Luke 7:11-17
Jesus Raises a Widow’s Son
11Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. 12As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out—the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. 13When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.”
Jesus, his disciples, and a large crowd of followers were approaching the town gate, while a funeral procession with another large crowd was coming out. Two large crowds met and witnessed this miracle. The tragedy of this funeral was compounded by the fact that the deceased was the only son of a widow, which meant his mother would have had no means of support, and would probably have had to beg to survive. She was facing a life of abject poverty. Jesus was moved with compassion for her.
14Then he went up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” 15The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.
16They were all filled with awe and praised God. “A great prophet has appeared among us,” they said. “God has come to help his people.” 17This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea[a] and the surrounding country.
In the New King James version, it says the coffin was an open coffin. The Amplified Bible calls it a funeral bier. That means Jesus could look in the young man’s face and speak to him directly. The evidence that this was a miracle of God was that the widow’s son sat up and began to talk, but the mercy of of God is demonstrated when Jesus gave him back to his mother. He was all she had. She had lost everything when her only son died, but Jesus gave him back to her.
I’ve often said that Jesus performed miracles for two reasons; to glorify God, and to help people believe. I came to that conclusion from my study of John’s gospel. That seems to be John’s emphasis. While I believe that is true, Jesus was also definitely moved by compassion to perform miracles. We only have three instances of Jesus raising someone from the dead in the gospels; this one, Jarius’ daughter (Luke 8:41-56) and Lazarus (John 11:1-45). Surely Jesus encountered more funerals and death than that. Death was a constant companion in the ancient world. Mortality rates were high. But as far as we know, Jesus only raised these three. In two of the three cases, Jesus is described as being moved emotionally. But as a result, in each case, God was glorified and people believed. That definitely happened here. Verse 16 says “they were all filled with awe and praised God”. Jesus’ miracles always pointed people to God. That should be true of our ministries as well.
In I Kings 17:17-24 and II Kings 4:32-37 the Bible tells us of how Elijah and Elisha performed miracles where sons of grieving mothers were brought back to life. That must have been on the minds of those who witnessed this miracle of Jesus, and why some said there was a great prophet among them. Miracles like this had not been seen in Israel since the days of Elijah and Elisha. But there is a major difference between what they did and what Jesus did. Elijah was not able to simply raise the dead with a command. He prayed to God to raise up the deceased. Elisha had to lie down on top of the dead body in a way that I would not feel comfortable doing. But Jesus could simply command the dead to rise, and they did. In this way, some in the crowd who saw this miracle misunderstood it. The ones who said that a prophet was in their midst had it wrong. The ones who said that God had come to help his people had it right. Only God can give life.
Remember that when Jesus raised the dead, they weren’t resurrected like Jesus was, they were merely revived. They didn’t have glorified bodies. They lived normal lives and eventually died again. Jesus was the first to be resurrected, but he won’t be the last! One day all who believe will rise from our graves in glorified bodies like his, to live with him forever.