Hello my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends on this Friday,
Have you ever reached a point in your life when you doubted God and His love, or even His power? Or did your dire situation lead you to conclude God had perhaps forgotten about you? YOU had become lost in the crowd? Today, let’s walk with Jesus and His disciples right into such a situation. Once again this is a unique story, found only in ONE of the four Gospel accounts. This time it’s Luke 7:11-17, will you join me there?
As we’ve seen recently, the weeks immediately following Jesus’ selection of His 12 disciples were filled with one remarkable experience after another and yet each of them distinctive one from the other. The common theme to all of them, including the one we’ll see today, was Jesus proving He is God incarnate through the miracles only God could do! (John 14:11)
Luke tells us Jesus led His disciples toward the town of Nain, west of the Sea of Galilee, only a few miles from Nazareth. Luke tells us “…as they approached the town gate a dead person was being carried out – the only son of a widow. And a large crowd was with her.” (Luke 7:12)
You’ve probably seen enough video reports from the Middle East region in recent years that it should not be difficult to imagine a crowd of people surrounding a few men who have a shroud covered stretcher lifted high up on their shoulders. The people are wailing as they walk toward the cemetery and a black dressed woman is being nearly carried in her grief by her friends. Did you notice in a few words Luke described the desperation of this scene? The dead man was “the only son of a widow”.
Have you learned, my friends, when reading the Bible, to watch closely for such little notations that have great significance? Remember in that culture, at that time, there were no social services, no government programs to assist such a widow. Without a husband and a son, she would likely be destitute. Helpless, hopeless, beyond despair. No good reason to keep living!
Let’s stand alongside Jesus and His disciples as they watch the grieving crowd coming out of Nain, heading to the town cemetery. What do you imagine Jesus was thinking? I wonder if John or Peter might have asked Jesus if there was anything He could do to help? After all, in the preceding weeks they’d seen a leper cleansed, a cripple healed, a demon possessed man delivered, a storm calmed and even water turned to wine!
Pause and reflect for a moment. When you and I watch someone else face catastrophic situations, a desperate crisis, what empathy emotions do we feel? What questions do we have for God? When it’s you or me in the desperate situation, how long before we turn to Jesus; recounting in our minds what we know of previous miracles Jesus has done…for others or for us, and begging Jesus for the help only HE can give us?
That grieving widow and the crowd had no reason for even a glimmer of hope that anything would change on their journey to the cemetery. But Jesus, the Creator of the Universe, was standing alongside that cemetery path and that fact, HIS presence, turned despair into a hope opportunity! Remember that the next time you’re in a crisis… Jesus is standing there with you watching it all happen!!
There is no evidence anyone in the crowd recognized Jesus nor did His disciples urge Him to do something. But Luke tells us Jesus could not resist this opportunity. Jesus couldn’t ignore this despair, and so Jesus did what only Jesus could do. Jesus walked right into the wailing scene, approached the widow and spoke comfort to her. Then Jesus went to the dead man’s stretcher and spoke directly to the dead corpse: “Young man, I say to you Get Up!” (Luke 7:14) Did Jesus shout it, for all to hear, or just loud enough so the grieving mother and close friends carrying the body could hear Him?
Dr. Luke tells us, “The dead man sat up and began to talk…”! I doubt any of us can imagine the shock or the confusion that swept through the crowd, that day. No one had ever seen anything like this before! Have you ever seen a resurrection? Do you know people who survived a terminal illness or what should have been a life ending tragedy and are now living a second chance at life? I do! While the previous miracles Jesus had done in recent weeks were amazing, nothing compares to death reversed and a corpse restored to life!
We have no idea what the rest of this young man’s life was like nor how he cared for his widow mother or how this miracle changed her life, but we can imagine, can’t we? We do know Nain was a fairly small town and I presume it was a very long time before people stopped talking about this miracle!
For the disciples, who had now seen a rash of miracles over a span of only a few weeks, what do you think was happening in their minds and hearts as they tried to rationalize WHO this normal looking man Jesus really was and HOW there seemed to be no miracle beyond His capability?
Here’s an important question for you and me: how should this event affect us 2000 years later? Here’s how it affects me:
1. When I’m sitting in an urgent care waiting room filled with people, maybe one of whom is someone I know and love; I can be confident Jesus knows EVERY situation better than the medical staff, and Jesus cares! That’s what moved Jesus to approach the widow and take action!
2. When I’m sitting in a funeral home with a grieving family, or when I’m the one grieving, I am confident Jesus understands every emotion, every grieving relationship. Jesus knows far more about the situation than I ever will, and Jesus cares, and He can comfort the grieving!
3. When the emergency phone call comes and an unknown voice says “there’s been a terrible accident…” I can be confident Jesus is there on the scene, and Jesus is with me, and Jesus understands more about the situation than anyone ever will! And Jesus can do ANYTHING!
You see my friends, the reason the Holy Spirit moved Dr. Luke to include this story in his account of Jesus’ life, is because God wants us, 2000 years later, to see ourselves in the story and find HOPE as those people did! That’s why I urge you to take a few moments to consider the “Lessons Learned” link below and let the Holy Spirit speak to you and your situation. Then worship with the song I’ve found for today and I’ll be here waiting for you tomorrow…
Today’s Scripture: Luke 7:11-17.
Choose below to read or listen.
 |  |
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
Archived back issues of “Walking with Jesus” and other resources are available by clicking here to open our ‘home page’ (or go to HOME at upper right of this page).
Share with friends. Subscribe below for daily “Walking with Jesus”.