Our Helper
We Would See Jesus • Sermon • Submitted
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Prayer
Our Need for Help
I want to start this morning with the beginning of the story that we’re going to look at, a story from the Gospel of Luke...Luke 7:11-12...
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.
Jesus is traveling with his disciples, engaging in ministry - and they make their way to a town called Nain. I want to note two things that give us insight as we seek to learn more about Jesus.
First, notice that along with Jesus and his disciples is a large crowd. Now, that’s not entirely a big surprise, we often see large crowds around Jesus - people wanted to see Jesus
But think for a moment what this says about Jesus. Because it’s not just that it’s a large crowd, which is impressive enough - it’s that this large crowd is traveling along with Jesus. Travel was slow in that day - for the vast majority of people, it was on foot. If you’re traveling any sort of distance, it would take days, even weeks to get there.
Which means, that whatever else these people had going on in their lives - they were willing to leave that behind. Jesus became their priority - more than anything else in their lives, they wanted to be around Jesus, to be with him, to share in what he was doing, even if that meant just observing it.
Which honestly is humbling thought - there are often times I don’t want to give up unimportant things I’m doing in order to be with Jesus. I’d rather be on my phone or watching something on TV or engaged in some busy work - it could a hundred different things, but somehow they seem more important, more worthwhile, than being with Jesus.
But not these folks, they are so amazed by Jesus - his teachings, how he loves people, the healings he performs, that they dropping everything else in order to travel to wherever he’s going. They have no idea where that is - all they know is that if Jesus is headed there, than that’s where they want to be. In this case, it’s the town of Nain.
By the way, when I choose not to prioritize Jesus, it’s not Jesus who’s missing out - though I’m convinced Jesus always misses us - he always wants us to be with him. Jesus truly enjoys and delights in us.
But it’s me, I miss out when I choose to prioritize other things over Jesus. As the story makes clear, it’s Jesus who is the one worth following, worth setting everything else aside to be with him.
So, Jesus and his disciples and this large crowd of people are heading into Nain - and that brings us to the second thing I want us to note. As they approach the town gate, they encounter another large crowd. But the mood among this crowd is very different, because this is a sad occasion, its a funeral procession. A young man has just died. It’s helpful to know some things about what’s happening here.
Crowd of mourners is making its way out of Nain, past town gate, towards the cemetery, which would have been outside the town. Crowd would grow bigger as the procession went along - in those days it was customary to stop whatever you were doing and join the procession. Similar to today when cars pull over to the side of the road and stop when a funeral procession of cars is making its way to the cemetery.
At the front of the procession there would have been a group of men carrying the body of this young man who’s passed - he would have been carried in a what’s called a bier, an open coffin.
At the very front of the procession, in front of the bier, the deceased’s family would have walked. In this case there’s not much family - only one person, his mother, a widow.
This is an important detail because it reveals to us that this is a doubly tragic situation. Terrible enough that this poor woman has lost her only child, her son. A terrible tragedy for any parent to lose their child.
But with his death, she has lost her only means of support. She’s a widow, her husband is dead, now her son, too. She would now struggle for her livelihood, have to rely on extended family - if they had means, or on the charity of neighbors. This is a woman in dire need of help.
And this is really what I want to draw our attention to this morning as we take a closer look at Jesus - Our Need for Help
I’m guessing that most of you are familiar with what has to be one of The Beatles’ greatest songs - Help! John Lennon wrote that this was one of the few “true” songs he’d ever written - a song written from personal experience rather than projecting himself into a situation and telling a nice story about it.
“When I was younger so much younger than today…I never needed anybody’s help in any way…but now those days are gone, I’m not so self-assured…Now I find I’ve changed my mind and opened up the door…help me if you can I’m feeling down…and I do appreciate you being ‘round…help me get my feet back on the ground…won’t you please, please help me.”
An interesting note about his writing this song is that when he wrote it, he wasn’t even aware that it was reflecting his personal experience - that he was in more need of help in that moment than he realized. It was only in hindsight that he realized it.
As I’ve gotten older, I resonate much more with this song. That I need help. That I’ve always needed help - and much more than I would’ve ever admitted in my younger days. I think the truth is, we all need help, in one way or another.
I’m a fan of the Babylon Bee, a Christian website that makes commentary through satire. One of their recent “headlines” featured a picture of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wearing a life jacket riding in a boat - rubber raft boats you’d go white water rafting in. Headline was, “Zelensky Seen On Raft Asking For Donations From Flooded Florida Residents.”
Poking fun a bit at how continually Zelensky has been asking for aid for Ukraine (not that I blame him, he’s doing whatever he can to try to save his country - it just proves how dire the need for help he and all of Ukraine have). But of course there are thousands of people down in Florida that need help as well due to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Ian.
But it’s not just the huge calamaties, but the day-to-day difficulties we endure on a regular basis that cause us to need help.
I’ve seen two stories recently on difficulties teenagers are dealing with - first had to do with the substantial increase of teens who are taking prescription drugs for mental and emotional suffering - anxiety and depression. The second story was from the Wall Street Journal, they were talking about the phenomenon of teen girls developing tics - physical jerking movements and verbal outbursts for no obvious reasons. Doctors at pediatric hospitals studied the issue and they could only find one thing in common among these girls - the use of TikTok. Apparently these girls get more attention, more likes, if they displayed aberrant behavior. As one girl put it, if she posted a picture of herself looking sad or holding a handful of pills, she’d get 1,000 likes. But she’d only get 100 or so if it was a picture of her smiling. That is a terrible example of a culture that is not well - that is in need of dire help.
There are all sorts of ways we need help - Parents need help caring for their children. Sometimes we need extra counsel or advise - wisdom. Sometimes it’s because of physical struggles or an inability to do something on our own - we just don’t have the skills or the physical capacity or the resources. I would never have been able to get those shelves built in the storage shed...or the door leveled so it will lock…or electricity run to the building…Sometimes it’s because we’re injured or sick or recovering from surgery, so we need help to do basic tasks. The list goes on.
Won’t you please, please help me? Like this woman, we all need help. Thankfully, someone has come to help.
God Has Come to Help
Let’s pick our story back up - Luke 7:13-17...
When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.” 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!” The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother. 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.
As we’ve seen so often in this sermon series, we see Jesus’ heart revealed immediately…he saw this woman and his “heart went out to her.” This is the type of insight that invites us to reflect and ponder and be amazed by Jesus. Response of his heart, when he sees us in pain, struggling, hurting - is empathy. His heart is with us. He is for us.
And so he speaks words of comfort to this weeping widow…don’t cry. But Jesus doesn’t stop at just words.
Jesus goes to the bier - and what he does next breaks all proper protocol. According to Torah, to Jewish law, a dead body was considered unclean. And anyone who touched a dead body was considered unclean for a week, they would have to separate themselves, and then go through the proper cleansing rituals to be considered “clean.”
But it wasn’t just the dead body that was unclean, but what the dead body came in contact with - so the coffin, the bier, would have been considered unclean as well (though touching it would have made you unclean just for a day, not a week). Jesus goes up and touches the bier. You can see why those carrying the bier stop when Jesus does this…uh, what are you doing, you’re not supposed to do that.
So much of the Jewish law was predicated on not becoming defiled, unclean. Illness, disease, death - these were all unclean. Why you avoided contact with lepers, with their diseased skin. Touching dead bodies. You would be defiled, unclean, in doing so.
But with Jesus it was the exact opposite - his touch made that which was unclean, clean. His touch brought healing, life. Which is why Jesus would touch the leper and instead of becoming defiled, Jesus would make him clean. Why Jesus would touch this coffin and then declare to the body of dead young man, “Young man, I say to you, get up!”.
And he does. the young man sits up and begins to talk, further evidence that he is, indeed, alive. Jesus raises him from the dead.
If you really want to get a sense of how profound this is - consider what it would be like if next time you were at a visitation, and there’s an open coffin there and someone went up to the body and said exactly what Jesus said, “I say to you, get up!”
Immediate response would be shock and anger - what the heck are you doing? Affront to the family. Unless of course, that person had the power to help. To bring that person back to life. Like Jesus does.
Can you even begin to imagine how amazing it would have been to have been there - to have been a part of that crowd - and to see it happening with your own eyes? A person, dead, brought back to life - by sheer command. Jesus just gave the order. This young man, dead one moment, and alive and talking the next.
The tears flowing from that widow’s face would have been very different tears - no longer tears of sorrow and fear, but now tears of absolute joy and relief. All because of Jesus.
Crowd, too, is amazed. Filled with awe - word here connotes fear, reverent fear. And they burst out in praise of God.
“A great prophet has appeared among us!”. They recognize that something great is happening among them - it reminds them of the great prophets of old, in particular Elijah and Elisha, who through the power of God raised someone from the dead. In both cases, it was for a mother mourning the death of her son.
This is why they proclaim, “God has come to help people.” They say this because they believe they are witnessing the action of another great prophet, a man on whom the power of the Spirit rests - and that through this prophet, God is helping his people in need, just like he did centuries before for the women Elijah and Elisha helped.
Here’s the thing: They have no idea how incredibly true their statement is…God has come to help his people. Indeed God has. God himself, in the flesh, in the person of Jesus Christ - has come to help his people. Not just God working through his prophet, but the one true God, creator of heaven and earth, Lord of all, has come in person to help his people.
What an amazing reminder of what this teaches us about God and his desire to be our help. That God is our helper. And that’s incredibly great news - because even though we don’t often want to admit it, we need help.
As I’ve stated numerous times throughout this series, our goal is to see Jesus more clearly. That we would become more enamored with him, and desire to follow him all the more fully.
And in this case, to let Jesus be our great help. An immature faith is one that has the mentality more along the lines of “I never needed anybody’s help in any way.” Not that most of us would deny needing help, but we often resist it, try to manage life on our own.
Growing older in our faith, gaining spiritual maturity, is recognizing that we absolutely need Jesus in our lives. We need his help, day by day, moment by moment. How wonderful then, that in Jesus, “God has come to help his people.”
Spiritual Discipline
First Spiritual Exercise: Often, we see God more as a parachute or a fire extinguisher. He’s there in case of emergencies. He’s my insurance in case something really bad happens. The rest of it, we think, I can manage on my own.
And so our prayers reflect that - we only bring to God the big things we’re struggling with - or the people we care for our struggling with.
But God is so much more, and to grow in Christ is to invite Jesus and his power into our lives. To help us in all things. What would it be like to pray in such a pray that you’re inviting Jesus (and his power and grace and love and leading) into every aspect of your life?
That you would look to Jesus to help you in how you are as a parent - or grandparent…or a husband or wife…or how you act with your co-workers…how you manage your money…as you do your work - whatever work that might be?
Challenge is to pray for God’s help, invite him to be a part of the things you’re doing throughout the day…Might mean as you spend time praying in the morning, think through the day, who you’ll be with and what you’ll be doing, and invite God to help you. Or ask God as you go throughout your day (as you pick up the phone to make a call, as you walk back into the house to be with your family, as you sit down to take on a task)...
Second Spiritual Exercise: I can’t remember where I first heard this, but it has to do with the question of where God is in the midst of terrible tragedies - such as Hurricane Ian…the response is, Look for the helpers. That’s where you’ll find God.
Second challenge is to be those helpers! How might we be a help for others. that we might be the help that God provides for those around us…Pray that God would give you the opportunities to meet the needs of others as a way of sharing his love with them. Then look for those opportunities, trust that God will bring them.
Which brings me to my final point this morning, I want to finish with us.
Remember that crowd that was following along with Jesus as he traveled along, their willingness to leave everything else going on in their lives to be with Jesus, to be a part of what Jesus was up to.
This is the essence of being a disciple - to follow Jesus, to make him the priority of your life, to be attentive to whatever he’s up to - because you want to be a part of that. To trust that “God has come to help his people” - and he’s going to use his people - us - to do exactly that. We look to Jesus - what are you doing, Jesus? I want to be a part of that. I want to share in the life-giving help you’re providing for others.