Luke 7 11-17

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Luke 7:11-17

Don’t Cry

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Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowdwent along with him.

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As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carriedout—the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the townwas with her.

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When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, "Don't cry."

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Then he went up and touched the bier they were carrying him on, and the bearersstood still. He said, "Young man, I say to you, get up!"

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The dead man sat up and beganto talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.

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They were all filled with awe and praised God. "A great prophet has appeared amongus," they said. "God has come to help his people."

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This news about Jesus spreadthroughout Judea and the surrounding country.

Brothers and sisters in Christ,People get very uncomfortable when you start to talk aboutmiracles. Talk about morality. Talk about ethics. No problem.That’s comfortable ground. But there’s something different aboutmiracles.We live in a world of science and technology and medicine. Wereason through observation and provable theory. Miracles don’t fitthat mould. They exist outside of that world.And if we can’t explain miracles then we tend to shy away fromthem, to rationalize them, to summarize them, to avoid them.It’s easy just to read through the miracles and pass them by.Another story that tells us Jesus is God – now we can move on.This morning I’d like to slow down – to really look at one of thesemiracles and see that there is so much more for us to learn fromthem. And that what we see in these old stories is something that is beautiful, profound and very relevant for our faith today.This morning we look to the Scripture and we find Jesus as he’swalking around the countryside preaching in the different places hefinds himself. He’s performing miracles and a large crowd isfollowing him around.

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And in our text this morning we find him going into this towncalled Nain – about 25 miles south-west of Capernaum where wefind the story of the Centurion’s faith taking place – and whatwe’re told is that as he was coming into Nain…

I. Jesus arrived at a funeral.

We read from verse 12

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As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carriedout—the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a largecrowd from the town was with her.What we have here are two very large crowds gathering at the gateto Nain. We have the Jesus crowd that has been following him inawe and amazement as they traveled with him through thecountryside observing his ministry.Then on the other side we have this funeral procession that is filledwith grief over the loss of this young man. Probably in his 20saccording to the Greek here.At the front of one crowd was Jesus and his disciples. And at thefront of the other would have been the bearers carrying the body of this young man on a bier – a stretcher made out of wicker – and hismother and other women from the town according to Jewishcustom would have gone in front.And we need to pause here in this story as we find these crowdscoming together to think about this mother – because who she is becomes very important in understanding what is about to happen.Here is a woman who has lost her only son – filled with grief – atthe head of this procession. As we read it we understand this to be

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a sad, tragic story. The story of young life being taken way tooearly – the story of a mother losing her child.Then we find out that she’s a widow. This is not her first loss. Andto us we hear this with a sympathetic ear – we feel sad for her because we think about and remember loss and we know manywho have experienced the same thing in their lives.But we need to know more – because being a widow in any time isnot easy – but in that time it was particularly difficult.At that time a widow faced in a bleak future. There were no jobsfor widows. There was no social safety network. No financial helpfrom the government. Normally, she would live in one of her children's homes, contribute to that household, and receive supportfrom that family.But now she’s lost that. With no husband and no son and nofamily, a widow was left on her own to the charity of thecommunity. She lived on what people decided they would sharewith her. At best she would be an object of sympathy.She was alone. No family. No real friends because widows weretreated as social outcasts within Hebrew culture. No property rights – she would have no claim to land and someone else would comealong to take it. Just look to the book of Ruth to see how thatworks.This large crowd that was following her – this was probably thelast time this community would be with her. At this funeral, at thehead of this procession, was this young man being carried on a bier. But this funeral wasn’t just for him.Because right in front of him was his mother and in a sense, she – this widow – was being buried as well.

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