Spiritual Awareness of Luke 7:11-24
Luke 7:11-24
Rabbi Rev. Dr. Michael H. Koplitz
11 Soon afterward Jesus went to a city called Nain; and His disciples were going along with Him, accompanied by a large crowd. 12 Now as He approached the gate of the city, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow; and a sizeable crowd from the city was with her. 13 When the Lord saw her, He felt compassion for her and said to her, “Do not go on weeping.” 14 And He came up and touched the coffin; and the bearers came to a halt. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise!” 15 And the dead man sat up and began to speak. And Jesus gave him back to his mother. 16 Fear gripped them all, and they began glorifying God, saying, “A great prophet has appeared among us!” and, “God has visited His people!” 17 And this report about Him spread throughout Judea and in all the surrounding region.
In Luke’s gospel in the seventh chapter, verses 11 to 17, we have this really interesting story about Jesus raising a person from the dead. One of the things that we have to remember is that the author of the Gospels had a purpose for every narrative that they wrote. So let me preface this for those that are going to get a little upset about it and that is it doesn’t really matter whether this story occurred exactly the way it is told. Semitic people used hyperbole, and the details of the story are not as important as the lesson being told.
I know this sounds very odd to many of you who may be listening or reading this sermon but it’s important to understand that Semitic people wrote stories differently than the way we were taught which is the Greek method of telling stories. So, we look for the spiritual meaning of the story and that’s what’s really important.
I want to spend just a moment to answer a key question that you should ask of every biblical passage you read and that is why the author put this story in his writings. It also wouldn’t hurt to look at why the author wrote it the way he did and, in this case, these two questions merge together to give us an idea of what’s happening. It was important for the author of Luke’s gospel to get across the message that Jesus was the Messiah sent by God who was promised through the prophets. It is also important that as we read the Gospel of Luke, we see that Jesus being the Messiah is even greater than Elijah who was the greatest profit of the Hebrews.
Certainly, we all know that in our hearts since Jesus is God incarnate that he certainly was greater than the greatest prophet Elijah. We also have to remember that in Jesus’ day the messianic tradition did not say that it was God who is going to join us as the Messiah. Rather the messianic tradition said that a greater profit than all the prophets of the past would come to us and save us. Certainly, Jesus saves all of us by teaching us how to live by God’s law thus we receive forgiveness for our sins. We can say that Jesus died to bring us that message thus his death opens the door for our forgiveness of sins.
Just a note about the culture of Jesus day that I’d like to cover for a moment. When a person died, they would be placed into a wooden coffin. The coffin would then be taken to the local cemetery. In Jesus day the cemeteries were located outside of the towns. Over the course of time, as towns and cities grew, they would encompass the cemetery. If that happened and if there was land outside of the city, they would create a new cemetery. So, a procession was put together of priests and of course the coffin and the family and the mourners and other friends of the deceased and they would leave the city and go to the cemetery.
In this narrative Jesus was walking into the town of Nain when he came across this procession. He went up to the coffin and in the same way that Elijah brought a person back from the dead Jesus did the same thing. I mention Elijah because this narrative is found in 1 Kings chapter 17 versus 17 to 24. Elijah brought a person back from the dead. However, that person was not in a coffin nor in a funeral procession at the time. The author of Luke’s gospel and in the coffin to make it clear that this person was dead. I bring this up because in the custom of Jesus day if a person was unconscious and could not be woken up, they were considered dead even though they were breathing. I hate to think of how many people were buried alive because they were unconscious. This is one of the areas of medicine that ancient people did not fully understand.
If you take the story out of 1 Kings and add the coffin to it is clear that the author is telling us that the Messiah is of greater power than the greatest profit. Therefore, Jesus is the Messiah. Later on in the development of Christianity we will come to understand that the Messiah is God incarnate. For the people in Jesus’ day who were learning about him through stories this was important that he raised a person from the dead who was in the coffin and was about to be buried in the cemetery.
What spiritual lessons can we get from this narrative? Every one of us has a dark time in our lives. A loved one will die, we may lose a job, we may lose good friends. Whatever that dark time is we can turn to our Messiah, our God Jesus to find comfort. The event that caused our darkness. May not be able to be reversed as Jesus did for this dead person but if we keep a faith that Jesus is with us and loves us and wants the best for us then we can overcome any darkness.
The forces of Satan are out there trying to force us away from God by sending these evil things toward us. Jesus is our shield that we should place in front of us every time it happens. If Satan has invaded, which isn’t that hard at times especially when were down, we need to have faith that Jesus will raise us out of the coffin of sin and despair and return us to the light of God. So, any time that you are feeling that the world is against you call upon the spiritual power of our God and Lord Jesus and he will bring you back to health.
