Luke 7:11-17
A. INTRODUCTION
1. General
A lot of people, at times, have been in the public eye, because of something that has been said or done. (And I mean that in a positive sense). And for those of us who have, you will know that being in public eye is not always easy.
People have expectations; people expect certain standards of behaviour; people expect that you will meet their approval in the things that you say and do. And everything you do is open to the finest scrutiny.
Being in the public eye might at times have its advantages, but woe betide anyone who doesn’t pass the public’s scrutiny of both their public lives and their private lives.
Having said that, the reality is that no-one can meet all the expectations that are demanded of them. That just isn’t possible. After all, some expectations will go against the grain of everything that that person stands for. The question is, then, ‘How does a person in the public eye maintain their integrity, and not buckle in to the unrealistic and sometimes inappropriate expectations of others?’
2. Jesus
Well, I think the answer lies in having an appropriate role model to follow. Someone who was very much in the public eye; someone who knew, from experience, what it was like to have a high profile, and was constantly in the spotlight themselves. But someone who managed to maintain their integrity and didn’t buckle to the demands and expectations of the crowd.
And what better role model to choose than Jesus himself. Because as he travelled around, Jesus invariably attracted a crowd. And those crowds had very high expectations of him—about the things he should say and do.
The crowds were in his public life. But, invariably, when he tried to withdraw, they encroached on his private life too.
As a consequence, if we are looking for a role model to follow, what better model can we have than Jesus. And this passage from Luke’s Gospel gives us a snippet of what life for Jesus was like.
B. JESUS RAISES A WIDOW’S SON
1. Introduction
Now the background to the passage is that Jesus had recently been approached by a Roman centurion. He had been concerned about the welfare of a highly valued servant. As a consequence, he had sent some elders to Jesus asking him to come and heal his servant. And, of course, Jesus did heal the servant and, as it happened, he did so without going near the servant or even entering the centurion’s house.
2. The Story
As a consequence, at the beginning of this passage from Luke, we find Jesus surrounded by a crowd who were not only following him, but were hanging on to everything that he said and did (11). And you can imagine the pressure on Jesus—as he walked along the road—surrounded by the crowd, who were eager to grasp every word that he said.
However, as they came to the town gate at Nain, they met a funeral procession coming out of the town (12). The body of a dead boy was being carried out in an open coffin for burial in the surrounding country side.
Now, in this instance, Jesus was not requested to help. Presumably with the boy being dead, the crowd, the mother, and everyone else would have thought they would have to just accept the inevitable—that the boy had died, and all that was left was for the body to be buried.
However, Jesus took in the scene. He took in the sadness of the bereavement; he took in the fact that the mother had already been made a widow—she had already lost her husband; and now she had lost her only son too. As a consequence, he understood the extra sadness of her bereavement. And we’re told, Jesus’s heart went out to her (13).
‘Do not weep.’ he said. And ignoring all sense of Jewish custom of maintaining ritual cleanliness, he did what was unthinkable—he touched the coffin (14). And, what’s worse, he espoused the authority of God as though it was his very own—which would have gone against the grain of everything that those around would have accepted as acceptable behaviour. He called out ‘Young man, I say to you, wake up!’
And that’s precisely what the young man did (15). The dead man sat up. But this wasn’t just a muscular reaction, the son also spoke, And then Jesus gave him back to his mother.
You can imagine the reaction of the crowd. When Jesus touched the coffin they would have been in horror. In those days you just didn’t do that sort of thing. That sort of behaviour made someone ritually unclean.
When Jesus gave the command for the man to get up, the crowd would probably have been having fits. Because in effect Jesus was claiming to be God.
However, when the reality of the miracle hit, the crowd were filled with awe (16). And whilst they were fearful at the display of unearthly power, at the same time they recognised that the source of power was none other than God himself.
So, they praised God, and they began to acknowledge that Jesus was no ordinary man. In fact, bearing in mind that the prophet Elijah had also been noted for being God’s instrument in the raising of the dead, they began to equate Jesus amongst the prophets. And of course, like at other times, the news about what Jesus had done spread like wildfire.
C. IMPLICATIONS
Now for those of us who have been in the public eye—or are even still in the public eye—it can be very easy to think, ‘What could I possibly learn from this story?’ After all, despite the fact that he brought the widow’s son back from the dead, didn’t Jesus flaunt the accepted standards of society? Didn’t he deliberately do things which had the potential to bring on the ire of the general public? So what kind of role model is that to follow?
Despite that, however, I believe that this story has much to teach for those in the public eye. And I’d just like to mention three things:
1. Jesus’s Acceptance of the Crowd
And the first thing is the need to take all the fuss and publicity in our stride.
After all, Jesus did not appear to have been concerned about the crowd that followed. Indeed, he often used the opportunities to teach about God and the Christian faith. Jesus accepted the fact that his ministry was public, and that naturally meant there would be people constantly following and hanging around, hanging on to every word and action. He didn’t seem to have got fazed by the crowd at all.
For sure there were times when he wanted to be alone, either to pray or to have time with his disciples. But he also accepted that that wasn’t always possible and just got on with his very public ministry.
And on that basis, we too should learn to take the public attention in our stride too. Because whether we are public figures or not (in the normally accepted meaning of the term), hasn’t Jesus told us to continue his work too? And on that basis, if we do that, we will attract attention; we too will come to the public’s eye. And if we do that, what will naturally follow, is that people may hang on to every word and deed that we do. They will have expectations of us—some realistic, and others inappropriate.
So, like Jesus, we shouldn’t get frustrated, or annoyed. But we should accept it is a par for the course for those who are willing to be God’s servants, obediently doing God’s work.
2. Jesus Didn’t Always Conform to Expectations
The second thing is to accept that we shouldn’t necessarily conform to the expectations of the crowd.
After all, Jesus didn’t always conform to people’s expectations. Indeed, the crowd would have been horrified at Jesus touching the coffin. And they would have been aghast at the personal authority he used as he commanded the dead man to rise. Actions which left him open to criticism and rejection.
However, for Jesus there were more important considerations than the expectations of the crowd. And, in this particular case, what was more important was his compassion for the widow.
So, then, we have to face the dilemma that there are two standards of behaviour to which we can conform. We can conform to God’s standards and that the standard he expects of every Christian, or we can conform to the expectations, and inferior standards, of others.
Of course, if we choose God’s standards, then naturally we will not always meet the expectations of others. And, like Jesus, we will leave ourselves open to rejection and ridicule. On the other hand, what is more important, to please God or to please man?
The implication for us, then, is that when we are out about doing God’s work—or even doing something in the privacy of our own homes—we should be trying to live up to God’s standards at all times. Indeed, we shouldn’t feel as though we always need to conform to the expectation of others.
Man’s way is not necessarily God’s way. And it’s God’s way to which we should conform. Sometimes that will mean doing things against the grain of what is culturally acceptable. But then that should be part and parcel of normal Christian living.
3. Being Considered To Be God’s People
And the third thing is to give people a clear understanding of who we are and where we stand.
Because despite the fact that Jesus didn’t conform to their standards, the crowd were able to conclude that Jesus was, at the very least, one of God’s prophets. They had seen that God had worked through Jesus and, as a consequence, that there was someone very special in their midst.
Of course, that would have been helped by the fact that he had recently cured the centurion’s servant, and now he had raised the widow’s son from the dead. But at other times it had been the quality of his teaching—or his compassion for others—that had helped them reach that conclusion.
Despite, the miracle then, Jesus was very good at advertising to whom he belonged. And, for Jesus, that would simply have been part and parcel of what it meant to have a full relationship with God.
What this means for us, then, is that we too should give others a clear picture of to whom we belong. People shouldn’t be left guessing about where we stand. So, of course, whilst many of us would not consider ourselves to be prophets, or anything like that, when we are out and about living our normal Christian lives, people should be able to see that there is something special about us. Indeed, people should be able to recognise that we are people of God.
D. CONCLUSION
So, being in the public eye is not always easy. It brings expectations about the standard of behaviour and about the sort of things we are expected to do. But the way Jesus managed public acclaim—and the pressure of the crowd—should teach us much we can use in our own journey of faith.
In our story there are at least three things of which we should take note:
The first, is the need to be comfortable with public attention. Now that not only affects those who have been, or are, in the public spotlight in the traditional sense, but with the task that all Christians have been given to share their faith it will naturally include every Christian there is as well.
Secondly, is the need to accept that we cannot always conform to the expectations of others. Indeed, we will often have to choose between God’s way, and the expectations of others. And when it comes to the choice, we should always choose God’s way. But then we have to live with the consequences too.
And, thirdly, we need to give people a clear understanding about to whom we belong and where we stand. People need to know that we are people of God. And that’s not something they should know only because someone else told them, rather it should be evident from the way we live every aspect of our lives.
Jesus is a good role model of what it means to believe in God, and how to live the Christian life. As a consequence, as people who should all be in the public eye—because of our faith—his life is a great model for us to follow.
Posted: 10th May 2024
© 2024, Brian A Curtis
www.brianacurtis.com.au
