Luke: The Compassionate Representative (7:11-17)

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This is Pastor Creighton.

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The holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to Luke, chapter seven, beginning at verse eleven.

Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town 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, 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 beer, and the bearer stood still, and he said, Young man, I say to you, arise.

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, and this report about him spread through the whole of Judah and all the surrounding country.

This is the gospel of Christ.

Praise to you, Lord Christ.

In most crime movies or crime books or any kind of mystery crime movies or books, there's always that one scene where either the person who's being convicted or who's been charged with a crime is speaking either to the representative, either a lawyer, their parent, their brother, or someone in their family, someone who's closest to them.

And interestingly, I've had this for this experience firsthand.

There was a part of my life where I was indeed arrested.

I was indeed brought into a jail, and I had to sit in front of the glass and talk to the person who represented me.

And that ended up being my mom.

So on the other side of the glass, we were talking on a phone, and it was my mom on the other side.

And I'll never forget it because what happened in this moment is she saw me for who I had truly become as that youth of that age.

Um and she wept.

And the thing the thing that really affected her was yes, she saw me on the other side of glass.

No parent wants to see their child there.

But that she couldn't do anything about it.

I'm sure any parent here or anyone watching would say I would take my child's place so they would not have to face the conviction.

But she couldn't do anything.

All that she could do was watch and listen as the judge decided my fate.

The writers of the Gospels, Matt, Mark, Luke, and John, had to be very selective of what they included.

No one who reads a biography wants to read the entire life story of somebody, because that'd be like a book that's like this thick.

John speaks of it at the end of his gospel when he says that if I was to write everything, a book could not contain it.

So we have to ask, why did Luke include this in his gospel?

Well, I would argue that there's enough in this short text, 11 to 17, to give you the scope and the breadth of who Jesus was.

It is a tech, if you can only pick one text to have with you, this would be a really good text to have.

If you could just carry that around.

There's enough in it to tell you about Jesus.

So if you haven't, please open your Bible, your pamphlet, um, or anything you have, or you can look at the screen because I'm sure the scripture will be there.

Um please open it to that, to Luke chapter 7, verses 11 to 17.

Luke 7:11–17

And if you don't have a Bible, feel free to get up and grab one at the other side of the door on the left.

So what does it say?

Verse 11.

Soon afterward, that could be the next day, he went to a town, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him.

Now what has happened?

So when you when you see that it says, soon afterward, and also it could be translated the next day, what happened previously, right before, was Jesus was in Capernaum, and he as he was walking, a couple elders were sent by a centurion to come up and ask for Jesus to go to the centurion's house and heal his servant that he held dearly to himself.

And on his way, another another group of people came and told them, Don't bother.

Um you don't don't come into the house, just say the word, and he'll be healed.

And Jesus does this.

He says the word, and it says that the servant was healed.

So as he continues on, now it's the next day, we're coming into the text we're looking at now.

He, as you can imagine it, he has this big entourage with him.

He has his disciples, he has a crowd also with him, people who'd be on more on the outskirts of his discipleship.

And he's coming in to the town of Nain.

He's right at the outskirts of it, close to the gate.

And then we see in verse 12 it says, As Jesus 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, and cons and a considerable crowd from the town was with her.

Now in ancient Israel, the law, Jewish law, commanded that you cannot be buried in the town.

You have to be buried outside of the town.

It was just a part of the law.

And there is no hearse back then.

So they had to carry the beer, and it's B-I-E-R, not B-E-R.

And what and what this is, it's not a coffin as we would picture it.

Some translations say coffin, and it's kind of a bad translation because what it was, it was a plank with sides on it, and then the corpse of the dead body would be on top as they carried it out of the town.

So this is happening, and a great crowd is with this woman, this widow, as she is coming out of the town and Jesus is coming this way.

When I was a photojournalist, I was a photojournalist for over 10 years before coming, uh before getting involved in ministry.

And because it was Ottawa, I would cover a lot of um national funerals.

There'd always be a procession in Ottawa going up Wellington Street or by the War Memorial on Elgin.

And the thing that was so striking about these um funerals was there would be thousands of people at them, but they were silent.

Always silent.

The only thing you would hear would be the occasional cough or a baby crying or an engine going, but it'd be silent.

Always silent, very somber.

You'd hear the rifle salute or the cannon salute go off on Parliament Hill to the to the right side of it.

But that was it.

It was silent until you get to the front, until the coughing got to the front.

But a Jewish procession had professional mourners with it.

These are people that were hired to be weeping at the front, to be making a lot of commotion.

So this procession that Jesus is encountering would have been very loud.

It's really interesting if you just visualize it, because there would be one world of Jesus and his disciples super joyous.

They've been seeing all these miracles, people being healed, him proclaiming the good news, helping the poor.

And then there would be this on the other side, this procession coming through, a very a very grief-filled, loud but very sad procession.

And then they're meeting.

It's like two worlds meeting.

And did you notice the description in verse 12, what it says of the widow?

I'll just read it again so it's fresh in our minds.

And a man died and was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her.

So for her, this is very important to remember as well, in ancient times, um, men would be the representative of the woman.

And if the woman had no one to represent her, a son or a husband, she was basically destitute.

Um, she was instantly pushed to the to the fringe of society.

Her state was hopeless, completely poor.

She would have to beg, but most people wouldn't give to her because she was a woman.

Um one would represent her.

She was basically living dead.

Someone who was just walking dead.

Um there's two deaths that happen in this text.

There's the young man, and then there's also the widow.

And just a compl a quick side note, it's interesting because often in Christianity it says that it doesn't look out for women, that it pushes them down.

But here it shows in this text, as we're going to see, that Jesus looks out for this woman.

And then also in 1 Timothy, there's a commandment that we look out for widows.

We are to look out for them, to find them and care for them, to provide for them.

Just a quick side note.

So look what happens next in verse 13.

And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, Do not weep.

Then he came and touched the beer, and the bearer stood still, and he said, Young man, I say to you, arise.

This is a great thing to remember if you're facing grief in your life, if you're facing suffering, if there's if you're just going through the hardest time ever in your life, the Lord sees you.

This these words are so comforting for anyone who goes through grief.

The Lord sees you.

No matter what it is, he sees you.

And then what does he do right away after he sees her?

He has compassion for her.

The Lord interjects himself into this situation.

He's a super joyous procession is coming, and he interjects himself into this very grief-filled situation.

And he says to her, Do not weep.

Can you can you imagine?

Just time out.

Someone saying to you, as you're in this moment of immense grief, telling you not to weep.

Um, I just it's just like, who says that?

Um, just imagine that.

But interestingly, by Canadian standards, she has been liberated from the patriarchal system.

And what well, Matt, what do I mean by that?

She can define her own self now.

There's nothing holding her back, there's nothing tying her down.

Her husband is gone, her son is gone.

She is able to do what she wants.

But what is she what what does Jesus do here?

What does he do?

As we see in verse in verse 14, then he came up, Jesus comes up and touches the beer, and the bearer stood still, and he said, Young man, I say to you, arise.

Now the significance of this moment, when he touches it, when he would just go like that, is that he makes himself by Jewish Jewish standards ceremonially unclean.

So he would have had to go, no one could no one could interact with him, no one could talk to him.

He would have had to go instantly and purify himself at the temple, probably most likely by washing.

But what he does here is that he comes down to her level.

No other leader would have done this for her, but Jesus does it.

He sees her in this dire situation, and he comes down and relates to her by making himself unclean.

And he says, he stops looking at her, he would have he would have touched the the beer, and then there would have been the person here, and he says to it, he says, Young man, I say to you, arise.

Well, you might be thinking now, well, I have you here, Matt.

How can you prove this?

Let's see it.

Um, dead people don't rise from the dead.

Well, interestingly, science cannot prove this.

It's out of its realm.

Science only studies the natural order of things.

But in many court cases, when there's no physical evidence, they rely on witnesses.

And the gospels are witness statements.

This account of the young man rising from the dead is backed up by eyewitness accounts.

Luke was written, he wrote his gospel in a time when many people from this situation were still alive and could have refuted this account when they saw it.

So think about this.

If one person told you that this happened to them, would you dismiss it right away?

Obviously.

But if a thousand people or more told you that the situation happened, would you instantly dismiss it, or would you be more open to hearing more about it and looking into it?

Well, that's what that's what this is.

That is what the gospels are.

They are accounts by hundreds of people backing it up.

So we can put a lot of our trust in this.

We put all our trust in it.

So what happens next?

Verse 15.

And the dead man sat up and began to speak to Jesus and and speak and 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.

And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country.

Now in 1 Kings, there's a very familiar very similar story of this, of this pretty much the same thing happening.

Elijah, who is a great prophet, raises a widow's son.

But there's one big difference in this.

In Elijah, he pleads to God.

He pleads and pleads to God to do it, and God does it.

Jesus just does it.

This shows his divinity.

This whole series that we're going through, through Luke, is called Come and See.

This text right here shows Jesus' divinity.

It shows who he is.

It shows he is God, he is the Messiah.

So when we come to these texts, we can ref like we can really think about who is Jesus.

Jesus is the one who has compassion, and he is the one who raises the dead.

He is God.

But you might be thinking, well, what what does this have to do with me?

Like, what does this text have to do with me?

I don't know if you notice, but there's also two deaths in this text, but there's also two resurrections in this text.

What do I mean by that?

Well, Jesus raises the son.

It says it clearly.

But Jesus also, in a sense, raises the widow.

And what do I mean by that?

Well, I said she was completely destitute, completely hopeless.

There's nothing that she could do for herself now.

Like she had no one in her family to look after her.

A good example of this, um, if you're ever curious, you could read Ruth.

It has a good kind of like it helps you understand what I mean what I'm saying right now.

Um, but she had nothing going on, she couldn't do anything anymore for herself.

She had to just fend for herself off the surrounding people, and they would have been hard-hearted towards her.

But Jesus raises her here in a sense, because he gives her back this her son.

She now has someone back to help her in society.

Now remember the illustration I said at the beginning when I was at the mercy of the judge, and my mom just had the watch.

Notice what it says in verse 12.

As he drew near to the gate of the town.

Now a gate would have been the entrance of a town, as it says, but it's a very important thing in ancient Israel times.

The gate would have been the place where all the elders met, where all the representatives of the families met to make decisions.

This is would have been a very important place.

And it's interesting that this happens at the gate.

This is where everyone meets.

It's where contracts are made.

It's where people make decisions.

See, there will come a moment when we all stand before God.

It will happen.

It says it in the Bible.

It will happen.

But, and we would have to give account of what we have done in our lives.

But God in his loving mercy provided a where a way for this to happen.

That we can stand and we will hear, well done and good and faithful servant.

Our things that we have done in our lives will no longer be held held towards us.

This has already been done.

And Jesus, as he represents the widow and saves her by giving her son back, God sees us and has compassion, the same way Jesus it shows Jesus having compassion.

And he gives his son, and he saves us by giving us his son, so at the final judgment, we will not be condemned.

Jesus took the judgment that we deserve.

And this text speaks so clearly of what Jesus' role is for us.

He is our representative at the gate.

He is our friend.

He is our savior.

He is the great prophet.

As you see people here saying, a great prophet has come among us.

He is the Messiah.

The people's reaction here is what signifies that God has showed up, that fear has instantly taken them, and they begin to glorify God.

This signifies that.

And all those who put their faith and trust in Jesus will not perish but have eternal life.

You see, when you trust in Jesus and you recommit yourself to Jesus daily, he sees you all the time.

He has compassion for you.

And then that allows us to tell people about him.

It's a challenge to us.

We need to tell people about Jesus.

We need to get involved in our church.

And if you're here and you don't know Jesus and you're or if you're struggling to commit your life to Jesus, he sees you and he doesn't hold anything against you.

He has compassion for you.

You see, amidst the chaos, the amidst all the chaos of the crowds in this text, the woman's grief is turned to joy.

But I don't think she would have been super like jumping right away.

I think she would have gotten on her knees and started crying.

Because this moment where she gets given her son back, but she gets given her life back, she in a sense is no longer dead, she is alive again.

And amidst the chaos of this life, all the grief, the failures, the suffering, all the death of loved ones, all the dreams that break, Jesus' promise, I will wipe away every tear.

There's a promise, and that's in Revelation 22.

All things will be made new.

The world is passing away, but a new one is coming.

And that is a hope that we have in Jesus when you put your faith and trust in him.

As Jesus was outstretched on the cross, by all standards, he was just a dead man.

He was abandoned by his closest friends, but he looked and saw the people in front of him.

He saw the people who abandoned him.

But he also saw you.

And he died for you.

Think about the words.

Do not weep.

I will take your place.

I've taken your place.

And it is finished.

Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you that just thanks again for your word.

I just praise you, Lord, for your word.

But Father, I pray that your word would run home in our hearts and our minds.

That we would become gripped by your message.

That we would define our lives, knowing that we are your children, that we are made in your image, that Jesus died on the cross for us.

Father, help us to always reflect on that daily, to commit ourselves daily to you.

And I pray us in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thank you for listening today.

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