Splanchnavision

Chris Hughes

Luke • Sermon • Submitted a year ago

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Introduction

There are two age-old doctrines about God that work hand in hand. One is called the immutability of God. That simply means that God does not change.

Numbers 23:19 ESV

God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?

Malachi 3:6 ESV

“For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.

The second is called the impassibility of God. That comes from the word, “passion.” Today we think of passion as feeling strongly about something. I’m passionate about the Word of God. But it used to mean more than that. It used to mean suffering. Hence we have Mel Gibson’s movie from the early 2000’s, The Passion of the Christ, in essence: The Suffering of Christ. Or we have Passion Week, the week of suffering—the week before his death. Thus God is impassionate. He cannot suffer. And because he cannot suffer, then he cannot be moved by suffering. Even the 1689 Second London Baptist Confession of Faith, states, “He is invisible and has no body, parts, or changeable emotions.”

That being said, that does not mean that God has no emotions. He most certainly does. What it means is that God is perfect in his emotions. He cannot love more than he does now because that would mean that his love now is not as strong or great as it could be. His love now then would not be perfect. At the same time, if his love lessened than it is now, that love would be less than perfect. Thus God loves with a perfect love. It cannot grow and it cannot ever diminish.

When I was a kid, I went to this Christian summer camp called Impact. The person leading worship had come out with a cassette tape and I bought it. It had one particular song that I’d play over and over again. I can’t remember the guy’s name, but the song has stuck with me for decades: “He couldn’t care less about you; no, he couldn’t care less even if he tried to. My God is a God of love and he couldn’t, no he wouldn’t be the God above if he could care less.” It’s an off the cuff way of presenting the doctrine of impassibility, but that is exactly what the song is about. It is impossible for God to care or love any less than he does right now. Nor could he care or love more. Because his care and love are the same forever.

This morning, we see Jesus—the God-Man—being moved emotionally. What we see is that Jesus, in his humanity, suffered. He suffered more than on the cross. He suffered hunger and thirst. He suffered from abandonment and anguish. And as we see this morning, Jesus suffered the feelings of others, in particular a grieving widow.

So as we look at the text this morning, I want us to see four details in this passage that help us get a better understanding of Jesus. The first is the funeral that Jesus encountered. The second is the feeling Jesus experienced. The third is the feat that Jesus executed. And finally the foreshadowing that Jesus exhibited.

1. A Funeral Encountered

2. A Feeling Experienced

3. A Feat Executed

4. A Foreshadowing Exhibited

Luke 7:11–17 ESV

Soon afterward he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited his people!” And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country.

A Funeral Encountered

The first detail in this passage that helps us understand Jesus better is that he encounters a funeral.

Luke 7:11–12 ESV

This is the only time that the town of Nain is mentioned in the Bible, but one of the most significant events in Jesus’s ministry happened here. It’s just Jesus, his disciples, and a great crowd—just a few hundred of his closest friends. More likely, Luke is letting Theophilus know that there were many witnesses to what happened.

And as these people are getting close to entering the town, another crowd is coming out. Can you picture it? Jesus walking along with this great crowd. We don’t know if their silent or talking. But probably some talking is going on. Perhaps Jesus is teaching or reminiscing, or something else. But all of a sudden, they are reminded of their own mortality. There before them is a funeral procession. A young man, being carried on a bier, which is like an open coffin/cot, has died.

And as part of this procession, there is this crowd. More than likely, this is a professional crowd of mourners. This is what they do. When the average life expectancy of the time is 48 years of age, if one made it out of infancy, funerals are not uncommon. There are quite a few funerals that can happen. On average, people experienced death much more than we do now. They didn’t have funeral homes and embalming like we do now. They didn’t have coolers as we do now. So if someone died, they were immediately prepared for burial. There was little time to gather friends and family. Plus, as many funerals as might happen, friends and family couldn’t always close up shop or stop what they were doing to be able to attend. So there were professional mourners that would mourn over the deceased.

And personally, I think its a great idea! It has become fashionable to have celebrations of life today. And if that’s what you want, great! I don’t want that. I want a funeral. I want people to weep because I’m gone. I want people to be sad that I’m no longer with them. I say that a bit facetiously, but there is something to be said about mourning. We are taught to hide our feelings—specifically negative feelings (sadness, anger, fear, etc.). But here, they actually hire people to express sadness. They put it on full display! They hire professionals to broadcast what they’re feeling in this moment. So here is Jesus and his crowd encountering this funeral procession.

But it is not only the deceased and the crowd, but there before him is the young man’s mother. When I was fourteen years old, a friend of mine was killed in a car accident. It happened during Christmas break. I remember going to her funeral and being at the grave side. We put a flower on her casket. And then we sat waiting and I saw the most heart-wrenching scene I can remember seeing. Her dad—a single dad—had lost his only child. And he took hold of her casket and he sobbed. I have never seen a man cry as hard as I saw that man cry. I have never seen anyone in such sorrow and weep as I saw that man weep. I can still see it. There was no doubt that he loved his daughter.

A Feeling Experienced

Some of you are crying. The eyes are getting watery. A tear is rolling down the face. Some are trying to hold back the tears. But I bet many of you, just on hearing that story, have an emotional feeling in the pit of your stomach. It’s kind of like having butterflies in your stomach, but it’s not fear or excitement you’re feeling. It’s sadness. It’s suffering. That’s what Jesus felt too. You see, he not only encountered a funeral, but he experienced a feeling when he did.

Luke 7:13 ESV

And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.”

That word for “compassion,” is the Greek word “splanchnidzomai.” It’s the verb form of “splanchnon.” Splanchnon was the inward parts, the bowels of a person. That’s where we feel it, right? We feel it in the pit of our stomachs. This is what suddenly came across Jesus. I titled his sermon, “Splanchnavision,” because of this verse. Jesus saw her—vision, and felt compassion—splanchnon.

Here is the God-Man being moved to act because of the compassion that he feels. Yet, as we saw earlier, God is impassible. His emotions don’t change. He is not moved by emotions. And yet here is Jesus, the God-Man being moved by emotions. And we have to ask, how is it possible for this to happen? And the answer is found in his humanity.

We’ve learned two theological words: God is immutable (unchangeable) and impassible (not able to suffer or be carried along by emotions). But now we learn another term: hypostatic union. That’s a fancy word that basically means that Jesus is 100% God and 100% man. The two natures are found in one Jesus. They don’t mix together. The Council of Chalcedon in AD 451 put it this way:

Therefore, following the holy fathers, we all with one accord teach men to acknowledge one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, at once complete in Godhead and complete in manhood, truly God and truly man, consisting also of a reasonable soul and body; of one substance with the Father as regards his Godhead, and at the same time of one substance with us as regards his manhood; like us in all respects, apart from sin; as regards his Godhead, begotten of the Father before the ages, but yet as regards his manhood begotten, for us men and for our salvation, of Mary the Virgin, the God-bearer; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, recognized in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation; the distinction of natures being in no way annulled by the union, but rather the characteristics of each nature being preserved and coming together to form one person and subsistence, not as parted or separated into two persons, but one and the same Son and Only-begotten God the Word, Lord Jesus Christ; even as the prophets from earliest times spoke of him, and our Lord Jesus Christ himself taught us, and the creed of the fathers has handed down to us.

Some of you might be thinking, Chris, that’s a lot of theology for one day, and I get that. It is. But it is important. Because here we see the God-Man, unmoved by emotions in his deity, but moved by emotions in his humanity. Brothers and sisters, this is one of the reasons why we need Jesus! We don’t just need his deity; we also need his humanity!

Hebrews 4:15–16 ESV

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

That word "sympathize,” is a transliteration of the Greek. Sym patheos. Sym meaning with and patheos meaning suffering/feeling. Guess what the Latin equivalent is to sympathy. Compassion. Com—with, patis—suffering/feeling.

Do you see that “for” at the beginning of verse 15? Verse 15 is a causal sandwich! The “for” shows a cause. If we go back to verse 14, we’ll see that the author is telling us to hold fast to our confession. Why? Because, we have a high priest who is able to sympathize. He feels for us. He has compassion toward us. We can hold fast to our confession—that our hope is in God and his rest that he will give to us. We can hold fast to that because we have Jesus—100% God who has the power to bring us home, but also 100% man who can feel compassion toward us in our weaknesses, our hurtings, our temptations. But holding onto our confession is only one slice of bread. I said this was a causal sandwich. Verse 16 is the other slice of bread with the sympathy of Jesus being the meat. Verse 16 says, “Let us then (or therefore!) draw near to the throne of grace.” Because Jesus has such compassion. Because he feels for us. Because he is sympathetic toward us, we ought to draw near to the throne of grace.

There’s no need to cower. No need to run away. No need to think we will be met with anger or abuse. NO! We have a sympathetic God-Man upon the throne who understands us and feels for us and is offering grace when we come.

That’s what he does here to this widow who has lost her only begotten son. I read in commentary after commentary about how difficult it would be for a widow who had no son to survive in this first century world. And that is true. I don’t deny that. But is that the main reason Jesus rose her son from the dead? Could it not be that Jesus saw himself and his mother in that situation? Joseph is clearly out of the picture. Tradition tells us that he was long dead by this time. Mary then would have been a widow. We know at the cross that, though Jesus had brothers, she gave his mother to John to look after.

John 19:26–27 ESV

When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.

He clearly wanted his mother to be looked after by someone who would love her as his own. He felt for her in his time of death. Here, just a little while before his own death, he meets a widow who lost her son. Could he not have pictured his own mother here? Except, no one would be able to do for Mary what he could do for her. In fact, Mary would not even get the benefit of having a funeral procession for her son.

A Feat Executed

Jesus feeling compassion, would do what only he could do. Jesus not only encountered a funeral. He not only experienced a feeling. But now he would execute a feat that only he could do. In his humanity he was moved with compassion. In his deity he would resurrect this young man. His humanity and deity always working in union. Back during the Sermon on the Plain, we see Jesus telling his disciples

Luke 6:31 ESV

And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.

and then

Luke 6:36 ESV

Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.

Jesus was not all talk and no action. He lived by what he taught.

Luke 7:14–15 ESV

Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.

Jesus just one-upped himself! Last week, we studied a passage in which Jesus was on his way to a centurion’s house to heal his beloved servant who was at death’s door. The centurion sends out friends and said he was not worthy to have Jesus under his roof, but all he had to do was speak the word and he would be healed. And Jesus spoke the word and he was healed.

Now we see that this is not a man who was near death, but had already experienced death. They were taking him to his grave. Jesus stopped them and simply spoke.

Luke presents this story in a similar way to a story in the Old Testament. There was a prophet named Elijah. During a drought Elijah stayed with a Sidonian widow and her son. The son died. Elijah took the boy up to the roof top and laid on him three times, praying for God to resurrect him. After the third time, God answered the prayer, and Elijah took him back down and gave him to his mother. Elisha did something similar for the child of the family with whom he stayed. He prayed, lay on him mouth to mouth and eye to eye, hand to hand.

But here is the difference: Jesus doesn’t lie down on the young man. Jesus doesn’t pray. Not three times. Not one time. Instead, he speaks the words, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” Once again, we see the authority of Jesus displayed. He was not only able to heal the sick with his words, but able to raise the dead with his words as well. No rituals. No prayers. Just a command of authority.

A Foreshadowing Exhibited

Which leads us to the fourth detail of this story. We’ve seen a funeral encountered, a feeling experienced, and a feat executed. But now we see a foreshadowing exhibited.

Luke 7:16–17 ESV

Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited his people!” And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country.

Back when I was a kid, a lady in the church that my dad pastored, loved to tell this story. You have to keep in mind that this was the 80s. Sound systems are not what they are today. The frequencies were not great and so there would be times when truck drivers’ CB frequency could be picked up on a sound system in just the right moment. Well, there was a time this happened and it was not the right moment. During the funeral, when soft music was playing, and the room was silent except for some sniffles, a voice comes from the front where the casket lay. “Breaker, Breaker.” I never heard what else was said as the lady would always start laughing at that point and I never thought to go back to ask. But it freaked out a lot of the people in attendance.

These people freaked! Fear seized them. This young man who was dead is now alive. He who was silenced now spoke. The mother who was as broken-hearted as she could be now rejoiced! The marks of Elijah and Elisha were all over this! A great prophet has arisen among us! God has visited his people! And indeed he had.

What a foreshadowing of God’s kingdom!

Revelation 21:3–4 ESV

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

We get but a glimpse of what will be in Luke 7:11-17. As this woman’s son was raised by the power of God, so Jesus would be raise by the power of God, so we who trust in Jesus shall be raised by the power of God! And when his kingdom is fully inaugurated, there will be no more funerals. Nor more suffering. No more pain. And it isn’t simply that God has visited his people. No! Behold the dwelling place of God is with man. This world will no longer be a “it’s a nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there,” anymore. No God will set up his home with us forever and ever!

Conclusion

As we finish up Luke 7:11-17, I hope we have a better understanding of who Jesus is. He is the God-Man. In his humanity, he feels for us and sympathizes with us. In his deity he does what only God can do in and by his grace. And I hope that this small but significant episode of Jesus’s life helps us hold fast to our confession of hope and propels us to the throne of grace.

What situation are you struggling with? What is weighing you down? Family problems? Financial problems? Job related problems? Health problems? I can’t say Jesus, in his compassion, will take away those pains and fears this morning. He may. His compassion could lead him to supernaturally intervene in such a way. But removing the pain is not the only act that could flow from compassion. This word “splanchtiezomai” is used twice more in Luke. Once when the Samaritan bound the wounds of the man who was robbed. Once by the father of the prodigal son. The wounded man was still wounded, still pained, but the compassion of the Samaritan caused him to come and be there and take upon himself the care of this man. The father could not take away the pain of the son’s past, but in compassion he ran and held him. I cannot tell you what type action will be brought by Christ’s compassion. But I can tell you that he will act in his compassion.

Some of you may have never experienced the most compassionate act he has performed. You’ve never experienced the forgiveness of Christ as he took your sins from you and suffered the wrath of God in your place. He died and rose again so that we too can stand before our glorious God without fear and be welcomed as his son or daughter.