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Today is one month from Easter, spring is coming, and vaccines are rolling out! These are all signs of life, and of new beginnings, and we are beginning to feel better about the future!
This morning, we continue the series of messages that I began last week, titled Rebooting Life. In this series I am following the same basic theme I have followed since the beginning of the pandemic, which is the way in which faith can carry us through all the challenges that have come, or will come, our way.
Do you feel as though you need a reboot in life? If you don’t feel that way now, at some point you have, or at some point you will. We all need, at some point in life, a reboot, a new beginning. One of the realities of the pandemic – and I do not want to be misunderstood here, because I do not believe God caused the pandemic – is that perhaps the pandemic provides an opportunity for a reboot. While I do not believe God caused the pandemic, I always believe that God can bring good out of any challenging circumstance. That is one of the gifts of faith, as faith can help us to understand the ways in which God can use even very difficult circumstances to bring something good and beautiful to our lives. In some ways, then, this is a time for a reboot as individuals, as a community, as a church, for the church at large, and for humanity. This is an opportunity for a new beginning.
There will be, certainly, elements of life that will come back as they were before the pandemic, but there will be others that will be forever different. Some of those changes will be good, while some will not be so good. This morning we are looking at The Miracle of New Beginnings. To me, one of the most powerful aspects of the gospel is the promise of new beginnings, and a new beginning can come every day. That is, to me, a miracle.
Today’s Scripture text is a bit similar to that of last week, in that we will look at two miracles. Last week, the two stories were interwoven. The first part of the story told of the synagogue official, Jairus, who came to Jesus and asked for healing for his young daughter. When Jesus was going to the home of Jairus, a woman in the crowd touched the cloak of Jesus, knowing she would be healed if she could touch his clothing. This week, in the first story of healing, we see someone coming to Jesus, asking for healing on behalf of another person, as Jairus did. In this case it is a Roman centurion who came, asking Jesus to heal his servant. In the second part of the story, Jesus encounters a funeral procession, carrying the body of a woman’s only son. These are, like last week, very dramatic healings, although the second is more accurately described as a resurrection.
I love these two stories, so let me read them now, from Luke 7:1-16 –
1When Jesus had finished saying all this to the people who were listening, he entered Capernaum.
2 There a centurion’s servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die.
3 The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant.
4 When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, “This man deserves to have you do this,
5 because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.”
6 So Jesus went with them. He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof.
7 That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed.
8 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.”
9 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.”
10 Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well.
11 Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him.
12 As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out—the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her.
13 When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.”
14 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!”
15 The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.
16 They were all filled with awe and praised God. “A great prophet has appeared among us,” they said. “God has come to help his people.”
These are such great, such powerful stories. As I did last week, I want to go through these stories and share some observations.
First, let’s set a bit of the background. Luke is interesting as he shares stories because he is very detailed and methodical. Last week, I mentioned that Mark is very economical in his use of words. Mark provides, generally speaking, the barest of details, sharing only the most important details and providing no more information than he feels we need to know. When I read Mark’s gospel, I often find myself wishing that he would share more details. Luke, by contrast, gives us more background and more information. One of the details Luke provides in this story is that it is a Roman centurion who sent a request to Jesus, asking that his servant be healed. It is important to remember that the Romans were occupiers of Israel, and their presence was not at all welcomed by the Jewish people. The Romans, always anxious to emphasize their much-vaunted Pax Romana(the Roman Peace), rarely acknowledged that they achieved that peace through debilitating violence and cruelty. Their willingness to employ a crushing level of violence demonstrated their lack of sensitivity to the concerns of the people over whom they ruled. This situation made it all the more remarkable that a Roman centurion would approach Jesus, asking for help for his servant. Most of the people who were present – perhaps all who were present – would have resented a Roman soldier coming to Jesus, and certainly would not have been pleased that one was approaching Jesus, asking for help. In the case of this particular Roman, however, it is interesting what Luke has to say. In verses 4 and 5, Luke records that they (that is, some of the local elders)pleaded earnestly with him, “This man deserves to have you do this, because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue. That representatives of the local population would speak in such a way of a member of an occupying military force is quite remarkable. Clearly, this soldier was different from the others. He had won the respect and admiration of the local population.
But let us think a little more deeply about this. You might have noted that when the elders came to Jesus, they said the centurion deserves to have you do this (verse 4). That’s an interesting comment, isn’t it? It sounds, on the surface, like a great comment. Here are elders of the people of Israel, coming to Jesus on behalf of a Roman centurion. The Romans were so despised that it is truly a remarkable moment that some of the people subjugated by Rome would come to Jesus to plead on his behalf. Indeed, it is no small matter that they did so, and that they were willing to come to Jesus on his behalf is, to some measure, a triumph of compassion and a willingness to step across the boundaries of convention. Even more remarkably, they said the centurion loves our nation and has built our synagogue(verse 5). Generally speaking, I think it is very accurate to say that the Romans did not care much about the people over whom they ruled. This Roman, however, did.
But let’s dig down a bit deeper into what Luke tells us. Luke tells us that the elders come to Jesus and ask on behalf of the centurion because of what he had done for them. In my opinion, that makes this less impressive, because they are making love conditional. The elders of the people are coming to Jesus to plead on behalf of the centurion because he had done something for them. Here is what we must remember – love, certainly the agapelove Jesus asks us to have for others – should never be conditional. Agapelove is the greatest of all the various expressions of love, and it is the love shown by God in Jesus. It is a love that does not say that people must be deserving of love, it is a love that is not conditional, it is a love that does not have any limits, and it does not depend upon what someone does for us. Agapelove does not say, I will do this because of what you have done for me, but is willing to say, I will do for you and love you in spite of what you have done to me. The idea that one has to be deserving of love is out of the question when it comes to agapelove. God doesn’t love us because we deserve it; God loves us in spite of the fact that we do notdeserve it. In this passage, the elders are saying, in essence, because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue, we deem him worthy, because he has done something for us. What they did was not reveal their love for the centurion as much as they revealed that they have a transactional view of love. And to be honest, isn’t this true of all of us? Don’t we all, to some extent, love someone because of what they have done for us? And there is nothing wrong with this. It’s great to have someone do something for us, and when someone does something for us, it is fine to feel affection and love for them in return. If, however, we want to love in the way God has demonstrated love through Jesus, then we don’t talk about whether or not someone has to do something for us, or that they have to be deserving, before we love them. Paul writes in Romans 5:8, for instance, thatGod demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Not when we have come to the point of deserving God’s love, not when we have come to the point of deserving the gift of God’s love, but while we were still sinners. So, what we see here, in this story from Luke’s gospel, is this limited view of love that is far too common among humanity. When we look at our setting, our context, it is obvious it is not different from the time of Jesus. There was a lot of division in the time of Jesus. The people did not like the Romans occupying their land. They were angry about it and they were bitter about their presence. But there were others, such as the Herodians, who were happy to accommodate the presence of the Romans and to seek to benefit from it if it was possible to do so. These differences in opinion led to deep political divisions in the land, and there were very deep religious divisions as well. Obviously, we live in a very divided time as well. So, while we see some movement across the divisions of the time, and it is worth applauding that movement, we also see the limitations of that movement, as it only took place because the people had received something from this centurion, and not because they were willing to love him regardless of who he was and to love him even if he had not done anything for the people. It was a love that had conditions, and it required that the recipient of their love be deserving. Here’s what we must be careful to avoid – we can never communicate that someone needs to be deserving of God’s love or our love.
Here’s a very important element of Jesus’ ministry – Jesus never waited until someone was deserving of his love, and he never required that someone have to earn his love. What we must understand is that we should never require someone to be deservingbefore we will step across a political or religious or social divide. We can’t seem to get beyond this in our time, just as people in the time of Jesus could not get beyond that expectation. The elders who came to Jesus probably saw themselves as doing something wonderful by arguing on behalf of the centurion – and in some ways they were – but they were doing it because of a conditional love, because of what he had done for them. We must get beyond the type of thinking that says, before I reach out in love to someone who is not like me, to someone who doesn’t like me, to someone I don’t like, to someone who thinks differently from me, to someone who believes differently from me, to someone who looks differently from me, they must first become deserving.
And here’s something that most likely angered people – the centurion told Jesus he did not need to come to his house, because, as a soldier, he understood authority. If he told one of his soldiers where to go and what to do, they did it without question. Understanding authority, he saw the healing authority of Jesus, and that Jesus only needed to speak the word and his servant would be healed. Upon hearing the centurion’s response, Luke tells us that Jesus was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel(verse 9). Can you imagine the people in the crowd that day, who so despised the presence of the Romans in their land, hearing Jesus say that no one in their country had the faith of a Roman soldier? That must have sent out some shock waves. There were probably people who gasped at those words. There were, certainly, many people unhappy with Jesus for his claim.
In the next story, we find one of the most dramatic healings performed by Jesus. Interestingly, while the raising of Lazarus is very well known, the raising from the dead of this young man seems to be overlooked by many people. The story of Lazarus, in John 11, is a longer story, which allows for elements that add to the drama. That Lazarus and his family were close friends of Jesus also make it a story with great appeal. But this story of the young man being raised to life is no less dramatic, certainly, but is often overlooked.
When Jesus saw the funeral procession, he was moved by what he saw. Luke says his heart went out to her(verse 13). I believe Luke mentions that this was the woman’s only son for a reason. Perhaps she had daughters as well, but the harsh reality of the time was that the woman was a widow, which meant she did not inherit her husband’s estate when he died. We might not like that reality, but that was the way inheritances worked in that time period, which meant this woman was in very difficult circumstances. Instead, the estate would have passed to the son, who would have been the one to receive and control the estate. The person who held the economic fate of his mother was now gone. Now that the son was gone, who was left to care for his mother? Not only had this woman lost her son, she was also very much at risk economically. She was, indeed, in very difficult straits.
Luke says that Jesus was moved by the circumstances of this woman. Of course he was! The gospels often talk about how Jesus was moved by compassion for others. The word for compassion is one that is an interesting word. It insinuates that compassion is something you feel in your gut. Compassion is something that causes one to have a physical, visceral reaction. You know that feeling. We see something that moves us, and we can feel a physical reaction within us. Sometimes, it’s emotional, something that brings us to tears because of sadness, while at other times we feel a great sense of outrage over an injustice that has taken place. Jesus was profoundly moved by what he saw, so he steps forward and touches the bier on which the young man’s body was being carried. It is important to remember that when Jesus touched it, he became unclean. To touch a dead body was to make one ceremonially unclean, and there was a process one had to go through in order to be once again be considered clean. This is not the only time when Jesus violated religions conventions. Jesus knew that the way religious regulations were interpreted and applied could actually hinder one’s ability to minister to others (an example of this is when Jesus heals a man on the Sabbath, in Mark 3:1-6). And that is a great tragedy, when the structures of faith and the institutions of religion can put up regulations that can actually hinder ministry. Jesus did not allow such hindrances to limit his ministry, and he raised the young man to life. Luke says Jesus gave him back to his mother (verse 15). Isn’t that a great way to put it? He gave him back to his mother. He gave him his life back. We often use that phrase. I want my life back. How many times have we said, during the pandemic, I want my life back! I want to be able to go where I want to go! I want to visit my family and friends! I don’t want to have to wear a mask! I want to get on a plane and visit a beach! We want our lives back, don’t we? We feel as though so much of our lives have been taken from us. And, to some extent, that is true. But, on the other hand, let us remember that we are still breathing. We are with our families. Here, in this story, is a person who in such a dramatic, literal way, had their life given back to them. Jesus raised him back to life. There is an amazing, beautiful miracle. Imagine what it was like for this young man, for his mother, for his family, and for their friends. What a new beginning!
We have the miracle of new beginnings. Jesus gave a new beginning to many people, and he gives us the miracle of a new beginning. What we are going through, with this pandemic, is not easy. But we also see the beauty of new beginnings. How often do we wish, in the course of a year, a month, a week, or even a day, I wish I could start again? There are times we wish we could restart the day, or the week, or the month, or the year. God gives us the miracle of a new beginning. Our past is not held against us. Others might hold our past against us, but God doesn’t. The miracles of Jesus, such as this one, are reminders of the new beginnings we are given. It is a reminder that, when the pandemic ends, humanity gets a new beginning, and what will we do with that new beginning? Has this time taught us to be more compassionate? Has it taught us to be more just, to be more fair, to be more loving? We have a new beginning, a do-over. God is giving us an opportunity to make things better. Life can be what it was meant to be. That is the miracle of a new beginning.
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