THE STRAIGHTFORWARD PULPIT

Text:  Luke 7:11-17

Theme:  "Do Not Weep"

3rd Sunday after Pentecost

June 9, 2013

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Denton, Texas

Rev. Paul R. Dunklau

 

+In the Name of Jesus+

 

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.” ¹⁷ This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding country.

Although I don't remember it specifically, I'm pretty sure my college course in psychology featured a unit on Sigmund Freud.  This Austrian neurologist is known as the "father of psychoanalysis."  If you've ever gone to counseling of any kind, chances are that your counselor was schooled in Freud.  In such counseling, one of the goals is for people -- the counselees -- to come to grips with their feelings. Those feelings often produce tears. 

 

General Norman Schwartzkopf, leader of the American forces that drove Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait in the first gulf war, was once asked who or what scared him the most.  His answer was the soldier who could not cry.  Crying is good; weeping lets you express your feelings constructively; tears can make you more susceptible to whoever is handling your case -- your therapist, counselor, social worker, etc.

 

Freud died in 1939.  His work is still influential.  But these days, we hear far less about counseling and far more about chemicals and complexes, drugs and  prescriptions that help people handle their emotions -- or even get through their day.  Is it anxiety?  They have Xanax for that.  Having a hard time focusing?  Perhaps some Adderal will work for you.   Whether it be counseling or drugs, it's probably not a bad thing to have a good cry now and then.   It doesn't change your circumstances, but it can make you feel better and help you sleep.  All of this reminds me of the shortest and also one of the most meaningful verses in the entire Bible.  It's John 11:35:  "Jesus wept."  Jesus knows a few things about tears Himself.

 

Now, though, we turn to the Gospel for today, Luke 7:11-17, and we run into Jesus who has run into a funeral procession. If you can't cry at a funeral, when can you?   The setting is a little village called Nain.  There's a small church there, to this day, commemorating the event of today's Gospel.  From the front door of the church one can look across the valley and see Nazareth, the boyhood home of our Lord.  (I saw it all on Google Earth!) 

 

Back to the funeral procession!  Chief among the mourners is a widow, and the deceased being taken to burial was her only son.  In those days, being a woman meant that you were sort of a second-class citizen.  That's strike one.   Being a widow woman was even worse, for you had no husband to support you. That's strike two.  How devastating this must have been for this widow to then lose her only son. That's strike three.  This woman is down and she is, for all intents and practical purposes, out.   To this woman Jesus says:  "Don't cry."  "Do not weep."  He said this, we are told, because "his heart went out to her", or, as another translation puts it, he had "compassion" on her.  "Compassion", biblically defined, doesn't mean coming up to a person who is hurting and saying:  "There, there now.  Everything will be alright."  It means, rather, that you are so caught up with emotion that you physically hurt.  It's as though your insides are being torn apart.  That's how intense it is.  Jesus had compassion on her because he "saw her."  She was not another case or a "client" --  as some social workers like to say.

 

He saw her; he had compassion on her; he said to her "Don't cry.  Do not weep!"  She, this particular woman whose son had died, she is the one that Jesus is there for with all of himself for her specifically.  Only once was Jesus just as He was for her.  To her -- struck out of life, as she was --  He said:  "Do not weep."

 

What kind of inappropriate and rude nonsense is this?  If a person is crying, then be there for them -- for crying out loud! -- and let them weep.  Hold them; cradle them.  But do not stifle their tears. "Do not cry"?  We have been taught to think that such words are uncaring.  The difference is that these words come from the mouth of Jesus.  Words are unique when they are spoken by Jesus.  Who Jesus IS makes all the difference to what He says.  Did the woman know this?  We are not told.  There's nothing about her ethnicity, her income, or her position on the latest hot-button issue of the day.  That's not so important.  She is as Jesus sees her. 

 

Then Jesus interrupts the funeral.  He halts it.  He takes over the proceedings -- and not only that, he takes over death itself.  He says:  "Young man, I say to you arise."  And the words of Jesus do what they say. 

 

After Jesus wept, He said  "Lazarus, come out!"  And the words of Jesus do what they say.  He interrupted the funeral of the widow's son; He interrupted the funeral of Lazarus, and, last of all, He interrupted His own.  His angel told the weeping, fearful women:  "Why do you look for the living among the dead?  He is not here.  He is risen -- even as He said."  He endured death to become its Lord, and He rose from the grave to assure us that our death and burial will be ultimately interrupted.  He happens to be the Lord of death and life -- yours too!

 

There's a reason why we say, together, "I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting."  There will come a day when Jesus says to us what He said to the young man:  "Arise!"  And the words of Jesus will do what they say.

 

We also confess:  "From thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead."   So what's the takeaway this morning?  Prepare to meet your maker?  Prepare to face the judge?    If that's the case, then we can only weep.  It's an entirely different thing to have this as your takeaway:  prepare to meet your brother, your friend, your Savior.  You are not just another client or case.  You are as Jesus sees you -- as one of His: a brother, a sister, a friend for whom He Himself will, one day, wipe away all tears.

Amen.