Video Clip Notes:
- In Israel it was their custom to bury their dead the same day…this really is important due to the climate.
- They would be carried out on a bier (litter or open type coffin) wrapped in a shroud anointed with spices to either a community burial place if they were very poor or to a private family tomb if they were wealthy.
- The procession would be accompanied by professional mourners in addition to family and friends. Even the poorest were to have "not less than 2 flutes and 1 wailing woman." Keening gives me the creeps!
- Later, after some time had passed the person’s dried bones would be gathered into an ossuary and placed on a niche in the wall of the tomb.
- Rocks placed are on their graves instead of flowers…
- Serve as an eternal reminder that someone cared and visited the grave. This could also serve to comfort the mourners.
- Flowers were originally used in the Europe to cover odor, but not effective nor needed in Israel with their same-day burial customs and fragrant spices used to anoint the body.
- The rocks also serve to connect them to their history…the history of the land.
- Jesus interrupted one such funeral procession in the town of Nain, 6 miles SE of Nazareth, on slopes of the Little Hermon…
Semon Notes: "When Death and Life Collide"
Read: Luke 7:11-17
3 Perspectives on
Jesus’ Resurrection… Some Focus on it as:
1. An Historical Fact (1 Corinthians 15:3-7)
2. A Future Hope (John 11:25-26)
3. A Present Power
·
Power
that is moved by compassion "When the Lord saw her, his heart went out
to her and he said, ‘Don't cry.’"
Compassion: That churning in
your gut, that unsettling feeling that says, “I’ve got to do something about
this.”
·
Power
that makes dead people alive (Ephesians 2:1-5; John 5:28-29)
·
Power
that shows us who Jesus is (Luke 7:18-23; Romans 10:9-10)
- When I suffer loss, am I a part of an authentic
community that will walk with me through anything…even through loss,
sorrow, and the process of grief with me? Am I an active part of community
of faith that is living and learning and growing together? Both are important.
- How does the ministry of Jesus relate to that of the
prophets Elijah and Elisha?
- How does this passage, and the others listed
above, shape my understanding of how
Jesus lived and loved?
- What other ways do we see Jesus showing power over
sickness and death in Luke?
- What kind of a neighbor am I? Do I mourn with those
who mourn and rejoice with those who rejoice or do I distance myself from
others?
- Am I moved with the compassion of Christ to get
involved in loving people? How dirty am I willing to get to show God’s
love for hurting people?
- What great things have I seen Jesus do? What is my
honest response when someone tells me about how God is working in their
life? Am I moved to worship or something less?
- Can I see myself in the grieving widow, utterly
spent and without hope without the intervention of Jesus in my life? Do I
trust in Jesus to make a way for me today?
- Who is he asking me to show compassion for this week?
Word Study: The
English word “compassion” means “to
suffer with another, sorrow, sympathy with the desire to help.” It translates
the Greek word splankhnezomi
(Strong’s # 4697). Since the cultural view of that day saw the bowels as the
seat of love and compassion, this word “to be moved to one’s bowels” meant to
feel deep down the need of others…suffering with them. We see this word twelve
times in the New Testament and only in the gospels (see “Other Passages” list
above). However, compassion is more than mere pity, as it generally moves one to
act on behalf of its object. Here we see Jesus seeing a need, feeling their
deep pain and loss, and doing what he could to help. In this case he provided
for a destitute widow by raising her son from the dead.
Commentary & Quotes: The following are quotes from various commentators we have features in our "Other Resources" section.
“So where is the faith this time? The centurion’s servant was healed because of his owner’s faith, but in this story the only person who has any faith that the dead man can be raised is jesus himself. Though Jesus loves to see the signs of faith, he isn’t always bound by it, and in this case he acts freely, from sheer compassion, to do something nobody had imagined he could or would.” (N.T. Wright, Luke for Everyone, WJK, 2004, 82.)
“Come inside the story and allow its force to sweep over you. Walk in the crowd a few paces behind the bier, on a hot day in Galilee, with the bright sun sparkling on the tears which are streaming down everyone’s cheeks. Death is common enough, and everybody knows what to do. The professional mourners and wailers are there, making plenty of noise so that friends and relatives, and particularly the poor mother, can cry their hearts out without the embarrassment of making a scene all by themselves. (How much kinder a system than the clinical, detached solemnity of a modern Western funeral!)” (N.T. Wright, Luke for Everyone, WJK, 2004, 82-83.)
“Luke is the only Gospel to tell the story of the widow of Nain. This fits into the theme of his concern for the outcast and marginalized. No group was more marginalized. No group was more marginalized in the first century than women, and among women, widows were more desperate still…” (Michael Card, Luke: Gospel of Amazement, IVP, 2011, 98.)
"To add to the hardship and the sense of loneliness and sorrow there was the knowledge that the family line had ended. The large crowd from the city that accompanied her shows that her plight was widely appreciated and there was a septh of sympathy for her. Luke does not mention professional mourners but they would have been there: 'Even the poorest in Israel should hire not less than two flutes and one wailing woman' (Ketabith 4:4)." (Leon Morris, Luke, IVP, 1988, 153.)
The following extended section is from Do You See Him? Expository Studies in the New Testament, by Greg K. Dueker which we have used in our Church-based Bible Institute over the years.
Jesus Built Faith by Raising the Dead
In competitive diving, divers are rated on how well the dive is executed technically, then that score is multiplied by something called a "degree of difficulty," with the result being the final score for that dive. This is done to give the divers some incentive to try the harder dives rather than just repeating the easier dives. As a diver gets more proficient, he or she progressively tries harder and harder dives--in order to get higher scores. We see the same general pattern happening in Jesus' ministry. In the specific Biblical examples of Jesus raising the dead to life we see an increasing "degree of difficulty." It would be wrong to think that Jesus had to work up to the "harder" miracles, but rather that He was building the disciples' faith progressively. He allowed them to grow to trust Him in the smaller things, then in bigger things. Let's see how Jesus built His disciples faith, so they would see Jesus as their Creator and Redeemer.
A) A Little Girl Was Raised from the Dead (Matthew 9:18-26)
"While he was saying this, a ruler came and knelt before him and said, "My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live." Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples. Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. She said to herself, "If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed." Jesus turned and saw her. "Take heart, daughter," he said, "your faith has healed you." And the woman was healed from that moment. When Jesus entered the ruler's house and saw the flute players and the noisy crowd, he said, "Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep." But they laughed at him. After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up. News of this spread through all that region."
"Of course she was dead, for her spirit had left her body (compare Luke 8:55 with James 2:26); but to Jesus, death was only sleep… Sleep is a normal experience that we do not fear, and we [as believers] should not fear death. It is the body that sleeps, not the spirit, for the spirit of the believer goes to be with Christ (Philippians 1:20-24; 2 Corinthians 5:6-8). At the resurrection, the body will be `awakened' and glorified, and God's people will share the image of Christ (1 John 3:1-2)."[1]
We have seen that Jesus was able to raise up someone who had just died, now here in Luke 7 we see that He had the power to raise up someone that had been dead for several hours--as He interrupted a funeral service.
This is probably a miracle that we are all familiar with. Jesus again used sleep as a metaphor for death and had to explain what He meant to His disciples. Jesus purposely waited two days after hearing that Lazarus was dying before He began the trip back to Judea. He was motivated by the assurance that God would be glorified through the situation. By the time Jesus got to Bethany, Lazarus had been dead and buried for four days. As it is written, "On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days." (v.17)
"When
Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed
at home. ‘Lord,' Martha said to Jesus, ‘if you had been here, my brother would not
have died. But I know that even now God will give you
whatever you ask.' Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.' Martha answered, ‘I know he will rise again in the resurrection
at the last day.' Jesus said to her, `I am the resurrection and the life.
He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives
and believes in me will never die. Do
you believe this?' `Yes, Lord,' she told him, ‘I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into
the world.'" (vss. 20-27)
Jesus
said that not only could He raise Lazarus, but that He was in fact the
Resurrection and the Life. Martha
responded in faith by confessing that Jesus was the Lord, the Messiah
(or Christ) and the Son of God.
"Martha
did not hesitate to affirm her faith.
She used three different titles for Jesus: Lord, Christ (Messiah), and
Son of God. The words ‘I believe’ are in
the perfect tense, indicating a fixed and settled faith. ‘I have believed and I will continue to
believe!’"[2]
Yet we
see that her faith, though strong in confession, was weak in practice, for at
the last minute she hesitated at the thought that Lazarus would stink, having
been in the grave four days.
Martha
went back to the house and told Mary that Jesus was there. Mary quickly got up and went to meet
Him. She said the same thing that Martha
had said to Jesus, but she said it while laying at Jesus' feet, weeping. We can see the great compassion and empathy
that characterized the Lord as her tears and others' tears moved Jesus to
tears. As it is written,
"When
Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping,
he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.
`Where have you laid him?' he asked.
`Come and see, Lord,' they replied.
Jesus wept. Then the Jews
said, `See how he loved him!' But some of them said, `Could not he who
opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?' Jesus,
once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the
entrance. `Take away the stone,' he
said. `But, Lord,' said Martha, the
sister of the dead man, `by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been
there four days.' Then Jesus said, `Did I not tell you that if you believed,
you would see the glory of God?' So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, `Father, I
thank you that you have heard me. I knew
that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing
here, that they may believe that you sent me.' When he had said this, Jesus
called in a loud voice, `Lazarus, come out!' The dead man came out, his
hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, `Take off the grave
clothes and let him go.' Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit
Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in him." (vss. 33-45)
The
people did not understand why Jesus did not prevent Lazarus' death. They certainly did not believe that anything
could be done at such a late date. The
text says that Jesus became deeply moved, which actually means that
Jesus was angry. What was He angry
at? Most likely, Jesus was indignant at
sin and the destruction that it had wreaked in a world that Jesus had created
to be perfect, but now was filled with death: the dead, and the dying. Perhaps He wept for Lazarus and the fact that
to prove that He was the Messiah He had to bring Lazarus back from a better
place to, as the old song says, "this world of woe."
John 12:9-10
"Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews
found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of him but also to
see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests made plans to kill
Lazarus as well."
We see
that it was this miracle, the raising of Lazarus, that set the stage for His
triumphal entry to Jerusalem at the beginning of the Passion week.
"Now the crowd that was
with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead
continued to spread the word. Many
people, because they had heard that he had given this miraculous sign, went out
to meet him." (John 12:17-18)
Did
these miracles really convince the people of Jesus' identity as the
Messiah? The answer is both yes and
no. Those who believed the Word of God
believed in Jesus, those who had rejected the heart and spirit of the Word
rejected Jesus and did not believe He was the Christ--even though many came
back from the dead to testify.
Jesus
taught that those who would not listen to the Word of God would not be
persuaded by the power of God (Luke 16:19-31).
Yet one day, that last great terrible day they will see (Revelation
6:16).
D) Jesus Himself
was Raised from the Dead
Jesus
suffered through the terrible torturous acts of the Romans, as well as the
Jewish guards. He died a violent death
on the cross and was taken down, prepared for burial, and buried in the tomb of
Joseph of Arimathea. On the third day,
He was raised from the dead. A live
Jesus was not there to raise Him up. It
was the power of the Father that raised Him, along with the fact that He had
lived a life without sin so the grave could not hold Him. As it is written, "But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death,
because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him." (Acts 2:24)
·
John 2:22 "After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he
had said. Then they believed the
Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken."
·
Acts 3:15 "You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this."
·
Romans 8:11 "And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in
you, he who raised Christ from the dead
will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in
you."
·
1 Corinthians 6:14 "By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he
will raise us also."
Other
references:
John 21:14; Acts 4:10; 5:30; 10:40; 13:30-38; Romans 4:24; 6:4,9; 7:4; 10:9; 1
Corinthians 15:12, 20, 32; Galatians 1:1; Ephesians 1:20; Colossians 2:12; 1 Thessalonians
1:10; 2 Timothy 2:8; 1 Peter 1:21.
As far
as history is concerned, there is no one event that has been so thoroughly
documented as fact as the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is the great truth upon which all of our
faith rests. The Apostle Paul said well,
"And if Christ has not been raised, our
preaching is useless and so is your faith… And if Christ has not been
raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins… If only for this life
we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. But Christ has indeed been raised from the
dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep." (1 Corinthians 15:14, 17, 19-20)
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