“Raising the Widow’s Son” Luke 7:1-17

 If I had to pinpoint one of the phrases that drives me to my knees the most its “I deserve”. Whenever I feel an “I deserve” rising up within me, I turn to prayer. Whenever I hear other people say that they deserve something - I’m driven to prayer. Because I think that phrase stands as a stark reminder that we cannot earn anything on our own, apart from God. 

Jesus had his own encounter with the phrase “I deserve”. Jesus had just finished preaching a challenging message and was now entering Capernaum. It came to his attention that a centurion had a servant that he cared about who was very ill. So some of the religious leaders try to pull Jesus aside and reason with him. Jesus, if anyone deserves one of your miracles its this man. He treats our people well. Can’t you help him out, Jesus, since he helps us out. 

As much as I cringe at the phrase “he deserves”, which is how the Message translation portrays this passage, I do even more so at the phrase used in the NRSV - “He is worthy of having you do this for him.”

It is as if Jesus was to go out handing our miracles like merit badges. If you earn this. If you deserve it. If you are worthy of it, then I’ll give it to you. Which of course leads to the inverse of that theology as well - if you don’t receive a miracle or a healing, then there must be a reason - you must be unworthy. 

Friends, that is not how Jesus operates. We cannot earn his grace through a merit based system. Because we can never do enough or be enough to deserve a touch from the Savior. Which it seems like the messengers of the centurion actually understand - he said don’t bother coming. Don’t trouble yourself, because he is not worthy of having you come to him. Just speak and I know you can heal my servant. 

The centurion has an honest portrayal of himself, and then expresses truth in Jesus’s authority. Here is a man who by all outward appearances has authority. He is a military presence in an occupied region. He is a man of stature amongst people who would be considered lowly. He was Roman when others were not. And yet, he realized that all of his authority meant nothing compared to Jesus’s authority. 

The religious leaders wanted Jesus to bring healing to the servant, in part, because of the centurions standing, his authority. But the centurion himself recognized the authority of Jesus. We are never told if the centurion was a God-fearing man. But he knows there something about Jesus - this man who heals - that is greater then himself. 

And Jesus did heal the servant. 

But in comparison to this man who by outward appearances had authority and who others said deserved this healing to take place, is the widow in the second part of the seventh chapter of the Gospel of Luke. This woman hadn’t just lost her son, she had lost everything. Her husband was dead. This was her only son. And now there was no one to provide for her in a day and time when males had all of the wealth and power passed down from generation to generation. She stood in line with women like Ruth and Naomi. Like the unnamed widow who encountered Elijah. And Jesus reached out to her, not because of her status or because others were advocating on her behalf, but simply because he had compassion on her. 

If anyone had a reason to weep - she did - and yet, Jesus told her not to weep and then told the young men to rise up - come back to life. And he did!

Jesus had authority not over healing, but over life itself. And that struck fear into people. 

What are we to make of these two stories, linked together in the Gospel of Luke? What does it say to our day and time today?

First, I think it calls for us to be honest with ourselves. Have we ever uttered the words of those religious leaders saying “he or she deserves this from God.” Maybe we said it as a cry for healing - for someone who deserves it because of their status or wealth. Maybe we’ve cried the opposite - saying someone deserved illness as punishment. Friends, this story stands in stark contrast to all of that. Jesus is going to do what Jesus is going to do and we need to be abundantly caution with our “deserves” because we deserve nothing but are given it freely as a gift because of the goodness of our Savior. We are not worthy on our own. We do not deserve on our own. We cannot earn on our own. And until that sinks into us, we are still going to be lead by the ways of the world, instead of the Kingdom of God.

This narrative also asks us what and who has authority in our life. That’s a hard question in some ways. Its like the old joke that almost any time the pastor asks a question during children’s time the correct answer is “Jesus!” We may want to say Jesus has authority in our lives, but do we live like it? Do we live in such a way where we bow only to God’s authority in our lives, or do we say that but often like the authority of the outside world override? 

Even the religious leaders got confused! Because someone who they saw with outward authority had treated them well, they wanted Jesus to do something for him. They didn’t even mention the authority of God or what God deserves or that God is worthy! How often do we speak and act in a similar way?

This passage not only points us to the authority and divine compassion of Jesus, but they proclaim that Jesus isn’t confined by our ways. Jesus didn’t even need to see the centurion’s servant to heal him. He simply said it was so. And no one was asking Jesus to raise the widow’s son from the dead, probably because they thought that death had the final word, but he did it anyway. 

Sometimes we let the constraints of this world, block us from even approaching Jesus. We start saying things like “Jesus can’t” or “he won’t”. Or maybe if we don’t say it out loud, we at least think it in the secret places in our hearts. And in those phrases we are using the authority of the world to tell us once again about the power, authority, and ways of Christ. But just as Christ does not have to act in any certain way because of our human thoughts about what is deserved, Jesus doesn’t have to not act just because it is too big for our imaginations. 

In fact, maybe that’s what we need to be looking for a little bit more in our lives. Jesus to have ultimate authority in a way that brings us to our knees in holy reverence. 

Friends, I don’t know the last time you uttered the words “I or he or she deserve” but what invitation is there from Christ in those moments? How can you hand the authority of your life over to Christ anew? What is Christ just waiting to do, if only we would give all power, honor and authority to him? Amen.