7 December – Luke 7: “God Hath Visited His People”

7 December – Luke 7: “God Hath Visited His People”

Hey friends, welcome to December 7th. Today we’re in Luke 7, and if you’ve ever wondered what it feels like when heaven actually breaks into earth, this is the chapter.

The whole chapter is one long crescendo of wonder. Everywhere Jesus goes, people are asking the same question in a dozen different ways: “Who IS this?” By the way, in church today, we are beginning a new sermon series entitled, “What Child Is This?” This morning we will give the first answer, “His Name Shall Be Called… Wonderful!” And in the evening service, “His Name Shall Be Called… Counsellor!”

This time of year is a wonderful time to consider what I believe to be the theme of this 7th chapter of Luke, “God Hath Visited Us”

Scene 1 – Just outside Capernaum

A Roman centurion has a servant who is at the point of death. He sends Jewish elders to Jesus with this message: “Lord, trouble not thyself: for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof… but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed” (vv. 6-7).

Jesus marvels out loud—something He almost never does—and says, “I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel” (v. 9). The servant is healed that very same hour.

Scene 2 – The village of Nain (the name means “pleasant” or “beautiful”)

Jesus meets a funeral procession. A widow is burying her only son. Luke says Jesus’ heart “yearned over her” (v. 13 (the Greek is “his bowels were moved with compassion”). He touches the bier and says, “Young man, I say unto thee, Arise” (v. 14). The dead boy sits up and begins to speak. The crowd is seized with holy fear and cries out, “God hath visited his people!” (v. 16). That’s the line of the whole chapter.

Scene 3 – John the Baptist, locked in Herod’s prison

Even John sends two disciples to ask, “Art thou he that should come? or look we for another?” (v. 19). Jesus doesn’t give a long answer. He simply heals multitudes right in front of John’s messengers—blind see, lame walk, lepers cleansed, deaf hear, dead raised, poor have the gospel preached to them—then tells them, “Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard” (v. 22). After they leave, Jesus pays John the highest compliment any human ever received: “Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist” (v. 28).

Scene 4 – Simon the Pharisee’s house

A woman “which was a sinner” crashes the dinner party, weeping, washing Jesus’ feet with her tears, wiping them with her hair, kissing them, and anointing them with precious ointment. Simon sneers inside: “If this man were a prophet, he would know what manner of woman this is” (v. 39). Jesus reads his mind, tells the beautiful parable of the two debtors, and then turns to the woman and says, “Thy sins are forgiven… Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace” (vv. 48, 50). The table is stunned silent: “Who is this that forgiveth sins also?”

Four scenes. Four different groups of people. One growing realisation:

• A Gentile soldier sees Jesus as the ultimate authority.
• A grieving widow sees Jesus as the Lord over death.
• A doubting prophet sees Jesus as the promised Messiah.
• A sinful woman sees Jesus as the Friend of sinners.
• And the only right answer rings out from the lips of ordinary people in Nain: “God hath visited his people!”

Friends, that’s still the right answer today.

When marriages are raised from the dead, when addictions lose their power, when the proud are humbled and the broken are comforted, when sinners like us are forgiven much and therefore love much—God hath visited His people.

Before we read the whole chapter together in a moment, let me close with the hymn that Edward Hayes Plumptre wrote after reading Luke 7. I think it captures the heartbeat of this chapter perfectly:

“Thine arm, O Lord, in days of old was strong to heal and save;

It triumphed o’er disease and death, o’er darkness and the grave.

To Thee they went—the blind, the dumb, the palsied and the lame,

The leper with his tainted life, the sick with fevered frame.

“And lo! Thy touch brought life and health, gave speech, and strength, and sight;

And youth renewed and frenzy calmed owned Thee, the Lord of light.

And now, O Lord, be near to bless, almighty as of yore,

In crowded street, by restless couch, as by Gennesaret’s shore.

“Be Thou our great Deliverer still, Thou Lord of life and death;

Restore and quicken, soothe and bless with Thine almighty breath.

To hands that work and eyes that see give wisdom’s heavenly pow’r,

That whole and sick, and weak and strong, may praise Thee evermore.”

He is still the same Jesus.

May every one of us, in whatever condition we find ourselves today, hear Him speak the words that woman heard:

“Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.”