They Knew God Was There Because of His Compassion
Soon afterward Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went with him.
As he approached the town gate, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother (who was a widow ), and a large crowd from the town was with her. When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, “Do not weep.” Then he came up and touched the bier, and those who carried it stood still.
He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” So the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.
Fear seized them all, and they began to glorify God, saying, “A great prophet has appeared among us!” and “God has come to help his people!”
This report about Jesus circulated throughout Judea and all the surrounding country.’
When Jesus brought this young man back to life, He didn’t just save the kid, but He saved the woman too.
In the time of Jesus’ life, there wasn’t a public welfare system or Social Security set up to take care of people that were poor. There were laws from Moses that helped instruct people to care for the oppressed by setting up systems to look out for them, but people didn’t always follow those systems.
A widow would have no voice in a court, no income to bring home, and no one to look after her property. She would be the legal and cultural equivalent of a child, except with property and money.
I think the people around knew this was a factor. Look at how they react and what they say:
Fear seized them all, and they began to glorify God, saying, “A great prophet has appeared among us!” and “God has come to help his people!”
In bringing one young man or child back to life, they see this as a complete revolution of God helping His people. The onlookers knew that this wasn’t just a simple medical or healer event. This was significant to all of them as a nation.
Keep rewinding and look at what motivated Jesus to do this. Surely there were people all over Judea dying every day. Jesus walked by tombs at least twice in the scriptures and didn’t call every one out (yet!) but this funeral caught His eye.
When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her. He knew that this was some kind of special case. He knew that this young man was her last hope to not be a beggar and die starved and forgotten. Who knows? There is, of course, more to the story that we’ll never know.
But it was compassion that was big enough to raise this kid from the dead. It was compassion that was big enough to move the town to see that this was about more than the widow and her son.
We can call on Christ’s compassion today. He might not raise somebody from the dead (or He might!) but we can have confidence that He’ll have compassion on us, no matter how.
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