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Luke 4:25-26
25 But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel
in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three
years and six months, when there came a great famine over
all the land;
26 and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to
Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a
widow.
Luke 4:38-39
38 And he arose and left the synagogue, and entered
Simon's house. Now Simon's mother-in-law was ill with a
high fever, and they besought him for her.
39 And he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left
her; and immediately she rose and served them.
In Mark 1:31 it says that Jesus took her by the hand and
helped her up. These were the hands that created the world
and they had power to lift and heal. It was the touch of the
Master's hands that made her well again.
Luke 7:11-17
11 Soon afterward he went to a city called Nain, and his
disciples and a great crowd went with him.
12 As he drew near to the gate of the city, behold, a man
who had died was being carried out, the only son of his
mother, and she was a widow; and a large crowd from the
city was with her.
13 And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her
and said to her, "Do not weep."
14 And he came and touched the bier, and the bearers
stood still. And he said, "Young man, I say to you, arise."
15 And the dead man sat up, and began to speak. And he
gave him to his mother.
16 Fear seized them all; and they glorified God, saying, "A
great prophet has arisen among us!" and "God has visited
his people!"
17 And this report concerning him spread through the
whole of Judea and all the surrounding country.
Luke only records two of the three raising from the dead.
Matthew and Mark tell only of the daughter of Jairus and
John tells only of Lazarus. In each of the two that Luke
records the male and female roles are balanced. Here it is the
mother and son, and with Lazarus there is the balance of his
sisters. Augustine wrote, "Of the numerous persons raised to
life by Christ, three only are mentioned as specimens in the
Gospels." It is of interest that all three of those mentioned
are fairly young people, and were single. In the Old
Testament when Elisha raised the widows son, and then
when Paul raised up Eutychus who fell out the window, we
see again that they are young and single. We do have Dorcus
raised by Peter but most were young. This does make sense
in that there is little reason to raise an old person, for what
caused their death would soon cause it again, whereas a
younger person could conquer the problem and live long.
For all practical purposes there is no wisdom to pray for the
resurrection of an old person. Jesus had greater compassion
on those who lost youth, for to die young is always a tragedy
in the Bible.
NAIN. This is a small city in Southern Galilee. Most who
lived here were poor and of the underprivileged class. Jesus
spent most of His time in Galilee. The Saducees said, out of
Galilee arises no prophet. God would not chose a leader
from such people they thought. But Jesus chose most of His
disciples from Galilee. Jesus chose to go where the need was
greatest.
There was a great crowd in the funeral possession, and so
there were many eye witnesses to this miracle. This is the
first raising of the dead that Jesus did. A procession of death
met the procession of the Lord of life, and life conquered and
turned a funeral into a party of rejoicing. Note the timing:
The burial would have been over had Jesus come a little
later, and it would not have been there yet had He been a
little earlier. We see the providence of God goes hand in
hand with a miracle. It was no miracle that they met at the
right time, but it was essential for the miracle to become a
reality. Sometimes Jesus planned bad timing for a purpose,
as when He came late after Lazarus died.
We see multiple miseries here. Not only did her son die, it
was her only son, and she had no husband, and was now left
all alone. It was a sad situation, and few people could see it
and lack compassion. The Bible knows of no greater loss
than the loss of the first born or of an only child. It leaves
one childless which was a great burden to the Jews.
This was not like other miracles that were asked for. It
grew out of spontaneous compassion for a sorrowing mother.
It was not an answer to prayer. God gives much more than
what is asked for. Everyday we receive blessings that are not
asked for. God's grace goes beyond prayer. He does not act
only when we plead with Him to act. Millions are healed who
never ask for it. Even unbelievers have marvelous blessings
by the grace of God, and they neither ask nor give thanks.
Here is total grace that is freely given just because God is
love. Jesus did not do this to prove anything, and that is
probably why John did not select it as one of the great signs.
Here is a miracle that grows out of the tender humanity of
Christ.
Compassion is sympathy. The Saxon word is
fellow-feeling. He suffered with her in that He felt her
sorrow. The sole motive here is the pure impulse of His
compassion. Jesus had never been cut off from love, but He
could deeply sympathize with the loss of such a value as this
mother had just experienced. She was apparently weeping as
she walked, for He said do not weep, and He could say this
because He was going to do something to stop her tears. He
who will one day wipe away all tears began that ministry
even on earth. Jesus was moved by tears. We see it at the
tomb of Lazarus where He wept, and we see it here. He did
not say to her great is your faith, for He did not ask for any
faith. This was an act of pure grace where nothing was
required of the woman.
To be truly Christlike we must sometimes just act in
compassion, and not ask whether people deserve it or not.
Jesus did not ask if the son died from something stupid he
did, or from some sin and suffering he had brought on
himself. He just saw a need and did something about it.
Sometimes we just need to fight suffering and gain a victory
over it regardless of the circumstances. Compassion is to
motivate us to do what we can to conquer suffering. There
are two other reactions we can have to suffering.
Complacency says there's nothing I can do. Condemnation
says they probable deserve what they are getting. But
compassion says, how can I help.
You may not agree with the ministry of Oral Roberts, but
he says something that is quite relevant here. He writes, "I
know when the gift of healing moves in me and I know when
it doesn't. Here's what happens: I get a feeling of
compassion, as opposed to a feeling of sympathy. When I get
sympathetic I want to kind of stroke the person and say,
"Now, now, it's going to be all right; God bless you." I have
found the moment I get sympathetic I am dead as far as the
ministry of healing is concerned. Compassion, on the other
hand, is an irresistible urge to rid the person of torment. I
mean, you feel it down deep and you can scarcely restrain
yourself. You have to pray, touch, say a word, or do
something. In that moment of compassion people can
misunderstand the look on your face in the same way that
you can misunderstand a great doctor. Most of the great
doctors I've ever dealt with are rather impersonal. There
explanation is: "We've studied to be impersonal because the
moment we have too much closeness, we get into the area of
sympathy, and sympathy destroys the effectiveness of our
relationship with the patient. In a sense,when compassion
comes on you, your face, your eyes canchange so that a
person may wonder if you're angry. You're not mad at the person,
but you're grappling with the enemy as you come against the power
that destroys."
Death here is not seen as God's friend taking the son to be
with him, but rather as an evil force that separates loved
ones. Jesus reversed death, which He would not do if God
had appointed it, and it was for the best. No detailed reading
of the Bible can lead to any other conclusion but that death is
an enemy, and our great joy is that Jesus is superior to it.
Jesus is touched by the sad situations of life, and any
theology that makes God responsible for these sad situations
is contrary to the revelation we have of Christ. The highest
revelation of God is in Christ, and so whatever does not fit
the picture of Christ is not true.
A visitor to the island of Raiotea in the South seas tells of
seeing 600 children gather to worship Jesus. Had the Gospel
not come there these children would have been offered in
sacrifice to pagan gods. An old gray haired chief said, "Oh
that I had known the Gospel was coming. My children
would be here among this happy group. But I destroyed
them." Jesus and His Word have saved many from a foolish
death. Prevention rather than cure is the primary way Jesus
works in history. Jesus makes it clear that suffering and
death are of the kingdom of darkness, and are enemies of the
kingdom of light. God forbid Israel to offer babies in
sacrifice, but many did anyway, and all of these deaths were
contrary to His will.
One of the greatest lacks in the Christian world is the lack
of compassion. The world is filled with unbelievable need,
but there can be no adequate response unless we are moved
by compassion to meet those needs. C. Leslie Miller writes,
"At a Sunday School convention a pastor told me of his
wayward teenage son. "He has broken almost every law of
God and man. He is killing his mother with sorrow and is
breaking my heart. I've tried everything. What can I do?"
Pressed for attention by other people, I abruptly asked,
"Have you ever tried a tender tear?" He went away in anger
at my strange suggestion. A year later we met at another
convention. He greeted me with, "It worked! It worked!
When I got home that night my boy was asleep. As I stood
by his bed my heart was flooded with a new and tender
compassion. I found myself on my knees clasping my boy to
my heart and bathing his face with tender tears. Almost
before I knew what was happening he was on his knees
beside me weeping, and both of us wept our way back to
God. Tom's a new boy. Our home is radiant with
happiness." Paul reminded the Ephesians, "By the space of
three years I ceased not to warn everyone of you night and
day with tears." Acts 20:31.
We see here that Jesus did not worry about the
ceremonial defilement of touching the dead. Others would
have avoided the pollution, but Jesus did not avoid a head on
encounter with death, because He could do something about
it. The body was wrapped in folds of linen, and often with
the face open. We must recognize that we cannot be like
Christ in all ways, for it would be sheer folly for us to stop a
funeral with any hope of making a difference. Jesus told the
young man to get up. A dead person cannot respond, but
Jesus asked him to. What we see here is that when God gives
a command, He gives the power to respond to that command.
It is impossible for the dead to respond on their own, but
God can give such power. He gives the power of all who are
dead in sin to respond to the Gospel, and be resurrected to
new life. Any one who hears the Gospel is given the power to
respond to it, even though they are spiritually dead.
Jesus did not go through incantations and some long
ceremony. He merely spoke the word just as He did when He
said, "Lazarus come forth." His power and authority is
direct, and none can resist. One day He will command all
who are in the graves to arise, and they will at His word. He
had power over death even before His own death, but He had
not conquered it completely until He entered it Himself and
overcame this final foe. George Macdonald spoke of this
mother, "O mother! mother, wast thou more favoured than
other mothers? Or was it that, for the sake of all mothers as
well as thyself, thou wast made the type of the universal
mother with the dead son-the raising of him but a foretaste of
the one universal bliss of mothers with dead sons?"
It is of interest to note that Jesus did not ask him to come
and follow Him as He did to many, for the point of raising
him was to restore him to his widow mother who needed him.
Jesus did this, not for the sake of getting a new disciple, but
for the sake of the mother. One day He will give back all
children that death has taken from mothers. Jesus hates what
death does in robbing us of loved ones, and He will restore all
relationships in heaven. Jesus recognized that the hard part
of death is not the dying, but the separation from loved ones
left behind. The sting of death is for the living, and that is
why he gave her back her son.
Most people die between birth and age 1. If you get past
that your next rough spot is age 77. About 60 million people
die every year, or about 2 every second. Death is a relevant
subject to everyone, and so the one who can save us from it is
relevant to everyone. Jesus is the Relevant Redeemer. The
people were filled with awe, and so would any crowd be
today who were at a funeral and saw the dead rise up and
kiss his mom, and walk home with her.
Lewis Paul Lehman has outlined this story:
I. DIVINE APPOINTMENT-met her at Nain.
II. DIVINE ASSURANCE-weep not.
III. DIVINE ACHIEVEMENT-gave him back to mother.
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