The Widow Of Nain

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...