19 May 2013: Pakuranga Baptist Church
Every Day Conversations: 2. Just Try a Little Kindness
Luke 7:11
Big Idea: Kindness opens hearts
The day began on a high for Jesus. It had been a very happy night in Capernaum –full of celebration. Just the day before a Roman soldier’s servant had been lying in his bed dying. The centurion had sent servants to beg Jesus who was visiting the town to heal his servant and with one word from Jesus the servant had been miraculously healed! He recovered completely! As a result Jesus was happy. His disciples were happy. The soldier’s household and much of Capernaum were very happy. There was lots of rejoicing that night. So it was a good day to be with Jesus.
And so Jesus awoke and decided to go next this day to the small town of Nain on his tour of Galilee. Jesus knew the town of Nain well. It was only 16 kilometres from his hometown of Nazareth where Jesus has been living just a year before. Jesus had probably visited Nain as a teenager while out exploring the countryside or else he might have visited Nain while peddling his trade as a carpenter. It was a small town, just like any other small town in Israel. Today’s there’s an Arab town called Nein on the same site with about 1,600 inhabitants. In Jesus day it wasn’t that big either. But this was Jesus next destination and so Jesus and his disciples along with a large crowd set out that day for Nain. Imagine them walking along the 32 kilometres together like some vast moving picnic or parade. They were a happy, joyful bunch enjoying a pleasant day out with their favourite Rabbi and healer. There would have been songs. There would have been shouts. There would have been food and plenty of laughter. They would have been excited because of all that had happened in Capernaum the previous day. They arrived in Nain just before sunset feeling happy, tired and hopeful. But as they climb the steep hill into Nain they discover that they can’t get in to the town because another large crowd is trying to come out the same way!
The day probably began pretty much the same as any other day for the widow. She rose early, well before dawn, and took barley and wheat and ground it together between two milling stones. The resulting flour was then kneaded into a small loaf. She relit the fire and then placed the dough on the hot coals to cook. When the bread was baked she had a typical poor person’s meal, and she gave it to her son to eat. They shared a quiet breakfast together as they chatted about the coming day. The woman was a widower. Her husband had died a while before and so in a sense you could say her one and only connection with her past was her son. Her one and only son was her life. Her son, a young man now, was her joy. He was her companion. He was her security in old age. He was her helper, and her hope of a better future. She swept out her house after breakfast just like any other day–and later on that very same day he died!!
It’s hard to imagine the impact her son’s death would have had upon her, but in one foul swoop her whole world fell apart. You see in Israel there was no social welfare system. There was no life insurance either. As a woman she could not get a job. She could not even inherit her own property. Her husband was dead. Now her son had gone too. She had no one left. No one left to live with or to look after her! If she was younger she might have remarried or even worked as a prostitute, but those days were long gone. She would spend the rest of her life being grateful for the little charity that her poor neighbours would be able to show her. Her son died that day, but she may as well have died that day too and the whole village knew that!
This was a tragedy that everyone could relate to and that’s why so many people turned out for his funeral in Nain that day. I remember in 1979 the Farmers store in Blenheim burnt down. It had been a long, hot, dry summer. We had been working in the field harvesting garlic and berries, but as soon as we heard about the fire all of us teenagers hopped on our bikes and rode to town as fast as we could to watch the Farmers store burn down with the whole town. Was it because we were mean? Was it because we hated the ‘Farmers’ company? No. It was because it was the only exciting thing that actually happened in our small town that summer and we wanted to be a part of the action! We wanted to be there, and in the same way the people of that small town all gathered around her that day.
The son’s body was washed thoroughly, anointed with oil and then perfumed. He was then laid on an open funeral bier –a bit like a stretcher and lifted up on some of the village men’s shoulders. In those days they didn’t wait 2-3 days for a funeral service to arrive like us. There was no push pause for reflection. No -it was all done in the one day. He had to be buried by sun down in the cemetery beside the steep trail leading up into the town. And so the widow of Nain’s grief was raw -bad enough to lose a husband; worse to lose her only son. She was filled with shock, horror, disbelief, anger, confusion, and terror. She couldn‘t even imagine life tomorrow. She led the funeral procession knowing full well that although she was surrounded by people right now she would go home alone to her empty home.
The name of the village Nain means ‘lovely’ or ‘beautiful.’ Only it wasn’t very lovely or very beautiful for her that day. It was a day of sadness. It was a day of sorrow. Hope had died that day for the widow of Nain.
Except that at sunset, as darkness began to cover the land, two very different processions meet right at the town’s gates. The joyful tired band of Jesus going up meets the sorrowful town all going down. Now in New Zealand when you see a funeral procession driving down the street, what are we all supposed to do? What do we do when we see a hearse and the cars following? [Reply] That’s right we are supposed to pull over and get out of the way, but in ancient Israel that wasn’t the deal. If you meet a funeral procession coming down the road towards you, you were simply expected to join in. So Jesus procession meets the woman’s procession and as the two crowd’s mill around the town gate the question becomes ‘will Jesus mob realise what’s happening and join them?’
And then the unexpected happens. Luke writes that when Jesus saw her he felt enormous compassion. His heart went out to her. In the original language it’s written in it says literally that his guts squirmed for her –he felt the pain so deeply. Now you may not realise, but Jesus has a soft spot for parents who lose their only child. On several occasions Jesus is visibly upset when parents lose their only child, and this scene is no different. Jesus heart is visibly moved for this woman and so he does something quite spontaneous and completely unplanned.
First He speaks to her. He says “Don’t cry.” He comforts her with His words, but then he surprises everyone. The NIV in v14 says that he ‘went up and touched” the brier that they were carrying him on,’ but this translation is wrong. You see Jesus doesn’t just go up and touch the funeral brier. Jesus physically grabs hold of the funeral brier -and do you know what happens when you physically grab hold of a funeral brier? What happens if you stand right in front of the funeral hearse leaving the church after the funeral? [Response]. That’s right! You stop the whole procession! Jesus stops this poor widow’s procession! He says “Don’t cry” and then stops her sad parade!!
But worse than this Jesus has just touched something in contact with a dead body, so Jesus is probably ceremonially unclean. Under Jewish law if you touch a dead body, you are considered spiritually unclean for at least 7 days. You may not visit holy places. You cannot do certain specific things. In theory God may actually punish you while you are unclean. You are in a sense in a spiritual danger zone so there must have been a ripple like a bolt of electricity that goes through right the crowd at that moment. ‘What on earth is Jesus up to? What’s a holy prophet like Jesus doing touching a dead person? Ugh!!’
But Jesus isn’t very big on certain types of ritual and customs. Have you noticed? He believes very strongly in ethic and morals, but He’s also the kind of guy who says “Stuff the religious rituals, if they get in the way of helping somebody! People before pedantic rules.” So he physically stops the procession, risks becoming ceremonially unclean, and then commands the young man to, “Get up!”
It’s a bit bold isn’t it -telling a dead person to get up! This guy was dead. Even people in those days could tell he was dead, but guess what? It’s God who makes the rules! The man gets up, walks and talks, and Jesus gives him back to his Mum. It’s amazing! This is Jesus first miracle where He brings someone back to life from the dead! Jesus will do this miracle three more times in the next year, but this is the very first! A dead man is now walking at Jesus command! No one has ever seen this before. They have heard of it. They know that the great prophet Elijah did it many hundreds of years before, but no one has ever witnessed this in their life time so they conclude, quite wrongly as it turns out, that a great prophet has arrived. They think that someone like Elijah has been discovered living amongst them… and why he’s only from Nazareth, their neighbouring town.
The one thing they don’t yet realise is that Jesus is actually God in person. Some people still don’t get it. Jesus hasn’t risen from the dead Himself yet, but they do guess correctly that “God is here! God is with us. God has not forgotten us!!”
I wonder whether you ever had that experience where the greatest gloom turns into brightest joy all in a few moments? Have you ever experienced depression absolutely transformed into victory all in the blink of an eye? I had a friend who was waiting for admission into a course that they desperately wanted to attend. When they got the letter they misread it. They felt crushed –they thought I didn’t get in. The other person grabbed it, checked it and said, “Actually you were accepted!’ Their sorrow turned to joy in moments. Now magnify that experience for the widow of Nain a thousand times and you might understand how she felt. Her son was dead. Now he was alive. Jesus had helped her and now her life had been stunningly turned around. She would have been praising and rejoicing in God. “Unbelievable! Unbelievable!!”
Luke tells us that the news about what Jesus has done for her spreads throughout Judea and the surrounding country. It even gets to his cousin John, who is baptising down by the Jordan River. John sends messengers asking, “Are you the One (are you the Messiah), or should we keep on looking?” Jesus tells him ‘just look at what is happening and believe in me!’ You see there were ripple effects from this act of kindness that just kept going on and on.
The thing that Jesus shows us here, apart from the fact that He is God in person, is the power of kindness. Kindness: –A noun means 1. the state or quality of being kind, 2. Making a kind act; showing favour, e.g. he showed his many kindnesses to me. 3. There is kind behaviour, e.g. I will never forget your kindness, and there is 4. friendly feeling or liking. Practically speaking being kind means serving and empowering others. Jesus shows us that by showing just a little kindness to our neighbours their lives can be spiritually opened up and transformed.
So how can we be kind like Jesus?
1. Well Jesus felt deep compassion so we need to feel compassion. Jesus felt such deep compassion for the widowed woman that the people could see it. I don’t know about you, but I was brought up not to feel strong emotion, or at least not to show it. Some of us like me have learnt to control or repress our emotions. One has to maintain a ‘stiff upper lip eh what’, but is there a time when this is wrong? Is there a time when it is wrong not to allow ourselves to feel something strongly for another person? -Because Jesus allowed Himself to feel. He identified with how that woman felt. He imagined what it would be like to be in her shoes right now and it moved Him.
2. Then he took responsibility (which we need to do), and this in itself is a little bit surprising. There is a well-known psychological fact that when a crowd witnesses an accident or a crime often no one moves to help. Often the thought goes through everyone’s mind that someone else will do help. Jesus could easily have thought “it’s not my family. It’s not my town. This is simply not my problem.” But instead He took the attitude “I have to help” and he did. Are we willing to take responsibility for people’s needs?
3. Jesus spoke and then acted. He offered words of comfort and then he did something practical to help. The thing is that plenty of people say they feel sympathy and pity for someone in a difficult situation. We can all feel sorry for someone in hardship, but the person who makes all the difference in the end is the person who? … actually does something!
The question is whether our compassion is active or passive? Do we just pass people by without a thought or do we notice them? And if we notice does our caring extend into kindness towards them? As St Francis of Assisi is supposed to have said, “Share the good news at all times; if necessary use words!”
4. The interesting thing about Jesus is that He took a personal risk. I’m not sure if I could have done it. Jesus showed compassion to a woman in an age when you were not supposed to show too much compassion to woman. He stepped out in faith in public. In the full media glare Jesus stepped out of the crowd and he acted. On top of that he broke deep religious traditions –that you should not touch a dead body. Okay you could argue that it wasn’t dead for very long after Jesus touched it, but you get the point? No one said kindness would be easy. No one said it was a breeze. It probably wasn’t easier for Jesus to do than it is for you and I, but He did it anyway. He counted the cost and he showed kindness. We to need to take a risk!