May 12, 2002 Luke 7:11-17
¡§Don¡¦t cry.¡¨
INTRODUCTION
Some of you are familiar with the Calvin & Hobbes comic strip. Well, on one Mother’s Day, Calvin is pictured standing by his mother’s bed. "Hey, Mom! Wake up. I made you a Mother’s Day card." "My, how sweet of you." she says. "I did it all by myself. Go ahead & read it."
She begins to read:
"I was going to buy a card with hearts of pink & red.
But then I thought I’d rather spend the money on me instead.
It’s awfully hard to buy things when one’s allowance is so small.
So I guess you’re pretty lucky I got you anything at all.
Happy Mother’s Day. There, I¡¦ve said it. Now I’m done.
So how about getting out of bed & fixing breakfast for your son."
Signed, "Calvin."
Today, we celebrate Mother¡¦s Day. The experiences that you go through as a mother provoke a lot of laughter.
A 15 yr. old boy came bounding into the house and found his mom in bed. He asked if she was sick or something. He was truly concerned! Mom replied that, as a matter of fact, she didn¡¦t feel too well. The son replied, ¡§Well, don¡¦t worry about dinner, I¡¦ll be happy to carry you down to the stove¡¨
One day, a little girl is sitting and watching her mother do the dishes at the kitchen sink. She suddenly notices that her mother has several strands of white hair sticking out in contrast on her brunette head. "Why are some of your hairs white, Mom?" she asks. Her mother replies, "Well, every time you do something wrong and make me cry or unhappy, one of my hairs turns white." The little girl thinks about this awhile, then asks, "So how come ALL of Grandma¡¦s hairs are white?"
Little children can come up with some very interesting ideas. Listen to what some children wrote to their mothers for Mother¡¦s Day.
Robert wrote: "I got you a turtle for Mother¡¦s Day. I hope you like the turtle better than the snake I got you last year."
Little Diane wrote: "I hope you like the flowers I got you for Mother¡¦s Day. I picked them myself when Mr. Smith wasn¡¦t looking."
And how about this one from Carol? "Dear Mother, Here are two aspirins. Have a happy Mother¡¦s Day!"
You can probably identify with those funny experiences that other mothers have had, and you have a lot that you could share with all of us. But just as wonderful as the funny times and the laughter have been, being a mother also provokes a lot of sorrow and tears ¡V tears over hurts that your children have had to endure at the hands of a sinful world, tears over bad decisions that your children have made and the painful consequences that come with them, and tears over separation from your children because of a broken relationship.
Some of you who are sitting here this morning may be crying on the inside because of a situation with your children. To you, Jesus would say the same thing that he said to the mother that He encountered at the city of Nain. He would say to you, ¡§Don¡¦t cry like there is no hope. I can work a miracle. I can take a hopeless, dead situation and bring life.¡¨
As we look at the miracle that happened for a family who lived almost 2000 years ago, I want you to understand this: the same God who worked a miracle back then can work a miracle in your life and in the life of your children. There is no hopeless situation when Jesus is present.
1. The situation was divided. (vs. 11-12)
„X One crowd was following life. (vs. 11)
If you look back at the beginning of this chapter, you¡¦ll find that there was a reason that a crowd was following Jesus. Jesus had performed a miracle for the servant of a Roman centurion. The servant had been near the point of death, and Jesus healed the servant with nothing more than a word. He didn¡¦t even have to go to where the servant was and lay hands on him. Obviously, a miracle like this was a cause for rejoicing and excitement. They wanted to be around Jesus. They wanted to see what was going to happen next. It seemed that everywhere that Jesus went, nothing ever stayed the same. He brought joy and life because He was life. Remember what He said in Jn. 14:6: ¡§I am the way, the truth, and the life.¡¨ He wasn¡¦t just talking about eternal life. He was also talking about living life to the full. He was talking about all the things that come along with life ¡V joy and hope and dreams and laughter - kind of like all those things that a mother brings to her family in the darkest of times. And because Jesus was the source of all these things, a crowd was following Him. And they were having a great time as they celebrated Jesus and what He had done. Being with Jesus was like being at a party. They were praising God and singing, and everyone was trying to get close to Jesus so that they could hear what He had to say. They were noisy and boisterous, but suddenly their noise stopped as they came upon another crowd.
„X One crowd was following death. (vs. 12)
As Jesus, His disciples and the large crowd with them were getting ready to enter the city of Nain, they came upon another large crowd that was coming out of the city. This crowd was very different from the first crowd. For one, they were led by a coffin, the symbol of death, rather than being led by Jesus, the source of life. They too were loud, but their noise came from the volume of their weeping and wailing, not from singing and laughter. And in this crowd, all hope was gone.
The text tells us enough about the family that led this procession of death to enable us to feel some of the pain that they felt. We learn that they were from the city of Nain. That would mean very little to us except for the fact that ¡§Nain¡¨ means ¡§pleasant or delightful¡¨. It adds a little bit of irony to the story. Everything that was pleasant in this mother¡¦s life had been taken from her. Her delight was gone. We learn also of her that she was a widow. Things would have been rough for that family without a father, but the mother had done her best to build a pleasant even delightful life for her son. Some of you mothers know what it is like to have an absent father for your children. He may be gone because of death, divorce or simply because he is no help in the proper care and training of the kids. It¡¦s tough to be without a dad for your kids, but this mother had done the best that she could. But now, she was leaving the place of delight, and as far as she knew, though she would still live in Nain, it would never be delightful for her again. For the last thing that we are told about her is that she was on her way to bury her son ¡V her only son. Her joy and delight was gone. She was a part of the crowd that was following death.
NOTE: The situation on that day is the same situation that we have on this day. There are still two crowds. One is following death, and one is following life. Just as your mother always told you, be careful about what crowd you choose to follow. There are only two ways to go. If you are not following the crowd that is with Jesus, then you are following that crowd that is taking you to death and destruction.
APP: Maybe you are a son or a daughter here today who has been following the way of death. You are creating sorrow for your mother. You¡¦re making her cry. By following the way of death, you are hurting yourself and all those who care about you. My prayer is that by the time that we get done here today that you will have the same change in you that happened to this young man. You will go from death to life.
2. The action was authoritative. (vs. 13-15)
Right in the middle of this situation of two crowds who are headed in different directions and have a totally different spirit about them is Jesus. Jesus always bridges the gap between life and death. And Jesus alone has the authority and the power to turn everything around. Jesus was getting ready to perform an action in the behalf of this mother and her son.
„X It was motivated by compassion (vs. 13).
When Jesus encountered this broken-hearted mother, the Bible says that His heart went out to her. His heart broke because her heart was broken. He saw her crying. Jesus knew why this woman was crying. She had already buried her husband. Now she was burying her son. Along with her son, she was burying her only means of support ¡V her future was now very insecure. She was also burying the family name. Without a husband or a son, the family name was now going to die.
Jesus, feeling her pain, went to that broken-hearted widow. He lifted her chin and looked into those blood-shot eyes. Then, with all the gentle, compassionate authority of God himself, He gave a command. He said, ¡§Don¡¦t cry.¡¨
How do you feel when you are really hurting and someone comes up to you and says, ¡§Quit your boo-hooing!¡¨? Does it make you mad? She didn¡¦t get mad when Jesus told her to quit crying. Something in Jesus¡¦ eyes told her that Jesus was going to give her a reason to quit crying. Jesus was going to do something to make everything different.
Jesus did not tell her to quit crying because it was wrong to cry. Jesus himself cried at the funeral of his friend, Lazarus. But the tears that she was crying on that day were the tears of hopelessness. And Jesus wanted her to see that when He is involved in the process, there is always hope.
The day will come when Jesus will wipe every tear from our eyes, and we will never cry tears of sorrow ever again. But until that time, it is okay to cry. Crying helps us to heal. Many of you mothers have spent a great deal of time crying over your children. The tears that you thought you cried in secret ¡V the ones that no one else knew about ¡V God saw them. And God kept a record of them. In Ps 56:8, it says, ¡§Record my lament; list my tears on your scroll ¡V are they not in your record?¡¨ In the KJV of that verse, it says, ¡§put thou my tears in thy bottle¡¨. God sees your tears! And He doesn¡¦t forget the tears that you have shed, especially those that you have shed for your children.
And when He sees those tears, He reacts the same way that Jesus did on that day. His heart breaks for you. He has compassion on you. (Heb 4:15 KJV) For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities¡K
Just because you go through suffering, never entertain the idea that God does not see or care. God does see, and He does care. His desire is to bring healing just as He did on that day.
„X It was preceded by stillness (vs. 14a)
Once Jesus had interacted with that mother, he then moved his attention to her son in the coffin. As far as the pall bearers knew, Jesus was just a stranger who had come to the funeral, or worse, he was just a passerby who had no idea of the suffering that was going on in that place. When Jesus touched the coffin to signify that he wanted them to stop, they had no reason to respond to his demands. The mother was the only authority on that day that they had any reason to respond to. But everything that Jesus did, even touching a coffin, He did with authority, and people responded. The pallbearers did as He wanted. They stood still.
In this situation, and in every situation, there has to be stillness before God if a miracle is ever going to happen. As parents, as individuals and as a church, we try to make miracles happen through our over-abundance of activity and work. Activity and work are important, but they are powerless unless we have 1st gotten still before Jesus. (Psa 46:10 NIV) "Be still, and know that I am God¡K¡¨ Parents, you are not God. No matter how much you try, you can not raise dead things back to life. Your only recourse is to fall on your face before God, still your heart before Him, and remember that He is God. He is the only one who can make anything good and lasting happen in the lives of your children. It is much easier to worry than it is to pray. It is much easier to be a mother hen over your children than it is to be still before God. In the next verse of that same Psalm, he tells us how to be still. (Psa 46:11 NIV) The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah Remember that God is present there in the middle of the situation. He is the fortress that can protect your heart and that can protect your children. Be still before God. Cease your worthless worrying and your vain activity.
On that day, Jesus used His authority to command that the pallbearers stand still. They responded to His command and brought us one step closer to a miracle.
„X It was accomplished through obedience (vs. 14b-15)
After the stillness before God comes obedience. The stillness has to precede the miracle.
Jesus proceeded to give His third command of the day. His first command had been to a mother who hadn¡¦t been able to stop crying for days. He told her, ¡§Don¡¦t cry¡¨, and she stopped crying. The second command was to the pallbearers who had no earthly reason to respond to His authority. He told them, ¡§Be still¡¨, and they stood still. But this third command was the true test of His authority. For this third command was to a dead man. To this dead man, Jesus commanded, ¡§Get up!¡¨ When the crowd heard those words, every eye turned to the casket to see what was going to happen. Part of the crowd had seen Jesus, simply by the power of His word, do a miracle earlier that day. But that was just giving health back to a sick servant. This was something totally different. This was giving life back to a dead son! Does Jesus have even that kind of authority?
My friends, they saw something on that day that you and I need to understand. When Jesus commands, even death sits up and take notice. Only Jesus has the power to command death and see it obey. A boy that was on his way to be buried, sat up at the master¡¦s command and was re-united with his mother. 1 Cor 15:54,55 "Death has been swallowed up in victory." "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?"
All of us want miracles to happen. We want miracles to happen in the lives of our children. We want miracles to happen at our job, in our finances, in our neighborhoods and in our church. A big part of the reason that miracles are not happening is that we are not willing to respond to the authority of Jesus and obey what He says to do no matter how outlandish or foolish it may sound. We want control, and we want things to happen now. For this mother, things did not happen on the timetable that she wanted. I am sure that she had prayed desperately to God for a long time for Him to heal her son. But God had done nothing, and her son had died. She didn¡¦t understand it. She was having a hard time accepting it. Why would God allow this to happen?
God wanted to show her that He was the one who was in control. Mothers have a tendency to want to control things, especially when it comes to their children. They want to fix every problem that their kids have at school. They want to kiss every boo-boo. They want to help out financially when their older children have made bad financial decisions. They want their children to keep coming back to them to have them fix all their problems.
And God would say to you mothers here today just what He was saying to this mother on that day: you can¡¦t fix all the problems. You are not the one who is in control. Not until you realize that and turn over control of your children to God will God be able to do a miracle in their lives. Not until you obey His commands and yield to His authority will He be able to show His power in your behalf.
Maybe you have some lifeless, hopeless situations that you think will never change. If Jesus can command dead bodies to live again, He can, by His authority, bring life where there was none.
3. The reaction was unified. (vs. 16-17)
„X There was an internal reaction (vs. 16a)
Whenever something as miraculous as this happens, there is going to be a definite reaction in people. The first reaction was something that happened within the people. Scripture records that all the people were filled with awe. They were amazed at what had happened. It was something that could not be explained ¡V something that they had never seen happen before. It was natural for them to be filled with awe.
„X There was an external reaction (vs. 16b-17)
But the people went further in how they responded to this. There was an external reaction. They started to talk about it. The crowd that had been quiet got noisy again. But now, they were all noisy for the same reason. Instead of one crowd creating noise through weeping and one crowd through praising, they were all praising God now. They had all seen a miracle. And they realized that more was going on here than just a single miracle. They realized that this miracle meant that God had come down to help his people. God had seen the suffering of His people and had chosen to intervene.
It would have been a tragedy if their reaction had stopped at this point ¡V if all that they did was discuss it among themselves. And yet that is exactly what we are oftentimes guilty of doing. When God does something wonderful, we freely talk about it among ourselves, but that¡¦s as far as it gets. Mothers don¡¦t do that. When mom¡¦s son or daughter receives an award or does the perfect cartwheel or learns to ride a bike, they don¡¦t just communicate it to dad. They call up grandma, and the neighbors and anyone else who is willing to sit there and listen. They put it in the paper. They want the world to know.
That¡¦s what these people did. They carried the message beyond those who had been present there to see it. They spread it so far that everyone in the whole region knew what had happened there that day. Everyone heard about this Jesus. On that day, a widow¡¦s ¡§tears were turned into a testimony. [Her weeping was] changed into a witness.¡¨
God wants to work miracles here and in your life. But when He does, He expects that we will carry the news about it beyond the walls of this school. He desires that the miracles He does in your family will be known far beyond the walls of your home. God deserves the glory both inside the church and outside its walls.
The crowd that had been following death now followed life. All of them, mother and son, Jesus and disciples, and the whole crowd headed into the city of Nain, the place of delight and pleasantness. Jesus had done a miracle, and they could rejoice again!
NOTE: We could stop right here. I could leave you with the impression that God is going to work a miracle in the lives of every one of your sons and daughters, and everyone could go home happy. I suppose that¡¦s what¡¦s supposed to happen on Mother¡¦s Day. But the Christian life is not a fairy tale where everyone ¡§lives happily ever after¡¨ ¡V at least not on earth. Most of you have experienced the fact that everything doesn¡¦t always end up the way you wanted it to. God doesn¡¦t perform a miracle in every situation for every person. What then? How are you going to respond when the dead person doesn¡¦t rise from the grave or the sick person doesn¡¦t make it out of the hospital?
4. The hesitation was answered. (vs. 18-23)
The news about what Jesus had done reached all the way down into a prison cell that housed John the Baptist. John was Jesus¡¦ cousin and His greatest supporter. It was he that had pointed at Jesus and said, ¡§Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.¡¨ It was John that said, ¡§He must increase, and I must decrease¡¨ when many of those who had followed him started following Jesus instead. And it was he who had been imprisoned for condemning sin and was now awaiting death. When this John heard about all that Jesus was doing, it provoked some questions in his mind. So he sent two of his followers to Jesus to ask Him a question:
„X Are you the one? (vs. 19)
When John had baptized Jesus only a short time before his imprisonment, he had seen the Spirit descend like a dove on Jesus, and he had heard the voice of the Father identifying Jesus as God¡¦s Son. John knew in his mind that Jesus was the Messiah that they had been anticipating for so long. But the fact that he was now in prison was making his heart question what his mind knew was the truth.
Suffering will do that to you. It will make you doubt what you¡¦ve been taught and what you¡¦ve always believed. What he was going through didn¡¦t fit with his understanding of what being related to God was supposed to be like. We call it a crisis of belief, and it happens in most people¡¦s lives. It is a turning point for most people. It is at that point that people either choose to chuck it all or they decide to believe that God¡¦s Word is true no matter what their experience is at that particular moment.
To answer John¡¦s question, Jesus began to do even more miracles in front of John¡¦s disciples. Look at vs. 21-22. [read them] Jesus¡¦ answer to John¡¦s first question rested in the miracles. If Jesus was not God, if He was not the Messiah, then He would not have had the power to be able to do all the things that He did, especially when it came to raising the dead. So the answer to John¡¦s first question was ¡§Yes¡¨ ¡V Jesus was the One that they had been waiting for.
Many people today still ask that question ¡V is Jesus the one that I¡¦ve been looking for? And the answer to us today is the same as it was to John. Yes, Jesus is the one who not only has the power to heal your body, but He can heal your heart and forgive your sin. He can take the deadness that you feel and bring life. Jesus is the One. Jesus is the only One. There¡¦s no point in looking for someone else, because Jesus is the only One who has what you need.
„X Then, what about my suffering?
Hidden in the middle of the question that John voiced is another question that is implied. It goes something like this: ¡§Jesus, I hear about the miracles that you¡¦re doing in everyone else¡¦s life. You did a miracle for a Roman soldier even though Rome has been so cruel to our people. You did a miracle for a widowed mother even though she did not know who you were and had never done anything for you. Now, here I am, rotting in this prison anticipating death at any moment. I am your cousin. I am your greatest supporter. I believed in you when no one but your mother knew your name. When is it my turn? When do I get to see a miracle? Why have you abandoned me in this dungeon that I¡¦m trapped in? What about my suffering, Jesus? It¡¦s just not fair!¡¨
And that too is a question that many of you may be asking. Here is Jesus doing all these miracles in biblical times and even miracles in our world today. Why doesn¡¦t He do a miracle for my suffering?
The only answer that I can give to you is the same answer that Jesus gave to John. He kept on doing miracles. He kept on healing people. By doing that, Jesus was not trying to be cruel and do miracles for everyone except John. Jesus was trying to show John that Jesus was the miracle-worker. The most important factor is not whether or not Jesus is going to work a miracle in your life. The most important factor is that you understand that He is the miracle-worker. He is God.
Once you accept that He is God, then regardless of whether or not He chooses to do a miracle in your life, you will choose to follow Him in suffering and in delight. Whether you¡¦re living in Nain with your raised son, or living in the dungeon awaiting death, you can still trust that the miracle-worker will always do what is right. God is far more interested in healing your heart than He is interested in healing your situation. He wants you to trust in Him even when it looks like your world is falling apart.
Some of you mothers have seen God work miracles in the lives of other people¡¦s children. You have seen the turn-arounds and heard the tears turned into laughter. And you may be tempted to wonder when it¡¦s going to happen for you. May I be quite honest with you? The miracle might never happen for you in your situation.
But here is the question that Jesus would ask of you: ¡§Will you still believe in me even when I don¡¦t work a miracle for you?¡¨ To John, he said, ¡§Which is more important to you ¡V your freedom or me?¡¨ To you parents ¡V you mothers ¡V He would say, ¡§Which is more important to you ¡V your children or me?¡¨ It is a hard question. But Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. That means that you¡¦ve got to love God more than you love your kids. And one of the Ten Commandments is, ¡§Thou shalt have no other gods before me.¡¨ (Ex. 20) That means that when it comes to a choice between our kids and God, God must always have first place.
CONCLUSION
The widow got her son back. John was eventually beheaded. One situation ended happily. One ended sadly. The issue for that broken-hearted lady was not her son. It was Jesus. The issue for a disillusioned John was not the dungeon. It was Jesus. The issue for you is not your situation and whether or not it is going to change. The issue for you is Jesus.
I don¡¦t know how your situation is going to end. But I know that Jesus is God, and regardless of whether your suffering is to end or to continue, that doesn¡¦t change the fact that He cares and that there is always hope.
INVITATION
Maybe you are here this morning, and you are going through some kind of suffering. And quite possibly, it has something to do with your kids. You, as a mother or as a dad have tried to build a pleasant place for your kids, and yet they still choose the way of death no matter what you do. Maybe you have lost all hope. Jesus¡¦ heart goes out to you, and He would tell you this morning just as He told to that mother in His day, ¡§Don¡¦t cry. There is still hope. I can work a miracle.¡¨
But maybe there are others of you here who have been praying for a miracle for a long time. God doesn¡¦t seem to be doing anything. You¡¦re beginning to doubt either the power of God or the love of God. To you, Jesus would say, ¡§Don¡¦t cry. I am the Miracle-worker. I am God. Trust my heart even when you can¡¦t see my hand.¡¨
This morning, I would invite you to do two things. First, bring all your hopeless situations to Jesus. He is the only One who can heal them. And second, bring all your doubts to Jesus. He is the only One who can give you peace in the middle of the dungeon.
