[Listen to an audio version here]
There are few things that can grip our hearts more than threats to the ones we love. We yearn for them. We worry about them. We weep for them. We are concerned about them.
In the amazing grace of God, He has given us a group of people around us who care for us and love us and to whom we can also give love and care. These people are the sources of some of our greatest joys on earth and also some of our greatest sorrows. What can hurt us more than the loss of a child? What is rougher than the loss of someone close such as a wife or a friend who has been with us for many years?
Into this great challenge, Jesus enters in and shows His love and care for those whom we love the most. He demonstrates His care in two stories where someone experiences sorrow over someone they love dearly. Even in this difficult area of our life, Jesus shows us that He is greater than we often think and able to care for those whom we love. In this story, we have two instances of the marvelous works of Jesus that were greater than any recorded thus far. This shows us how great Jesus is and with how much confidence we can put our loved ones in His hands. These are the stories of a centurion and a widow who experienced the marvelous works of Jesus.
The Centurion
A centurion was an army officer of the Roman Empire. This centurion or army officer lived in Capernaum, since the Roman Empire had soldiers stationed everywhere. This centurion had a servant whom he loved, and this servant was sick and about to die. Here was someone dear to this man, and he was on the point of death. It seemed like there was no hope. Then, he heard about Jesus. Jesus had been healing all sorts of people, and so he believed that there was hope.
Out of this hope, he sought out Jesus. What is striking here is that this man did not go to Jesus himself. Instead, he sent some of the elders of the Jews to ask Jesus to heal his servant. When they came to Jesus, they not only asked him, “they pleaded earnestly with him.” Now, why would they do this for a Gentile, Roman army officer? They gave Jesus the reason, “This man deserves to have you do this, because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue” (7:5).
The Roman army officer was a man who cared about people. He loved his servant. He also loved the people where he lived. He showed this care for them by building them a synagogue.
The Roman army officer was a man who cared about God as well. He was probably pious and what the Jews of the time called “a God fearing man.” He showed his care for the people by building them a place for worship.
This centurion was just and pious. He represented the best of what Rome had to offer to the world. The Jews of Capernaum were so moved by his justice and his piety that they went to Jesus on his behalf.
The result was that Jesus went with them to heal the servant. However, when Jesus was not far from the house, the centurion sent out friends to say to him. “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you” (Luke 7:6b–7a). This is remarkable indeed. He saw his own unworthiness and the worthiness of Jesus. He saw Jesus as great.
How great did the centurion see Jesus as? Listen to what the centurion says next, “But say the word, and my servant will be healed, for I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it” (Luke 7:7b–8). Think about this for a moment. How had Jesus healed up to this time? He had only healed those whom he had touched and been in the presence of. What this Roman army officer was saying was that Jesus could heal someone without even being physically present there. He could be absent in His body and yet present in His power.
Jesus was amazed at the centurion. Note that carefully: Jesus was amazed. He saw something that was marvelous. Here was a faith the likes of which he had never seen, and this was a Gentile! He turned to the crowd and said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith, even in Israel” (Luke 7:9). Because the centurion believed that Jesus could do more than He had up to this point, people received a new revelation of the greatness of Jesus! This Gentile centurion believed Jesus could do more than they had seen him do up to this point. His faith opens a new door to seeing the greatness of Jesus. Jesus Himself said that he had never seen anything like it.
Jesus was greater than they thought. Jesus could heal anyone, anywhere with a word or a thought. They returned home, and they found the servant well.
Before we go to the next story, here’s a few points of application. First, consider the model of this centurion. He loved the people where he was, even though they were different from him. He showed it by doing something that was deeply meaningful to them. They responded in love to him. Do we love the people where we are? If a Gentile Roman officer could do that, how much more can we who have the power of the Spirit of the resurrected Christ?
Second, are we seeking something from Jesus that would cause people to see the greatness of Jesus in a new way? Are we seeking something that would make people say, Jesus is greater than we thought? I often want to go just by what I see is possible, but this passage challenges us to see that much more is possible with Jesus than we tend to think! We just need to ask Him!
Third, think of the encouragement this story provided for those to whom Luke wrote it. They did not have Jesus physically present with them like the disciples did. However, this account would remind them that Jesus did not have to be physically present in order to work. His power was with them, even when His body had gone into heaven. He is so great that the constraints of time and space do not limit Him. So it is for us. We should learn to see Jesus as present in power even though we do not see Him as present in body. That’s the faith we need.
The next story goes even further.
The Widow
The picture we have in the next account is of Jesus entering the town of Nain accompanied by a large crowd. As this crowd approached the town, there was another large crowd going in the opposite direction.
This second crowd was a funerary procession. A person was being carried out. It was the only son of a woman. It’s always extremely sad to lose a child, but when all your hopes are wrapped up in one child, it is even more tragic. The other thing is that this woman had already experienced loss. She was a widow. She had lost her husband. Both of those who might have given her the greatest comfort had been taken from her, like Naomi.
When Jesus understood the situation, He went straight up to the woman and said something that nobody should say at a funeral. “Don’t cry.” This would seem to be completely wrong. Why would you tell a widow who had lost her son not to cry? Grief and tears are God’s gift to help us adjust to our loss. So, why would Jesus say something that seems so off?
Jesus told her not to cry because death was not the end. Jesus was going to raise the son from the dead. She was going to get him back. This was something that they had not seen before and that they had not looked for before. Even after this, there was a time when Jesus went to heal a sick girl, but she died. The person there said, “Your daughter is dead. Don’t bother the teacher any more.” Death seemed to them to be the enemy that Jesus would not be able to defeat.
But it’s not. “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!’ The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother” (Luke 7:14–15). Jesus was greater than they thought. Jesus could raise the dead. Now, in the text, there is still the question, what if Jesus Himself dies? That’s the answer we know but that the disciples had not yet figured out. They thought that when He was dead that it was over. It wasn’t. He could raise the dead, including Himself, even when He himself had died! He was greater than they thought.
When the people saw this, they were filled with awe. They understood that Jesus was greater than they thought. There was no mistaking it. Here was a true prophet of God. God had not forgotten about His people. God had visited them!
So, here’s a couple of points of application for this story. First, should we not cry? No. We can and should. Even Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus. However, we do not cry in an ultimate sense as if there is no hope. We mourn, but we do not mourn as those who have no hope. We sorrow, but we do not sorrow as if that is the end. We are “sorrowing yet rejoicing” as the Apostle Paul puts it.
Second, this shows us that we can entrust our loved ones to Jesus. He will take care of them. He knows what to do for them. He can do for them what we could never do for them.
Third, while our loved ones may not come back to life right now, this was a demonstration of what Jesus will do when He comes again. People will rise from the dead and get renewed bodies that will be like Jesus’. We are the people who look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. When that day comes, Jesus will give us back all the good that we have lost and say to us, “Do not cry” and wipe away every tear from our eyes. We will see Jesus in a whole new way and know that He is greater than we ever thought. Amen.
Benediction: What could you seek from Jesus that would show that Jesus is greater than we thought? What can we ask Him to do? That’s what I want you to think about this week. Stretch your mind and see the possibilities that are there because Jesus lives.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
________
Photo by Jonas Kakaroto on Unsplash