The Lutheran Hour
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"If Anyone Else Had Said …"
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Text: Luke 7:13
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Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Are the angel’s words fact or foolishness? By the power of the Holy Spirit may you be given faith to see the importance of this gracious truth of God. By the hand of the Lord may you believe because Jesus lives, you can live also. In the Savior’s Name. Amen.
You can’t please all the people all the time. The truth of those words was brought home to me when I served a large rural congregation in a farming community. I loved those farmers, still do. Probably because farmers, far more than city slickers, realize that their success is founded upon God’s ongoing blessings rather than their own skill. They know that the Lord’s gifts of rain, sun, and warmth, mixed in proper and timely proportions, will bring about the harvest. Maybe that’s why, when my farmers found their fields drying up under a depressing drought they came to me and asked for a “rain prayer.” Hailing from Chicago, the idea of a rain prayer was a new concept, but I told them: “I’ll try.” The following Sunday, at both services, I prayed for rain. I prayed and then waited to see what the Lord would do. Would you like to know what happened? I’ll tell you: within 24 hours it rained. After that every time we prayed for rain, it rained. The farmers were pleased; I was pleased; everybody was pleased…
…I thought. Then, one rainy day, a non-farming fellow showed up in my office. This man, a faithful member of my congregation, made his living in road construction. You folks in warmer climates should know that it sometimes felt like the season for road construction in Minnesota lasted about an hour-and-a-half. He said, “Pastor, I know the farmers have been coming in asking for rain; and I see from our wet fields the Lord has been listening. But I just wanted you to know, every time you pray for rain, and it rains, I don’t work.” Frankly, this new bit of information put me in a difficult position… an answered prayer which helped one group of people in my congregation ended up hurting another. The man leaned forward in his seat and, with utmost seriousness, shared: “I’ve been thinking about that, Pastor. I believe I’ve got a solution. Why don’t you pray that it rains at night. If it rains at night, I still get to work and the farmers still get a crop. Everybody wins.”
I wonder, to whom shall the Lord listen… the farmer who, because he needs a crop, prays for rain; or the little boy who prays for sun because he has only one day to go fishing with his father? Does God listen to the grandchild who fervently pleads that grandma, who has suffered a stroke, might get better; or should He hear the heartfelt desire of that same grandmother who has told Him that she is ready to go home to heaven?
It’s hard being God. Sinful people with selfish minds and sickened hearts do not trust You, do not understand You, will not follow You. If you doubt the truth of that line, look at Scripture. The Lord set Adam and Eve up in the Garden of Eden. “Enjoy!” God said, “Enjoy work without weeds; recreation without aches; marriage without fights. Eat whatever you want, whenever you want. The only thing I ask is that you don’t eat from this one tree.” It’s unnecessary to relate what our first ancestors did. You know how they succumbed to a snake’s suggestion; how they deliberately disobeyed, and feasted on the forbidden fruit. Disregarding the single rule that they had been given, Adam and Eve rebelled and condemned themselves, and all of us, to death. It’s difficult being God when people don’t trust You; when they misinterpret, misread, and misjudge Your every intention. What a disappointment we must be to the Lord when we question His decisions; when we rant against His rulings; when we chafe under His management and reject His good and gracious purpose.
Now, I am fully aware that those of you who are Christians may think these words are too strong. You who regularly join with me in the Lord’s Prayer, who sincerely say, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” recognize that although God’s will is sometimes beyond our comprehension, you believe He will, as our heavenly Father, always do that which is right and good. You have read, and you agree with Isaiah, who by the Holy Spirit’s inspiration wrote: “Even as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are God’s ways higher than our ways, and His thoughts higher than ours” (Isaiah 55:9).
But I also know that those who are not Christians, who cannot not this day confess Jesus as their Savior, think I am not speaking strongly enough. When a tsunami sweeps away 150,000 lives in Asia, you shake your fists against the heavens. When the doctors sadly say about a loved one’s cancerous condition, “There is nothing more that medical science can do,” you are furious with the Lord for doing such a thing. When you sit at the bedside of a parent with Alzheimer’s, each tick of the clock marks an increase in your anger against the Lord and the evil you think He has sent.
Has the Lord been blamed because your marriage vows have been cast aside and the love which once seemed so permanent has crumbled? Have you come to the conclusion that God is against you because your dreams have not been fulfilled and those things which you most feared have become constant companions? Has the Lord been held responsible because your children disobey you, talk back to you, laugh at you or have forgotten you? Have you walked behind the casket of someone you have loved, walked away from an open grave and felt that your Lord didn’t care? Have you lost a son or a daughter in a war, or to drugs, or an accident, or have they just disappeared? Has some individual who was supposed to represent the Almighty turned you away from God because he was as far from perfect as any human could possibly be? How sad it must be for God who loves humanity so much to be so misunderstood.
In truth, He is misunderstood and maligned; His actions are sullied and slandered by doubters and deniers. I have already spoken about our first ancestors and their distrust of the Creator. Their actions were not the end of mankind’s rebellion. Look at what happened after humankind’s initial sin. God granted our pre-flood ancestors a long life, but they squandered their centuries figuring out new ways to disobey Him. Trying to keep His promises to His people, the Lord sent a Sinai shepherd to deliver the Israelites from Egyptian slavery. The trek became a wilderness wandering as the Lord heard a constant stream of grumbling and complaining, grousing and criticizing from the ungrateful group. “Weren’t there any graves in Egypt that we had to come out here to die; didn’t we have enough to eat in Egypt; didn’t we have enough water in Egypt?” Well, eventually the People of Promise did make it to the Land of Promise. The Lord set them up in a land flowing with milk and honey, but as far as these people were concerned the milk of gratitude went sour and the honey was saved for parties when God’s people got down and dirty with the idolatrous populace. From heaven God had a bird’s eye view of His people partying and playing with a plethora of perversions; carousing, cavorting, and worshipping anything, everything other than Him.
Things didn’t get better when Jesus, God’s Son, our Savior was born. He entered this world to win forgiveness and salvation for the lost. The Savior had come and such good news of great joy should have been met with fireworks and festivities. Should have been, but wasn’t. God’s Son was born in a barn and a crazy king tried to murder Him. From there things went downhill. When Jesus raised a child from the dead in Capernaum, they thanked Him profusely; when He raised a friend from the dead in Bethany, the authorities deliberated on how they could take His life. He fed a few thousand with a few loaves and fishes and the crowd tried to make Him their King; when He talked about feeding their souls, they deserted in droves (see John 6:61-68). Jesus selected 12 men to be witnesses to the greatest story of God’s grace this world will ever see and they spent their time arguing about which of them was going to get top billing (see Luke 9:46).Because God’s ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not ours, it has always been easy for humanity to misunderstand and distrust Him. Let me share an example of what I am saying which is recorded in the in the seventh chapter of the Gospel of Luke. Jesus had just healed a Centurion’s servant in the city of Capernaum. It was an impressive miracle and when the Lord left that town, He was followed by His disciples and a great throng of impressed people. As the Savior’s crowd was going into the entrance of the tiny town of Nain, they came face-to-face with the large funeral procession of a young man leaving the town.
Jesus raised that young man from the dead and the people who saw the Savior do the work that only God can do were impressed. They reacted saying, “God has visited His people” and “A great prophet has arisen among us.” It was appropriate that Jesus’ fame spread throughout the entire region. But I wonder, what were the thoughts of the people before Jesus restored that man to his widowed mother?
What did people think when Jesus approached this woman who had already followed her husband’s body to the local cemetery? What did they think as Jesus walked up to this mother who, in all probability, that very day had watched the light go out in the eyes of her only son; who had felt her mother’s loving heart torn apart when her boy’s heart stopped beating? Was there nobody who might have thought Jesus’ actions less than sympathetic and supportive? Scripture is silent in what the people thought that day, but I would have thought those things, and you might have, too. What did the crowd think when Jesus said to her, “Do not weep”? Did not Jesus’ words seem to be in out of place? Once again, Scripture does not say what the people thought as Jesus spoke words which, in the mouth of any other person, would seem insensitive and inconsiderate. If you and I had been there, we would have thought it so. You think not? Then let me ask, what would race through your mind if someone spoke and acted this way at any funeral where you were in attendance?
It is difficult being Jesus when people are so ready to put the worst construction on everything You do. Tell me, if you had been there that day what would you have thought when Jesus touched the funeral pallet of the lad? No doubt some observers would have been shocked to see Jesus making Himself unclean by such an action. Today, ushers and funeral directors would politely, but forcefully move Jesus away so the funeral procession might walk its sad path of farewell. In every generation, some people would exchange knowing looks and whisper: “This is shocking, scandalous, shameful, sacrilegious.”
It’s difficult being the Savior of the world. It’s difficult because back then, like now, people aren’t willing to give their gracious God a break; humanity is not ready to trust the Father or believe His Son has lived and died to save them, has risen from the dead so they might have eternal life. They refuse to recognize God’s vision is far clearer and more complete than theirs. Tragically, unless the Holy Spirit intervenes, humanity continues to judge Jesus by the condition of their own sinful hearts. Only God-given faith in the risen Christ changes us; enables us to trust God, rely on His wisdom, and believe that what He does is always best.
As evidence of what I am saying, note that when Jesus was dying on His cross, as He was giving His life as the required ransom for your redemption, the cowardly hearts of the disciples had them cower behind locked doors. At the same time, with faith a Roman centurion who may have never seen or known of Jesus before that day, was led by the Spirit to confess, “He was the Son of God.” As Jesus was dying so that you might be delivered of your transgressions, two thieves were crucified with Him. The corrupt and unbelieving heart of one of these men mocked the Savior and challenged, “Jesus, aren’t you supposed to be the Christ? If so, save Yourself and us.” Satan had a hold on that man as he asked to be delivered from death and be allowed to return to his life of murder and mayhem. But as I said, there were two thieves on the hill called Calvary. The other thief, with the introspection of a man who knew his time on earth was ending, and having been led to believe on Jesus, made confession of His sins (see Luke 23:40-41). He stood up for the Savior’s innocence and asked Jesus to remember him when the Savior entered into His kingdom. Those words, his words, should be our words… for when the heart of any sinner is given to the Savior in faith, that person will hear the living Lord say, as the thief heard Him say, “…you will be with Me in Paradise.”
Let me try to sum all this up with a story. Once there was a blind Indian beggar who sat in poverty by the side of a road. He held in his hand a bowl, a bowl which was his only possession. In that bowl there was some dry, uncooked rice, gifts of charity bestowed upon him by the occasional passerby. One day the beggar heard the wheels of a chariot and the tramping of many feet. He overheard someone say the maharajah was coming. The beggar may have been blind, but he was no man’s fool. He knew the maharajah had not come by that way before; might never come again. This was the beggar’s golden opportunity to receive great bags of rice from his ruler.
The chariot stopped in front of the beggar; the maharajah stepped down and said four words, “Give me your rice.” That was not what the beggar had expected and with great reluctance he handed over one grain from his bowl. “Can’t you do better than that?” asked the ruler. The beggar spat and handed over one more grain. The maharajah accepted the gift, got back into his chariot and departed. The beggar, furious that the ruler had been so cruel, callous, so uncaring, caressed the remaining rice left in his bowl. His sensitive fingers felt something hard, cold, different. Asking a friend to identify the small lumps, the beggar was told there were two small nuggets of gold in his bowl. Only then did the beggar realize the problem was in his heart and not that of his ruler. Only when it was too late did he understand if he had trusted his king, he would have received more, far more than he had ever thought possible.
Today, Jesus who has always loved you; who has never broken a promise made to you; who has lived, died, and risen for you; stands before you. He asks you to trust Him. Trust Him to forgive you; trust Him to save you; trust Him to always do what is right in your life. Will you do so? I cannot say… but I know those who do, unlike the blind beggar, will receive more, far more than they thought possible. If the Holy Spirit has made God’s wish, your wish, call us at The Lutheran Hour. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for June 10, 2007
ANNOUNCER: And now, author and historian Dr. Paul Maier joins us with news of a recent archeological discovery. I’m Mark Eischer and Dr. Maier joins us by phone. Dr. Maier, recently an Israeli archeological team announced that they had discovered the tomb of King Herod. I would like to know, what was actually discovered and where did this take place?
MAIER: They certainly dug at the right spot, Mark, the Herodium, because Josephus, the first century Jewish historian, tells us that Herod was, in fact, buried there and so they’ve been looking, I think, for his sarcophagus for the past 30 years or so. And they may have finally found it at the northeastern corner about halfway down the hill. They discovered the fragments of a sarcophagus. But his name was not discovered, however, nor were bones inside. And for that reason I’m a little bit, shall I say, underwhelmed rather than overwhelmed by the statement. On the one hand, I would dearly love to have his remains discovered. That would be fabulously interesting. What happened, probably, was that Jewish rebels at the time of the Jewish Insurrection in 66 AD occupied the Herodium, that hill, and broke apart Herod’s sarcophagus, if indeed that’s what it was. But again, we have no bones, we have no complete sarcophagus and we have no inscription. So, really all this announcement may be a little premature, I think.
ANNOUNCER: But it sounds like the condition of the site corroborates what Josephus described in his writings.
MAIER: Exactly right. There’s no question that this great mound still looms over the southeastern countryside near Bethlehem and the only disagreement I might have is this: this was not just a mound built for Herod’s tomb. It was one of his fortresses, and so a lot of people were living there, including captains of his auxiliary and others. And so this could have been, I think, a tomb also for somebody else important.
ANNOUNCER: Why did it take 30 years to make this discovery?
MAIER: Well, obviously Herod did not want his bones disturbed. So he didn’t have a central monument in the plaza of the palace near the summit where people could, in fact, raid his tomb and scatter his bones. And so he hid them further down the hill. And so that part of it is pretty logical.
ANNOUNCER: And the team recently started digging in a different spot and that’s when they started getting closer and closer to their goal.
MAIER: That’s right. And the archeologist, Ehud Netzer, is very well known and so I respect his judgment.
ANNOUNCER: There were several Herods, were there not? Which one is this?
MAIER: Well, it’s very important in reading the New Testament to keep the four generations of Herods separate. This is Herod the Great. This is the patriarch, this is the founder of the great dynasty. He’s the one, of course, who interviewed the Magi, you recall, when they came to Jerusalem looking for the newborn Jesus. So, you see he’s the most important one, there’s no question about that. He had a son, well, I should say he had many sons. The most successful one was Herod Antipas. He’s the one who executed John the Baptist, you recall. His grandson, Herod Agrippa I, was the one who imprisoned James the brother of John, son of Zebedee, and executed him by beheading; and he also put Peter in prison, you will recall, according to Acts 12. And then, finally there was Herod Agrippa II. That’s his son, in turn, Herod’s great grandson, who with his sister Bernice heard Saint Paul’s case in Ceasarea during his imprisonment. So you have four generations there. I think it’s very important for Christians to keep those separate. And again, we’re very much indebted to Flavius Josephus, the first century Jewish historian, for teasing those apart, you might say, and helping us understand who they were.
ANNOUNCER: Join us next week for more with author and historian, Dr. Paul Maier. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.
Music selections for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by John Leavitt. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC
“I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say” by Horatius Bonar and Amanda Husberg. Performed by Suzie Sallee. Melody © Amanda Husberg. Used by permission
“Listen, God Is Calling” trad. Kenyan, tr. Howard Olson. Text © Lutheran Theological College, Makumira, Tanzania
“Partita on ‘Ebenezer’” by John Behnke. From For All Seasons, vol. 2 by John Behnke (© 2001 John Behnke) Concordia Publishing House
“Crown Him with Many Crowns” by Michael Burkhardt. From Hymn Improvisations, vol. 1 by Michael Burkhardt (© 1993 MorningStar Music Publishers)