Anticipation

As an artist or musician, you know you made it when others imitate or commercialize your work. The most imitated artists are Michelangelo, Rembrandt and Leonardo da Vinci. The most imitated modern musicians are the Beatles, Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley. It only makes sense to imitate the masters if you want to excel in art, music or any other field.

During our contemporary service, we hear songs from ApologetiX, a Christian band that rewrites secular songs with Christian lyrics to create parodies with Christian messages. The band blends Weird Al Yankovic and Billy Graham. They derive their lyrics from Biblical passages and practices. Their hits include parodies of Charlie Daniels’ The Devil Went Down to Georgia, renamed The Devil Went Down to Jordan, and Alice Cooper’s School’s Out, renamed Schoolhouse for Prophets.

Most artists fear others who imitate their works will dilute or contaminate them for popular or commercial gain. Such was the case when Heinz approached Carly Simon. In the 70s and 80s, Heinz ran commercials for its ketchup that featured Simon’s hit, Anticipation. She feared people would remember only the commercial and forget the original song.

Anticipation. I am sure you were anticipating when I would get to my theme. Anticipation is keeping you waiting, isn’t it?

A simple definition of anticipation is a feeling of excitement about something that is going to happen or the act of preparing for something. The Latin root of anticipate is anticipare which means to take care of ahead of time. It literally means to take into possession beforehand from ante – before – and capere – to take.

We know something lies ahead, and we want to take care of it or prepare before it happens. Cindy and I are anticipating the birth of two more grandchildren by Thanksgiving, and everyone, especially their mothers, is anticipating birth and new life by preparing now. We know death lies ahead. We prepare for it by embracing our Savior’s promise of eternal life and by making funeral plans. We anticipate expected and unexpected events – graduation, unemployment, victory, defeat, disease and a dozen others.

You are thinking, “What does anticipation have to do with our Gospel or my life?” Good question. What does anticipation have to do with our Gospel and my life? To answer that let’s delve into our passage.

Obviously, Jesus’ raising the young man from the dead anticipates the Resurrection, but before we explore that, we examine other aspects of our passage.

Luke’s story is similar to other miracle stories, but this is clearly his story, and he connected it to his two favorite prophets: Elijah and Elisha.[1] We read the account of Elijah raising the son of the widow of Zarephath. Likewise, Elisha raised the son of the Shunammite.[2]

Luke’s parallels to Elijah are remarkable: the mother was a widow, the prophet met her at a city gate, and after life is restored, “he gave him to his mother,” an exact quotation by Luke.

Luke’s use of the Old Testament does not offer proof of an argument, does not establish the prophecy/fulfillment pattern, but allows the Old Testament narrative to provide a way of telling. Luke does not bring 1 Kings 17 to the reader’s attention. It remains just beneath the surface. If the reader does not know the Old Testament, the Elijah story does not come to mind at all.

What, then, is Luke doing? It could be simply a case of imitation, widely practiced and respected as a guiding principle of literary art in a culture free of copyright laws. More likely, if Luke’s readers knew the Old Testament, our Gospel today could give a sense of continuity, of being at home, of recognizing the truth. What Luke is doing is using an effective method of teaching – repetition. Who hasn’t learned the catechism through repetition?

Secondly, Luke offers a dramatic example of Jesus’ ministry of compassion. The object of his compassion is the mother. His total attention is on this woman who is a widow and whose only son, her sole means of support as well as being her whole family, is dead. When I buried my parents, there was sadness. When parents bury children, there is overwhelming sadness. With Jesus’ attention focused on the woman, the storyteller seems unaware of the bearers, the mourners and the crowds following the mother and Jesus. Moreover, without drama, ritual or prayer, Jesus raised the man to life.

The crowd now re-enters the story, expressing praise and fear of God. However, their principal role is to give voice to the faith generated by Jesus raising the dead. There are two expressions of faith. “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited his people!”[3]

Here, Luke embraced the term prophet, describing Jesus whose ministry reminded people of Elijah and Elisha. The early church preached Jesus as a prophet like Moses. In Acts, Peter spoke, “Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.’”[4]

Before the high priest, Stephen preached, “This Moses, whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ – this man God sent as both ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years. This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.’”[5]

To say that Jesus “was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people” is not to say all that Luke or we believe about Jesus. The prophet spoke for God. If Jesus’ contemporaries taught that the age of prophecy was closed, then the crowds around Jesus announced that God reopened it, for the phrase – “has arisen among us” – is drawn from Deuteronomy: “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brethren.”[6]

The second expression, “God has visited his people,” is also a favorite of Luke. In his Benedictus, Zechariah speaks, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people.”[7] When Jesus wept over Jerusalem, he lamented, “They will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”[8] In Acts, James spoke these words during the Jerusalem Council, “Simon has described to us how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name.”[9]

The word visit is from the Latin visitare meaning, "to go to see or come to inspect." It also means to "come upon or afflict" with sickness or punishment. Depending on who the visitor was, you would either welcome or reject him.

God’s visit may be in wrath or in mercy, but for Luke it is always an act of grace.[10] When Jesus wept over Jerusalem, he predicted its destruction not as a divine visitation, but because the city did not know the time of its visitation. The people did not welcome God appropriately.

Finally, we turn to the location of this story within Luke. In addition to having its own message, this unit anticipates the next story about Jesus’ message to John the Baptist. It does so in two ways. First, the raising of the son of the widow of Nain provides concrete support for Jesus’ word to John, “The dead are raised up.”[11] When Matthew recorded Jesus’ message to John,[12] he was already told of Jesus raising the daughter of a ruler.[13] In Luke, that story is told later.[14] Therefore, the raising of the dead at Nain serves Luke as preparation for the summary statement of Jesus’ activity sent to John, a statement that includes raising the dead.

This passage also anticipates the following story about John by referring to Judea in our closing, “This report concerning him spread throughout the whole of Judea.”[15] The reference to Judea rather than Galilee permitted the report of Jesus’ ministry to reach John whose ministry was in Judea.

Our minds anticipate the climax of the Gospel: God raises Jesus from the dead. Luke must have had similar thoughts; after all, the whole story of Jesus is narrated from the perspective of one who is looking back through an empty tomb.

However, Luke would correct us by saying that while the resurrection of Jesus was the climax; it too was anticipatory in the sense that the Spirit, which empowered Jesus, was given to the Church for its life and mission. This major story of Luke described the ministry of Jesus as the middle and not the end of the story.

So, if our passage today anticipated Jesus’ Resurrection, and the Resurrection anticipated Pentecost, what does anticipation of the Holy Spirit have to do with my life? In other words, how is the Spirit leading you? How is the Holy Spirit active in my life as an individual, as a family, as Church?

Your ministries, such as youth and women, your ongoing work with the Angelman Society and Habitat for Humanity, your outreach to the Asian Indian community and preschool are evident that the Holy Spirit is active at Word of Life Church. As you call a new pastor, the Holy Spirit, and not personal preference, must guide your prayer and process.

As individuals, we always need the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit, for without it, we could not even believe. There are particular times when we pray to the Holy Spirit. Our list of prayers is endless, and I am certain that yours includes healing of body, mind and spirit, renewal of relationships and religious fervor. Does our list include imitating Jesus and anticipating we will have a heart like His?

A colleague of mine wrote recently these words. Like Jesus, we are capable of performing acts of mercy and compassion for those in need. Our culture might hold up as ideals power, control and strength, especially for men, but at the heart of Jesus’ strength is compassion for weakness, mercy for the helpless. The person who acts against the victimization of women, the proliferation of pornography, the scourge of human trafficking and slavery is acting like Elijah and Jesus with compassion and mercy. Those women and children released from poverty and sufferings share in some part the resurrection of Jesus in the world. This is a model for us, the type of people Jesus calls us to be for those in need.[16]

Friends, this week pray to the Holy Spirit to fill your heart with compassion that you may live with a heart like Jesus, and when you do, may the peace of God that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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[1] Much of this section is from Fred B. Craddock, Luke (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009), 95-98.

[2] 1 Kings 7:17-24; 2 Kings 4:18-37

[3] Luke 7:16.

[4] Acts 3:22-23.

[5] Acts 7:35-37.

[6] Deuteronomy 18:18.

[7] Luke 1:68.

[8] Luke 19:44.

[9] Acts 15:14.

[10] Exodus 20:5; Psalm 106:4.

[11] Luke 7:22.

[12] Matthew 11:2-6.

[13] Matthew 9:18-26.

[14] Lue 8:40-56.

[15] Luke 7:17.

[16] James W. Martens, “Rise Up!”, America, June 3-10, 2013.