I don’t believe I’ve ever met someone who really doesn’t want well-being and security for themselves. I also don’t believe I’ve ever met someone who, in wanting this, hasn’t wrestled with the fact that they have very real vulnerabilities to contend with. Everyone is capable and susceptible to being wounded emotionally, physically, spiritually, economically. Everyone is open to criticisms and temptations and circumstances beyond their direct control. Given that we all live with the vulnerabilities facing us as well as our loved ones, what is something we believe about the love of Jesus Christ that gives us serenity and courage?
Our lesson from Luke this morning offers us this wonderful biblical truth – when it comes to meeting us and ministering to us in our most vulnerable circumstances, our Lord doesn’t mind at all getting his hands dirty. Verse 14 bears witness exactly what I’m talking about.
Jesus interrupts a funeral procession. He puts his hand directly on the frame supporting the deceased body. Jesus may well have gotten his hand a little dirty from this action, but this detail isn’t actually significant. What’s significant is that this seemingly simple action broke a really big cultural rule, shattered a traditional status quo …
As the men from our Wednesday morning Bible study know well from their brave and weeks long study of the Old Testament book of Leviticus, Jewish culture had extensive rules regarding ritual cleanliness before God and in faithful community. And from what I understand of this, touching a dead person or anything related to this condition was an extremely unclean thing to do. It was especially forbidden of Jewish rabbis.[i] I’m quite grateful that if you or I aren’t comfortable with someone touching a casket or a deceased loved one, it’s not a traditional rule of our culture to then force the person into being a social outcast for a period of time in order to get right with God.
At the time of this story, Jesus had become a widely praised and powerfully new kind of Jewish teacher (which also, of course, means many people found him to be a threat). He fully knew the traditional rule about ritual purity. He fully knew everyone at the funeral would be aghast the moment he broke it. Knew there would be big buzz, people whispering things like, – “Woah, did you see that? Did the great Teacher really just touch the dead? Spiritually spoil himself before us all?”
Yes, yes he did! He was, of course, no ordinary Jewish leader, no status quo defender of the faith. In fact, nowhere in Luke’s Gospel is Jesus given the traditional title of “rabbi.” He is instead referred to as Lord, as Savior, and, quite significantly, as we hear in our lesson today, as Prophet.
Do you recall what prophets do? They reveal God’s plans to people in very vulnerable circumstances. They speak of how God will lead and protect God’s people. They back up their words with often radical actions and don’t care about whether it’s the popular thing to do. So, yes, Jesus was a prophet! As he was fully human and fully God, he was the most powerful prophet of all time. Being seen by the eyes and ways of this world as getting his hands and his whole person unclean was a small cost on His way to completely revealing God’s purifying love.
Incomparable, unbridled, everlasting compassion is what moved Him to help a woman who had lost her sole means of economic support when both her husband and her son died. We should notice that Luke gives us no indication that she asked for this, that she had any idea who Jesus was, or that she was a particularly religious person at all. She was just a destitute sister in a sad, desperate, economically unjust situation. And even more importantly, we should notice that there was no condition attached to Jesus’ offer of holy compassion. Talk about God’s abundant grace!
Writing about this scene, a colleague in ministry did get to wondering why she didn’t ask for help. Here’s how he answered his own question – “Perhaps she has already past the dim hope that her son would be given back to her. Perhaps her future is so dark that she cannot imagine another way out. Perhaps all she can do in this moment of despair is grieve for her son and for herself. Perhaps there is nothing left for her to do but to face death. But Jesus intrudes into this scene of death and hopelessness, sees in the widow’s tears a cry of anguish God has long promised to heed, and boldly brings her from death into life.” Did you catch that? This story of Christ’s compassion is really more about bringing her back to life! This same colleague then offers a beautiful and thoroughly biblical definition of resurrection, writing -- “For Luke, resurrection is not just the resuscitation of a dead body but the invigoration of people and their communities in God’s righteousness and justice.”[ii]
Yes, the deceased son sat back up. Yes, he spoke. And don’t we just wonder what he said? But Luke is simply silent on this matter. He’s more focused on telling us about the great compassion of Jesus blessedly transforming the vulnerabilities of the widow. Luke wants us to then join the crowd, who, though initially terrified, quickly became invigorated to praise the righteous and just power of God’s kingdom at work on earth as it is in heaven. “God has looked favorably upon his people!” were the words they spread far and wide after this blessed event born of Jesus’ incomparable, unbridled, everlasting compassion.
Where is this compassion today? Through the power of the Holy Spirit working God’s amazing grace, and through our faith, it lives within our hearts and minds. While we don’t have the power to touch the dead and bring back life, we are empowered to act in ways that help reveal the life and world changing presence of our compassionate Christ, who is alive at the center of all our most vulnerable human experiences.
But to do so, we have to be willing to open up our hearts and minds more than we are comfortable. We have to be willing to become more vulnerable by developing a deeper relationship with God and with all our neighbors. We have to be willing to step out of any status quo that is not invigorating us and our communities with God’s justice and peace. We have to honestly ask ourselves if we are afraid to be prophetic, to speak and act on behalf of God’s inclusive, radically compassionate love.
We show that we are not afraid to be prophetic whenever we decide to share our personal witness to the ways Christ’s compassion has touched and transformed us. This happens in all sorts of blessed ways, and this morning, I am so pleased it’s happening through the presence of our neighbors from the Good News Home for Women. We’ve been leading worship together like this for several years and it’s always so deeply meaningful. It is for me as a spiritual leader who strives to point out all the places where our compassionate Christ is active. And it is for me personally as the son of a mom who has long been in recovery from various addictions and has been economically destitute most all her life on through this present day. My call to ministry started in twelve-step recovery rooms for children of alcoholics. So every day I celebrate all the ways Jesus has strengthened and rescued both me and my mom from great vulnerabilities, done for us what we could not do for ourselves. Thank you all so much for ringing, singing, offering words of witness and inspiration with us today.
Our Lord continues to interrupt life as we all know it in surprising and sometimes initially frightening ways. His hand continues to reach out and touch what many people may regard as untouchable. His heart continues to be deeply moved to action against all kinds of injustices we many people have grown indifferent and apathetic towards. May we all have faith to stop, listen, follow and proclaim the words and ways of the greatest prophet still at work in this world … through us, even with all our vulnerabilities. Amen.
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