STUDY GUIDE

The Scandalous Jesus

An Orderly Account: Encountering Jesus in the Gospel of Luke

Luke 7:11-35

The Text

¹¹ Soon afterward he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him…

Introduction

Luke’s gospel shows us that responses to Jesus are always divided. One crowd presses in to hear him preach, while another rolls their eyes. Why show us the various responses to Jesus? Because Luke is not a disinterested historian. Luke is an evangelist at heart, and he wants you to see yourself in the story of Jesus. How would you respond? How are you responding right now?

This text shows us three distinct responses to Jesus. The crowd at Nain responds with fear. John the Baptist struggles with impatience. Then Jesus addresses a different crowd who are stubborn. Where are you in the story? Do you live in holy fear at the power and love of Jesus? Are you more like John who believes yet he’s impatient. Or perhaps you’re stubborn like the crowds, displeased with how God has chosen to run the world and therefore disbelieving him.

Summary of the Text

Let’s begin by walking back through the text verse by verse.

Raising the Widow’s Son (7:11-17)

1. 11 – 12 As Jesus enters Nain he passes a funeral procession, carrying the body of a dead man; the only son of a widow. This is utter devastation.

1. 13 – Jesus, compelled by his own goodness and compassion, tells her not to weep. What a bold request!

1. 14-15 – He touches the bier (which would make him unclean) and speaks to the corpse. The man’s soul is recalled from Hades and reunited with his body. Jesus gives him to his mother (referencing 1 Kings 17:32)

1. 16-17 – Fear (phobos) grips the townspeople; they glorify God, yet severely underestimate Jesus’ identity. Christ’s popularity swells in the region.

John Questions Jesus (7:18-23)

1. 18 – John’s disciples report “all these things” to John who has been imprisoned by Herod Antipas.

1. 19-20 – John, who put his reputation as a prophet on the line for Jesus (Luke 3) now sends messengers asking whether or not he’s the Messiah. This isn’t outright doubt, it’s impatience. Jesus is clearly the Messiah, so why is his prophet rotting in Jail?

1. 21-22 – In response, Jesus heals people, delivers them from demons, & gives sight to the blind. His actions declare, “John, you expect me to come as Judge, but I must first come as Savior.”

1. 23 – “Blessed is the one who is not offended”, or scandalized, by me. In other words, when you don’t understand what I’m up to, don’t stumble over that.

Jesus Challenges the Crowd (7:24-35)

1. 24-28 Jesus challenges the crowd who observed the miracles. Who did they think John was? They believed John was a true prophet of God. And, though he struggles with doubt, Jesus endorses his ministry.

“Greatest in the kingdom” – A child who knows the story of the cross possesses a key to religious knowledge which Abraham and the prophets never enjoyed.

1. 29-30 – The crowd gladly hears Jesus as they were all fans of John. The Pharisees, on the other hand reject Jesus just as they had already rejected the message of repentance John preached.

1. 31 – Jesus addresses “this generation.” It’s the first time of many that he will use this phrase in Luke to refer to those who remain stubborn, refusing to acknowledge the God can run the world how he sees fit.

1. 32-34 – Spiritually stubborn people are like little brats in the street who get frustrated when people don’t play by their rules. Likewise, spiritually stubborn people play a tune and expect God to dance, but that’s not how this works.

1. 35 – Jesus concludes his challenge by referencing Proverbs 8, in which Wisdom is personified (she represents Christ), whose children are willing to submit to whatever God has ordained, trusting him with the outcomes.

So, where are you in the story? Fearing God, Doubting, or Stubbornly Refusing him? Let’s look at each in turn.

1. 1. Fear

Read through the Bible, and you’ll find the most common human response to an encounter with the Holy is not warmth, not ease or tranquility: it’s fear. You know you are approaching the true Creator when you tremble as a creature. In Genesis 31:42 Jacob even calls God “the Fear of Isaac.”

The people of Nain fear because they have met the Fear of Isaac. The one the Prophet Isaiah spoke of when he wrote:

¹³ But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.

What does the fear of the Lord look like? It certainly can mean trembling at his reality, but the fear of the Lord is not a walking around on tip toes like a scaredy cat. When you fear something, you give it control. You do everything in reference to it. For example, at an early age you learn that fire burns. So, when you are camping, you respect the fire, you are careful what you put near it. You don’t play with it.

It’s the same with electricity, the edge of a cliff, or the riptide of the ocean. We ought to have an appropriate level of fear—respect, regard, deference for all of these. The misuse of any one of them has severe consequences.

If mishandling a kitchen knife has severe consequences, what must it be like mishandle your relationship to the God who made you? To spend your money, speak words, schedule your time and plan your goals, choose a spouse or parent your children all with zero regard for what God expects from you?

To fear the Lord means you give him regard. He has weight in your heart and actions. His Word governs and controls you. Just as you don’t play with fire because you know what it can do, you don’t play fast and loose with your life because you know who God is—holy, just, gracious, compassionate, powerful.

2. Impatience

Are you sure about Jesus? Do you really believe you can base your whole life on him? Then why are you so upset over his timing, and the delay of his judgment?

I do not ask that question to beat you up at all. I ask it in order to name the tension every Christian feels: how is it that I can trust Christ to forgive my sin on the one hand, yet completely fall apart when there’s relational tension, or physical weakness, or a career dead-end?

Satan loves to exploit that tension in order to make you feel condemned. But look at what happens in this passage: John shows us that even the very prophet of the Lord struggles with impatience—and the Lord doesn’t beat him up. He actually praises John as the greatest among those born of women.

Jesus never explains to John why he will remain in prison. He simply asks him to not be offended. And he never explains all he allows to come into our life either. He simply asks us to trust him. And here are two reasons you can trust him.

First, you have no idea how many other things he is accomplishing that depend on you being right here, right now. You say, “What is God up to though, and how can this be part of it?” Jesus can raise the widow’s son from death. This means your problems are not a problem for him. Therefore, the reason he hasn’t changed your situation is not that he can’t.

Second, you say, “But how can I know that eternal good will come of this?” The evilest thing ever done was the crucifixion of God’s sinless Son—and God not only decreed it, but also that the greatest good would come of it. So, why can he not do the same with the suffering you currently bear?

William Cowper:

God’s purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour.
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.
Blind unbelief is sure to err
And scan his work in vain.
God is his own interpreter,
And he will make it plain.

3. Stubbornness

In the coming weeks, we’ll see Jesus reference the “faithless and twisted generation” (Luke 9:41), the “evil generation” (Luke 11:29), eleven times. Luke employs the moniker to describe people who know exactly who Jesus is yet reject and resist him anyways.

Many say they want to see God work, but in reality they just want to control how God works. They want to dictate the terms of their life to him. They always find fault with him, with his ways, with his providences.

Matthew Henry:

This is the ruin of multitudes, they can never persuade themselves to be serious in the concerns of their souls… O the amazing stupidity and vanity of the blind and ungodly world! The very same men that had represented John as crazed in his intellects, because he came neither eating nor drinking, represented our Lord Jesus as corrupt in his morals, because he came eating and drinking; he is a gluttonous man, and a drunk.

One complains, “His law is to strict!” Another, “He’s too gracious!” You will never lack reasons to stubbornly reject Christ. Yet he invites you to come!

Conclusion

Jesus’ power over death demands reverent fear. His timing demands patience and trust. He’s ways expose our desire to control. Yet the gospel invitation stands – wisdom is justified by her children – Repent of stubborn resistance. Lay down impatience at the cross. Live in holy fear.