‘Jesus went over and touched the coffin, and the men carrying it stopped. Jesus said: “Young man! Rise up, I tell you!” The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother’.
(Luke 7:14-15)
There is no doubt about it. Today’s gospel reading is a miracle story.
What do we make of these tales of Jesus?
What do we make today of miracle stories?
Now you can imagine that all kinds of different people can have all kinds of different reactions. But lets narrow it down a wee bit and just stick with Christian reactions.
Christians have various viewpoints.
One. Don’t take them too seriously. Don’t take them as literal fact. When the stories of Jesus were being told and retold, and eventually written up, exaggeration found its way into the tales. And in an effort to show how special Jesus was, these kinds of embellishments were included.
Two. At the other end of the scale, there are Christians who would say that miracles are an important part of the way God works and that if we are close to God we should expect to see and hear of miracles taking place – even now in the 21st century. Have more faith, and trust in God for miracles.
Three. Still other Christians believe that the stories of miracles are real enough but that this was a special (limited) period of time when the church was being launched and miracles were signs that helped to kick start the church. The miracles of the New Testament helped to establish the fact that Jesus was the Christ and helped to empower the church and get it up and running. These Christians would say that nowadays we live in a different age, and we should not expect to see miracles today.
Four. Some other Christians would say they believe that God can perform miracles but it is unusual – and never commonplace. They might say that if God were to answer every prayer for healing and intervene miraculously in every situation then the normal workings of this world could not go on.
Five. And yet other Christians believe that the miracle stories should be seen as signs that point to a deeper reality. They work in a similar way to parables. In other words, the key question to ask about such a story is not: “what actually happened?” but more: “what is this story telling us about life, about God?”
Although I have just mentioned about five different points of view, some of these points of view can be combined.
For example, I personally have no difficulty with accepting the historicity of the incident that we are considering today – I believe that God is able to work miracles. But I further believe that miracles are the exception rather than the norm, and I also believe that the stories that are there for us in scripture point to something we can learn from.
On one level we are hearing a story about an amazing incident. But even if we accept that it is a true and honest account – what difference does what happened to a young boy two thousand years ago make to you and me sitting here this morning?
In other words, what message does this story have for us?
Before I say what I think the main message might be, there is a small point to notice first in the detail of the story.
This woman does not ask for her son to be healed. We don’t see her begging Jesus to do something here.
That’s not surprising, because if your son is dead you don’t imagine anyone is going to be able to change that. And Jesus in this incident is in a town called Nain which was outside his own country. It may be that this woman had no idea who Jesus was. The text tells us that Jesus heals the boy because of his pity and compassion for the woman.
Why is this important?
Well sometimes Christians say that we will see miracles if we have enough faith. If only we trust more and our faith is stronger then God will do great miracles.
That might seem fair enough, but the down-side to this, is, of course, that if we don’t get that miracle we were praying for then it’s our fault. We didn’t have enough faith.
So here we are in a terrible situation and we pray for a miracle and it doesn’t come. Now not only do we have the difficult situation we can add guilt to it as well. It’s our fault we didn’t get the miracle. We didn’t pray hard enough. Our faith wasn’t strong enough.
This way of thinking is just nonsense.
There were some times when Jesus would say to a person; “Your faith has made you well.” But there were other times when the person’s faith is not involved. In that memorable story of the paralysed man in a bed being lowered down through the roof to Jesus it is the faith of his friends that Jesus commends.
And in this story today the grieving widow had no faith at all that her son would be healed - but Jesus acted anyway.
When we think about the mystery of miracles we must understand this. That when miracles happen, they happen randomly. We cannot force a miracle. It does not come down to how deep our faith is.
It’s not a reward for something. And if we don’t get the miracle we are looking for in exactly the way we are looking for it, we should never berate ourselves as if it is somehow our fault.
A minister called Philip McLarty said about this matter: “As often as not, there’s no cause-effect relationship between faith and miracles. And, personally, I’m comfortable with this. It concerns me to think that the degree of our faith is the deciding factor in whether or not God will be merciful. And, frankly, it offends me to think that those who are healed are more deserving than those who are not…… there is little correlation between the miracles of Jesus and the people involved in them…”
So much for the wee detail.
What is the message of this story for you and I today?
I think it is this.
Jesus brings life to people.
Jesus brings life.
In Biblical language there are two kinds of “dead.” They are separate, though sometimes they overlap.
The first meaning of dead is the one we are most familiar with. It’s what is meant by grave diggers and doctors.
Physical death. The end of our earthly lives.
The heart stops beating. Breath is still.
Rigour mortis on the way.
The second meaning of death in the Bible is spiritual rigour mortis. The essential nature of spiritual death is that we become hardened and cut off from God.
Millions of people demonstrate this every day. That it is possible to be physically alive, breathing and moving, and yet to be blind, deaf, and dumb to the spiritual realities of life. Alienated from where we should be spiritually, cut off from a relationship with God and unable to be the people we were designed to be.
From the Bible’s point of view this death is separation from the very source of our being. It’s when we allow the image of God within us to decay and become obscured. It’s often the result of what you might call spiritual malnutrition.
According to the Bible, this death, not the physical one - is the real disaster.
Physical death is a major event. But being in tune with God and alive with God matters more still.
As chaplain to Battlefield Primary School I am there quite regularly, and most of what I do is help the teachers with their Religious Observance programme. There are a lot of different subjects covered by the different stages, but one subject that seems to come up again and again in the syllabus throughout the ages of the school is the stories of Jesus.
And so I go into classes of all types to tell the kids something of the parables. I always discover that most of the kids have never heard the stories I retell to them, and I only tell the most well-known ones. (I also discover that the teachers very often have never heard these stories either).
Anyway, the parable I tell the most is the one most famously called the Prodigal Son.
And because each class is made up of children of a different age I have to ensure that the story is described in a way appropriate for their age level. (Actually, I have just done this twice in the last two weeks. So I put it into my own words and I don’t just read the words straight out of the Bible.
If I were to do that I would come across the telling statement from the father who is explaining to everyone around him why they need to celebrate:
“This son of mine was dead but now he is alive”.
(Luke 15:24)
Here is the youngest son, who is fed up with life with his father and brother. He insults his family by leaving home and demanding his inheritance money before the right time (which in middle-east culture was taboo). Then he goes off to the big city with his wad of cash and he has a great time - for a while – spending money like there is no tomorrow and attracting a lot of fair-weather friends who are drawn to his wallet.
But then the inevitable happens. The money runs out. None of his new so-called friends want to know and he is begging for food to stay alive. And the ultimate humiliation for a Jew – he gets a job feeding pigs, and he is so hungry waiting for his first pay-check that he fancies eating some of the rubbish he is feeding to the animals.
Then he hits on an idea. Although he has forfeited any right to be part of his old family, maybe for the sake of the past his dad might at least give him a job as a hired hand. So he sets off back home all the time trying to compose a nice speech to pacify his father.
His dad sees him coming from a distance and immediately rushes out the door towards him.
And everyone listening to the story Jesus is telling is smiling and thinking – good - now it’s the father’s turn to get his revenge. This poor man has been humiliated and basically robbed of half his fortune. Now that this despicable waster of a son has come home the father can tell him to get lost and stay away from the farm forever.
But Jesus, the master of surprises, hits his listeners with something they would never have dreamed of. The father rushes to his son and embraces him and kisses him. The stupid son is standing there trying to stammer out his feeble excuses speech, and his dad isn’t even listening. He’s already started plans for a party.
The son screwed everything up, and treated his father like dirt, but the father still loves him and welcomes him home.
And whilst everyone around him, is standing amazed at the welcome the dad is dishing out, that dad shouts:
“This son of mine was dead but now he is alive”.
And the punch-line of the story…?
This is what God is like.
God never gives up on us, no matter how far we’ve gone, no matter how many mistakes we have made, no matter how spiritually dead we are.
God’s great desire always is to welcome us back.
To be back where we truly belong is to be alive!
To be back in fellowship with God is to be alive!
Jesus brings life to people.
In today’s story Jesus goes to the funeral coffin and says
“Young man! Rise up”.
Jesus brings life to people.
This story of the widow’s son isn’t simply some past event in ancient history.
Jesus’ mission was to get people to become alive to the reality of God.
So Jesus draws near to us and his message to you and me is this…
“Young man! Old man! Young Woman! Old Woman! Rise up!”
Become aware of God.
Become aware of who you are.
Become aware of life around you.
Become the person God made you to be.
With Jesus’ help, that is possible for all of us.