This morning I want us to enter the Gospel of Luke in chapter 7:11.

Luke 7:11-15  Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him.  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.   When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, "Don't cry."  Then he went up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still. He said, "Young man, I say to you, get up!"  The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother. 

Let’s put some skin on these few short verses. Let’s use our imagination for a few moments.  Suppose you are walking in this funeral procession.  You are a few steps behind those carrying the dead young man.  The NIV says coffin but don’t picture a coffin, like ours with box with a lid.  Picture something used to carry a body wrapped in cloth.  Visualize a stretcher with a mummy on it.  Death is common enough in these days.  With no hospitals or health care, to speak of, lots of things can take the life of those we feel are too young to die.  A death, such as this, even today brings out a big crowd, but in Jesus’ day the whole village would have gathered in this procession or perhaps recession to the graveyard.

One of the noticeable differences in a 1st century Galilean funeral and ours is the noise.   Where we offer our solace in quiet tones of being there for the family, in a 1st century Jewish funeral there would have been hired mourners making lots of weeping noises to cover up the wailing of the widowed mother.  There is lots of out loud weeping.  Then you glance up to see her, in the front of the crowd right beside her son, and hear her unnerving moans of grief even over all the other cries.  She not only has lost a son, she is now a dependent of the community.  Her status as mother and wife are gone. She was to become what we would call a beggar.   

The ceremony makes its way out of the small village, through the city gate toward a distant hill where there is a family tomb; a cave.  The boy’s father lays there along with other ancestors and relatives, each in their own funeral box.  In the cave there is a ledge just big enough to place the young man. The plans are for him to stay there until his bones are also placed into a box beside his father’s.  Walking not far behind the mother is a group of women carrying spices to offset the smell of decomposition which is going to quickly take place in the heat of the Galilean summer. 

Then, kind of out of nowhere, a group of about a dozen men and a crowd almost as big as your funeral procession, intersect and everyone comes to a halt.  The man leading this other group seems familiar.  Galilee is not that big a place and Nain, where you are now, is only 5 miles from Nazareth.  Then you place the man.  It is Jesus.  He is the one who is making such a stir.  The one they threw out of Nazareth just months ago.  Rumors have been circulating about this guy.  Some believe he is a miracle worker others must another trouble maker.  What is he doing here?  Has he come to bring more trouble to an already distraught town?

Then you see this Jesus do the unthinkable.  He steps up to the procession and touches the bier.  This is shocking.  Jesus has just made himself unclean.  Touching a dead body makes you unclean.  But then you are close enough to hear him talking to the mother, “Don’t cry.”  “What?  Don’t cry.  There is nothing sadder than for a widow to lose her only son.  Who is this trouble maker to come back here and tell her not to cry?” This is ludicrous.   

But what you hear next is even more bizarre, “Young man, I say to you, get up!"  “Is he insane?” Then in something from a horror movie you see the boy sit up and begin to talk with Jesus.  You are surprised that the pail bearers don’t drop the stretcher.  You don’t know who to look, the mother, who is still crying but now with joyous tears, the back-to-life son, or the one who can bring the dead back to life! 

You join in with the rest of both crowds…

Luke 7:16-17 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."  This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding country.

You remember your Old Testament Synagogue stories and suddenly it dawns on you Jesus is Elijah and Elisha.  They gave widows back their sons.  He is a great prophet.  He can bring the dead to life!

I told this story in detail for a reason.  You may have guessed that.  I wanted you to feel the exuberant generosity of Jesus.  He was touched by the plight of this widow.  Perhaps, he saw his own mother in a few months and knew how she would feel when he came back to life. Luke says he was moved with compassion for her.  That is who Jesus is.  Without being asked by the widow; without her passing some kind of faith-test; without it being some kind of challenge to who Jesus was, he stepped up in compassion and brought her son back to life.

That is the kind of Lord I want.  That is the kind of Savior I need. That is the kind of God I have!  Jesus is the exuberantly generous Messiah.  That is the point of this sermon and the point of Luke 7. 
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But, Luke is not satisfied with simply making his point once.  He continues making this point in the next few verses. 

Luke 7:18-20   John's disciples told him about all these things. Calling two of them, he sent them to the Lord to ask, "Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?"  When the men came to Jesus, they said, "John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, 'Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?'" 

John is in prison.  He has heard about what Jesus is doing.  Don’t you think the news of this boy being brought back to life must have spread like wildfire across the country?  So, when John the Baptist hears this he is excited. Perhaps now is the time.  Now would be a good time to set the captive free; if you know what I mean.  So, John sends a couple of his disciples to ask him point blank are you “The” One or are you also preparing the way for another “The” One.  It is not time for Jesus to answer the question straight up.  That happens later.  But Jesus does answer John’s question by quoting from Isaiah. 

Luke 7:21-23  At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind.   So he replied to the messengers, "Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.  Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me."

John is expecting “The” Messiah to come in the power of the Holy Spirit.  He, I suspect, is expecting Jesus to be this military leader who will deliver them from all these oppressive rulers, like Herod, who has him in prison. Come on Jesus lets get ready to rumble.  Jesus answers John by pointing back to Isaiah and saying, “Yes, I am ‘The’ One.  But I am the one who is bringing the Day of the Lord’s favor. I am the exuberantly gracious Messiah!”

Verse 23 is significant and may be the heart of this chapter. “Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me."  Jesus did not come to meet John’s expectations of a Messiah.  He did not come to meet the Pharisees’ expectation of a Messiah. He did not come even to meet our expectations of a Messiah.  He came to be the Messiah, he came to be!  He is who he is!  He came to be the exuberantly gracious Messiah! Jesus is the Messiah on his own terms, in his own way.    

Then we have this point really reemphasized. Listen.

Luke 7:24-35   After John's messengers left, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: "What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind?   If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear expensive clothes and indulge in luxury are in palaces.  But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.  This is the one about whom it is written: "'I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.'  I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he." 

(All the people, even the tax collectors, when they heard Jesus' words, acknowledged that God's way was right, because they had been baptized by John.  But the Pharisees and experts in the law rejected God's purpose for themselves, because they had not been baptized by John.)   "To what, then, can I compare the people of this generation? What are they like?  They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other: "'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not cry.'  For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, 'He has a demon.'  The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and "sinners."'  But wisdom is proved right by all her children."  

Jesus says you are like a bunch of hard-to-please kids. Do you know the type?  “Let’s play funeral.” “No, we don’t want to play funeral that is too sad. That is too hard.  That’s no fun.”  They didn’t like John.  He was too harsh.  He was too sad.  He is no fun.

“Well, let’s play wedding.” “No. We don’t want to.  That’s too silly. That’s too happy. That is too nice.”  They didn’t like Jesus he was too happy.  He was too gracious.  He was too exuberant too everyone. 

Then Luke says in verse 35, “The wise person does not stumble on Jesus.”  The one who lets Jesus be who Jesus is, is the wise one.   He is basically repeating, “Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me."  Jesus is who Jesus is regardless of whether or not the Pharisees like who he is or whether or not we like who Jesus is.  It is the wise for us not to attempt to make Jesus who we want him to be. But we must put our faith in who he really is!  He is not made in our image.  We are to be conformed to his image. 

As if Luke has not made is point several times already, he has a “for instance.”

Luke 7:36-39   Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table.  When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.  When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is-- that she is a sinner." 

What has Simon done?  I think he was at least open enough to invite Jesus over to dinner to see who he is.  But he quickly reaches the answer to who he is when Jesus allows this woman to touch him.  “He cannot be the Messiah because the Messiah would obviously be like me,” Simon thinks to himself.  “I would never allow such a woman as this touch me, therefore he cannot be the Messiah.”  Simon says, “You are not the Messiah.” So, Simon writes him off; which is the point of what I am saying this morning. 

Luke 7:40-43 Jesus answered him, "Simon, I have something to tell you." "Tell me, teacher," he said.   "Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.  Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?"  Simon replied, "I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled." "You have judged correctly," Jesus said. 

Echoes of, “Blessed are those who weep, for you will laugh.”  To understand who Jesus is, we must need him to forgive our depts.

Luke 7:44-50 Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.  You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet.  You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet.  Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven-- for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little."  Then Jesus said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."  The other guests began to say among themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?"  Jesus said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."

The woman came to Jesus without demands; she never speaks a word.  She comes to Jesus and abandons any agendas; perhaps she came to pour the perfume on his head and instead just broke down.  Most importantly, she came to Jesus without any specifications for Jesus to meet, “if you meet my expectations of what a Savior should be then I will allow you to be my Messiah.”  Instead, she came to Jesus in humility with a broken heart for her sins.  And Jesus was Jesus to her.   He graciously forgave her sins and saved her. 

Simon, on the other hand, invited Jesus to come to him.  Do you see the difference?  “Meet my standards.  Conform to who you are supposed to be.  Be who I want you to be. Come to me and I will acknowledge you to be the Messiah.  If you live up to my expectations then I will welcome you warmly into my life.”

But Jesus doesn’t play our games.  He is not the Messiah we want him to be.  He is not our genie in a bottle ready to come at our whim to satisfy our demands.  He is Lord.  He is God. He is who he is.  We must come, as the woman did, broken-hearted because of our inadequacies to him! Then we will find the exuberantly gracious Messiah.  We then can hear him say to us, "Your sins are forgiven. Your faith has saved you; go in peace."

Luke chapter 7 is all about faith.  It is all about our faith in Jesus.  It is all about our faith in Jesus to be who he is. Luke 7 is all about our faith in Jesus to be who he is and for us to trust his exuberant generosity.