A Tale of two mothers.
I read a couple of short stories last week that go like this:
A teacher gave her class of second graders a lesson on the magnet and what it does. The next day in a written test, she included this question: " My full name has six letters. The first one is M. I pick up things. What am I?" When the test papers were turned in, the teacher was astonished to find that almost 50 percent of the students answered the question with the word Mother.
A little boy forgot his lines in a Sunday school presentation. His mother was in the front row to prompt him. She gestured and formed the words silently with her lips, but it did not help. Her son’s memory was blank. Finally, she leaned forward and whispered the cue, "I am the light of the world." The child beamed and with great feeling and a loud clear voice said, "My mother is the light of the world."
This morning I want to look at two accounts of mothers who lost their most treasured possession and then had them given back.
Imagine the scene of one mother. Her family would have been her life. She was married and had only one son. Then sadly one day she loses her husband. The devastation she and her son must have felt would have been huge. She was now a widow, but at least she had her son to look after and then as she got older he would look after her. I can’t imagine what it must feel like to lose your partner but I imagine it takes ages to adjust.
But then one day she is struck by a further tragedy. No-one knows how but her only son is suddenly taken from her. All of a sudden her world dissolves around her. She has nothing left. She has now lost the two loves of her life. Not only has her immediate family gone, she will now have no-one to look after her or provide for her. In those days widows were only looked after by the male offspring. There were no state pension or govt. benefits. Lonely widows were left to fend for themselves. This woman faced a hard life ahead.
But I imagine at this stage all she could do was wail and weep for her precious son. Even though she was surrounded by a large crowd, she was desperately alone. After the crowd had gone it would be her going back to an empty home, with no other noises but her crying and sniffing. What a picture of blackness and despair.
And then we cross over to another scene.
A man and his wife have a precious daughter. She is there delight. The little girl is twelve years old and we know that she is adored by her mum and dad. However, one day the mother notices that her daughter is not herself. She’s gone off her food and she seems to be weaker than usual. They decide to take her to the doctors and are then delivered a bombshell. They are told that their daughter has an incurable disease and that she will die. All of a sudden their world seems to be ripped from beneath their feet. Their little one who they had spent twelve wonderful years with was going to be taken from them.
To them it didn’t seem like yesterday that they were holding their little baby daughter in their arms just after she was born. Now that joy had been extinguished as they had to prepare to let go of her. They would do anything to see her recover.
The father’s name is Jairus and he is a Synagogue ruler. Everyone in the neighbourhood knew the family because of Jairus’ position and therefore they would have all known their news.
What could be done for their little girl? The doctors could do no more so now they were in God’s hands.
Then news came to them that the man who was causing such a stir was back in the town. They had heard that this man did extraordinary things. He healed the sick and cast out demons. There were also reports that he changes water into wine and could walk on water.
Jairus and his wife knew there was only one thing for it. Jairus would go and get Jesus to lay hands on their precious one and heal her. He sped off and the mother was left to cuddle her little treasure. However the breathing was becoming more laboured and the mother is talking tenderly to her. Telling her everything will be okay because a man is coming to pray for her. However, in her heart she senses that her daughter is slipping away. Time is ticking away. Where is her husband? But more importantly, where is the man who was their last resort?
And then the unthinkable happens. As she is asking these questions in her mind, the body of her daughter goes limp. She breathes her last breath and there is a moment of deadly silence. The mother opens her mouth and cries out in utter anguish and despair. She cradles her daughters head to her chest and rocks backwards and forwards.
“Don’t go darling, please don’t go. They’ll be here soon and then everything will be fine.”
But there is no response.
Two mothers both lose their precious ones. Two mothers looking for answers. How could this happen to them? Where is God in all this?
These are questions that millions ask each day. Where is God in all this? How could this happen to me?
You maybe here this morning and asking the same thing. You may have lost someone close to you and you can’t understand it. You maybe experiencing a tough time in some of your relationships and you want things to change. You may have lost your job or you’re in a bad financial predicament at the moment. Or you may be sick and in a lot of pain and you want relief.
Whatever it is, you are here because there is a part of you that is thinking that you might get your answers here.
These two mothers had given up hope that their situation would ever change. Let’s look at our first story again.
In Luke 7
We read this:
11 The next day Jesus went to a city called Nain. His followers and many other people went with Him. 12 When they came near the city gate, a dead man was being carried out. He was the only son of a woman whose husband had died. Many people of the city were with her. 13 When the Lord saw her, He had loving-pity for her and said, "Do not cry."
It is the day of the funeral. This woman is about to say her final goodbye to her beautiful boy. She is surrounded by a large crowd. They would have been mourning and wailing with her. The scene would have been one of high and deep emotions. It would have been very noisy.
But coming towards them we see a completely different crowd. It was led by Jesus who also had a large group with him. They would have been full of joy and wonder at being with Jesus. The previous day they had seen him heal a centurion’s servant by just a word of command.
Now this joyful crowd was face to face with a funeral procession. Jesus sees the grieving mother and his heart goes out to her.
This is the amazing thing about Jesus. He can be in the middle of a large crowd and on his way somewhere yet he always had compassion for individuals. Jesus is the God of compassion. He wasn’t in the public eye for his own fame but to love the lost and the broken-hearted.
He then tells the woman – Don’t cry. How would you feel?
So you can imagine the scene. Here are two crowds coming towards each other. This could be a logistical nightmare as both crowds need to get around each other. I find it hard enough walking through a crowd going in the same direction let alone one heading towards me.
So what will the crowds do?
Well Jesus takes both crowds by complete surprise. He basically strolls up to the coffin and puts his hand on it.
At this point the men carrying the coffin stop.
You see when Jesus gets involved in your life it is good just to stop and let him do what he wants. Often we are too busy to stop. We just want to get on to the next thing even though God maybe wanting to do something amazing in our lives.
Or when we do stop to acknowledge him we just want to talk at him.
Here they did the right thing. They stopped and allowed Jesus to talk.
Now the amazing thing is that Jesus didn’t talk to the mother. He wasn’t there to offer his condolences. He wasn’t there to give the funeral address. No, Jesus had other ideas.
What he does is he speaks to the dead young man.
And he doesn’t say – “You’re going to be missed by a lot of people.” Or “Rest in peace young man.”
No he tells the young man to get up!
Either Jesus is being totally insensitive to the widow or he knew something they didn’t. But as we see in the next part of the story, Jesus knew the end result.
The young man got up and started talking. And then it says that Jesus handed the young man back to his mother.
What must the mother have felt?
Jesus is here this morning and he knows all about you. And all he would say to you this morning is to stop and let him put his hand upon your life and let him speak to you.
We can go round thinking that God is this overbearing being who just wants to spoil our fun by saying we can’t do this and that. Or we think that he is this angry person who just wants to send people to hell.
Well, if you want to know what God is like then look at Jesus. Here we see him have compassion on a grieving and desperate widow and in his love gives her dead son back to her alive.
What Jesus wants to do this morning is give you life. Let’s finish by looking at our second story.
We saw a mother holding her dead daughter as the husband has gone off to find Jesus. So she sends some men to tell Jairus, her husband, the news and that they shouldn’t bother Jesus any more.
So the mother is there with the dead girl and other members of the household and there is a lot of weeping and wailing going on as you could imagine.
Jesus ignores the men who tell them the news and tells Jairus not to be afraid but to just believe.
Jesus takes three of his friends and Jairus to his house. Jesus is confronted by a huge commotion of mourning. He asks all the people why they are all wailing as the little girl is not dead but asleep. But they all laugh at him. They all know that she is dead so what is this madman going on about?
So Jesus chucks them all out. He then takes his three friends and the grieving parents into where the little girl lay. What must have been going through the mother’s mind? Was she thinking - oh yeah, great, my little girl is going to come back to life. I imagine she was feeling pretty sceptical and beyond hope.
But then Jesus goes over to the little girl and gently takes her by the hand and says to her – “Talitha koum!” This means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!” then suddenly the little girl gets up and starts walking around. What I love about Jesus is his next piece of advice to the parents – Give her something to eat and don’t tell anybody about this.
This is real genuine care. This is God saying don’t go crazy and start telling everyone, but look after your little girl and be a family for now.
In both of these situations both families had given up hope. They knew that they could do nothing in their own strength to bring their little ones back. And yet Jesus came and gave back life.
Are you here this morning because you have given up hope for whatever situation you are in? Are you looking for God to heal you of anything?
Jesus doesn’t want to just give back physical life but he wants to give back spiritual life.
Explain.
Years ago, a young mother was making her way across the hills of South Wales, carrying her tiny baby in her arms, when she was overtaken by a blinding blizzard. She never reached her destination and when the blizzard had subsided her body was found by searchers beneath a mound of snow. But they discovered that before her death, she had taken off all her outer clothing and wrapped it about her baby. When they unwrapped the child, to their great surprise and joy, they found he was alive and well. She had mounded her body over his and given her life for her child, proving the depths of her mother love. Years later that child, David Lloyd George, grown to manhood, became prime minister of Great Britain, and, without doubt, one of Britain’s greatest statesman.
Jesus gave his life for us.
