3-31-2016

  Good Morning All!!

             Luke 7:12; “As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her.”

     Jesus can come to people and change their lives in some very unique places, times or events.  I remember visiting with a young man who had experienced some difficult times in his young life.  He told me that Jesus came to him while he was “laying on the floor of the Hughes County jail.”  Others have spoken of music concerts or youth gatherings as a time or a place where Jesus seemed to show up and change their life.

    Our verse is one of those places.  Jesus, his disciples and a large crowd of other followers were entering the city of Nain.  The city had a wall around it so it had gates that you had to use to enter it.  Just as Jesus and this crowd of people were entering the gate another crowd was trying to leave the city and they met at the gate; two mobs met.  There would have been a moment when both crowds pushed in.  The front of the processions would have stopped but the back would have kept pushing and the congestion would have stopped everything.  There was no going forward and no going backward; there was just a stoppage.

    The crowd with Jesus at the front was abuzz with the events of the past few days.  Jesus was teaching with authority like the people had never heard and he was healing the sick and the infirm.  There was something about this Jesus that had everyone getting excited.  Who was he?  Was he a prophet like Elijah or Jeremiah?  Who was he?  Could he be the Messiah?  The noise, joy and exuberance that surrounded Jesus would have been incredible.  The outbound crowd was a funeral procession.  A widow was burying her only son.  Life would be tough for her from now on.  With no man in her life she would have a hard time making a living.  She would probably have to live on the kindness of her family and of her community if that wasn’t enough for her to live on, she may have to become a prostitute.  It was a gloomy, sad and despondent crowd trying to leave the city.   Yet in her moment of deepest despair, Jesus met her and changed her life.

    He gave her back her son.  He gave her back her life and brought her joy.  She could stop worrying about where she would find food tomorrow.  Her pall of darkness was ending.  Jesus came into her life and changed it.  Jesus does the same for us each and every day.  He comes to us in our pain and fear, in our sadness and sorrow to give us hope, to give us life.  This is why Jesus came and died and rose again; to give us life and hope.  He gives it freely to us as a gift.  He gives it out of love for us.  He loves us enough to die for us and to give us life eternal.  Trust his gracious love.

Father, through Jesus you meet me in my pain and sorrow to give me hope and life.  Strengthen me by your mercy and keep certain of your love and mercy.  Guard me that I may always cling to you.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret