Bible Study Notes: St Luke's Gospel
Session 20 Chapter 7 : 11-17 and 18-35
Intense sorrow caused by death can either be bottled up or released. If the sorrow is repressed, the person may seethe with anger at the injustice of death, or seek the route of self-pity. Mourning customs deal with that ache that might otherwise be self-destructive.
Modern Jewish people practice "Sitting Shiva." This is a mourning period of eight days after the swift burial of the beloved. The immediate family stays at home, while friends and relatives come by to visit, prepare food and take care of the house. The presence of so many people helps the bereaved to express their sorrow, weep without shame and receive consoling embraces and handshakes.
Much the same reason stands behind the custom of waking the body. The gathering of friends, the expressions of sympathy, the urging of the bereaved to meet friends and talk and cry are meant to release pent up feelings in an approved and acceptable fashion. Spiritual people sometimes speak of the "gift of tears." What they mean is that emotional relief that comes from a good cry is indeed a gift from God.
After Jesus saved the centurion's slave from death's door, he travelled to the village of Nairn. He encountered a funeral procession outside the gates of the town. The dead person was a young man, the only son of his widowed mother. The intense grief of the mother and the tears of the mourners moved Jesus to the depths of his heart.
The great English statesman Edmund Burke has said, "Next to love, sympathy is the most divine passion of the human heart." The capacity to grieve is one of our most human sentiments. So often Jesus is presented in abstract theological terms. Frequently, his humanity drowns in a declamation about his divine qualities or his ethical teachings. People often present him either as a cold deity or a university ethics professor.
Scripture does not avoid naming Christ's transcendent, heavenly origins or his demanding moral teachings. But the Bible also asks us to look at his endearing human qualities. Luke invites us to gaze at Jesus meeting perfect strangers at a funeral, encountering a heartbroken widow crying over her deceased only son. Look at Jesus melting with sorrow; showing his grief; exposing his heart to people he has never met before.
This was not just another funeral to him. He did not steel his heart against the sorrow and pity of the widow. He did not avert his eyes or whisper to his apostles to hurry past this "distracting" scene in an attitude of studied indifference. Nor did he choose a formal exterior gravity, a polite nod to local custom that would exonerate him from a human connection to the event.
No, Jesus grieved. The sound of tears hit a chord in his own heart. The sight of a lonely widow touched him. He let himself be affected. He could feel the emotions of sadness and sympathy. We see in him how God would act in that scene. Jesus went to the widow and held her saying, "Do not weep" (verse 13). Then he confronted the mystery of death, an evil that he had resolved to overcome. He raised the young man from the dead. The man rose and began to speak; Jesus united the son with his amazed and ecstatic mother.
Our contemporary culture is nervous about death. It teaches us to deny its reality and seems to encourage us to hide their grief.
Jesus shows us that facing death is better than denying it and grieving is necessary and valuable. Our faith tells us that Jesus has conquered death and that it is not the end, but a transition into eternal love and happiness.
John the Baptist's Mission Chapter 7:18-35
In Luke 3:20, we saw that Herod had imprisoned John the Baptist for speaking out against his unlawful and immoral marriage. Now Luke tells us that the Baptist's disciples came to him and told him of the successes of Jesus. Strangely, the Baptist sent them to Jesus to ask if he really is the messiah, the "one who is to come." Why would the prophet whose whole mission was to announce the messiah, who had in fact baptized him at the Jordan, who knew him as a cousin now seem to express doubts about Jesus?
Some commentators argue that John's faith was assured, but he wanted Jesus to reassure his disciples personally.
Others suggest that the anguish of his imprisonment, the dark night of his soul, the physical confinement of a man used to the freedom of the desert caused him to ache for affirmation. Severe tests mark the faith journey of any person, above all for those whom have great spiritual gifts such as the Baptist possessed. He would not be immune to the trials of the inner night of faith.
Jesus advised the disciples to return to John and tell him of his works and his teachings. Christ's personal witness, miracles, and words revealed his identity. This did not "prove" Christ's messiahship in a rational and logical way. It was evidence that asked the beholder to respond in faith. The prison shrouded the Baptist in the mystery of its own darkness. Even so esteemed a prophet as John would be challenged to respond in faith to the evidence Jesus sent him.
He would also hear that Jesus praised him as the greatest man ever born of woman, meaning he was the greatest prophet of the first covenant. Then the disciples would tell him that Jesus said the least in the kingdom — the new covenant — would be greater than he. This meant that a child of grace born into the Christian covenant began at a new and richer spiritual level because of the graces available from Christ.
Finally, the disciples told John how much Jesus praised his prophetic ministry. Jesus had glowingly spoken of the missionary strength of his cousin. John was no reed shaken by the wind, not a court prophet that preached the fashions of the hour and stroked the smugness of the people, not a man who measured his sermons by the polls. Nor was he a soft "kept man" dressing luxuriously and eating at the best tables, associating only with the rich and famous. Rising to his point Jesus declared that John was a real prophet, the greatest that Israel had ever heard.
Hence, while Jesus asked faith from his cousin, he was not without human sympathy for his suffering in the jail. Jesus knew that John needed affirmation and provided him with a powerful dose of it. His rousing defence of John's ministry was an affectionate and profound support for his dear friend. Lest John had any doubt about what Jesus thought of his work, it was now clear that Jesus had nothing but the highest respect for it.
Lastly, Jesus noted that the problem was not with his preaching or that of John. This was not a case of religious rivalry. The difficulty lay in the hearts of the listeners. They were still playing games like children who tease one another with mock funerals and weddings. A child played a flute as if leading a wedding dance and the other kids would refuse to dance, or another child would sing a funeral chant and the playmates would not cry. His message and that of John both required openness to God's love and grace.
Instead many of them called John a "demon" for fasting from
feasts and rejecting wine. And they called Jesus a glutton for eating
good meals and drinking wine with sinners. Christianity is more than a
game for dismissing a saving message with cheap shots. Only faith filled
wisdom would help people overcome this superficial way of treating a message
that offers them the only real happiness that lasts.
© Fr Michael Fuller: June 2009