Introduction
Read Text: Luke 7:11-17
Background
Luke, the Physician, is always quick to show God’s compassion for human need.
In Scripture, we have RECORDED where Jesus raised people from the dead.
Lazarus is one that we are familiar with...
And also Jairus’ daughter...
I say “recorded” because Scripture seems to imply that there were others that we don’t have recorded in the Bible.1(Matthew 10:8, 11:5; Luke 7:22)
Certainly resurrections garner a lot of attention...
They were quite extraordinary in Jesus’ day...
And whenever they occurred, they caused quite a commotion...
as you might imagine!
Here, in Luke, Jesus has just ministered to the Centurion and healed his servant...
this happened in Capernaum...
and now, Jesus is on the way from Capernaum to Nain...
Nain was about 20 some miles from Capernaum...
quite a walk...
but they were used to walking in Jesus’ day...
No Toyotas, Hondas, Fords, or Chevys to take you where you wanted to go!!
Outside of Nain, there is a cemetery...
people who have visited that area say that there is still a cemetery there to this day...
As Jesus is traveling, there is a great throng of people surrounding Him...
Certainly the disciples were there, as well as other believers, and perhaps quite a few who were curious about Jesus and weren’t quite sure what to make of Him...
As Jesus passes the cemetery and makes His approach to Nain...
He comes upon a funeral procession...
He sees the dead person being carried out...
and following the body, there is a woman who is filled with sorrow...
she is already a widow, her husband had already passed away...
and now, her only son was dead...
Certainly very tragic circumstances...
This would be tragic today...
But even more so, in the day and time of Jesus...
Because in those days, women simply did not work for pay...
they worked hard for their homes and families...
but it was difficult for a woman to get gainful employment in those days...
When a woman’s husband died...it was the law of the day that the oldest son would provide for his mother’s care...
But now that this widow’s son had died...
All her means of support were gone...
Not only was she alone, without her husband, grieving the loss of her only son...
But she was also facing financial difficulty...
Many people in her situation were reduced to begging for food and money...
Her future outlook was very bleak...
This problem for widows receiving proper care was a big problem in that day...
And that’s why we often read in Scripture about our duty to provide proper care for widows.
These would have been the lowest of the low in Jesus’ day.
And, when He saw her, Jesus’ Heart Went Out to Her
Jesus was deeply moved by this woman’s suffering and her situation...
In an instant, Jesus saw her situation and keenly felt her pain and loss...
He was filled with compassion...
A common occurrence!!!
Jesus came to this world because of His love and compassion for people...
Often, we think of Jesus and His compassion on a global scale...
“for God so loved the WORLD”...
But here, we see that God doesn’t just love the world in a general sense...
He also is moved by love and compassion on an individual level...
As He was making He away along...
He sees this funeral procession on its way to the cemetery...
and He is deeply moved by compassion by this woman’s situation...
But Jesus was more than just moved...He Tried to Comfort Her
He was moved to the point of action...
He went up to her and said, “don’t cry”...
Now, on the surface, we might think that that sounds pretty lame...
“don’t cry”...
this woman has lost her husband...
and now her only son has died...
and she is facing a monumental struggle just to survive in the weeks and months ahead...
and Jesus says, “don’t cry”...
The problem with Scripture is that we can’t pick up on the emotion of those words...
We can’t know the tone of His voice...
we can’t see the pain and the love in Jesus’ eyes...
we can’t see the tears rolling down His cheeks as He reaches out to this woman...
But this woman could see...
and she would surely sense the love and compassion of Jesus...
Jesus went up and touched the coffin...
this shows us that Jesus wasn’t afraid to get dirty in His ministry to others...
In Jesus day, it would have been highly unusual for a Jewish man to touch a dead body...
There’s been a few times when I have had the occasion to touch a dead body for one reason or another...
And I can assure you that it gives me pause to do so...
but I do it when needed in my ministry to a hurting family...
but we don’t have the stigma associated with touching dead bodies today that they had in Jesus day...
Numbers 19:11-13 says,
“"Whoever touches the dead body of anyone will be unclean for seven days. 12 He must purify himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day; then he will be clean. But if he does not purify himself on the third and seventh days, he will not be clean. 13 Whoever touches the dead body of anyone and fails to purify himself defiles the LORD’s tabernacle. That person must be cut off from Israel. Because the water of cleansing has not been sprinkled on him, he is unclean; his uncleanness remains on him.
So it was no small thing that Jesus did that day...
Interestinly, when Jesus did that, the pallbearers stopped...
Picture the situation...
Jesus is traveling with a large entourage...
His disciples, other followers, curiosity seekers...
and they meet another large entourage going the other way...
coming out of the city...
a large group of mourners...
the crying and wailing...
the grieving mother...
it might have been expected that Jesus’ group would join in the procession and follow them out to the cemetery...
but it would have been unthinkable to stop the procession...
those carrying the body...we don’t have their thoughts recorded...
perhaps they were thinking “the gall of that man to stop us from our appointed task”...
Or, perhaps they had seen Christ’s interaction with the mother...
and they could sense His compassion...
in any event, they stopped...
and well they did...
It would have been so easy to just keep right on going...
but then, if they had, perhaps would not have this beautiful miracle recorded for us in God’s Word!!
The Results?
Jesus speaks to the man and tells him to get up...
and he does...
and he begins to talk...
and then notice that Jesus gave him back to his mother...
Jesus’ primary concern was for this poor woman...
and He raise her son...
and then, instead of saying “come and follow Me”...
He told him to go and care for his dear mother.
And then everyone is filled with awe and wonder...
and they begin to praise God...
perhaps they didn’t fully understand what had happened...
because they proclaimed that Jesus was a great prophet...
when we actually know that Jesus was much more than that...
But then, they actually spoke quite correctly, whether they realized it or not...
because they said, “God has come to help His people”...
and truly God HAD come in the form of Jesus Christ...
and the good news about Jesus spread throughout the countryside...
Certainly a beautiful story in scripture...
one commentator that I studied said that this is the most beautiful miracle in all of Scripture!!
But what does this story say to us today...
here at Belleview Church of the Nazarene in June 2007?
Conclusion/Application
First of all, Jesus cares for you!
Jesus is moved by human suffering...
He is moved with compassion by those who are hurting...
If you are hurting today...realize that Jesus cares for you...
As the songwriter wrote: His heart is touched with my grief;2
In fact, I want you to notice that Luke states that THE LORD saw her!
This is the first time in Luke’s Gospel when Jesus is referred to like this3...
It was THE LORD who saw her...
The Sovereign Power of the Universe...
Saw what was happening to a poor widow lady...
and He cared...
and the Sovereign Lord of all creation cares about YOU and what you are going though!!
The Second thing I want you to notice...You don’t even need to ask for help for Jesus to help!
We don’t see that this woman confronted Jesus and asked for help...
many times, that’s the way it worked in Scripture...
someone had need...
and they cried out for help...
and Jesus responded...
but in THIS situation, it didn’t happen that way...
Jesus saw her need and ministered to her without even being asked.
The 3rd thing I want you to remember: When Jesus comes, stop and let Him work!
So often, we are motivated by protocol...
what is the right thing to do in this situation?...
But if those pallbearers had stuck to protocol...
and they hadn’t stopped...
Perhaps Jesus wouldn’t have performed this incredible miracle...
and if WE don’t stop and let Jesus work in our lives...
perhaps we will miss out on the miracle that Jesus wants to do for us!!
Fourth, When Jesus works in your life, be sure to give Him the glory
When Jesus worked in this widows life, she and all the people were praising God...
When Jesus works in our lives, we need to be sure to do the same!!
And when we do, I trust that people in our community will proclaim, “truly God has come to help his people”!!
Fifth, Jesus was moved by compassion to help the widow of Nain...
Are we moved by compassion?
Because we care about human need and suffering?
Or are we moved by compulsion?
because we feel like we have to or we are supposed to
May we be moved by the things that move the heart of Christ!
Sixth, Are we willing to get dirty in ministering to those who are hurting?
Jesus was willing to touch the body of a dead son...
something considered unclean in His day...
something for which He would have had to go through a ritual cleansing that would take a whole week...
Are we willing to sweat a little?...
Are we willing to touch those who others consider unclean?...
Are we willing to get out of our comfort zone in order to minister to hurting people?
Closing Prayer
1 Beacon Bible Commentary Vol 6. p. 482
2Frank Graeff
3 Preachers Outline and Sermon Bible
