THE RESURRECTIONS BEFORE THE RESURRECTION (part three)
Luke 7:11-17
Two weeks ago we looked at the story of Elijah raising the widow's son to life. Last week we looked at Elijah's successor, Elisha and the account of him raising the Shunammite woman's son to life. Now we fast forward to Jesus as we look at the first occasion of him raising someone from the dead which, interestingly, involves another widow and her son.
1) A town called Nain (vs. 11-12).
"Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out—the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her.
"A town called Nain." Nain means pleasant or delightful. Well, the town may have been but there wasn't anything pleasant or delightful about this widow's day. At least not yet. Nain was a small village in Galilee about 12 miles from Capernaum. This is the only mention of it in scripture and quite possibly this is the only time Jesus may have visited there.
But this shows that Jesus cared about the people in the small town as well as those in the main city of Jerusalem. So much so that he performs his first resurrection in this small, seemingly insignificant town. I see it coinciding with other events in Jesus' life. His birth announcement was given to a bunch of 'insignificant' shepherds in a field and not the religious leaders. His birth was in the small town of Bethlehem, not in Jerusalem. He was born into an 'insignificant' family not a rich and powerful family.
It's not that Jesus didn't minister to the upper echelon of society, but he showed, rather convincingly, that he loved all people and saw no one as insignificant. What about us? Do we tend to focus only on certain people? Are we willing to give our time and attention to those we might deem as less significant? Let's follow the example of Jesus who purposely focused on the ones others may have seen as insignificant. We need to be willing to minister to anyone, regardless of their race, status, or income.
Do you ever feel insignificant? Has Satan ever tried to convince you that you're a nobody and that God's got better things to do than to waste his time with you? When we read the stories where Jesus ministered to the poor, the lame, the outcasts and the seemingly unimportant ones we can become convinced that the words from the enemy aren't true. God's all about the little guy.
So Jesus and a crowd come into the small town of Nain just as a funeral procession is going on. We have two crowds of people on two different sides of the emotional spectrum. The crowd with Jesus was all excited because they had just witnessed Jesus heal the Centurion's servant but the other crowd was in mourning as they grieve with this poor woman who had just lost her only son. As the two crowds converge something strange happens.
2) Compassion in action (vs. 13-14).
"When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.” Then he went up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!”
It would've been normal in this day and age when someone came along a funeral procession to join the mourners out of respect. But here we see Jesus bringing the procession to a complete stop. This would've come across as odd in the least and downright rude to some. But now all eyes were focused on Jesus; watching to see what this man was up to.
Jesus could've kept it moving. I'm sure he had seen a funeral procession before. He could've simply thought to himself, "gee, that's too bad" and watched as the procession went by him. But he didn't. Jesus knew the seriousness of the situation-she had no husband and now she had no son. Therefore the pain of her loss was coupled with her concern about her future. Plus, it shouldn't be this way. Children are supposed to outlive their parents.
“Joseph Bayly knew what the loss of a child was like. In fact, he and his wife Mary Lou lost three sons–one at eighteen days, after surgery; another at five years, from leukemia: the third at eighteen years, after a sledding accident. He said, "Of all the deaths, that of a child is most unnatural and hardest to bear. We expect the old to die. The separation is always difficult, but it typically comes as no surprise. But what of the young? Life lies ahead, with its beauty, its wonder, its potential.
Death is a cruel thief when it strikes down the young. If there's a period of suffering that precedes death it's especially hard for parents to bear. Children were made for fun and laughter, not pain and suffering. In a way that is different from any other relationship, a child is bone of his parent’s bone, flesh of their flesh. When a child dies, part of the parent is buried too. I met a man who was in his seventies. During our first ten minutes together, he brought the faded photograph of a child out of his wallet–his child, who had died almost fifty years before.”
"His heart went out to her". Jesus had compassion for this poor lady. Actually, there was no stronger word used in the Greek to convey the level of compassion Jesus had. Her grief moved him deeply. Perhaps he could picture his own dear mother being in this position and that image made it more touching for him.
When we see someone going through something we will be more moved when we make an attachment to someone we know. We see on the news where an elderly woman is attacked and we think, "What if that happened to my mother/Grandmother?" "How would I feel if I was a family member having to deal with this?" We are called to mourn with those who mourn. That's easier to do when we put ourselves in their shoes. When we personalize it we can more easily empathize.
And we see that Jesus' empathy moved him to act. First, with words of consolation. "Don't cry". Which, really may have been construed as cruel without the act that followed it. If Jesus had simply said, "Don't cry" and stopped there the mother probably would've said, "Don't cry? What do you mean don't cry? Sure, easy for you to say; it's not your child." But we see that Jesus gave her more than just consoling words; he gave her a reason to stop her flow of tears.
We need to keep this in mind. When someone is dealing with a tragedy or some sort of difficulty and we say something like, "Hey, cheer up", we're not being very considerate. However, if we say, "I'm sorry; what can I do to help", then we're putting our compassion into action. As we look at Jesus' heart toward this woman we can know that he has the same heart toward us.
Psalm 34:18, "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit."
Jesus is moved by our pain and our grief moves him to be close to us. When we cry he's there to wipe our tears. When our spirits feel crushed he's there to save us. When we're troubled; when we're in anguish Jesus is compassionate toward us. He's not detached; he's sympathetic and he's active in comforting us and strengthening us to work through the hurt and heal from the loss.
What a friend we have in Jesus! What a relief it is to know we have a Savior who seeks to console us in our time of need. It's encouraging to know that Jesus truly knows how we feel and can minister to us in exactly the right way to meet all of our emotional needs. We need to be like Jesus. We need to put our compassion into action.
"It was a bitterly cold evening in Northern Virginia many years ago. The old man's beard was glazed by winter's frost as he waited for a ride across the river. He heard a brigade of men on horses coming around the bend. He let the first one pass him without any effort to get his attention. Then another passed by, and another. Finally, the last rider neared and the old man caught the rider's eye and said, "Sir, would you mind giving an old man a ride to the other side?" The rider said, "Sure, thing. Hop aboard." Seeing the old man unable to lift his half frozen body onto the horse, the horseman dismounted and helped the old man onto the horse.
The horseman not only took the old man across the river but to his destination which was just a few miles away. As they neared the man's home the horseman was curious and he asked, "Sir, I noticed that you let several other riders pass by without making any effort to get a ride. Then I came up and you immediately asked me for a ride. I'm curious why on such a bitterly cold night that you would wait and ask the last rider. What if I had refused and left you there?"
The old man replied, "I've been around these parts for some time. I reckon I know people pretty good. I looked into the eyes of the other riders and immediately saw there was no concern for my situation. It would have been useless even to ask them for a ride. But when I looked into your eyes, kindness and compassion were there. I knew that your gentle spirit would welcome the opportunity to help me in my time of need."
Those heart-warming comments touched the horseman. "I'm most grateful for what you have said," he told the old man. "May I never get too busy in my own affairs that I fail to respond to the needs of others with kindness and compassion." With that, Thomas Jefferson turned his horse around and made his way back to the White House."
I'm sure when this grieving widow looked into the eyes of Jesus as he said, "Don't cry", she saw the eyes of compassion.
3) He's alive!" (vs. 15-17).
"The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother. They were all filled with awe and praised God. “A great prophet has appeared among us,” they said. “God has come to help his people.” This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding country."
"The dead man sat up and began to talk." So we see that the first evidence that Jesus' command provided results was that the young man sat up. But the proof didn't end there. To provide further verification that this wasn't just some post-mortem nervous system reaction the man spoke. These two reactions would leave absolutely no room for doubt.
But can you imagine the initial reactions? I'm sure that caused a few jaws to hit the dirt. I'm surprised the pall bearers didn't drop him! What about the mother? Her son was talking but I'm sure she was speechless!
"They were all filled with awe and praised God. A great prophet has appeared among us. God has come to help his people." The KJV has the word fear instead of awe. They were filled with a great and wondrous reverent respect for Jesus. They had never seen anything like this. They may have known about what God did through Elijah and Elisha and therefore concluded that Jesus was in the company of the prophets.
So they praised God for having this great prophet in their presence. However, this man, this teacher, this prophet was like no other. As God worked through Elijah to raise a widow's son so now he does so with Jesus.
However, what puts Jesus a cut above was that he spoke life into this young man where Elijah and Elisha needed to place themselves on the ones they brought back to life. And we saw last week that Elisha prayed before being able to raise the Shunammite's son to life. But Jesus doesn't pray; he commands. His command showed that he had the power to reverse death.
And perhaps the people of Nain recognized that in saying 'God has come to help his people'. This implies that they recognized Jesus not simply as a great prophet but as Emmanuel, God with us. As John the Baptist's father, Zechariah had prophesied earlier in Luke 1:68, "Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people."
Right after Jesus raised the widow's son to life it says that John the Baptist's disciples went and told John the Baptist, who was in prison because of King Herod. John sent two of his disciples to Jesus asking him to verify that he was indeed the one who was the fulfillment of the Messianic prophecies.
Luke 7:22, "So he replied to the messengers, 'go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised and the good news is preached to the poor." Jesus is verifying that the things he's doing is fulfillment of the messianic prophecies found in the book of Isaiah. He wanted John (and everyone else) to be convinced that the one who was to come is now here.
Part of the reason Jesus performed this resurrection was to show the world that he held the power over death. And when it came time for his own resurrection he showed that he had the power over spiritual death as well as physical death. All for the purpose of us trusting in him that we would conquer death through him and live forever with him.
The resurrection that Jesus does here is a precursor to the spiritual resurrection he performs in us when we trust in him. We were redeemed; we were given new life as a new creation. We were dead in our sins but Jesus spoke life into us and we sat up and started talking.
"This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding country." While Elijah's and Elisha's actions were in private (although word got around) Jesus' act of resurrecting came with a score of witnesses. I think part of the reason for this was to provide legitimacy to Jesus' authenticity as the Messiah and Son of God.
Unfortunately not everyone got it. I'm sure word of this reached the ears of the religious leaders. And with their knowledge of the works of Elijah and Elisha they should've made the connection and been convinced to at least put Jesus in the same company. This, along with the miracles Jesus was citing to John's disciples should've proven Jesus' legitimacy to them.
But sadly, some people will not be convinced; no matter how much proof is in front of them. But that shouldn't stop us from being willing to tell them. I'm sure this young man was pretty excited to go around and tell his resurrection story. What about us? Are we eager to tell people about our resurrection? Are we telling Jesus' resurrection story? Are we making sure others know that he's alive?
