A Ministry Marked by Compassion

Luke 7:11-28 - Riley Boggs

Churches and pastors take all kinds of approaches to preaching. Some preach topically, sort of jumping from one idea to another, or maybe even going through a series related to a specific topic. Some preach from a different passage of Scripture each week, depending on what the pastor selected, with no specific order. Here at Covenant, and you obviously know this already, we preach through books of the Bible beginning to end. And the reason we do that is 3-fold. First, the Bible says that pastors are to preach the whole counsel of God. That means that we shouldn’t intentionally avoid or neglect any part of Scripture. Rather, we are supposed to preach it all faithfully. And it seems that the best way to ensure that is to just work through the Bible, one book at a time, until the whole counsel has been preached.

Second, we want to preach passages in their correct context. If we just drop into a random book and focus on a specific passage each week, it is going to be difficult to know the context well each time. And context matters a lot for interpretation. We want to know who wrote it, who they wrote it to, the time, the place, and all the rest. When we preach through books, we sit in the same context for an extended period of time. This makes all the passages demand that they be preached in their correct context, and it helps us to see the correct meaning more clearly.

Lastly, we do it because that’s how they were intended to be taken in. When Paul wrote the letter to the Corinthians, he didn’t expect them to just drop in the middle of the letter and begin to read. There were no chapters or verses, it was a letter. Think about it, how do you read a letter? Beginning to end. That’s how it was intended to be taken in. Well, that’s true of all the books of the Bible. Yes it is good to drop in different texts at different times when addressing specific topics, but if our goal is to truly understand what the author intended to convey, we need to read it like the author expected, which is, beginning to end. And obviously that’s how we have approached each book I’ve preached through, including the book we are in right now, Luke.

This whole idea was brought to my mind this past week. And I grew in appreciation of this approach to preaching as I thought about how amazing it has been for myself to study and preach this Gospel each week, beginning to end. We’ve been able to see this week-by-week progression of Jesus’ ministry. Every week we gather together here in this little church building, open our Bibles together, and see what Jesus is doing. It keeps building up and growing in its richness, clearly moving in a certain direction. Think about this. 14 Sundays ago we read about Jesus being born. 10 Sundays ago we saw Jesus Baptized. 6 Sundays ago we watched Simon, James, and John leave everything behind to begin to follow Jesus. 3 Sundays ago we heard Jesus preach the sermon on the mount. And last Sunday we got to see a Centurion demonstrate great faith in Jesus, and Jesus heal his servant. Every week it builds a little more. We get to see a little bit more of who Jesus is, a little more of what His ministry looked like, and a little more of what His ultimate purpose for coming to our broken world, and by extension, what that means for us. This morning is no different, we are simply opening our Bibles and seeing what Jesus is doing this week here in Luke’s Gospel.

The neat thing about the passage we find ourselves this morning is that Luke has put these stories together in such a way that all 3 of these things are put before us. We get a story that shows us more clearly who Jesus is and a story that shows us both what His ministry looked like and what His ultimate purpose for coming was. The first story Luke tells us is the story of Jesus healing a Widow’s son. Starting in verse 11 we see that Jesus shows up in a town called Nain and that His disciples and large crowd were following Him. And as Jesus approached the gate to the city, he saw a man who had died being carried out. There were lots of people following along, including the man’s mother. Luke also tells us that not only was this her only son, but she was a widow. In this time, in this place, that meant she was in a particularly difficult spot. She had not only lost those she loved, but she lost those who provided for her.

When Jesus saw her, Luke tells us that He had compassion on her. So much so that He went up to her, told her, “Do not weep”, and touched what the man was being carried on. Typically, this would have make the person touching it unclean, but we know that Jeus often flips the script on things like that, and this is no exception. He touches the bier and the bearers stop. Then Jesus says, “Young man, I say to you arise.” And in that moment, the young man sat up, began to speak, and Jesus gives the man to his mother. Luke tells us that everyone who saw this was seized with fear and began to glorify God saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited his people!” And, as usual, the report of this began to spread throughout the area.

The only thing harder than going through pain or suffering yourself, is watching someone you love go through pain or suffer. This is especially true when you aren’t able to do anything to alleviate it. There’s nothing you can do to stop the pain, theres nothing you can do to make the suffering stop. You can pray and comfort with them with words, but when it comes to stopping the problem, you can’t. You feel helpless, and yet, your greatest desire in that moment is to help. That desire, that feeling, is rooted is rooted in compassion. Compassion, very simply, is the concern for someone’s suffering. And I think, it is a virtuous trait. In fact, I would argue it’s a Godly trait we ought to foster. Why? Because Jesus has compassion on those who are dead and dying, which is our first point this morning.

1.) Jesus has compassion on those who are dead and dying

Luke doesn’t leave us to speculate what drove Jesus to heal this man. He makes it very clear and says that it was Jesus’ compassion when He looked at the man’s mother. He saw the pain she was in; He saw the future she had before her, and He wanted it to be other than what it is, so He did something about it. No one came to Him and asked Him to do this; He simply had compassion on this woman and raised her son from the dead.

There’s one phrase in this passage I think is very special and there’s no doubt that the Lord put it here for us to make a connection. The phrase can be found in verse 15. After Jesus speaks to the man and he sits up and begins to speak, the text says, “and Jesus gave him to his mother.” That’s the phrase that I want to draw your attention to, “and Jesus gave him to his mother.” Now, while that’s on your mind, turn to 1 Kings 17. Starting in verse 17, we read, “17 After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill. And his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. 18 And she said to Elijah, “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!” 19 And he said to her, “Give me your son.” And he took him from her arms and carried him up into the upper chamber where he lodged, and laid him on his own bed. 20 And he cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?” 21 Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, let this child's life come into him again.”22 And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived.23 And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house and delivered him to his mother. And Elijah said, “See, your son lives.” 24 And the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.”

Similar story, right? But did you see that phrase again? After the Lord raised the child through the Elijah, he took the child and what? Delivered him to his mother. This is the same idea being conveyed. Now flip back to Luke. What do the people say in response to Jesus raising this man? They say, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” Now ask yourself, what was Elijah? A prophet! Whether or not the people there knew the connection in the moment, I don’t know, but it should be obvious for us now. When we read of this man being raised and we see Jesus take this man to his mother, our minds should immediately go to the story of God using Elijah doing the very same thing for a widow. When God visited His people, just like they cry out here in this text, to show compassion on a widow. That same thing is happening right here in the God-man Jesus Christ. That is what God, through Luke, is trying to get us to see by phrasing it in this particular way.

But, notice that the point I’ve put up there doesn’t say that Jesus “had”, past tense, compassion on those who are dead and dying. Rather, it says that Jesus “has” compassion on those who are dead and dying. You might be thinking, how do you know that? Ephesians 2:4-7, “God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

While we were dead in our trespasses and sins, unable to do anything about it, unable to even asked to be made alive, Jesus came to us and raised us. Of course this isn’t a physical death, it is a spiritual death. But in the same way that this man could not raise himself back to physical life, we could not raise ourselves back to spiritual life. We were dead. But God loved us, sought us, and raised us, in the same way that Jesus raised this man. And the good news is, He is still doing this this very day. He is still seeking out those who are dead and dying, and raising them to be alive in Him. That’s the compassion of our wonderful Lord and Savior.

The only way that this is even possible is because Jesus came, lived, died, and resurrected on our behalf. That’s what I want us to look at for our second point this morning.

2.) Jesus came to bring salvation, not judgement

Does anyone remember the last time we saw John the Baptist? It was all the way back in Luke 3, when he was put into prison for rebuking Herod. John had called out Herod for his sinful dealings and in response, Herod locked him away. Well, that is still here John is here in our story this morning. And we read in verse 18 that John’s disciples went and reported all of the things that Jesus had been doing, to him in prison. And in response, John calls over 2 of his disciples and tells them to convey a message to Jesus for him. The message is actually a question that John wants an answer to. John tells them to ask Jesus whether or not He is the one to come, or if they should look for another. And so, in verse 20, you can see what the John’s discipled asked Jesus once they got to him. They say, “John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”

Now before we go on, does this strike anyone as a bit of a strange question for John to ask? Does it seem a bit out of character? If we are tracking along in Luke’s Gospel well, I think it should. Just a handful of chapters ago, John was preaching so boldly about how Jesus is the one whom they have been waiting for. He preaches that Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophets of old and the He has come to baptize people with the Holy Spirit. He seemed so confident that Jesus was the one to come, right? Why is he asking this question now?

Here’s what I think is happening. I think John has misunderstood Jesus’ first coming and Jesus’ second coming. John is expecting Jesus to come onto the scene to not only bring salvation, but to bring judgment on those who have been oppressing God’s people. He has read the prophet Isaiah and knows that the one who is to come is going to bring about judgment, once and for all. And now, John is sitting in prison, for His faithfulness to God, wondering why it isn’t happening? He keeps hearing these stories of Jesus healing and cleansing and saving from his disciples, and He wants to know when the judgment is coming. That’s the question that He is asking here. He wants to know if Jesus is the one who is bringing not only salvation, but judgement. Because if Jesus isn’t bringing judgement, then He isn’t the one prophesied about in the Old Testament. And if that’s the case then there is still another to come who will bring judgement and who will be the fulfillment of prophecies.

So let me ask you. Is Jesus the one? Is He the fulfillment the prophecies? If so, where is the judgement? The answer is that Jesus is coming twice. The first coming is what we are reading about right here, where Jesus came to bring salvation. The second coming is what will happen, future tense, where Jesus will come to bring His people and to judge those who never turned to Him. That’s where the judgment is. And if John were to read the prophets well, he would’ve seen that. Instead, he sat in the prison blending these 2 comings of Christ together.

Jesus responds to John’s disciples by not only healing more people, but by telling them this very thing in verse 22. He says, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. 23 And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” What Jesus is doing here is genius, of course. He is referring to Isaiah 35, the text we read for our call to worship this morning. In it, it says, “’Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.’ 5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; 6 then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.”

In other words, what Jesus is telling John is that, yes, I am the one to come. He is saying, yes John, I am the fulfillment of the words of the prophet Isaiah. But now I have come to bring salvation, then I will come to bring judgement. John thought it was happening all at once, likely longing for it while sitting in prison, but Jesus is reminding Him that just because judgment isn’t happening now, does not mean that it won’t, and does not mean that He will not be the one to bring it.

After John’s disciples leave, Jesus turns to the crowd and begins to speak to them about John. Many of these people listening to Jesus here knew who John the Baptist was. Many of them had heard him proclaim the message that the One is coming, Jesus Christ. Many of them had likely been baptized by John. Jesus, knowing this, asks them rhetorical questions about what they went to see, when they went to see John preaching and preparing the way in the wilderness.

He asks, did you go to see a reed shaken in the wind? The answer, of course, would have been no. If he meant a literal reed shaken in the wind, then that wouldn’t have been something to go search for, since it happened all the time. If he meant it figuratively, then no, because no one wants to hear a teacher who is constantly changing what they are saying. Then, he asks another question. He asks, did you go to see a man dressed in soft clothing? Again, the answer would have been of course not, and he tells them why. Because people wearing soft clothing aren’t in the wilderness, they are in the king’s courts. So the question, that he’s asked now 3 times, is, what did you go to see?  Then, he offers them the real answer, it was a prophet. In fact, it was more than prophet. John was more than a prophet because not only did he tell of the one to come, but he prepared the way. Not only was he the one who shared the message to the people, he was the one who went before Jesus, the Son of God, on this Earth. And because of that, Jesus says, “I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John.” Pretty high regard, right?

But that’s not all He said, is it? No He adds one more thing, and it’s the thing that I want to finish our time looking at this morning. Jesus says “I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” The final point I want us to see this morning is this.

3.) Because Jesus came, we stand in a more privileged place than the prophets

What Jesus is saying here is absolutely groundbreaking. If this doesn’t make us feel like the most privileged and loved people to have ever existed, shame on us. Jesus says here that John is the greatest person who had been born, up until this time. Why? He prepared the way for the Son of God, the Savior of the world. He preached of the one who was coming to break sins curse and to defeat death once and for all. He was baptized by the Eternal Son of God, who was clothed in humanity. And yet, every single person in this room who has trusted Christ for salvation stands in a greater place than him. The question is, how is that possible? The temptation might be to even question Jesus on this. I mean, are you sure Jesus? I don’t feel like I’m in a greater place than John, He was with you! I’ve never even seen you Jesus, I feel like my faith is lacking and I’ve doubted you. There’s no way that’s true.

No matter how you feel about that statement, it is true. And the reason that it is true is because we know more about who Jesus is and what He accomplished than all the prophets before, even John. They knew in part, what we know so much fuller now. This is clear is John’s lack of understanding of when Jesus is going to bring judgment. He didn’t get the full picture of who Jesus was and what He was going to do just yet.

But not only that, in 2 chapters we are going to read that John is beheaded, so that means he is going to miss many things. John is not going to see Jesus continue to do ministry. He is not going to see Him betrayed and taken before Pilate to be condemned. He is not going to see Jesus whipped and mocked and made to carry His own cross. He is not going to see Him crucified and He is not going to see Him buried. John will not see that, none of the prophets will. But it goes even further. He will not see Him resurrect from the dead, He will not see Him appear to the disciples, and He will not see Him ascend to the right hand of the Father.

Brothers and sisters, we have seen all of that. Right here, in the Word of God, we get full access to all of this. We get the full Gospel, unhindered. We don’t have to decipher the prophets words and consider what the Messiah will really look like. We know because we can see Him in His Word.

And yet, it doesn’t even stop there. The Scriptures go on to tell us about the Spirit indwelling all believers, about the church being established, and what it looks like to follow Jesus right now. The blessing and privilege continues on and on and on. Because Jesus came, lived, died, and raised again, even the least in the Kingdom of God is greater than John. And this is all confirmed in the fact that He sought us, saved us, and we have a relationship with Him.

My hope and prayer is that the great place we stand in Christ would never grow dim or numb. When we read in Romans 8 that we are, “heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ”, or in Ephesians 2 that we have been “seated with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus”, or in Revelation 1 that He, “loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father.” Whenever we read those passages like that, I hope the truths take deep root in your heart and soul. Because it’s from that understanding of who we are in Christ and the great position we have been placed in, that can live our lives for Jesus. That we can obey when it’s difficult and we don’t understand. That we can trust when it’s hard to trust. That we can sacrifice when it seems impossible. And that we can do it all with true joy overflowing.

And not only that, but we tell the world of this wonderful Jesus. Jesus who has compassion on those who are dead and dying, who came to bring salvation to all those who would believe in Him, and who can be seen and known now in a way that surpasses all the prophets of old. We proclaim that good news that Jesus came, He died, and that He rose again on the third day to pay for our sins and grant us the very righteousness of God. And now, He sits at the right hand of the Father as our advocate, one who truly understands all our pain and temptations. And anyone who turns from their sin and places their faith in Christ can be saved. This is the glorious truth in which we stand as those in Christ. Amen.