"The Living Dead" Whats up here?

June 5, 2016  Readings: Psalm 146  Luke 7: 11-17

This story from Luke today produces for us a dramatic scene when you think about it -- I mean -- a funeral procession halted and the trip to the cemetery interrupted?  Of course a funeral in Middle East during Jesus' time would not be anything like our scene today in the West, Canada or America I mean.  We have the usual black Cadillac hearse, along with all the other vehicles both cars and trucks lights a blazing and most would be dressed in their best, and things generally subdued and quiet before, during and after the service.   The big brown mahogany casket with it’s ornate hand rails for carrying, usually placed on the automatic grave lowering device and the dirt from the dug grave is carefully concealed by an artificial green grass tarp.   The prayers and blessing are said in the quiet of the afternoon at his or her final resting place.  The cemetery is sometimes out back behind the church or down the road and up the lane and everything is well manicured, almost sterile.   

Quite a different story when it comes to the Middle East and It hasn’t changed since the time of Jesus.  There’s no black Cadillac hearse, there is no expense crafted wooden or brushed metal casket and there is no such things a quiet subdued service.    

On the contrary, honoring the dead in the Jewish traditions was and still is important.  In the pictures you can see that the body was usually open faced, wrapped in a blanket laid on a stretcher being carried through the streets.  Hundreds of people come out to follow a funeral.  In addition, hired mourners would cry aloud and draw attention to the procession and the Families morning, why it would continue for days.    Now I need you to imagine that in the photo above,  Jesus is the one touching the body of the widow’s son.  Try and imagine that they just stop in their tracks and watch, as the scriptures suggested.  Jesus says to the young man, get up, and the young man sat up and began to talk.   Now imagine Jesus trying to get away from this crowd!  Someone would have probably call out loud a prophet, this man is a prophet.  The people of his time didn’t see Jesus as anything more than one of the heretical Major Prophets.  They would not have been unfamiliar with a prophet performing this kind of miracle.  He was not the first to raise the dead.  Prophets from the old Testament proclaimed God’s message and performed great miracles, with Moses' parting of the Red Sea,  to yes, sometimes raised the dead.  Two such prophets were Elijah and Elisha were recorded as raising children from the dead, 1 Kings 17: 17-24 and 2 Kings 4: 18-37.  The people were correct in thinking that Jesus was a prophet.   But we today, know that Jesus was more than just a prophet because we know the rest of the story.   Jesus for us is Lord of the Universe, The Cosmic Christ, there from the beginning, Genesis 1: 26, He’s the King of Kings, and the Lord or Lords, He’s the Son of God, and He is our Messiah.

Miracles by a prophet were common and may I suggest that Jesus doesn’t want us to be side tracked by the miracles either.   In fact, He often told people not to tell anyone of what He had done.  Instead from my perspective, I believe Jesus wants us to focus on the dead boy and his mom.   Why, because they are much like we are half living half dead and because the story illustrates for us the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.   Listen to this rendition of Amazing Grace to a different tune!!

Both the widow and the boy are caught up in life’s circumstances, as are many of us today.  It doesn’t matter how they got caught up in these unfortunate circumstances, the fact is, that they were.  Folks, it’s no different for us today, tragedy and mayhem are all around us.  Anything can happen to you as it did to them yes even a tragic accident or an early death. Often we, as did this mom, don’t see the unfortunate circumstances we are building around our lives with the choices we make, but then we can suffer greatly and do not see it coming because of someone else’s choice, all of a sudden we are hit with them.   How often have you caught yourself in a disagreement on some small matter and all of a sudden it bursts into a full fledged family feud, or even worst, the ending of what was a fairly good relationship, not understanding that bitterness and unforgiveness lead to death.

Oh I know some people seem to go around with blinders on, but folks don’t we all have some form of blindness when it comes to certain things?  My wife and probably my children could tell you stories of my blindness at times as a husband and father. 

Life isn’t always all that great for many, but Jesus offers us, another crack at it, if you’re willing.    With Christ in our lives we can begin to work with life and our circumstances differently.  That’s why the scriptures tells us that with Jesus, life will never be the same again.  He helps us take off the blinders folks.  It is not easy to take a moral inventory of yourself.  But you have to let him come in to your life on a daily basis in order to accomplish that.   If we remain part of the living dead, meaning dead to life, we can do nothing to help ourselves or others.   Now I’m not talking about being physically dead. I’m talking about the living dead.  The living dead are people who are alive but not living, often in our society you will have heard them referred to as a dead head.  I know this for sure because I consider myself to have been one of them.

There is a gem here in this story for the living and it is this: the dead boy did not earn his second chance at life, Jesus gave it to him.  We cannot earn ours either, you have to be given that second chance.  This is a major part of Jesus’ work folks, to give life, NEW life to all who ask for it.  Even if we don’t think of ourselves as worthy or deserving. Worthiness is not a qualification, does that surprise you?    
Even if your circumstances at the moment don’t seem to have much light in them, when you invite the light of Christ into the dark corners of your life, darkness will begin to fade.  Now that’s a real miracle and it is yours for the asking. The more light you let in, the more darkness has to move out, that only makes good sense and guess what, you will begin immediately to feel brighter and better.   So I ask you, "Are You Living"

     Ann  Murray tells us   “It Is No Secret What God Can Do”  

                            May Christ bless you in your seeking.