Luke: 7:11-17
Jesus touched....
Jesus felt pity for the widowed mother, stepped forward, and touched the coffin with his hands.
Two things characteristic of humans…. Touching and feeling sympathy.
But when Jesus touched the coffin, and told the young man to “arise” …. The young man rose from the dead.
In one brief passage…… we see both the humanity and the divinity…. Of Jesus Christ.
We are reminded, that Jesus is also the son of a carpenter. So imagine, Jesus growing up, …. helping his earthly father, St. Joseph, in that ancient carpenter shop; build tables and chairs and doors, and yes…. Possibly coffins.
How many times did the young Jesus help turn raw wood into useful items? How many times did his hands and fingers run over the rough wood to smooth it? To take part of a tree and cut, and sand, and shape, and nail and change it into something functional. Perhaps, Jesus may have constructed that coffin of that widow’s son.
And what does the Gospel tell us????
Jesus was moved by the widow’s sorrow…. …. And Jesus gave the young man back to his mother.
Was it a foreshadowing of his own destiny?
Jesus would later be nailed to the wood of the cross, to experience death, the only son of his widowed mother, and to be handed back to her as we see in this Pietà statue over here in our own church? And the most famous Pieta is from Michelangelo.
There is a legend about Michelangelo….. the legend claims ---that when asked how he could create such perfect sculptures as his David……. Michelangelo responded, so the legend goes: “First, I look at the marble slab --- and then I chip away everything that is not David.”
I look at the hard marble stone and chip away everything that is not David.
The creator has an image of that which he creates.
My own dad was a carpenter, not by trade or profession, but avocation. One of his favorite things to do was add on to, or remodel our home. To change it into something different….to be a better fit for his family’s needs.
I can remember watching him at the lumber yard,
back in the days when people actually went to real lumber yards,
and I watched him hand pick every board, look down its edges to make sure it was straight, run his hands across its grain to make sure it was strong. He rejected the ones which were crooked and cracked.
Think about that for a moment. A creator rejecting those grown crooked or cracked.
I realize, now, that when my dad was running his hands and eyes over those pieces of lumber, he was not seeing pieces of lumber so much as he was seeing a home for his family. His hands touched the lumber, but his heart was building a home.
When the carpenter’s son was nailed to the wood of the cross, he turned that tree into our door to heaven. When the carpenter’s blood seeped into the wood of the cross, he opened the door to new life and a new home in heaven.
So I want to leave you with this thought today,
Be your own Michelangelo.
[Pause]
Chip away all that is not God’s image of you.
[Pause]
Chip away the stone that is around your heart.
We need to Chip away all that is keeping us from passing through the door Jesus opened with his back pressed against that rugged cross.
Don’t be afraid of the cross!
The door has been built by the carpenter with his hands and blood and tears.
Let Jesus touch you and say: “Arise.”
Arise into a new life. The life God, the Creator, envisions for you!
Be your own Michelangelo!
