“When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, ‘Do not weep.’ Then He came and touched the open coffin…And He said, ‘Young man, I say to you, arise.’ So he who was dead sat up and began to speak.” Luke 7:13-14
I am always amazed at the way God opens our minds to a new message with a familiar story from His Word. I have read this story many times where Jesus approached the city of Nain and saw in the distance a woman leading a group of men carrying her son’s burial coffin. But this morning I noticed something different than before. As Jesus neared, He must have seen the anguish on the mother’s face as she was going to bury her only son. The closer He got to her I’m sure that He could hear the despair in her weeping. Scripture describes that Jesus’s heart went out to her and the compassion he felt for her was so strong He reached out to comfort the stranger. What a tender exchange between the comforter and the comforted. But this morning I realized another reason that Jesus’s heart could have been filled with such sorrow for her. I believe that part of His compassion was connected to the realization of His own destiny. Jesus was well aware that as God’s only Son, He too would die and leave behind a grieving family. He understood the purpose that laid before Him and seeing that heartbroken mother was probably a foreshadowing of what He knew His own sweet mother would face one day. I can’t help but to wonder if on some level Jesus comforted this only son’s mother because He wouldn’t be there to comfort His own, and He realized it. What if Jesus raising that only son from the dead was a foreshadowing of God raising Him from the dead? It’s almost like He had to remind Himself that the grave won’t be victorious…that death will not win…that God will call every one of us to ‘arise.’
I don’t know about you today, but I am so grateful that God sent His only Son to do the work for us that we could never do. I’m so grateful that Jesus, in His great compassion for us, understands the pain of grief within us. I’m comforted by the fact that just because my loved ones have closed their eyes to this world doesn’t mean they aren’t alive. God called them to arise just like Jesus called this boy to arise! They have left their earthly tent and have been given a spiritual body and an eternal destiny. Whatever we are facing, we have a Savior who can relate to our suffering and has the ability to comfort our aching souls. And one day just like the grieving mother, we will be reunited with ‘he or she who was dead’ and will join them in eternity.
I am always amazed at the way God opens our minds to a new message with a familiar story from His Word. I have read this story many times where Jesus approached the city of Nain and saw in the distance a woman leading a group of men carrying her son’s burial coffin. But this morning I noticed something different than before. As Jesus neared, He must have seen the anguish on the mother’s face as she was going to bury her only son. The closer He got to her I’m sure that He could hear the despair in her weeping. Scripture describes that Jesus’s heart went out to her and the compassion he felt for her was so strong He reached out to comfort the stranger. What a tender exchange between the comforter and the comforted. But this morning I realized another reason that Jesus’s heart could have been filled with such sorrow for her. I believe that part of His compassion was connected to the realization of His own destiny. Jesus was well aware that as God’s only Son, He too would die and leave behind a grieving family. He understood the purpose that laid before Him and seeing that heartbroken mother was probably a foreshadowing of what He knew His own sweet mother would face one day. I can’t help but to wonder if on some level Jesus comforted this only son’s mother because He wouldn’t be there to comfort His own, and He realized it. What if Jesus raising that only son from the dead was a foreshadowing of God raising Him from the dead? It’s almost like He had to remind Himself that the grave won’t be victorious…that death will not win…that God will call every one of us to ‘arise.’
I don’t know about you today, but I am so grateful that God sent His only Son to do the work for us that we could never do. I’m so grateful that Jesus, in His great compassion for us, understands the pain of grief within us. I’m comforted by the fact that just because my loved ones have closed their eyes to this world doesn’t mean they aren’t alive. God called them to arise just like Jesus called this boy to arise! They have left their earthly tent and have been given a spiritual body and an eternal destiny. Whatever we are facing, we have a Savior who can relate to our suffering and has the ability to comfort our aching souls. And one day just like the grieving mother, we will be reunited with ‘he or she who was dead’ and will join them in eternity.
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