Jesus and the Widow of Nain

I. Introduction
A. This morning I begin to preach four rotating series, oriented to different stages of life.
B. The first series is oriented to kids: Different kinds of people and how Jesus met them
C. Recently we were all grieved by the tragic shootings in a Connecticut elementary school, and by all the sad funerals in the aftermath, heart-broken parents saying good-bye to their little ones.
D. This reminded me of a story of Jesus in Luke 7 where He came upon a very sad funeral procession for a young man.
II. Explanation of Luke 7:11-17
A. Nain “Soon afterward he went to a town called Nain.”
1. Why did Jesus go to Nain? He had been in Capernaum. And after this He returned again to Capernaum.
2. We are told nothing else He did there. It’s as if He went to Nain just to raise this boy from the dead.
B. Big crowd
1. “A great crowd went with” Jesus (to Nain).
2. Walled cities and clogged gates
3. Another great crowd: confrontation at the gate
4. Jesus and His crowd backed off to allow the funeral procession to get through the gate.
C. What did Jesus notice?
1. His eyes landed on the mother, not the dead body or the crowd.
2. And what did He notice about this widow? He noticed her broken heart.
D. The widow
1. Some folks have big families, some have small. Jesus’ family had at least ten in it (Mat.13:55-56).
2. This family was a family of just 3, like the Raleys: dad, mom, son. They wished they had a big family but God didn’t give them one.
3. Then dad died. That must have been a very sad day for this woman and her son.
4. There was a funeral procession on that day as well, and the man’s body was taken out of the city and buried in the cemetery outside of town. The remains of that cemetery are still visible there 2000 years later.
5. She cried then too. But Jesus didn’t show up, though He lived in Nazareth, just a few miles down the road.
6. This poor woman had lost the love of her life and all she had left was her son.
7. Now there were just two: mom and son. All they had was each other.
E. And then her son died. We don’t know how: accident? disease?
1. Every parent knows that eventually his/her child will die. But all parents hope they won’t have to be there to see it, that it’ll happen after they are gone. To have to bury your own child is one of the nightmares of every parent.
2. Now of course every mother is going to weep if her child dies. But this woman’s tears were not only tears of loss, but tears of aloneness. A heart not only doubly broken, but left with nothing and with no one.
a. Our miscarriage: hugging our kids. This woman had no other children to hug, and no husband to bury her grieving face into, no strong hand to cling to as she endured this painful loss.
3. This woman had lost her loved one — twice!
F. But Jesus interrupts her grief. No one is ever supposed to interrupt a funeral procession!
1. But Jesus walks up and puts His hand on the board on which the dead man’s body was being carried.
2. Then He says to the woman: “Do not weep!”
G. Why did Jesus do this?
1. The story tells us: 13 And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” 14 Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still.
2. He had compassion on her.
3. You know the New Testament was written in a different language than ours: in Greek, and our Bibles have been translated from Greek into English.
4. You know what the Greek word is here? It is the word for our inward parts: SPLAGXNA.
5. And to express the idea of compassion that word was turned into a verb.
6. In other words, when it says in English that Jesus had compassion on this woman, it actually says in the Greek that His inner parts were turned because of her. He felt for her.
7. This is why Jesus stopped the procession. This is why He told the woman not to cry. This is why He spoke to the dead young man and told him to get up.
H. And when the young man sat up and began to speak, Jesus gave him to his mother.
1. Here’s something to make you feel better.
2. Here’s someone to help you.
III. Application
A. The miracles of Jesus all point ahead to what He’s ultimately going to do on the last day.
1. Each one gives us a little glimpse of what heaven will be like.
2. No tears, no loss, loved ones restored, the dead raised to life
3. In heaven, all will be raised. All will be restored. There will be no more tears.
B. But there is also something here to help us in the meantime.
1. Jesus is a sympathetic Savior. He has compassion on us. Jesus knows our pain and comes to us in it to help us.
C. Not always, of course.
1. I am not saying that Jesus is sympathetic when we want to stop at Effies on the way home from church and our parents say no, or when we want to keep playing video games when dad and mom say it’s time to go to bed.
2. Sometimes we’re broken-hearted when we shouldn’t be.
D. But when something really sad happens, Jesus is a sympathetic Savior.
1. He doesn’t always raise loved ones from the dead, but He’s always compassionate.
2. Sometimes God doesn’t give us what we ask for. And so we stop asking.
3. Jesus didn’t heal this woman’s husband, but in this story we see it wasn’t because He didn’t care.
4. Compassion: the most frequent emotion of Jesus: joy, anger,
5. He didn’t raise this boy from the dead merely to comfort the mother. He also did it for us. He wanted to show us what a compassionate Savior He was — and powerful!
E. This compassionate Jesus is still alive, and still has compassion for you and me.
1. When we’re in pain, He feels for us, though He doesn’t always take the pain away immediately.
2. When our Michelle was 1 ½, we had to rush her to Children’s Hospital because her blood levels were so low. Then we had to give her over to the doctors to have blood transfusions. She didn’t want us to leave her but we had to. She looked at us crying as if we were forsaking her in her moment of need, letting these scary strangers take her away. But we had to — because we loved her too much. Without those four blood transfusions, she could have died. Now, of course, she understands, and she would do the same thing for her children. But what at the time looked like we were being cruel and cold-hearted was done out of so much love and compassion that thirty years later, I still get teary thinking about letting her go.
3. In the same way, when God allows us to suffer, it isn’t because He doesn’t care. It’s because He cares more about us than we care about ourselves.