St. Luke's Episcopal Church
Cleveland, Tennessee

Second Sunday after Pentecost
10 June 2007
Luke 7:11-17

This event in Jesus’ life takes place early in his ministry. This comes from Chapter 7 of Luke, as you can see, but Luke gives us a lot of detailed information about Jesus’ very early life. So, Chapter 7 of the narrative is still early in Jesus’ adult ministry. So what scholars refer to as ‘the Jesus movement’ is just beginning at the time of this incident. ‘The Jesus movement’ is the reality that word of mouth began to spread about Jesus. You can just imagine a society completely dependent on word of mouth to transfer information. And, every time Jesus preaches, every time he teaches, every time he performs a miracle, word spreads a little bit more. You can just imagine the excitement building each time something new is said about this new prophet that people are hearing so much about. That is the background for this incident. Jesus and his immediate disciples, and also the crowds that are beginning to follow him, are passing through town. Remember, you couldn’t hop a bus at this time in history. These people walked. They walked from town to town. Now Nain, this little village in Palestine, is five miles from Nazareth. So, it could be that somebody in Nain even knew who Jesus was from his growing up into young adulthood. Sometimes, we have to remember that the Holy Land is a very small area geographically. This is five miles from Jesus’ hometown. He and his disciples and their followers are passing through, and they see a funeral procession. It becomes known to Jesus that this woman, who is a widow, has now lost her only son. It is so important when we see Jesus performing miracles to remember that in a world before what we call modern medicine these miracles were desperately needed by these people. This is not Jesus showing off his power. Jesus doesn’t perform miracles to impress his critics. He doesn’t do this, as if to say, “Look what I can do.” Jesus has compassion. And these miracles are given by Jesus, not to show off his power, but to provide compassionate, merciful relief to people desperately in need. Imagine during your lifetime, the times you or someone you know and love has been very, very sick. And imagine if there were no modern medicines to give comfort or relief. That is the world in which these people live. So, this widow, who had lost her husband, now has lost her only son.

Then, what does Luke tell us? He says, “When the Lord saw her,” and this is the first time the word the Lord was used in Luke’s Gospel. Kurios, the Lord. This is the first time that occurs. “When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, “Do not weep.”

I think it is important for us to realize this isn’t a way of circumventing grief. Grief is a normal, very natural, a needed human emotion, human reality. Jesus isn’t saying, “Don’t grieve.” He is trying to prepare her for what he is about to do. So this incident, when he says, “Do not weep”, doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t grieve when we are bereaved. But in this particular moment, Jesus knows what he is about to do for this woman. So, he says to the young man, “Young man, rise.” And the young man arises and is brought back from the dead.

Notice just a couple of lines down, Luke tells us, “Fear seized all of them.” It is important here to recognize that these people recognized the power of God. Some translations say, “A great awe filled them.” The NIV says, “A great awe filled the people.” But the Greek word here is phobos. It is the same Greek root from which we get the word phobia or phobic. So the Greek says, “Phobos, fear, seized them.” These people knew that they were in the presence of a prophet from God. They recognized that this was not just someone passing through town that had extraordinary gifts. They had been hearing about Jesus. Word of mouth had been spreading. That was why the crowd was following him. And, now when this group in Nain sees Jesus, sees this miracle, Luke tells us, “Fear seized them.” They knew that they were in the presence of God’s prophet.

And then, at the end, Luke’s tells us, “This word about him spread throughout Judea and all the surrounding country.” So this is Luke telling the story. Sometimes I think that we study the Bible so much in snippets. We study this passage, then that passage, then another passage. But we have to remember that the books of the Bible are narratives. They tell a story from the beginning to the end of that particular book. So, Luke is telling us here that this is how ‘the Jesus movement’ began. One incident after another after another, people saw his power. They heard his words of wisdom. They dropped what they were doing just like the original twelve did. People would drop what they were doing, and began to follow because they knew that the presence of the Lord was with them in Jesus.

I want to go back for just a moment and talk about compassion. Luke tells us that when Jesus saw this woman he had compassion for her. In Luke 6:36, Jesus tells us, “Be merciful, just as your Father in heaven is merciful.” That is a wonderful passage. “Be merciful, just as your Father in heaven is merciful.” Now we see Jesus here living that out. Jesus puts flesh on that teaching in this incident. How can you be more merciful than this? How can you be more compassionate than this? Jesus is following his own teaching here with this woman.

Henri Nouwen, in his book on the prodigal son, when he talks about the father in the parable of the prodigal son, he refers to Luke 6:36, “Be merciful, just as your Father in heaven is merciful.” Nouwen says, “This is Jesus’ most radical commandment.” That is an interesting statement. “This is Jesus’ most radical commandment.” “Be merciful, just as your Father in heaven is merciful.” When you think about it, that is the Christian life -- to accept Jesus as Lord and then to learn how to be compassionate as he is the ultimate model for compassion. That is our calling as Christians – to learn to be more compassionate, to feel the pain of others, and to reach out to them in kindness.