

right now.

What is your

suffering

today?

What is your

suffering?

What is your

suffering?

In a busy

and crowded

place like

Hong Kong,

our suffering

can seem

pretty insignificant,

right?

Just like

those massive

crowds that

converged

at Nain,

Hong Kong

is a busy

place.

There's people

everywhere,

for better

or for worse.

There's so many

people who are

just going about

their own lives

around us,

each with their

own busyness

and their own

personal agendas.

The widow

was one of

400 residents

of Nain.

you are one

of seven

million

residents

of Hong Kong.

Jesus saw

the widow

so clearly

in her

suffering.

But do you

know,

do you really

know that

God also

sees every

single one

of us

in our

suffering?

no matter

how great

or small

you think

your suffering

is,

he sees,

he sees.

See,

the amazing

thing about

the widow

of Nain,

about this

episode,

is that

Jesus sees

every one

of us

in the same

way that

he sees

the widow.

The

movement,

the pattern

that we

saw with

Jesus and

the widow

is exactly

the same

for us.

And let me

show you

how.

The Bible,

God's word

says he

tells us,

he tells us

that God

knows the

number of

hairs on

your head

right now.

And if you

don't have

that much

hair on

your head

right now,

he knows

other intricate

details of

your,

of your

life.

That's just

an image.

He knows.

His word

says that he

searches the

depths of

your heart.

Isn't that

incredible?

Every hair

on your

head right

now.

And like

this story,

it's not

that he,

just that he

sees and

he knows,

but he has

compassion

for us.

When Jesus

looked at

the people,

he yearned,

he said he

yearned,

he gathered,

he wanted

to gather

them like

a mother

hen,

gathering his

brood of

little chicks.

Isn't that

a beautiful

picture of

how God

loves us?

He wants

to take

care of

us.

He sees

us.

He has

compassion

for us.

But like

the story,

it does

not stop

there,

because God

also took

action.

In the same

way that he

met the

widow where

she was,

Jesus meets

us exactly

where we

are.

And if you

could appreciate

just how

controversial

and how

culturally

inappropriate

it was for

Jesus to

touch that

coffin,

that open

coffin at

Nain,

think about

this.

How crazy,

how scandalous

is it for

the God,

the transcendent

God of the

universe,

to come to

us in

human form

in the

person of

Jesus Christ?

Would you

do that

if you

were God?

That's

scandalous.

That's

crazy.

And the

people in

in that

story who

witnessed

that

miracle,

they

declared,

God has

come to

help us.

And that

is certainly

true because

they thought

Jesus was a

great prophet

that was

speaking and

acting on

behalf of

God.

But even

then they

didn't realize

the full

truth that

Jesus wasn't

just a great

teacher.

He was God

himself,

visiting his

people,

dwelling with

them,

and walking

alongside them.

them.

You see,

at some

point in

every one

of our

lives,

we ask a

question like

this.

I've asked

it myself.

I'm sure

you've asked

it in some

shape or

form.

You ask,

if God

loves us,

and God

is really

God,

then why

doesn't he

do something

about all

the suffering

in the

world?

Why doesn't

he do

something

about my

suffering?

And I've

thought about

that question,

and I try to

think about the

times that I

was really

suffering.

I try to put

myself in the

shoes of the

suffering,

and this is

what I

realized.

The origin

of suffering

is freedom

and free

will.

It's the

choices that I

have made

and the

choices that

others have

made.

it's the

collective

choices of

all humanity

throughout

history.

Just think

about that

video and

how that

came about.

And as

difficult as

it is in

the moment,

I know that

if I'm

really honest

with myself,

it is that

freedom, that

free will that

makes me

human.

I don't want

to be a

robot.

I don't want

the entire

world to be

robots that

aren't capable

of choosing.

Because robots

cannot love.

Robots don't

really know

what is good.

They cannot

comprehend that.

And if I'm

being honest

with myself,

in those

times of

suffering,

I don't

want to

become a

robot.

I don't

want the

world to

become robots.

I want

someone to

come and

grieve with

me.

tell me that

they know

how I

feel because

they've been

through it.

I want

someone to

tell me it's

going to be

okay because

they have

survived.

And that's

exactly what

God does

in the face

of our

suffering.

He became

human and

suffered with

us.

He faced

all the

trials and

temptations we

face.

He suffered

everything we

can suffer.

Homelessness

and poverty,

the death of

loved ones,

rejection and

abandonment,

abuse.

Jesus even

faced His

own death

on that

cross.

He experienced

our separation

from God the

Father as He

suffered the

punishment for

all of

humanity's

sin.

So in all

of our

suffering today,

God says

this.

He says,

my child,

I'm suffering

with you.

I've gone

through everything

you're going

through.

I can actually

tell you don't

cry because

everything's

going to be

okay.

I know that.

Jesus saw

you.

He had

compassion for

you.

He came to

you and He

performed the

greatest miracle

for you.

you see,

the widow's

son was

resurrected,

but eventually

He would

have died

again,

right?

But on the

third day

after Jesus

faced His

own death,

He returned

to life

to overcome

all your

suffering.

He resurrected

to this new

eternal body

and returned

to heaven.

He shows you

that not only

does He

understand

your suffering,

but He

turns your

mourning into

laughter.

Your suffering

doesn't just

end in death,

but it ends

in eternal

life,

in a resurrection

body,

in a new

heaven,

in a new

earth that God

is creating

for us that

is perfect.

And like the

widow receiving

her son back,

you just need

to receive

this miracle

by believing

and trusting

in what Jesus

did through

His life,

His death,

and His

resurrection.

Guys,

suffering is

something I

don't take

lightly,

but if there

was someone

who followed

Jesus and

understood

suffering,

it was the

Apostle Paul.

Just read about

his life in the

New Testament.

It was crazy.

It was horrendous.

But writing to

the church in

Rome, he said,

I consider that

our present

sufferings are

not worth

comparing,

not worth

comparing with

the glory that

will be revealed

in us.

The Widow of

Nain is a

story of a

widow in a

state of living

death, walking

on a journey to

the burial site

of her own

son.

When Jesus,

coming the

other way,

stops the

procession and

intervenes, and

He brings her

entire world to

life again.

that's the

image of

Nain.

That's the

image for us

today.

And the

profound image

is that Jesus

offers that

resurrection,

that life, in

the midst of our

suffering today.

So how will you

respond to that?

How will you

respond to that?

I want to

invite the band

to come back

up right now,

but just take a

minute now,

personally.

I invite you,

just close your

eyes and maybe

even bow your

heads, and

just think.

I'm not going to

pray out loud,

just think in

your own

hearts.

What is the

suffering that

you see in

your own

life?

And how does

Jesus Christ

meet you,

just like He

did for the

widow of

Nain?

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.