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On a hillside road just outside the small city of Nain, two crowds collided. If you had been able to watch from afar, you would have seen it coming. A “considerable” crowd was walking down the hill. A “great” crowd was coming up the same hill. It was inevitable that there would be some kind of meeting. Would one crowd step aside off the road for the other to pass by? Would both crowds push and shove mingling together until they got sorted out on the other side?
The crowd coming up was traveling from Capernaum, 700 feet below sea level and about twenty or twenty-five miles northeast of Nain. Nain is 700 feet above sea level in the south side foothills of Mount Morah. It had been a long day’s walk. Uphill. Perhaps this crowd had stopped the night before in Nazareth only six miles away. The teacher of this crowd, Jesus, was from Nazareth and knew many people there.
His disciples would have had a lot to talk about on this trek. They had been following Jesus for two years and had seen and heard many unexpected things. If they weren’t talking about the sermon he had just preached, then they were surely talking about their meeting with a Roman Centurion. Not only had Jesus talked about forgiving and loving your enemies, Jesus had healed the servant of this Roman - the hated enemies of the Jews! He had even marveled at this pagan’s “great faith.”
Then, just like that, they had left the crowds of Capernaum and started heading south. They were getting used to Jesus seemingly changing course. He had gone through Samaria seemingly just to meet the woman at the well. There must be some significant meeting up ahead. As usual as they traveled, people joined them. By the time the gate of Nain was insight at the top of the hill, they had grown to the size of a great crowd.
The crowd coming down the hill, outside of the city gate, was moving slowly, solemnly. In the front of a crowd of mourners is a woman dressed in black. She is quietly weeping. She had no energy left for loud wails. She had no energy left for much. Today she was burying her only son. Behind her, four men were carrying on a stretcher the body of her son draped in burial cloth. They were headed to the graveyard outside the city. It is a travesty whenever a mother buries a son. The pain and sorrow was multiplied here. She had already buried her husband in this same graveyard. With the death of her only son, she was totally alone. She had No protection. No provision. Surrounded by a “considerable“ crowd, she was very alone.
On that road death was stumbling downhill while the author of life was moving upward. “Behold!” Look and wonder - what a meeting this will be!
The woman may not have seen the crowd coming towards her. Her face was veiled. Her teary eyes were blurred. Unlike the Roman Centurion who had sought out Jesus asking for help, she wasn’t looking for Jesus. Perhaps she had not even heard of him. With all the goings on since the day her son died, she probably didn’t even know Jesus was in the area. When the two crowds met, it was Jesus that moved first. With his movement, both crowds abruptly stopped moving.
Jesus saw her. He saw her grief. He saw her loneliness. And he was moved with compassion. He had both the feelings of pity and sympathy with another and the desire to set things right. Jesus understood her pain. Most bible students believe that Joseph, Jesus’ father, had died before his ministry began. Jesus knew what it felt like to lose a parent. Jesus had seen his mother’s grief at losing a spouse. He knew one day he would die and his mother would know the grief this woman was experiencing. (Luke 2:35).
Jesus spoke to the mother, saying, “Do not weep.” This was not a denial - “You’re over exaggerating the moment.” This was not an encouragement to stoic strength - “Resign yourself to this death and move on.” Jesus was telling her there was hope. All would be well. He assured her there would be a reason not to weep. He awoke expectation.
Sorrow looks back. And there is a place for this. Jesus would have us also look forward.
Everything quieted down. The widow stopped weeping. The lamenters became silent. What would Jesus do in this moment?
Jesus walked past the woman to intentionally touch the bier. The woman had to turn around to watch and wonder. The bearers were standing still - of course they were! Jesus had a commanding presence. With this touch, Jesus stopped the downward movement of death. What a collison! What force!
With a word: “Arise!” He spoke directly to the son. He commanded life. The son that had been dead, whose body had been prepared for burial, sat up and spoke. Wouldn’t you like to know what he said? “What happened?” “What’s going on?” or maybe he looked at Jesus and said, “Thank you.”
Jesus helped him off the stretcher and turned to give the young man to his mother. With an arm around each of them, he joined in their joy. More tears. Laughing tears. Lots of touching! “Can it be true?” “Is it really you?”
One of the disciples when he saw Jesus “give the young man to his mother” thought of another time something similar had happened. That phrase, in those exact words, were repeated in two stories both from 800 years ago, one of the Prophet Elijah and another of the Prophet Elisha. There were a lot of similarities: Two sons were raised to life. In Elijah’s story (1 Kings 17:17-24), the mother of the dead son was also a widow. The story where Elisha raised a son to life (2 Kings 4:18-22, 32-37), had taken place in a town, Shunem, that was no longer in existence but was probably only three to four miles from the current city of Nain. Surely everyone in this city was familiar with this history.
But there were significant differences. Both of those mothers eagerly sought the help of the prophets, begging them to save their sons. This widow here in front of them never asked Jesus for anything. Her grief blinded her to the reality of life in front of her.
Both of the prophets cried to the Lord to raise the dead sons. Multiple times. Laying themselves prostrate on the sons. Jesus only had to say a word of command to the dead son and he came back to life.
Jesus had not repeated the miracles of Elijah and Elisha. He had done something greater.
The crowd, both crowds, probably didn’t understand all of this. But they knew what they had seen. No wonder there was a great emotional response from the crowd. Fear and awe was evident on their faces and in their words. “This is the work of God!” “A prophet like Elijah is here.”
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There are so many wonderful lessons in this short story. This moment in history might have only taken 20 minutes. But in the recording of these moments we are reminded of several things.
There are coincidental meetings in the life of a Christian
Did God know this young man had died? YES. “From life’s first cry to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny.” Did God plan for Jesus to be walking uphill in Nain at this very moment? YES. “All the steps of a man are established by the Lord.” Did God plan for Jesus to run into the funeral? YES. We know scripture that God’s timing is always spot on. This event took place at the exact moment God had planned before eternity began.
In your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there were none of them.
Psal, 139:16
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Eph. 2:10
On a side note:
When Jesus, the son of God - an equal person in the trinity/fully God - took on flesh and blood he also took on the limits of humanity. We are told that Jesus emptied himself. He poured all of who he was as God and took on the form of man. He did not just put flesh around his divinity. He took on all that it meant to be human. A human body, mind, will, emotions, desires, instincts and needs. He was “born in the likeness of man.” He had to live as a man so that as a sinless man he could take our punishment. (See: The Man Christ Jesus, by Bruce Ware.)
Obviously Jesus could no longer be omnipresent. In the same way, he was no longer omniscient. Jesus was dependent on His Father to arrange the details of his life, where he went, and who he met. Jesus as a perfect man spent many hours in prayer talking to his Father and would have had the Holy Spirit directing him.
So when Jesus meets the funeral procession, he is meeting it as a man following the path God has put in front of him. As a student of the word of God, he knew there are no coincidental meetings in the life of any man.
Jesus triumphs over sin by taking the curse of death onto himself.
When Jesus touched the funeral brier, he took the curse of death upon himself.
Whoever touches the dead body of any person shall be unclean seven days.
Numbers 19:11
Amazingly, Jesus does not become “contaminated” with death. He conquered death as he called the young man back from the dead. With a word, Jesus triumphs over the march of death.
Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?
1 Cor. 15:55
“This is the Jesus paradox—the touch from Jesus that launches a contagion of grace for those who believe, repent, turn, and follow, a contagion of grace that allows the believer to love those who hate in return and to pray, serve, and sacrifice . . .
Jesus can set into motion a contagion of grace with his touch because the Son of God has fulfilled the law of God and has mercy on his people, knowing that we are sinners, mere men and women, unable to save ourselves. . . .
The Jesus paradox manifests contagious grace as practiced by ordinary people like me and you, desperately needed, especially now, in our post-Christian world.”
https://www.crossway.org/articles/the-contagion-of-grace/
The greatest act of compassion was when we were dead in our transgressions and God made us alive. Like the widowed woman, we did not ask for this mercy. We did nothing to deserve this mercy. But God was rich in mercy.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.
Eph. 2:4,5
There will be another time coming when the command of Jesus will raise the dead.
For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
1 Thes 4:16
Jesus is compassionate with the grieving because he identifies with their sorrow.
Hear the words of this hymn:
Does Jesus care when my heart is pained
Too deeply for mirth or song,
As the burdens press, And the cares distress,
And the way grows weary and long?
O yes, He cares, I know He cares,
His heart is touched with my grief;
When the days are weary,
The long night dreary,
I know my Savior cares.
Does Jesus care when my way is dark
With a nameless dread and fear?
As the daylight fades Into deep night shades,
Does He care enough to be near?
Does Jesus care when I’ve tried and failed
To resist some temptation strong;
When for my deep grief There is no relief,
Though my tears flow all the night long?
Does Jesus care when I’ve said “goodbye”
To the dearest on earth to me,
And my sad heart aches Till it nearly breaks,
Is it aught to Him? Does He see?
Yes, Jesus cares. Jesus is compassionate with the grieving because he identifies with their sorrow
Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
Isaiah 53:4
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Hebrews 4:15
There is no grief that Jesus does not sympathize with because he lived as a human and understands. One day he will wipe away every tear - until that Day I pray that we would know the mercy and love of Christ!
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,
that according to the riches of his glory
he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:14-21