After a
week off due to the Conference we’re
back on our journey with Jesus from
the Sports Plus teaching program.
It’s now Thursday evening and we’re
on our 5th encounter –
Jesus and the widow’s son from Luke
7 v11-17
This is a strange encounter.
The main topic in question here is
‘death’.
A horrible concept and one in which
most of must will shirk away from.
When we’re young, it’s not a topic
we often think about, it seems miles
away, a distant thought but it is
one we’ll all have to address for
ourselves and for loved ones around
us.
There is no escaping the deadly
assassin of death.
So Jesus encounters it here:
V12 – A desperate situation: the
only son of a widow is being carried
out in his coffin and Jesus is there
to meet it.
Jesus has
authority over death
What happens next is quite
remarkable – Jesus does 2 things:
1 – v13 He wanders up to the widow and tells her to
stop crying. What
a thing to say in the situation.
If ever there was a time for mourning and crying it must be at
a funeral.
So why does Jesus tell her to stop
crying?
2 – v14 He then wanders up to the coffin and touches
it.
In the time of Jesus every religious
teacher who came across the death of
someone would never dream about
touching the coffin or body of a
dead person.
For if they did this, they would be
pronounced unclean and would have to
go through the temple rituals to be
made clean again.
So what do these two things mean?
It means that Jesus has authority in
this situation – he knows that death
has no hold on him and even in the
face of death Jesus can do something
about it.
He speaks to the widow with
compassion yet with authority.
He touches the coffin with confidence that death has not got a
hold on him.
Jesus has power
over death
V14 – The remarkable happened!
Quickly imagine the scene – a dead
boy is lying there, Jesus starts
speaking to him and asks him to get
up. The
boy then sits up and starts talking
– can you imagine what he would have
said????
Jesus then gives him back to his
mother!
What a picture – Jesus has the power
to defeat death.
Do you know anyone else like him?
Death has not and cannot have a hold
on Jesus.
So what does that look like for you
and I?
Who do you trust with your death?
Jesus says trust me – I can handle
it, I have power over it, I will
face it instead of you and I can
bring you back to your father in
heaven. Trust
me, please!
Will you trust Jesus with your death
today?
Will you let that fact affect
the way you play and act with your
friends – Take them the news that
Jesus can be trusted even with
death.
The
Youth Department.
(If you missed
Sports Plus this year you can
download the talks by clicking
here)
