God Has Come to Help His People

God Has Come to Help His People

Luke 7:11-17

Jesus came to show us God. (John 1:18)

One year as we took the ornaments on the tree down, Sharon ran around putting them back up. She just didn’t want Christmas to end. The Christmas story continues through the Gospels.

Background: 

Luke 7:11-17 is playing out with the shadows of Elijah’s raising the widow’s son playing in the background.  I think this is intentional.  That is, I don’t think the two stories just kind of line up; but somehow the Trinity orchestrated these events in Nain to play out with the same chords as the story of Elijah.  

1 Kings 17:17-24  includes the story of Elijah raising the widow of Zarephath’s son. Hold on to these five elements from that story:

1. A Widow. (1 Kings 17:9, Luke 7:12)

2. Her only son died. (1 Kings 17:17, Luke 7:12)

3. A Resurrection. (1 Kings 17:22, Luke 7:15)

4. The boy is given back to the widow. (1 Kings 17:23, Luke 7:15)

5. Recognition that God has visited. (1 Kings 17:24,  Luke 7:16)

Luke 7:11-17

• Nain sits on a hill: Slopes “Little Hermon.” Still exists today. Nain’s Eastern gate (Jesus passed) tombs in the rock. He had just walked past their tombs. Graves.
• Narrow road going in and out of Nain. Jesus going up as the funeral crowd is coming down.
• The body rested on burial plank (Beir, it’s pronounced beer in English), not closed coffin. Body wrapped in cloth.
• The crowd makes the same connection we should reading the text: A widow, her only son died, a Resurrection, the son given back to the widow… they celebrate as they realize the God that came down for the Widow in Elijah’s day has come down to them.
• Luke 7:16, “God has come to help his people.” (NIV) Actually that’s old NIV. It’s a paraphrase more than a translation. (I memorized that verse out of the NIV. And was startled looking recently at the Greek that is not quite what it says! The ESV is much closer, “God has visited his people.” The NIV since revised the verbiage to a more literal translation.)

What Jesus shows us of God:

1. Jesus shows us God’s Great (Luke 7:13)

• Humans are shallow emotionally. We aren’t really that deep. We struggle to Empathize. Feel what others feel. Someone say: I feel your pain. … don’t want to feel it for too long.
• And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her. (v.13) What does Jesus do when he shows up? He goes wading right into it. Walks right into the sorrow, grief, pain. Isn’t that just like our God?!
• J.I. Packer: “He took Humanity without the loss of deity.”
• If I could paint…. Slopes. City gate. Two streams people coming together. One Happy. Enlightened. Thrilled. (They just saw a miracle.) Excited. They have found the Messiah! Come into the city. But coming out of the city is another stream of people: Opposite. IF these people found it all, these people lost it all. Full pain. Heartache. One crowd: Joy, happiness. Other group, mourners, whalers. One-woman surrounding: Stricken in her heart. Inconsolable. Focus point: Face of Jesus. Brown eyes, framed by happiness, eyes of sadness. Compassion. They have locked in on den of humanity.
• v.13. Jesus SAW her. The eyes that know every sparrow on the mountain, finds this sparrow when it falls.
• v.13-14: Her is mentioned 4x: (Crowd with her) (Lord saw her) (Had compassion her) (He said to her) v.15: Jesus gave him back to his MOTHER. Resurrection of Elijah, Elisha: Give back to the mother. NT, Docus, back to the woman church. Never raised for their own good. The purpose of the miracle is not for the raising of this boy. He’s okay. He doesn’t need to come back to Nain! It’s that he is touched by her pain. It is for the restoration of the happiness of this woman.
• Jesus shows us something about God: He is capable of great emotional complexity. Jesus is capable of rejoicing with those who rejoice – but still spot the one weeping on the side. He is not so caught up in Glory, that he misses the crushed spirit.
• We struggle with emotional simplicity. Just simple: Empathy. Focus our emotions. Deep emotions of God are unpolluted. No sin in him. He never weeps for you but is really weeping for himself. He never cries with a widow but wonders how long she’s going to take because he has other things to do. He never rejoices with a newlywed couple but feels a little impatient with the unreality of their joy.
• He is capable of authentic Empathy – we can never grasp.

2. Jesus shows us God Can (Luke 7:13)

• This story is full of compounded pain. Worst moment of her life! The widow is probably a young widow. She had only one child. The death of a spouse is a pain that is unequaled. Death and loss is a pain she’s already been through. Now she has this boy, she had put so much hope in him. When her husband died: Her son carried so much for her. A sons love is not a husbands love, but still, a sons love is strong. Her son would see that she provided for. Her son would work hard with his hands. Her son would protect her from violence, poverty and loneliness. Then he was gone.
• Jesus speaks great hope into the worst moment of her life. Luke 7:13, “he had compassion on her and said to her, Do not weep.
• v.13, A very strong word is used here in the Greek. “Stop crying! Stop it!”
• In context, without knowing the end of the story, it looks heartless! Who comes up to someone at a grave and says, “Don’t weep.” Jesus is a stranger to her! This is a terrible moment.
• Think again about the two crowds. The crowd at the funeral is confused, probably offended. But the crowd with Jesus is full of anticipation because they’ve seen him do an incredible miracle already.
• He cares about my problems now. Interesting, He doesn’t say, “Don’t weep. Heavens real. Someday heaven. There will be a new earth…” he cares about the immediacy of her situation.

3. Shows us God who (Luke 7:14-5)

• Important: God is Stronger than the curse on Adam. Just to TOUCH the Beir make him unclean. But he’s not worried about death or the things of death – He’s stronger. We touch it and become unclean. The curse of death infects us. Sickness, disease, suffering – Death: Result of Curse rests on mankind. Result of sin. We are powerless over it. Someone dies, nothing you can do. Weep, that’s it. Then one comes who doesn’t just shake the curse off – it can’t touch him.
• Luke 7:15, the young man began to speak. It is complete restoration. (I wonder what he said.)
• The text is clear, Jesus himself is stronger than death.
• Almost every preacher remembers their first funeral. My first funeral was also the first week I stepped into ministry. When D.L. Moody was asked to do hi first funeral, he decided to examine how Jesus did funerals. He came away with the observation that Jesus never did a funeral. Every funeral turned into a resurrection.
• Notice the authority with which Jesus raises the dead! With Elisjah, Elijah, they had to go face to face, hand to hand with the dead corpse. They begged God to raise the dead! That’s the way humans would do that – they beseech God. But Jesus, God in flesh, raises the dead with divine confidence and authority. “Lazarus, here!” “Talitha Cum: Little lamb, arise. He spirit returned.” He has complete authority over the spirit world to summon a soul back to that temple.

4. Shows us God (God is with us.) (Luke 7:16)

• The people say, “God has visited his people.”
• God himself came down and did what no other deliverer could do: Give us long term relief from our sins and the powers of darkness. The promise given to Joseph was that he would be called, “Emmanuel” which means, “God with us.” As the NIV paraphrases Luke 7:16, God has come to help his people.
• The miracles Jesus did are a watermark of authenticity. He’s not just unmarried by the curse, he has power over it. The miracles of Jesus are proof of his spiritual authority to set us free.
• Reminder: All who trust in him will finish with joy. He says: Hope in Me.
• Painting beside the painting: For a moment: First: Two crowds very different. Life! Joyful, celebrating. That other group: Weeping. NEW painting: Then hope is restored. Then: both crowds are rejoicing. The crowd weeping, rejoicing harder!
• Psalm 126:5: Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! 6 He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him. Psalmist means is: Sowing into the ground is work. Feel pointless. Do it, don’t give up: End there is harvest and joy. Parties. Bread.