Apr 13 2008
signs 3a
Today we encountered Jesus on his way, followed by disciples and crowds, when he meets a funeral procession. This is the third sermon in a series from Luke. It is called Grace Anatomy and it is looking the nuts and bolts of grace through the eyes of Luke.
The text today was taken from Luke seven, and describes the encounter that Jesus has with a widow from Nain. In that encounter Jesus raises her son from the dead. There is a lot to learn from this text. I hope to have a follow up post to talk about how we can learn to live in this way. But first, whenever we encounter a miracle we have to ask, “If it is a sign, where is it pointing?”
Firstly, it points to Christ’s identity. This encounter concludes with the people’s praise, “God has come to help his people.” Now they probably didn’t know how literally true this was, but they are being directed toward that truth. God is the giver of life, and so Christ’s ability to return life points to something about his identity. Is he a prophet of God? Is he God?
Secondly it points to God’s radical plan for recovering creation. God’s plan for recovering creation is resurrection, and of course before that plan can be put into action we must die. Ben mentioned Christ’s teaching about seeds from John 12:23-25, “Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”
C.S. Lewis discusses the consequences of this redemption strategy in his book The Great Divorce.
Nothing, not even the best and noblest, can go on as it now is. Nothing, not even what is lowest and most bestial, will not be raised again if it submits to death. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. Flesh and blood cannot come to the Mountains. Not because they are too rank, but because they are too weak.
This is a deep reality, that we will discuss again as we look at the signs of Christ. But it is enough to start ruminating on them now. Nothing from the present creation can enter the new creation except that it dies and is recreated. And everything (and everyone) that submits to death and receives resurrection is made fit for the new creation by that resurrection.
There is more to this story that I hope to discuss soon, but first we must be sure that we look past the sign to see that it is pointing us to something world-changing.
on the walk
-Ethan
I found it particularily cutting to my own life that Ben made the point about the funeral procession leaving the life of the city for the death beyond the gates.
The city (our world), is a powerful machine that values self and teaches us to value self so much that the thought of death of that beloved self is so foreign that it seems against our nature.
But of course that is our nature that has been formed by the world, not our true nature.
I like the things of the city to much and hold them to tightly often and miss out on the freedom that comes in the death and resulting new life.
Speaking of Lewis, he said something in Mere Christianity that is a helps me in accepting this death of self. In his chapter on pride the Great Sin, he speaks of comming to a place where we do not think of self at all. Self is not in the equation.
To get to that point would be most excellent. The closer we get to that point the more in tune to the signs that point us to Christ we would be. He helps us continual put to death the old self and re-enter the city to act more like him.