We're still in Luke. We've been in Luke for a long time. Feels like we've been in Luke. Who's tired of Luke? Anybody? Don't out yourself, Harris. Not a safe place. That's not for that. No, I'm just kidding. But sometimes it feels like, I don't know, we've been in this book since Advent. Couldn't we spice it up, do something new and exciting? But in some ways that's kind of the church, right? I mean, we've been telling the same stories for 2,000 years.
Anyways, I'm hoping this morning can be a little exciting for us. We'll see. We'll see how exciting it is as we just get another story from the life of Jesus doing Jesus-type things. Let's read it together. Luke chapter 7, verses 11 to 17. "Soon afterwards," soon after what? Well, this is soon after Rob's sermon from last week where he talked about the faith of the centurion. So, soon after that, "Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her."
"When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, 'Don't cry.' Then he went up and touched the bier they were carrying him on, and the bearers stood still. He said, 'Young man, I say to you, get up.' And the dead man sat up and began to talk. And Jesus gave him back to his mother. They were all filled with awe and praised God. 'A great prophet has appeared among us,' they said. 'God has come to help his people.' This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding countryside." This is the word of the Lord.
All right, so some more standard Jesus stuff, right? Except of course he's taking it up a notch, or a couple of notches. We've seen him do some healings and some miracles, but this is something new inside our narrative of Luke, trying to read Luke for Luke. Now, of course, it's probably not new to us, right? We've been hearing stories about Jesus for 2,000 years as the church, and many of you in here have been hearing stories about Jesus for a long time. So there's a few things that I'd like to just highlight or point out about this story that we have this morning.
The woman is identified as, this is her only son, and that she is a widow. Now, what's the significance of that? Well, it's highlighting that she is someone living on the margins of society. She is someone without hope or a future, because in those days, it's different now, of course, thankfully different now, but in those days, if you did not have a son or a husband, you had no way of caring or providing for yourself in society. There was no way to make money. There was no way to earn a living. So effectively, it was like going bankrupt. It was to lose everything. So this woman is on the edges of society, marginalized, hopeless, helpless, and not with a lot of good in her future.
And so Jesus sees this woman and he has compassion on her. And he says to her, "Don't cry." Now, "Don't cry" is not Jesus saying, "Hey, toughen up," or, you know, you've got to be stronger in these kinds of situations or scenarios. That's not what Jesus is saying. We know that because we know that Jesus, when facing death himself, was drawn to deep emotion. And also when he was facing the death of his friend Lazarus. Lazarus, what's the shortest verse in the Bible? Any one of you who had to memorize Bible passages as a kid and were told you were allowed to choose your own verse, which verse did you choose? We all know, right? The shortest verse. "Jesus wept." That's the one we all chose. "Jesus wept." For that reason, right?
But we know Jesus felt deep emotion and was hurt and saddened by death. So he's not saying, "Don't have feelings about this." If anything, he's giving a foreshadowing to what he is about to do. Don't cry, because I'm going to eliminate your reason for tears.
And then Jesus touches the bier. It's pronounced a bier. I had to look it up to make sure. Often when I'm in sermon prep, I don't say things out loud, and then I get up here and I'm fumbling because I don't actually know how to say it out loud, but this time I actually prepared for that. But what a bier is, is basically a plank that you lay a dead body on. And so Jesus touches it.
Now, what's the significance of that? Well, it carries a lot of significance, actually, because you don't just do that. You don't touch a dead body. Because once you do, you are ritually unclean. For seven days you are unclean, and you have to go through a process that involves ritual purity, going to the temple, certain washings. It's all prescribed in the book of Leviticus, on exactly all the steps you have to take. So, touching a dead body, it's not that it was wrong, it just made you unclean. And certainly priests were not touching dead bodies because they had important religious work to do. They couldn't be removed for seven days from their tasks and duties. So it was typically something that was left for more common folk. You're not going to find religious leaders going around touching dead bodies.
Yet Jesus steps in and Jesus touches the body. Now, some priests might touch bodies, but only if it was a very close friend or family would they make that sacrifice. And yet we see here Jesus Christ reaching out and touching. Jesus, the Son of God, in all of his power, reaches out into the messiness of life, making himself ritually, by the definition of Levitical law, impure and unclean. And he doesn't not do it for that reason. He reaches out.
And then the last thing to point out. Jesus raises a dead man to life. Jesus raises a dead man to life. Isn't that exciting? Isn't that an exciting, amazing thing that happens?
Now, I'll tell you, this should be an easy text to preach on, right? It's a narrative story. Narrative stories are typically easy to preach on. When you have a story already laid out for you, you just need to expand on it. The picture is already there for all of you. It's like a psalm is a lot tougher, right? You get these words of David and it's all poetic, and then it's like, well, how do you preach on that? Can be a little tough. This is easy, or it should be easy. And then you've got this profound miracle of bringing someone to life.
But if the model of preaching is to kind of look at a story and inspect it from all these angles, help you guys see the context, and then bring you into the narrative so you feel it and understand it, and then apply it to our own lives, well, to be honest, that's a tough one. It's a tough one. Jesus walks up to this man who is dead and makes him alive. Okay, so how do we apply this to our lives today? What's the implications of this kind of thing? A story like this, does it get us excited? Do we fully understand? Do we know what to do with a story like this?
I mean, I could tell you some other big stories, exciting moments. I was at a Jays game a week and a half ago. We were sitting in the 500 levels, which if you don't know, that means really high. And we're sitting up there, we're in foul territory, and Vladdy steps up to bat and he hits a ball foul, but deep. It rings off the pole, or the steel bar behind our heads, maybe 15 feet to our right. It was unbelievable. It was incredible. It was unreal. The feeling of seeing him way down there, and then all of a sudden that connection of that ball ringing off the pole right next to us. Isn't that exciting?
It was exciting for us because we were there. But maybe you had to be there. Maybe that's the case. Maybe it's hard to get excited about stories that are someone else's story, or a story that's in the distant past. And maybe you noticed a few of the words that I used when I explained that story about Vladdy's foul ball. I said it was unreal. I said it was unbelievable. These are words that we use to describe exciting moments that might be beyond comprehension in some way.
And so I have a question for you. Does this story excite you? Are you excited by the fact that Jesus brings life after death? Because if you're not, there's nothing I can do up here to get you excited. That is a lost cause. That is something you have to know. That is something you have to understand. I think if we're honest, every single one of us would have to admit that parts of this story feel, seem unreal. They feel and seem unbelievable.
Now, how do we know that? How do we know that we struggle to comprehend exactly what this story means for us today in our lives? Well, let's take a look at how we live it out. Do we live like resurrection power exists in and through Jesus and exists here and now, today? Could Jesus raise someone from the dead today? He could, but he probably won't. If we're honest, is that what we say? Is that what we think? If we lose someone and someone comes to us and says, you know, pray, Jesus could raise them. We probably think, yeah, I guess he could, but he probably won't.
Or what about other aspects of the gospel? Jesus left, he gave us purpose and mission, and he said, "I'll be back soon." So, folks, Jesus could come back in the next five minutes. He could, but he probably won't. I mean, what are the odds? I actually looked it up. I did a little bit of math. The odds of Jesus coming back in the next five minutes compared to every five minutes that's existed since he left is probably about 1 in 250 million. Those are the odds. You can't fault us for being logical people. It's unlikely that he comes back in the next five minutes.
And we live with that reality. We make plans for the future because we don't necessarily believe that he's coming back at any moment. And we also live without the belief that resurrection power is tangible and present and active right here and right now. Because if you ever wake up in the morning and you feel pain in your body and it burdens you to the point where it affects how you live out your day, where you're sad, depressed, overwhelmed, well, you have to admit that you are not embracing the truth and goodness and wholeness of resurrection power.
Or what about waking up in the morning and just thinking to yourself, I really hope that today I can make more money than I spend. But I probably won't. When you see the cost of everything and the bills that you have in front of you. And so you live tightly. You live scared. You put less in the plate, because you don't necessarily believe and embrace resurrection power here and now. It's true. We don't fully get it and we don't fully understand.
And this is important. It's important because we're not just called to see what Jesus does and believe it, so that we believe it so we can walk around telling everybody we believe it. No, it's more than that. That's the beginning. We're called to believe it and then do something with it. Jesus partners with us in this. It's not simply a matter of faith, but faith leads us into a life.
And I can give you some examples of that. Jesus says this in John 14:12-14, "Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing. And they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it." Those are the words on the page from 2,000 years ago.
A few more words from the page. Matthew 10:8. Jesus commanded to his followers as he sends out the 12 disciples, Jesus makes this command, okay, to his disciples. This is when he's sending out the 12. He says this: "Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give." There's stories in the book of Acts where Peter raises Tabitha from the dead, and Paul raises a man in Acts chapter 20. So if we don't believe these things, it impacts the way that we live out the gospel.
So here's the thing, okay? First we become aware of our weakness in Christ. We don't get it. We don't fully understand. We are weak and we are not good enough to achieve or accomplish these things on our own. Our weakness leads us to Christ. And then we say, "But Christ can do these things. Christ can accomplish life after death." Not just spiritually, like new life, like living differently than before. Actual resurrection power, overcoming death and bringing life.
I think the reality is we're still going to say, "Well, yeah, but what are the odds?" And that's just acknowledging that we're human. But let's not fall into the trap of saying that he can't or that he won't. Let's live boldly with great expectation into the reality of resurrection power, the good news of the gospel, that everything hangs on that, right? Jesus himself went to the cross and he was raised Lord of life again, and when he comes back, resurrection will happen again. This is true. This affects how we live.
Let's pray. Lord God, in our humanness we put limits on ourselves, certainly, and we also put limits on you. And you are limitless. And you can accomplish all things. Lord God, we can't do any of it without you. But you have called us and equipped us to be your servants in this world. Resurrection is a real thing. Help us to not allow our fear or our pride or our rationality get in the way of what you can accomplish. Because then, God, we can be good servants of yours. We can partner with you and we can step boldly with great expectation into the work that you're calling us to.
Lord God, that translates individually for each and every one of us in our local callings and contexts, but it also is true for us as a body of believers, as a church that has a mission and an identity. Lord God, you call us collectively to go beyond the walls and borders of expectation, to live into the foolish reality of your truth, your freedom and your resurrection power. Lord God, go with us. Be with us as we seek to live this out. Holy Spirit, thank you that you live in us, that this resurrection power is available to us. In your name we pray. Amen.