Motivated By Compassion Series

LUKE 7: 11-17 [Mother’s Day]

MOTIVATED BY COMPASSION

[1 Kings 17:17-24 & 2 Kings 4:32-37]

MOTHER'S Day has come to be one of the most appealing and impressive days in the life of the American people. Today from the President in the White House to the humblest tenant in his apartment house, people pause, as they should, to pay grateful and loving tribute to the best loved person in all the world, their mother. The most beautiful sight in all this world is the picture of a mother with a baby in her arms. It is not any wonder that artists, painters, sculptors, poets and orators have summoned all their resources, to portray that scene in a worthy fashion.

When Jesus was dying on His cross, He paused there in the midst of His agony and revealed His love and care for His blessed mother. When Isaiah, the great prophet, thought of God, he also thought of his mother and said, "As one whom his mother comforts, so the Lord comforts His people." When President Garfield was inaugurated as President, it is not surprising that the splendid man, when he had taken the oath of office and had kissed the Bible, turned immediately and kissed his mother, to the delight of the watching thousands around him.

Let’s READ LUKE 7:11-17.

Dwight L. Moody's mother, Betsey Holton Moody, was a woman of remarkable strength and character. In 1841, when Dwight was just four years old, Betsey's husband Edwin was stricken with a sudden illness and died. One month later Mrs. Moody gave birth to twins, giving the youthful widow nine children to care for.

Despite severe poverty she kept the family together, and Dwight evidently loved his mother deeply. Her own faith in Christ was confirmed later in life, when in 1876, she stood for prayer in response to Moody's invitation after one of his messages. From that point until her death in 1896, Betsey Moody's compassion and influence for the Lord were deeply felt by those around her.

On this special day set aside to honor mothers, we want to look into compassion. Mother bring compassion into life, and the Christian community certainly needs more compassion. Here Jesus not only demonstrates His power over death but His tender compassion for a grieving mother. Although we don't often hear much about the WIDOW OF NAIN, her story was deemed important enough to be included in the Gospel, and thus it calls for our attention. This wonderful story especially deserves consideration on Mother's Day.

I. THE TWO CROWDS, 11-12.

II. THE TWO MIRACLES, 13–15.

III. THE TWO UNDERSTANDINGS, 16-17.

At this point in Jesus’ ministry the crowds saw Him as a prophet, but He is so much more. The crowd who has been following Him in verse 11 will have opportunity to obverse that He does so much more than proclaim truth. “Soon afterwards He went to a city called Nain; and His disciples were going along with Him, accompanied by a large crowd.

Luke records this event to reveal Jesus’ concern for women especially mothers[, as well as the fact that this is one of three recorded times Jesus raised someone from the dead]. It had been approximately eight hundred years since Israel had seen someone, raised from the dead. The last case was wrought by Elisha the prophet (2 Kgs 4:14–37).

A large crowd went along with Jesus as He traveled southwest from Capernaum to Nain. Capernaum was about twenty-five miles into the Jezreel Valley to the city of Nain It was a good-sized town in Christ’s day. Jesus may have been in familiar territory, since Nain was only about ten miles from Nazareth.

Jesus’ crowd runs into another crowd in verse 12. “Now as He approached the gate of the city, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow; and a sizeable crowd from the city was with her.”

As the crowd with Jesus approaches the city gate they encounter a widow and a funeral procession weeping and mourning. The woman weeps over the loss of her only child. She is now all alone in a hostile world, with no family to care for her.

Notice that a large crowd was also with the funeral procession carrying the coffin of a dead young man. There was no doubt as to this man’s condition. He was plainly dead, the funeral was over, the funeral procession was en route to the place for burial. Luke records that the dead man was the only son of his widowed mother.

The sorrow of this mother for her only son must have been very raw since the Jews conducted their funerals within twenty-four hours of death. This woman probably had less than a day to come to grips with her son's death.