“JESUS FREAKED PEOPLE OUT”
11 Soon afterward Jesus went with his disciples to the village of Nain, and a large crowd followed him.
12 A funeral procession was coming out as he approached the village gate. The young man who had died was a widow’s only son, and a large crowd from the village was with her.
13 When the Lord saw her, his heart overflowed with compassion. “Don’t cry!” he said.
14 Then he walked over to the coffin and touched it, and the bearers stopped. “Young man,” he said, “I tell you, get up.”
15 Then the dead boy sat up and began to talk! And Jesus gave him back to his mother.
16 Great fear swept the crowd, and they praised God, saying, “A mighty prophet has risen among us,” and “God has visited his people today.”
You have probably heard of “Jesus Freaks.” These are people who are fanatically (or deeply?) devoted to Jesus. But have you ever considered that Jesus himself tended to freak people out?
Take the above story, as an example. A boy was dead. His mom was a widow and she had only this one son. Now, she didn’t have him.
Tragic, yes! Freaky, no!
But then, Jesus showed up.
First, Jesus tells her not to cry.
That’s not freaky; that’s just a nasty blend of silly and cruel. Of course, she is crying. Who wouldn’t? Any of us who had just lost a loved one—especially a son or a daughter—would be even further devastated by such insensitivity. Any of us who would tell a grieving mother not to cry should probably be flogged.
But Jesus didn’t stop there. He touched the bier upon which the body was being carried to the tomb for burial. Then, Jesus said, very matter-of-factly, “Young man, I say to you, get up!”
And the young man sat up! Not only did he sit up. He also spoke up!
What did he say? We don’t know. It isn’t recorded. We can, of course, speculate.
“Thank you, Jesus!”
Maybe.
When he looked around, did he say, “What’s going on? Is this a funeral? Whose funeral is it?”
Perhaps.
“Hey! What am I doing in burial clothes?!?”
Could be.
“I’m not dead yet!”
That would be a famous line from a Monty Python movie, so perhaps not.
Whatever the young man said, I’m sure that the people were freaked out. Even his mother, as glad as she no doubt was, must have been at least temporarily wierded out.
Jesus did some strange things. He still does. I’ve never seen a miraculous resurrection, though I have heard of such things, and do believe that they happen once in a while.
But I have most certainly seen moral miracles. I’ve seen drunks and druggies raised from a living death—mostly death, with very little living. Jesus is still in the business of freaking people out. Jesus doesn’t seem to play be the rules.
Thank God for that! I myself am one of Jesus’ freaky miracles! So, perhaps, are you! Or, at least, you could be, if you would like.
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