A Study In Luke - Day 16

DAY 16 - Luke 7:11-17
 
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.

Woah! We sometimes forget this story because we think about the resurrection of Lazurus as the most prominent resurrection story. However, we see that Jesus was willing to resurrect another person, and this time, it was due to the compassion he had for the young man’s mother.
 
Jesus’ compassion brings life to the dead, awe to the living and a call to compassion for his disciples.

As this funeral procession intercepts him on his way to Nain, it must have been disconcerting. Anytime there is a funeral for a young person, the tragedy is palpable, and while we don’t know how old this young man is, it is clear that he was much too young. The grief that his mother experienced moved Jesus deeply.
 
The word used for the son shows that it was the mother’s only son. In Palestine at that time, this would have meant that this mother’s future was in jeopardy; she would not have any extended family to take care of her, and of course, she had lost a son.

Jesus immediately recognized the situation, and compassion flowed from him. Words say so little in a time like this. Jesus tried to brush away her tears and catch her attention. Jesus had more than “thoughts and prayers” to give to this woman.
 
By simply walking up to the coffin, the processional stopped.

I was once at a funeral, and the wife of the recently passed man left her seat during the service, picked up a folding chair, sat it in front of the coffin, and proceeded to hold his hand and stroke his face throughout the remainder of the service. It was strange to most of us.
As it turns out, her husband was a pathologist who worked at a coroner’s office for years. She worked along with him, and so the idea of a dead body did not mean the same thing to her that it might mean to the rest of us. Once I understood that, I found her gesture of love to be quite beautiful.

However, in the Jewish tradition, it would have been anathema to touch a dead body. And to be clear, Jesus did not touch a dead body. He touched the coffin and then told the young man to “get up”! The dead son heard and obeyed and started to speak loquaciously.
 
Then, Jesus returned the boy to his mother. It was a beautiful moment, to be sure.

However, what it did to the people in the crowd was something else. One translation says, “Fear seized them!” another translation says, “Great fear swept the crowd. . .” As you can see, the response was not all positive.

On the other hand, we might be using the term “fear” specifically. They were in awe, in amazement, and the immediately glorified God. Perhaps the fear was less being afraid and more being in awe of what God has done.
 
All in all, it was an amazing moment that not only glorified God, but also gave a mother her son back. Nothing could be sweeter.

1. Are you ever amazed by what God has restored in your life? 
2. Do you think we have much awe and wonder in our lives? 
3. How would we get some of that wonder back into our spiritual journeys?