The World Responds

Luke 7:16-17

We live in an instant world where someone in Singapore comments on something – anything – and someone else in Nigeria or Niagara Falls has a response in just seconds. This morning I posted a message on Facebook and thirty seconds later, a friend in Argentina had already responded. Amazing.

Two thousand years ago, news also traveled “fast”. But it was all word of mouth and so distance was a bit limiting. We sometimes mistakenly think that within a generation of Jesus’ death and resurrection, the news of his life and mission had spread throughout the known world. This is simply not true. It had certainly spread to the major cities in the Roman Empire and even to population centers beyond. But even now 20 centuries later and with all our modern technology, the news of Jesus still has not penetrated to every remote corner of the planet.

And yet, within the technological confines of First Century Palestine – meaning word-of-mouth and on foot – news of what Jesus did spread rapid-fire, “viral” as we moderns say. Take as case in point the story of Jesus raising to life the only son of a widow in Nain.

Luke writes that those who observed the event were “all filled with awe and praised God.” The “awe” part is not surprising in the least. Visit your local shopping mall this afternoon, see a young man drop over dead – say he’s shot in the heart and head so that you really know he is dead even if you aren’t able to check his pulse. Then all of a sudden someone else walks up and tells the man to live and, presto, the guy with a hole in his heart and head is healed – he stops bleeding, starts breathing again, walks away and talks a blue streak as if nothing ever happened.

The crowd in the mall would go ballistic just as the crowd at the gate in Nain did on that day Jesus brought the widow’s son back to life. “Awe” would be an understatement in either setting.

What about the part of praising God? Not surprising either. First, everyone that was present was likely Jewish, thus believers in Abraham’s God. Even any Roman soldiers present would have been religious enough in their paganism that they would have willingly acclaimed a local god (which happened to be Yahweh), just as the Centurion did at the foot of Jesus’ cross. That would be the case for many modern observers as well, even the majority of those who claim to be nonreligious. No brainer there.

The people turned their attention from the brought-back-to-life son to God and finally to the miracle worker himself, Jesus. They called him a great prophet, a safe bet in a religiously devout land like Galilee. And they recognized in this prophet’s miracle-working activity a sign that God was present to “help His people.”

People talk about anything exciting. Whether it is via the primitive technology (word-of-mouth and on-foot) of the First Century or email, Facebook, Twitter, texting, cell phones or a zillion other devices of the 21st Century, word gets out everywhere. In that day and age the news got as far as Judea to the south and “the surrounding country.” It might have taken longer back then, but noteworthy (and not so worthy) news gets out.

Beyond mere observation of what took place, what is the point of Luke’s recording this information? The gospel writer was showing how news of Jesus’ actions was spreading far and wide. I think about this and also note that actions do speak louder – and faster – than words. Long before people knew what Jesus stood for they knew what he had done. And in fact they often could point to nothing about the truth of Jesus except that he had come to bless – to do good. For people then and now that is a very good place to start in revealing the truth about Jesus. He came to bring life.