Have you guys ever heard of God referred to as Almighty? What about all powerful? All knowing? In church, we like to describe God with "alls." And I think what we end up with is a god that looks very Zeus-y: all stern-faced, dramatically pointing, and smiting the naughty here and there.

I want to take a look at a different God.

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.” 17 And the news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding countryside. (Luke 7:11-17)

Do any of have a savings account at the bank? What about your parents? Do you know what social security is?

It's hard to imagine, but for most of the people in Jesus' time there was no such thing as savings or a financial safety net. Your only social security net was your family. That's why families stuck together and why divorce was almost unthinkable. The only thing you had to take care of you was your family and vice versa.

So here's a woman who finds herself completely alone. She's a widow, so she's already lost her husband, and now she has lost her only son. She has no one to take care of her. So they're taking his body out of the city and Jesus sees them and his heart overflows with compassion. The actual Greek word used there translates as "his bowels groaned." To me, that says that Jesus is moved to the point of suffering. And this isn't the first time we see Jesus moved like this in the Bible. When a friend of his named Lazarus dies, Jesus actually weeps. He cries.

It's kind of hard to imagine that God experiencing any kind of pain or suffering, isn't it? But as Christians, we believe that Jesus is living embodiment of God. God with skin on. In fact, I like to think that Jesus shows us what God's heart looks like. Jesus shows us what is important to God; what He cares about. And if that's the case then God most cares about those who are on the edges, the conquered, the powerless, the outcasts, the suffering; to the point that He himself suffers.

When I was your age I kind of got the feeling that Jesus kind of walked around healing those people, and blessed are those dudes, and then he dies on the cross but not really and that's the end of the story. A god who's here, but not really here. An almighty God.

But if God is almighty then where is He? Where is his power when people are starving? Where is his strength when a gunman opens fire in a school? Where is his mightiness when people are used, abused, and sold?

It's not that I think God isn't almighty or that he doesn't care take part in the world. Just the opposite, I think God is so deeply involved in the world that He shares in our joy and in our suffering. When we laugh, God laughs. When we cry, God weeps. Jesus feels the fear and sadness of this now completely alone woman deep in his bowels, and then He does something about it. The point of this story isn't about Jesus raising someone from the dead. It's to show you what God cares about. And you become the God you worship.

If you worship a god who is a successful businessman or a mighty conqueror then you will worship money and power (which means you could probably run for President.)

I wonder if maybe God's answer to our suffering is to grow people who feel the hurt and then respond to it as Jesus does in this story? I'll leave that up to you.