Sunday Service 5th July
- Jul 2
- 8 min read
Who is this Jesus?
5/7/26
Call to worship
Hymn 493: It’s me
Time for all
Hymn 351: Jesus hands were kind hands
Dedication of Offering
Reading: Luke 7: 1-23 Amanda
Prayer (The Lord’s Prayer will be on the screen)
Hymn 259: Beauty for brokenness
Sermon
Prayer
Hymn 718: We cannot measure how you heal
Benediction
Welcome to our meditation for 5th July.
If we start to reflect on faith part of us starts to wonder who we are putting out faith in.
Who is this Jesus we are meant to follow?
That is what is happening in our narrative today.
Jesus has given his manifesto about love.
And now people are asking, ‘Who is this guy and is he worth following?’ that’s a question given directly by John the Baptists followers.
But instead we are directed to another question, maybe even one more important.
But we will reflect on that after our reading and prayer from Amanda.
Prayer of Dedication of Offering
Heavenly Father,
In this time of year things seem to quieten down. We have time to reflect, time to relax. Help us during this time to see the gifts and blessings you have given us, and to respond with a heart of thanksgiving
Amen
Sermon
I don’t do this often, but I am going to show you a map.
This is a map of all the places in our narrative today.
In it we can see Capernaum: where Jesus heals the centurion’s servant,
Nain, where Jesus raises the widows son from the dead,
And Machaerus, where John the Baptist was being held prisoner.
In Capernaum there is a Roman centurion who has a sick servant.
We are not too sure whether he believes Jesus would help him because he is a Roman.
Jesus wouldn’t know him so Jesus wouldn’t know he is a decent guy.
If the centurion came to Jesus maybe all Jesus would see was a ruler of the occupying state, an enemy, a gentile, someone to be despised.
So the centurion send some friends; Jewish leaders of the synagogue,
Jesus might be willing to listen to them, Jesus might be willing to help them.
And Jesus seems to be willing to help them; he travels with them towards the centurion’s house. But hearing that Jesus is on his way, the centurion has cold feet.
What if Jesus needs to play the Jewish crowd, maybe humiliate him in front of the community?
What if Jesus becomes tainted in the eyes of his followers because of meeting with a gentile?
What if Jesus sees him and decides that he isn’t worthy to be helped, or that his servant is worthy to be helped?
So many questions.
I imagine that the centurion is used to being in control of the situation, or taking control of a situation.
So now he tries to take control again.
Jesus doesn’t need to come to the house, the centurion is used to giving orders, this Jesus can then give an order and it will be sorted.
We then go from there to Nain.
Travelling south, the road dipping lower.
Not only are we going downhill, we are going downhill in social status.
No big town with big people here.
Small town, tiny people.
No great populace where things happen and there are people to do things that needs to be done.
Nain is small population, lack of facilities, things get left undone because there is no one to do them.
And here...no one is asking Jesus for help. No one is expecting Jesus to help.
As he gets close to the town there is a large procession as a young man is being carried to his grave. It is a desperate situation, the last male of a widow.
There is no one to look after her now.
Life will be hard for her.
And Jesus stops the procession and raises her son from the dead.
Jesus brings life and hope where none was expected.
And then we sink lower, descending down to Machaerus, where John the Baptist is imprisoned by Herod.
John, the great revivalist; the one with his ear to God and has the confidence to be the voice of God’s message.
Here we have people where life is lost, no agency here; stuck in a cell with no power.
In fact John’s life is in the hands of someone else.
John has heard of what Jesus has been doing.
Maybe he has heard that Jesus is moving south with a great band of people.
Maybe he is hoping that Jesus will come to Machaerus and save him.
If Jesus is the Messiah, the Saviour, maybe Jesus will be the Messiah, the Saviour to John.
And so the unspoken question that everyone has been asking is voiced by John; ‘Are you the one John said was going to come, or should we expect someone else?’
In the end, isn’t that the question we want to ask?
‘Jesus, are you the one we should follow,
are you the one we should trust,
are you the one we can believe in,
or should we wait for someone else?’
I for one would have preferred if Jesus had just said, ‘Yes.’
Think about it, if Jesus had just said yes then things would have been very clear.
No place for doubts, no place for uncertainty.
Jesus states he is the Messiah; we should follow him, BOOM, everything sorted.
Makes you wonder why he didn’t.
Makes you wonder why Jesus didn’t say, ‘Yes.’
In our short journey we have gone from
a Roman Centurion who has the power of life and death over others,
to a widow who maybe feels powerless now that her son is dead, but will have to face life with the limited power she has,
to a prisoner who has no power, no agency at all, in fact others have the power of life and death over him.
All of them asking questions; maybe even the most important question of all, ‘’Are you the one that we hoped would come to save us? or should we look for someone else?’
And Jesus doesn’t say, ‘Yes.’
I am aware from many of my friends and colleges that there are a lot of churches out there that are worried about their future.
In our own area just now;
Logie is vacant, Dollar and Muckart are vacant, Tillicoultry is going to become vacant next year, St Ninian’s will become vacant later this year, Ludgate and St Mungo’s are about to become vacant.
It’s a really scary time for the church.
And all the churches not in that position are terrified of the changes ahead.
At the General Assembly this year they had a huge debate about the mess the church was in and how we get out of it.
And the committee asked to sort it all out told us what they thought the answer should be...we should talk about Jesus more.
Effectively, we should go to Jesus and say, ‘Are you the Messiah?’ and Jesus says ‘Yes’ and everything gets sorted.
Strangely enough that suggestion went down like a lead balloon.
Ministers stood up to declare that for decades they had been talking about Jesus, yet their churches weren’t packed to the brim.
John the Baptist gets his followers to ask Jesus if he is the messiah.
And Jesus doesn’t say ‘Yes.’
I think because Jesus realises that saying, ‘Yes,’ doesn’t help.
Ministers, evangelists, prophets, people of great faith...all love asking the question, ‘Is Jesus the answer to your problems? Is Jesus the messiah you have waited for? Is Jesus the one you should follow?’
And, of course, these ministers answer their own question by saying, Yes and expect people to follow.
But people don’t, and the reason they don’t is because in our head we ask the next question...
‘If Jesus is the Messiah, is he my Messiah?
If Jesus is the answer to the world’s problems, is he the answer to my problems?
Just because others should follow Jesus, should I follow Jesus?’
So Jesus doesn’t say ‘Yes’.
Instead Jesus says, ‘Look.’
Look at the people Jesus has reached out to...
Are you the centurion...the outsider?
Oh you’ve tried to be good, tried to help people. Been responsible, used your power for good as much as possible.
But you have never quite felt you have been accepted, always part of the fringes..
Are you the widow...just led a quiet life, uneventful, just tried your best to get along with everyone.
But you’re feeling overwhelmed by life, it is too much, too difficult, even though you are surrounded by people who have known you all your life you still alone in this moment.
Are you the prisoner...it feels like no matter what you have done somehow it has led you to this empty place. You now feel isolated, powerless, you don’t know if anyone can help you.
Jesus is asking us to look.
Look at ourselves and see that it doesn’t matter if we are at the heights of our power and influence, or the depths of despair and powerless...that we are all in need of help.
Jesus is asking us to look.
Look at where God has helped others. It doesn’t matter if we are in the centre of the universe, or the smallest of towns, or the tiniest of dungeons...that is where God has been active, that is where God has been felt. There are lives out there that prove it. Look at those lives.
Jesus is asking us to look.
And see that God doesn’t care if we are asking the deepest of questions,
or whether we are even asking a questions at all,
or if we are scared to ask the questions directly ourselves...
God was still there for them...God was still willing to be involved in their lives.
And because of that everything gets flipped.
Because it’s not about if we ask the right questions,
it’s not about if we are religious enough,
it’s not about if we are good enough, or powerful enough, or influential enough,
because we see from today none of that matters...
what we see is that Jesus was willing to help, able to help, was there to help.
So instead of us asking Jesus if he is the one
Instead we hear Jesus asking us the question, ‘Do we trust enough to accept that help, and follow?’
Let us pray
Heavenly Father,
we thank you for the signs of your kingdom among us if we are just willing to look:
we see lives where love breaks through fear,
we see people were courage rises in hard places,
we see communities where compassion interrupts despair,
and we give thanks for every moment when life is restored and hope begins again.
We thank you Father for the lives where we see your touch of Spirit brings comfort and hope;
where your word brings healing, where your presence honours the forgotten,
and where your message reveals your heart for all people.
We thank you that if we look, we see your activity is not far off, but present wherever mercy and compassion and empathy takes flesh.
We pray for those who long for healing:
those living with illness, pain, exhaustion, or distress.
Speak life into bodies, minds, and spirits that are worn down.
We pray for those who mourn,
for all whose future feels broken by loss.
Stand with them in the procession of grief, and hold them in love when words run out.
We pray for those who feel like outsiders:
those excluded by prejudice, poverty, stigma, or fear.
May they find welcome, dignity, and justice, and may your church learn to recognise Christ in their midst.
We pray for those who doubt,
for those whose faith has been shaken by suffering, silence, or disappointment.
Meet them not with condemnation but with signs of life.
And we pray for ourselves.
Where we are anxious, steady us.
Where we are hardened, open us.
Where we are reluctant to love beyond familiar boundaries, unsettle us.
Teach us to seek Jesus not only in worship and word,
but in the places where wounds are tended and lives are lifted.
Help us to look, and see that you are active in the world, and may that give us faith that you are active in our lives.
Amen.
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