Jesus at a Funeral

Luke 7:11-18

Only Luke shares this remarkable story of the day that Jesus attended a funeral procession. This event takes place just outside the city gate of the little village of Nain, some 21 miles south of Capernaum. We do not know what other things that Jesus did in this village, or even whether He made it into the village, but this was a miracle that shook the countryside and caused stories to be told of Jesus that would carry all the way to John the Baptist in prison (Luke 7:18-19).

A widow woman had lost her only son, meaning that not only was the love of her life gone, but her entire means of income had died with him. It was not the dead boy that moved our Savior to perform a miracle, but rather it was the pain that He saw in the heart of the mother. When He saw her he said to her, “Weep not” (Luke 7:13). This seems like a bizarre thing to say to a mother who is attending the funeral of her son. Would you dare say this to someone who has lost a loved one at a funeral? Coming from Jesus, we know that it was not a reprimand against showing emotion, for Jesus shows as much Himself at the tomb of Lazarus (John 11:35). His instruction to the mother is a foreshadow that something awesome is about to happen. “Weep not” is Jesus’ way of introducing hope into a hopeless situation.

Jesus approached the “bier”, which was a funeral couch upon which Jews would carry their dead for burial. When Jesus touched the bier, the procession stopped. Touching a casket as it goes by in a funeral procession seems like a momentous gesture to us in the Western world but for a Jew, it represented something horrific. By touching the bier you were touching a dead person, thus you were ceremonially unclean. The party stopped because they were stunned that anyone would dare breach the laws of God’s cleanliness by such an act.

We know that Jesus completely fulfilled the law without ever sinning, so how could He commit such an act at the funeral in Nain without being considered ceremonially unclean? When Jesus touched the bier, it was Life touching Death. When the Life of God touched Death, Death cannot win, for the Life of Jesus Christ ensures that there can be no Death while He is around. The moment that Jesus made contact with the bier there was life that entered into the boy. The fact that he was now alive meant that Jesus had not touched a dead body at all, for no one could prove that there was anything that was dead!

No one ever died in the presence of Jesus. In fact, the criminals on the cross could not die until Jesus had given up His life first, for death has no place when Jesus is near. You cannot dwell for long in your dead ways when you look to Jesus as your hope and your life. His great hand touches the various areas of our life and we spring to life. He is the calmer of the storm and the bringer of streams in the desert. If He could visit a funeral in Nain and bring the boy to life, He can visit your life and bring you a life more abundant. Hallelujah!

The Swine Over the Savior

Mark 5:1-20

Jesus’ arrival in the land of the Gadarenes was a momentous occasion for both the people of that land, and the disciples of Christ. The land was on the east side of the Sea of Galilee, in the northernmost region of Decapolis. This land was technically Israeli land, though on the wrong side of the Jordan River. Most of the tribes of Israel had chosen land on the west side of the river, bordered by the Mediterranean Sea, but Reuben, Gad and half of the tribe of Manasseh had chosen to dwell on the eastern side. This separation from their kinsmen led to a drifting from the principles of God, and in some cases, outright idolatry.

The first man that Jesus meets when He steps off of the boat is “a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs” (Mark 5:2, 3). He is demon possessed with 6,000 demons, knowledge we gain in verse 9 when he identifies himself as Legion (6,000 troops). He dwells among the dead for that is the only place that the powers of darkness feel comfortable.

Jesus casts the demons out of the man and sends them into a herd of 2,000 swine that is feeding on a nearby cliff, overlooking the sea. The moment that the demons enter the pigs, they overrun one another and rush headlong into the sea, drowning them. What an amazing sight to see, as this herd of swine goes madly into suicide. Having watched their herd kill themselves, the keepers of the herd run into the nearby city and tell the owners what has occurred.

The people of that land worshipped false gods, and rather than use a lamb or bullock as the children of Israel did, they used pigs as their animal of sacrifice. It is typical of Satan to use that which was abominable in the eyes of God to mock worship. The Jew was not to touch a pig, much less eat one, and the thought of using it as a sacrifice was the ultimate mockery. In casting the demons into the herd of swine, Jesus had destroyed the sacrificial crop of the city in one fell swoop. Not only had he set a man free from the power of darkness, He had rendered the worship of that darkness obsolete as well.

When people become attached to the forces of darkness in their lives, the presence of light and purity tends to frighten them (Mark 5:15). The people of the Gadarenes were faced with a choice; either accept the fact that this Jesus can do miracles without the power of darkness, or beg Him to leave them to their darkness. They pray that He will depart, for they preferred their false religion of darkness and pain to the truth of the light of the world. In essence, they preferred their swine to the Savior.

The ultimate rejection is when those who are in the dark are given light and they still prefer to dwell in darkness. Jesus said that condemnation is on those who love darkness rather than light. “For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved” (John 3:20).

Jesus has come to the shores of your heart. Won’t you let Him bring light and peace and deliverance to the areas of your life that are touched by darkness? Don’t choose the swine of self-righteousness and effort when you have the Savior of the world at your side. Go in peace believer!

Watch Your Mouth!

Matthew 6:25-34

A stern warning from any mother to her child is “watch your mouth!” and most of us have been on the receiving end of that warning at least once in our lives. I think that I responded with, “I can’t see my mouth so how can I watch it?” but I only got to do that one time. You can imagine the response.

Jesus gave the cure for anxiety when He told the Jews at the Sermon on the Mount to trust in the Father’s care for them. He showed them the fowls of the air and the lilies of the field, how both are provided for by the heavenly Father, and how they are better than fowl or lilies. His cure was prefaced with a warning, which appears in one form or the other five different times in this passage: “take no thought”. Look at each warning:

“Take no thought for your life…” (Matthew 6:25)
“Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature?” (Matthew 6:27)
“Why take ye thought for raiment?” (Matthew 6:28)
“Therefore, take not thought, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’.” (Matthew 6:31)
“Take therefore no thought for the morrow…” (Matthew 6:34)

The phrase, “take thought” speaks of being anxious or careful, both of which lead us to stress and fear. It also speaks of our thought life, and what we ponder in our head. How we think of a situation invariably leads to how we deal with that situation. If we think that a situation is hopeless then we act that way, and it leads to hopelessness. Feel negative about everything that happens, and always think the worst and you will probably never be disappointed. Why live that way?

In these five instances, Jesus tells us to think differently about the moments in our lives that are everyday concerns for us. We are to watch how we think about our life, what we will eat, drink or wear (verse 25). We are also not to stress about our physical body (verse 25, 27) or whether or not we are going to have new and stylish clothes (verse 28). We shouldn’t concern ourselves with HOW we are going to get these things either (verse 31). Finally, we need not worry about tomorrow, for it is already taken care of (verse 34).

The most important warning of Jesus is expressed in the phrase, “take no thought, saying”. How do we take possession of our thoughts? We express them, and articulate them with words. The moment we speak out loud what is going through our head then we have put legs on our thought life. Many things will cross your mind, but not all of them belong to you. Aren’t you glad that you are not responsible for every single thought that comes into your head? If someone could see what goes on in there they might think differently of all of us!

When we speak those worries aloud, we take those thoughts and make them our own. Like the old saying, “You can’t keep birds from flying over your head but you don’t have to let them build a nest in your hair”, you can’t keep thoughts out of your head, but you don’t have to own them.

Watch your mouth saint! I don’t mean live in fear that you will say the wrong thing, but don’t articulate those thoughts that are full of doubt and unbelief. Allow Christ’s finished work to filter your thoughts before they hit your tongue. Then we will truly bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5).

A Thing of Brass

2 Kings 18:1-4

Nearly 700 years had passed since Moses had fashioned a serpent out of brass and placed it on a pole for all of Israel to look upon and be healed when twenty-five year old Hezekiah became king of Judah. A true son of David, he followed in his ancestor’s footsteps, doing “that which was right in the sight of the LORD” (2 Kings 18:3).

One of the first things that Hezekiah did as king was brought spiritual reform to the nation. He started by removing the high places of worship that Israelites had fashioned to avoid making the journey to the temple in Jerusalem. These high places represented alternatives to the brazen altar and were as damaging to the people as an alternative form of Calvary would be to us.

He also broke in pieces the brazen serpent which Moses had made. This brass snake had been held in high regard by the children of Israel for 7 centuries, and had become a holy relic to the people. They had gone so far as to burn incense to it (verse 4), which is a form of worship. Barred from worshipping idols by the law, Israel was taking something that was meant to be good to a previous generation and turning it into a shameful thing.

Hezekiah calls the serpent “Nehushtan” which in Hebrew means, “a thing of brass”. This title removes all mystery and superstition from the snake, taking it back to what it truly is, just a thing made out of brass. He meant to jolt Israel into a realization that it was never the snake that had delivered them, but it was the Lord God of their fathers.

The presence of this brass snake after 700 years shows us that Israel had lost consciousness as to who God really was. It also shows that they still had a hunger for the things of God, though they did not know how to bring those things about. They had also made a mistake that is common to the church today; they had misinterpreted history and trusted the serpent instead of what the serpent represented.

We are often guilty of making holy relics out of things that are purely symbolic. Some have elevated the act of water baptism to a level on par with salvation itself. Others view the sacraments of the church as vital to salvation or a particular denomination as having special revelation from God, and only the members of that denomination as being truly saved. All of these things hold their place within Christianity, but they are still “Nehushtan”, and can be treated as nothing more.

Still others elevate the act of praise and worship to the highest level in the church or they have a secret worship of their building and structure, feeling that these things actually bring them closer to God. If we do not keep Jesus in our sights we are all susceptible to a Nehushtan becoming bigger and more important to us than Christ and His finished work.

Let’s live our lives in a way in which we can keep the serpent of brass around for what it is without making it more important than who we are in Christ. Our traditions and buildings and beliefs are beautiful and should be respected, but our Savior is glorious and should be adored.

Saved by Faith

Ephesians 2:8

We are saved by grace, but why does God use the means of faith? Could He not have used hope or love, or any other thing? Of course He could have used anything that He wanted, but He chose to allow grace to operate only upon man showing faith. God's redemption is more powerful than anything that man can imagine, but it is powerless without man's faith going to work.

Faith is that which takes from God. God does not need to exhibit faith in man, for God does not take from man; rather God loves us, for love is a giver. Just as our hand reaches out to grasp something, our faith reaches out to grasp God's grace. We don't receive that something with our foot or with our head, but rather with that which God designed to be our receiver, our hand. Faith is the hand, and grace is the gift.

Faith cannot brag of itself, for it is merely the means of reception. We don't boast that we have "great faith" or that our faith is better placed than those around us. That is as absurd as someone reaching our and taking a gift and then bragging that their hand receives better than everyone else's hand. That which is worth boasting of is the finished work of Jesus Christ, which comes to all who believe on Jesus. There are no works that we can do to make this salvation better or to make ourselves more righteous, thus there is no room for us to feel better about our faith.

Remember, it was faith that Jesus honored when He was on this earth, and that faith did not have to be great. With the centurion, it was "great faith", while with the disciples it was "little faith". Both received what they needed, so it is obvious that great faith does not give you better things and little faith gives you little things. Great faith is a great ability to receive, while little faith takes little. We need increased faith, not so that we can get more things or feel better about our spirituality, but so we can take with that hand of faith all that God has to offer His children.

I once read a great example of faith from the great preacher Charles Spurgeon. He told of a ship that capsized above Niagara Falls and two men were thrown overboard. People along the bank floated a rope out to the men, and both grabbed hold of it. One of the men held on to the rope and was safely pulled to the shore, while the other man saw a log floating by which he grabbed and jumped on top of. It was large and allowed him to move freely, but it soon plunged over the edge of the falls for it had nothing to connect it to the shore. Though it was bigger and looked more stable than a flimsy rope, the log was useless, while the rope provided life. Such is everyone that trusts their works to save them, for there is nothing connecting them to Christ.

Your faith may feel weak and hopeless, but it is the rope that binds you to your Savior on the shore. Don't trust in you or your abilities to save you, let the hand of faith bring God's grace to work for you each and every day.

A Father's Love

2 Samuel 18:33

There is a saying, “He has a face only a mother could love” that speaks volumes about a mother’s capacity to love. That capacity to love was placed in woman by our heavenly Father. His treatment toward us is a perfect picture of that love. When we see His concern for us, be it in the wilderness or in the Prodigal Son, we are seeing the perfect love that casts out fear (1 John 4:18).

King David had many children, but seemed to have a special place in his heart for Absalom. Perhaps this love stemmed from the fact that the biblical descriptions of Absalom remind us so much of David. His looks, his ability to sway the hearts of men, his warrior tendencies; all seem to speak of a boy that is his father’s child. Absalom grew into rebellion, and then led an army against his father’s palace in Jerusalem. Too concerned for the safety of his child to put up much of a fight, David fled Jerusalem, leaving the city behind to be taken by his son.

David carried a guilt complex with him following the entire incident with Bathsheba. Though forgiven of his sin with her, he was told that there would be some repercussions for his actions. David spent the next several years accepting his fate as being punishment from God; and he felt that Absalom was God’s literal hand at work. For David, fighting against Absalom would have been the equivalent of fighting against God, and he felt that any judgment meted out on him was just and deserved.

When Absalom was killed by Joab, David’s commanding general; David took the news hard and wept openly before all of Israel. His heart wrenching cry turned the day of victory into a day of mourning for the nation (2 Samuel 19:2). “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!” (2 Samuel 18:33) This cry went forth for a son who had done nothing to earn or elicit such a response. Absalom had caused unparalleled grief in his father’s life for several years, but none of that could take away that father’s undying love for the boy. The wording of David’s cry shows us a man, who has lost his composure; who is beyond caring what those around him might think. This is the cry of a broken heart.

Jesus was on His way into Jerusalem for what would prove to be His final journey before the cross when he saw a panoramic view of the city unfold over the cliff in front of Him. He cried out, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!” (Luke 13:34) Notice the pathos with which Jesus cries over the central city of Israel. This is the same city that David stood in and cried for the dead and undeserving Absalom. Jesus is just as wounded, just as hurt and just as longing for the Jews that will soon reject Him, as David was for the son that just had.

For the lost and dying world that goes about their business around us, let us remember that our Father cries in agony over them. Just as Jesus asked the Father to forgive those who killed Him at Calvary, Jesus still weeps over their souls even now. Only faith separates the sinner from the Savior, but many will not show that faith. May we weep anew today for the unsaved that we know, and be slower to count them out as a lost cause. If the Father loves you, which He does, don’t you think He loves them just as much?

Destroy All

1 Samuel 15:3, 8, 9

“Destroy all” was a simple command from the LORD to King Saul. Amalek had attacked Israel in Exodus 17 while Israel was on the journey to the Promised Land. God is not slack in His judgment, so He now orders Saul to repay Amalek by destroying everything that they have, animals included. Saul had other plans though.

Typical of man operating under rebellion, Saul felt that he had a better plan, which included the destruction of the people of the Amalekites, but the sparing of the best of the sheep and the oxen and the fatlings, and the lambs, “and all that was good” (15:9), as well as King Agag.

Where Saul failed in his discernment of spiritual things is found in his failure to understand that there is nothing good with that which God has cursed. Amalek was under the judgment of God’s hand, thus they had nothing to offer God’s chosen people. By destroying Amalek, God was not only judging them for their actions, but He was sparing His own people and their future generations from dealing with these heathens again.

Saul leans to that side of himself that is still prevalent in mankind to this day: the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Saul felt that he could identify that which was good and that which was evil. This is why he refused to destroy things that he felt could be useful to him and to his army, though God had specifically order such extermination. He even categorizes other things as “vile and refuse” and thus worthy of destruction. He did not know the heart of God in this matter which viewed ALL of it as “vile and refuse”.

Amalek is a type of the flesh and of sin, and thus all of it is deemed unusable by God. Christ came to completely destroy the power of sin and the flesh, leaving none of it unresolved at the cross. His death was a complete and total victory over the forces of darkness, not even sparing Satan himself. Jesus said of the devil that he was cast out as a source of power when God’s judgment came pouring into the body of Christ (John 12:31). Paul also said that Jesus “spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it” (Colossians 2:15).

As if to show us what happens when sin is left unresolved, Saul is ultimately killed at the hand of an Amalekite (2 Samuel 1:13), in an enormous piece of Biblical irony, that was not at all coincidental. Thank God that we do not have to fear the return of our old man of sin, but that Jesus has already destroyed Satan’s power in our life. Our heavenly Saul “hewed Agag in pieces” just as old Samuel did when he arrived (1 Samuel 15:33). We are free from the fear of tomorrow because our Amalek has been dealt with today.