Sermon Illustrations for Proper 5 | OT 10 (2016)
Illustration
Object:
1 Kings 17:8-16 (17-24)
Trust -- it’s one of those words that get thrown around a lot. We hear it in political circles. It shows up in inspirational talks and messages. It even makes an appearance on our currency. What does trust look like? One of the most common illustrations of trust, and one that I’ve used on different occasions, goes like this.
A small child stands at the edge of the deep end of the pool. His mother is treading water in the deep end, imploring him to jump. She promises that she will catch him. He hesitates, starts to bend his knees, but then pulls back. She implores again, “Trust me. I’ll catch you.” Finally his belief in his mother becomes stronger than his fear of the unknown, and he jumps.
It’s a good story. It illustrates trust, but I have to say, I think trust can go even deeper than this swimming pool illustration. While the illustration holds water (no pun intended), it doesn’t quite fully capture the essence of trust. You see, there was no real danger for the child; it was only perceived danger. Now, don’t get me wrong. That can be scary. We have to trust for that, but trust goes further.
When you’re the one who’s staring down the road at a difficult prognosis, that’s when trust matters. When you’re the single mom who’s trying to balance work and raising kids, that’s a time for trust. When you find yourself alone after years of marriage and you’re not sure how you are ever going to make it, that’s where trust comes in. When you’re the widow of Zarephath and the prophet Elijah asks you to share part of the last meal you and your son will eat, you have to trust. God will do what he says. For the widow, the jar of meal was not emptied, nor did the jug of oil fail until the day that the Lord sent rain on the earth. What God demonstrated for the widow, he can do for you. When you’re at the canyon’s edge of doubt, fear, and uncertainty, will you trust?
Bill T.
1 Kings 17:8-16 (17-24)
God has a reason for everything he does. He sent Elijah to a widow who was not an Israelite or a believer in the one true God (she said “your god”!). Elijah might have wondered why God was sending him to stay with that unbelieving widow -- who may have been open or God wouldn’t have sent Elijah there.
He sent Elijah there to get something to eat -- but he sent him to a family who were starving to death! Elijah must have figured out that there was a reason, so when he met with the widow he asked for lunch. When he learned there was little or nothing to eat, he sent her to make lunch for him anyway first -- and then she could use all that she had left for her and her son. Was there something in the way Elijah looked? Was it his words that seemed powerful? Did God do something to her to make her believe?
Why did he ask, and why did she obey? It never says! The results were beyond her expectations. Was Elijah also surprised? It seems that all he did was trust in the Lord, with no proof that he could see when he asked. We are more amazed that the woman obeyed. She didn’t even know God or Elijah, but just went ahead and used the last of her supplies! Who had the most faith?
This was not sharia law where the woman just shut up and obeyed a man. She may have had many gods. She might have even heard that Jehovah was one of them. It was a gamble on her part. What made Elijah so sure? All he did was follow God’s instructions without asking. Would we have that kind of faith? Would we argue with God and ask why he picked this lady and why he knew she would obey without a big struggle?
The making of bread was the easy part. That must have prepared Elijah for the second part -- raising the widow’s son, which sounds like a much harder job! But Elijah still did not question the Lord. We want to see some proof or evidence about almost anything before we move to test it. A miracle is a miracle, big or small!
We might compare it to obeying our parents or elders when we were children. We obeyed because they were more powerful, and because we were sure they would not order us to do something that was harmful or impossible. We might have learned this from past experiences.
When I was a teenager who had never driven a car, my dad said, “Let’s go for a ride.” I assumed he would get in and drive, but he told me to get in the driver’s side of the car. I was confused and a bit frightened, but I obeyed. He led me through every step until I was moving down the street. Then he had me try the brake, the gearshift, the clutch, and the accelerator. He told me to turn the steering wheel to go around a corner. I obeyed, and I succeeded. This was another lesson where I learned that he would not ask me to do something unless he knew I could do it -- with his help. And that I would obey!
The more things my folks asked me to do as a child, the more I began to trust them. I just obeyed without questioning after a while (until l was a teenager, of course!). Did God build up Elijah’s trust that way? I have learned in my lifetime that I can trust the Lord when he wants me to do something.
I felt him urging me to go to Nepal when I was 70 years old! I was frightened but I obeyed, and it was the most fantastic experience of my life. He ordered me to do many things for him and it took time, but I learned to trust him more and more!
No, I did not raise the dead -- but some things I did to help people led us both to believe that God was real. He did heal some that I prayed for. The more I did for our Lord, the more I learned to trust him. Keep obeying, and you will discover great things about yourself and God.
Bob O.
1 Kings 17:8-16 (17-24)
In a time of desperation and drought, the prophet Elijah is sent by God to bring hope to a widow who has reached the end of her rope. She expects that nothing lies ahead for her and her young son except a terrible death by starvation. Instead, her hospitality and God’s good will leads to a circle of protection around her household. Because of divine intervention, she will never run out of flour and oil during this time of want.
However, sandwiched between this first miracle and the one that follows (God’s restoration of life to her dead son) is an exclamation that seems ungrateful: “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to cause the death of my son!” (v. 18). Note that she is not condemned for this outburst. We can lash out in times of grief and desperation. Perhaps it is only too human for us, despite a life full of blessings, to cry aloud to God: “What have you done for me lately?” But God blesses this widow despite her words -- and blesses us as well despite our own faulty memories.
Frank R.
Galatians 1:11-24
“Grandpa, I have submitted this project to my teacher five times, and she has returned it five times with a list of things that need to be improved. What am I supposed to do?”
The wise and grizzled grandfather replied, “I suggest you get used to it. It may or may not be the intention, but your instructor is giving you a valuable lesson about life. No matter what you do, someone is likely to find fault. Every politician will attest to that -- as will every corporate executive, every leader of an organization, and certainly every minister. In fact, at one time or another, all of us experience what it is like to have someone point out our shortcomings. It is simply part of the human experience.”
That is the background of this reading from Galatians. Paul founded the churches of this area before he moved on to other places. After he left, some outsiders wandered into the region and began to criticize Paul. “He was wrong about welcoming Gentiles. To be a follower of Christ, you first need to become a Jew. Besides, he is not really an apostle. He never actually met Jesus.”
In first-century Galatia, Paul countered with a vigorous defense. It is not likely, however, that the fault-finders were ever totally satisfied. It doesn’t work that way. They would have found something to criticize.
One cannot say for sure, but Paul probably didn’t waste much more time or energy on the matter. He continued to preach the gospel in the manner he was called to preach.
R. Robert C.
Galatians 1:11-24
After President Obama visited several African nations during his last term in office, he reflected on the meaning of leadership. He said he would make a good third-term president, but he remarked candidly, “Nobody should be president for life.” Obama went on to say, “Your country is better off if you have new blood and new ideas.” Referring to the African nations that do have a president for life because that president thinks he is the only one who can run the country, Obama said: “If that’s true, then that leader has failed to truly build their nation.”
Application: We read in Galatians that Paul was a self-assured leader who was willing to surrender his leadership for the building of new churches.
Ron L.
Galatians 1:11-24
Most have heard of the growth in the number of Americans who are not religiously affiliated. The Pew Research Center has reported that the number of self-reported atheists/agnostics nearly doubled from 2007 to 2014. Those claiming that religion is unimportant to them rose from 6.3% to 8.8% in the same period. Almost two decades ago Vine Deloria, a leading Native American scholar, expressed anger at Christianity (the religion in which he had been raised). But even in the midst of his anger he could express some admiration for the sense of community he could find in certain small Christian congregations and the admiration he could feel for Christianity when he encountered someone really living the Christian life. For this ex-Christian, Christianity was most credible when he encountered people really living the Christian life. In Professor Deloria’s observations and in this lesson, we may have a formula for ministering to our religiously unaffiliated neighbors.
Roman Catholic priest Thomas Dubay had good advice for us in this connection: “To bring people closer to God, competency and clarity are important, but they are not enough. Of themselves they do not touch hearts deeply. Personal sanctity and goodness do. It is the saints who light fires. There is a direct correlation between the beauty of holiness and the fruitfulness of our work and interpersonal relationships.”
Of course, most of us are not holy enough to do this, are not on fire with Christ enough to attract people. Living that way is elusive to us. Martin Luther adds a comment that gives us the confidence we need to try to live this way. He reminds us that we cannot make ourselves live in this way that attracts other people. We are just God’s hands; he uses us, does his work of good deeds and passion about the things of God through us (The Book of Concord, p. 368): “So far as we are concerned, therefore, this is a very elusive manner, because we are so unstable.... This is why we continually teach that the knowledge of Christ and of faith is not a human work but utterly a divine gift; as God creates faith, so he preserves us in it” (Luther’s Works, Vol. 26, p. 64).
The next time we see ourselves called to the mission of reaching others, we would do well to remember what Luther’s mentor Johan Staupitz said, that we understand our efforts in such a way that we give “glory and everything else solely to God. And nothing at all to men” (Luther’s Works, Vol. 26, p. 66).
Mark E.
Luke 7:11-17
Life restored. Jesus doesn’t perform many resurrections in the Christian scriptures, but here in the town of Nain he restores life to a young man whose mother is a widow. In doing so, Jesus restores to the woman not just her son but her whole life. Without a husband or a son, the widow would likely have been turned out into the street to beg or to sell herself for her very survival. It is not just grief that Jesus eliminates, but fear, pain, and desperation. That is truly restoration.
During this Pentecost season, this season of the Holy Spirit, what do we need to have restored in us? Do we need emotional health? Are we seeking relief from grief, the pain of an illness, or a broken relationship? Do we need to feel worthwhile and worthy? Do we need to reconnect with God and each other in a community of faith? How are we doing physically, emotionally, intellectually, spiritually? Have we even thought about our need for restoration, or are we simply running so fast going through the motions that we have forgotten that Jesus is the restorer, the savior in our individual and collective lives? Maybe it is time to be quietly in prayer and seek restoration. Maybe it is time to engage our whole community in praying for our restoration. In any case, now is the time. This is the place. Jesus is the One.
Bonnie B.
Luke 7:11-17
The mood is somber. Most gathered in the small chapel are quiet, reverent. An awkward silence fills the room. It is only broken by the occasional sob of his wife and his daughter. The minister stands at a podium at the front. He talks about how death is not the end but the beginning. This life is not all that there is. There is more, so much more, beyond the sunset. The final prayer is said. The final song is sung. The casket is carried to the car, taken to the cemetery, and the body buried. That’s how many funerals go, at least in our culture. The text for today talks about a funeral Jesus happened to come by. It didn’t quite go like most funerals do.
The mood was somber. We can imagine a mother weeping as her son, her only son, is carried out on the funeral bier. Jesus and his disciples come upon this procession of sadness. Jesus sees the young man’s body on the bier. He notices his grief-stricken mother. He has compassion on her and tells her not to weep. He approaches the bier. “Young man, I say to you, rise.” The words pierced the pain and sorrow that permeated the scene. They were you not the typical words of condolence. They were words that resonated with power and authority. The dead man sat up and began to speak! What an incredible encounter. It is not surprising that fear and awe struck those who witnessed this. After all, you don’t see something like this every day. Jesus can raise the dead. I think, in some ways, we’ve lost the sense of amazement that this story should provoke. It’s just another account of Jesus’ miraculous power, right? It is, but it is more too. Jesus has the power to raise the dead, to restore life to dead things. That’s remarkable. Something else is remarkable too. Colossians 2:13 tells us that we were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of our flesh, but God, through Jesus Christ, made us alive.
The Lord who can bring physical life back to a dead body can bring forgiveness and spiritual life back to the soul that is dead in sin. No wonder we sing “Amazing grace; how sweet the sound!”
Bill T.
Luke 7:11-17
You cannot weigh or measure the sadness of one person against the sadness of another. Nor can you say with certainly who is more filled with grief. What we can say is that most of us will have a little time between the death of someone we love deeply and their funeral. Maybe we’ll have enough time to pull ourselves together. Maybe we will have had the time, despite the raw reality of loss, to pull together our outward experience. In Jesus’ time, however, burial took place as soon as possible after death, often before the sun went down on the day of death. Granted that all funeral customs tend to be grounded in the culture -- ours are no more hallowed by scripture than any others -- but the necessity in a warm climate for immediate committal makes this an even more bitter time. In the morning the son is alive. By nightfall his remains will have been interred. No wonder there is such an outpouring grief by everyone involved in the funeral procession. Everything is compressed into a tiny segment of time.
Frank R.
Luke 7:11-17
The first thing to notice is that Jesus did not heal the boy in order to gain many followers for himself and inflate his ego. The passage says that Jesus raised that boy because his heart went out to the mother. He could see the pain she was suffering and took pity on her.
Jesus’ Father in heaven used that healing when there were many witnesses to show them what he could do. But sometimes Jesus healed when there were very few witnesses. When he healed some others who came to him alone, he told them not to tell anyone but to just show themselves to the priest. He never did any of his miracles to inflate his ego! None of Jesus’ miracles were for p.r.
I sometimes thought that people treated me with more respect when they heard I had been a missionary. I was also proud to be a pastor! I liked the response of people when I was wearing my clerical collar in public. It even got the police who stopped me for a traffic violation to forgive it when they spotted my collar! Sometimes it got me discounts and special treatment in stores. One dentist gave me a gold tooth because of my job as a pastor. I even got free bus rides now and then.
When a prisoner who I prayed for was healed, it brought in a larger group to my next service at the prison. That was not my purpose -- but I’m sure some came hoping I could do something for them too.
I have no arguments with the results. The only thing God is looking for in us is humility -- not praise. He just wants us to be humble. He wants our only motive for whatever we do to be serving him out of love -- and showing what he can do. That is not easy. There are few things we do without mixed motives. We can’t help it! We are human. We need God’s forgiveness and his Spirit in our hearts.
I read an article by an actress who was so upset with all the praise and attention she got that she went into hiding to avoid the press. She just wanted to be a normal person; she did not want an ego trip. Most of us don’t have to worry about that. We hope that whatever we do is out of compassion for others who may need our help.
Bob O.
Trust -- it’s one of those words that get thrown around a lot. We hear it in political circles. It shows up in inspirational talks and messages. It even makes an appearance on our currency. What does trust look like? One of the most common illustrations of trust, and one that I’ve used on different occasions, goes like this.
A small child stands at the edge of the deep end of the pool. His mother is treading water in the deep end, imploring him to jump. She promises that she will catch him. He hesitates, starts to bend his knees, but then pulls back. She implores again, “Trust me. I’ll catch you.” Finally his belief in his mother becomes stronger than his fear of the unknown, and he jumps.
It’s a good story. It illustrates trust, but I have to say, I think trust can go even deeper than this swimming pool illustration. While the illustration holds water (no pun intended), it doesn’t quite fully capture the essence of trust. You see, there was no real danger for the child; it was only perceived danger. Now, don’t get me wrong. That can be scary. We have to trust for that, but trust goes further.
When you’re the one who’s staring down the road at a difficult prognosis, that’s when trust matters. When you’re the single mom who’s trying to balance work and raising kids, that’s a time for trust. When you find yourself alone after years of marriage and you’re not sure how you are ever going to make it, that’s where trust comes in. When you’re the widow of Zarephath and the prophet Elijah asks you to share part of the last meal you and your son will eat, you have to trust. God will do what he says. For the widow, the jar of meal was not emptied, nor did the jug of oil fail until the day that the Lord sent rain on the earth. What God demonstrated for the widow, he can do for you. When you’re at the canyon’s edge of doubt, fear, and uncertainty, will you trust?
Bill T.
1 Kings 17:8-16 (17-24)
God has a reason for everything he does. He sent Elijah to a widow who was not an Israelite or a believer in the one true God (she said “your god”!). Elijah might have wondered why God was sending him to stay with that unbelieving widow -- who may have been open or God wouldn’t have sent Elijah there.
He sent Elijah there to get something to eat -- but he sent him to a family who were starving to death! Elijah must have figured out that there was a reason, so when he met with the widow he asked for lunch. When he learned there was little or nothing to eat, he sent her to make lunch for him anyway first -- and then she could use all that she had left for her and her son. Was there something in the way Elijah looked? Was it his words that seemed powerful? Did God do something to her to make her believe?
Why did he ask, and why did she obey? It never says! The results were beyond her expectations. Was Elijah also surprised? It seems that all he did was trust in the Lord, with no proof that he could see when he asked. We are more amazed that the woman obeyed. She didn’t even know God or Elijah, but just went ahead and used the last of her supplies! Who had the most faith?
This was not sharia law where the woman just shut up and obeyed a man. She may have had many gods. She might have even heard that Jehovah was one of them. It was a gamble on her part. What made Elijah so sure? All he did was follow God’s instructions without asking. Would we have that kind of faith? Would we argue with God and ask why he picked this lady and why he knew she would obey without a big struggle?
The making of bread was the easy part. That must have prepared Elijah for the second part -- raising the widow’s son, which sounds like a much harder job! But Elijah still did not question the Lord. We want to see some proof or evidence about almost anything before we move to test it. A miracle is a miracle, big or small!
We might compare it to obeying our parents or elders when we were children. We obeyed because they were more powerful, and because we were sure they would not order us to do something that was harmful or impossible. We might have learned this from past experiences.
When I was a teenager who had never driven a car, my dad said, “Let’s go for a ride.” I assumed he would get in and drive, but he told me to get in the driver’s side of the car. I was confused and a bit frightened, but I obeyed. He led me through every step until I was moving down the street. Then he had me try the brake, the gearshift, the clutch, and the accelerator. He told me to turn the steering wheel to go around a corner. I obeyed, and I succeeded. This was another lesson where I learned that he would not ask me to do something unless he knew I could do it -- with his help. And that I would obey!
The more things my folks asked me to do as a child, the more I began to trust them. I just obeyed without questioning after a while (until l was a teenager, of course!). Did God build up Elijah’s trust that way? I have learned in my lifetime that I can trust the Lord when he wants me to do something.
I felt him urging me to go to Nepal when I was 70 years old! I was frightened but I obeyed, and it was the most fantastic experience of my life. He ordered me to do many things for him and it took time, but I learned to trust him more and more!
No, I did not raise the dead -- but some things I did to help people led us both to believe that God was real. He did heal some that I prayed for. The more I did for our Lord, the more I learned to trust him. Keep obeying, and you will discover great things about yourself and God.
Bob O.
1 Kings 17:8-16 (17-24)
In a time of desperation and drought, the prophet Elijah is sent by God to bring hope to a widow who has reached the end of her rope. She expects that nothing lies ahead for her and her young son except a terrible death by starvation. Instead, her hospitality and God’s good will leads to a circle of protection around her household. Because of divine intervention, she will never run out of flour and oil during this time of want.
However, sandwiched between this first miracle and the one that follows (God’s restoration of life to her dead son) is an exclamation that seems ungrateful: “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to cause the death of my son!” (v. 18). Note that she is not condemned for this outburst. We can lash out in times of grief and desperation. Perhaps it is only too human for us, despite a life full of blessings, to cry aloud to God: “What have you done for me lately?” But God blesses this widow despite her words -- and blesses us as well despite our own faulty memories.
Frank R.
Galatians 1:11-24
“Grandpa, I have submitted this project to my teacher five times, and she has returned it five times with a list of things that need to be improved. What am I supposed to do?”
The wise and grizzled grandfather replied, “I suggest you get used to it. It may or may not be the intention, but your instructor is giving you a valuable lesson about life. No matter what you do, someone is likely to find fault. Every politician will attest to that -- as will every corporate executive, every leader of an organization, and certainly every minister. In fact, at one time or another, all of us experience what it is like to have someone point out our shortcomings. It is simply part of the human experience.”
That is the background of this reading from Galatians. Paul founded the churches of this area before he moved on to other places. After he left, some outsiders wandered into the region and began to criticize Paul. “He was wrong about welcoming Gentiles. To be a follower of Christ, you first need to become a Jew. Besides, he is not really an apostle. He never actually met Jesus.”
In first-century Galatia, Paul countered with a vigorous defense. It is not likely, however, that the fault-finders were ever totally satisfied. It doesn’t work that way. They would have found something to criticize.
One cannot say for sure, but Paul probably didn’t waste much more time or energy on the matter. He continued to preach the gospel in the manner he was called to preach.
R. Robert C.
Galatians 1:11-24
After President Obama visited several African nations during his last term in office, he reflected on the meaning of leadership. He said he would make a good third-term president, but he remarked candidly, “Nobody should be president for life.” Obama went on to say, “Your country is better off if you have new blood and new ideas.” Referring to the African nations that do have a president for life because that president thinks he is the only one who can run the country, Obama said: “If that’s true, then that leader has failed to truly build their nation.”
Application: We read in Galatians that Paul was a self-assured leader who was willing to surrender his leadership for the building of new churches.
Ron L.
Galatians 1:11-24
Most have heard of the growth in the number of Americans who are not religiously affiliated. The Pew Research Center has reported that the number of self-reported atheists/agnostics nearly doubled from 2007 to 2014. Those claiming that religion is unimportant to them rose from 6.3% to 8.8% in the same period. Almost two decades ago Vine Deloria, a leading Native American scholar, expressed anger at Christianity (the religion in which he had been raised). But even in the midst of his anger he could express some admiration for the sense of community he could find in certain small Christian congregations and the admiration he could feel for Christianity when he encountered someone really living the Christian life. For this ex-Christian, Christianity was most credible when he encountered people really living the Christian life. In Professor Deloria’s observations and in this lesson, we may have a formula for ministering to our religiously unaffiliated neighbors.
Roman Catholic priest Thomas Dubay had good advice for us in this connection: “To bring people closer to God, competency and clarity are important, but they are not enough. Of themselves they do not touch hearts deeply. Personal sanctity and goodness do. It is the saints who light fires. There is a direct correlation between the beauty of holiness and the fruitfulness of our work and interpersonal relationships.”
Of course, most of us are not holy enough to do this, are not on fire with Christ enough to attract people. Living that way is elusive to us. Martin Luther adds a comment that gives us the confidence we need to try to live this way. He reminds us that we cannot make ourselves live in this way that attracts other people. We are just God’s hands; he uses us, does his work of good deeds and passion about the things of God through us (The Book of Concord, p. 368): “So far as we are concerned, therefore, this is a very elusive manner, because we are so unstable.... This is why we continually teach that the knowledge of Christ and of faith is not a human work but utterly a divine gift; as God creates faith, so he preserves us in it” (Luther’s Works, Vol. 26, p. 64).
The next time we see ourselves called to the mission of reaching others, we would do well to remember what Luther’s mentor Johan Staupitz said, that we understand our efforts in such a way that we give “glory and everything else solely to God. And nothing at all to men” (Luther’s Works, Vol. 26, p. 66).
Mark E.
Luke 7:11-17
Life restored. Jesus doesn’t perform many resurrections in the Christian scriptures, but here in the town of Nain he restores life to a young man whose mother is a widow. In doing so, Jesus restores to the woman not just her son but her whole life. Without a husband or a son, the widow would likely have been turned out into the street to beg or to sell herself for her very survival. It is not just grief that Jesus eliminates, but fear, pain, and desperation. That is truly restoration.
During this Pentecost season, this season of the Holy Spirit, what do we need to have restored in us? Do we need emotional health? Are we seeking relief from grief, the pain of an illness, or a broken relationship? Do we need to feel worthwhile and worthy? Do we need to reconnect with God and each other in a community of faith? How are we doing physically, emotionally, intellectually, spiritually? Have we even thought about our need for restoration, or are we simply running so fast going through the motions that we have forgotten that Jesus is the restorer, the savior in our individual and collective lives? Maybe it is time to be quietly in prayer and seek restoration. Maybe it is time to engage our whole community in praying for our restoration. In any case, now is the time. This is the place. Jesus is the One.
Bonnie B.
Luke 7:11-17
The mood is somber. Most gathered in the small chapel are quiet, reverent. An awkward silence fills the room. It is only broken by the occasional sob of his wife and his daughter. The minister stands at a podium at the front. He talks about how death is not the end but the beginning. This life is not all that there is. There is more, so much more, beyond the sunset. The final prayer is said. The final song is sung. The casket is carried to the car, taken to the cemetery, and the body buried. That’s how many funerals go, at least in our culture. The text for today talks about a funeral Jesus happened to come by. It didn’t quite go like most funerals do.
The mood was somber. We can imagine a mother weeping as her son, her only son, is carried out on the funeral bier. Jesus and his disciples come upon this procession of sadness. Jesus sees the young man’s body on the bier. He notices his grief-stricken mother. He has compassion on her and tells her not to weep. He approaches the bier. “Young man, I say to you, rise.” The words pierced the pain and sorrow that permeated the scene. They were you not the typical words of condolence. They were words that resonated with power and authority. The dead man sat up and began to speak! What an incredible encounter. It is not surprising that fear and awe struck those who witnessed this. After all, you don’t see something like this every day. Jesus can raise the dead. I think, in some ways, we’ve lost the sense of amazement that this story should provoke. It’s just another account of Jesus’ miraculous power, right? It is, but it is more too. Jesus has the power to raise the dead, to restore life to dead things. That’s remarkable. Something else is remarkable too. Colossians 2:13 tells us that we were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of our flesh, but God, through Jesus Christ, made us alive.
The Lord who can bring physical life back to a dead body can bring forgiveness and spiritual life back to the soul that is dead in sin. No wonder we sing “Amazing grace; how sweet the sound!”
Bill T.
Luke 7:11-17
You cannot weigh or measure the sadness of one person against the sadness of another. Nor can you say with certainly who is more filled with grief. What we can say is that most of us will have a little time between the death of someone we love deeply and their funeral. Maybe we’ll have enough time to pull ourselves together. Maybe we will have had the time, despite the raw reality of loss, to pull together our outward experience. In Jesus’ time, however, burial took place as soon as possible after death, often before the sun went down on the day of death. Granted that all funeral customs tend to be grounded in the culture -- ours are no more hallowed by scripture than any others -- but the necessity in a warm climate for immediate committal makes this an even more bitter time. In the morning the son is alive. By nightfall his remains will have been interred. No wonder there is such an outpouring grief by everyone involved in the funeral procession. Everything is compressed into a tiny segment of time.
Frank R.
Luke 7:11-17
The first thing to notice is that Jesus did not heal the boy in order to gain many followers for himself and inflate his ego. The passage says that Jesus raised that boy because his heart went out to the mother. He could see the pain she was suffering and took pity on her.
Jesus’ Father in heaven used that healing when there were many witnesses to show them what he could do. But sometimes Jesus healed when there were very few witnesses. When he healed some others who came to him alone, he told them not to tell anyone but to just show themselves to the priest. He never did any of his miracles to inflate his ego! None of Jesus’ miracles were for p.r.
I sometimes thought that people treated me with more respect when they heard I had been a missionary. I was also proud to be a pastor! I liked the response of people when I was wearing my clerical collar in public. It even got the police who stopped me for a traffic violation to forgive it when they spotted my collar! Sometimes it got me discounts and special treatment in stores. One dentist gave me a gold tooth because of my job as a pastor. I even got free bus rides now and then.
When a prisoner who I prayed for was healed, it brought in a larger group to my next service at the prison. That was not my purpose -- but I’m sure some came hoping I could do something for them too.
I have no arguments with the results. The only thing God is looking for in us is humility -- not praise. He just wants us to be humble. He wants our only motive for whatever we do to be serving him out of love -- and showing what he can do. That is not easy. There are few things we do without mixed motives. We can’t help it! We are human. We need God’s forgiveness and his Spirit in our hearts.
I read an article by an actress who was so upset with all the praise and attention she got that she went into hiding to avoid the press. She just wanted to be a normal person; she did not want an ego trip. Most of us don’t have to worry about that. We hope that whatever we do is out of compassion for others who may need our help.
Bob O.
