Life Comes to Nain (Luke 7:11-17)

No one knows very much about Nain. It was a small town and the only reason why we know about it is because Jesus went there on one occasion. The name of the town means ‘beauty’, which suggests it was located in an attractive place. No-one can identify its exact location, although it is assumed that it was close to Nazareth. It has been connected to an Arab town called Nein. This is the only time it is mentioned in the Bible and we can see that something very ugly has happened in the fair town of Nain. But we know that Jesus can give beauty for ashes, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.

The decision of Jesus

Luke tells that Jesus decided to go to the town. He was travelling to Jerusalem for the Passover. But why stop at Nain? Obviously he wanted to go there because he intended to help the sad situation that had developed there. What can we say about his intention? The first detail that we can observe is Jesus’ compassion. This is mentioned in verse 13. But we need to add that it was specific compassion because he did not engage in helping every needy person. Instead he planned to help this needy, sad widow.

The second detail that comes out of the incident is that Jesus wanted to confirm to people who he was. Jesus had performed specific miracles elsewhere to indicate that he was the promised Messiah. This set of miracles had created curiosity in the minds of people as to his identity. While he had performed miracles of healing, there was one kind of miracle that he had not yet done, which was to raise someone from the dead. The son of the widow in Nain was the first person that Jesus raised from the dead.

This is why the widow is a select case. The purpose of Jesus was not to raise every dead person to life and to carry on as they did before they died. Instead his actions were chosen by him to reveal who he was, the promised Messiah who had been sent by God to deliver his people from their sins. And the deliverance would cost a lot more than speaking to a dead person and bringing him back to life. It would involve the death of Jesus.

There is a third detail about the decision of Jesus that we should observe, and that is the fact that he reached Nain at the appropriate time. The place of burial was outside the town and the mourners were making their way to it when Jesus arrived. Obviously Jesus could have followed the process that he adopted when his friend Lazarus died, which was to stay away until several days after the burial. He chose a different timing here and decided to perform the miracle before the man was buried. Jesus knew the best time to arrive and help the mother.

The dreaded topic

Obviously, the problem here was death, made worse by the tragic circumstances that accompanied it – an only son of a widow had passed away. The sad circumstances had generated a great deal of sympathy for the widow, but in reality the community was powerless in the face of death.

Probably the young man had been a believer (I suspect he was, otherwise we would have to say that an unbeliever received a second chance for repentance after his death). The family had discovered that being a believer did not mean that they could avoid the tragedies that affect other people. Death can crush the families of believers as well as those outside the people of God. Sometimes, the sorrows for believers are multiplied – the woman had already lost her husband and now she had lost her son. She knew very well that life here is spent in the vale of tears.

No doubt, the widow had a lot of hope resting on her son. Since she had lost her husband and did not have other children she was dependent on him to take care of her. His death had removed that source of future help and what she now faced was destitution for the rest of her life. Death can destroy the future for many people as well as crush them in the present.

Of course, the villagers would have recognised that eventually death would come to them all. It might not occur when they are young, nor might it leave their relatives with nothing. Nevertheless, it was coming for all of them. The day would come for each of them when the villagers would carry them to the burial site.

Surely, the reality of universal death would make people think about it. Where did it come from? Why does it happen? What happens after a person dies? Why did Jesus want to destroy death? Where can we get reliable answers to such profound questions? The answer to them all is found in the Bible.

Where did death come from? The Bible tells us that death is the consequence of sin. Back at the beginning, when only Adam and Eve were there of the human race, they were designed to live for God. If they did so, they would continue to have life. But they were warned that should they desist from doing so they would die. Moreover, Adam would not be acting merely as an individual. He was the representative of the human race, and an ideal one at that, because he was sinless and he had no reason to disobey God. Yet he did, and the drastic consequence is that instead of life marking everything death marks it all. Many people don’t like what the Bible says, but what other explanation can be given for the fact that everyone dies. The Bible’s account is accurate about this and about everything else it speaks about.

Why did Jesus want to confront death here? Because he had come to reverse the effects of sin. He came into the world to deal with the effects of the Fall. This purpose required that he would himself taste death on the cross of Calvary and pay the penalty due for our sins. After he had done that, he would then go into the realm of death and come out triumphantly in the power of an indissoluble life. He gave to the privileged people of Nain an insight into his future role as the destroyer of death. They could live their lives knowing that he had the power to do so when the time will come for him to raise all the dead.

And although he does not raise people from the dead today, we don’t need any more accounts to convince us. The large crowd of mourners saw him do this with their own eyes and they could easily have stated that it did not happen. The same can be said with regard to his resurrection of Lazarus. The silence regarding this denial is proof that Jesus revealed his power over death and if we don’t believe it we are saying than an entire community was complicit in spreading a lie.

The delightful display

Jesus observed the distraught mother and tells her not to weep. The Saviour could have done things the other way round by first raising the son and then telling the mother that there was no need for weeping. But his instruction to her not to weep was actually a call to her to have faith in him. What were her options? She had to believe that he was either cruel and insensitive or compassionate and able to do something about it. Of course, we know that the Holy Spirit could lead the sad mother to trust in Jesus at that moment. There are no circumstances in which he cannot produce faith.

The call to faith often comes when everything says that Jesus can do nothing about the situation. Perhaps your spouse is unconverted, or your children are unconverted, and showing no interest. Everything indicates that conversion will never happen. Where is Jesus, you ask? Close enough for you to trust him. He who solved this woman’s dilemma can also solve yours.

The Saviour then proceeded to deal with the dead man. Jesus’ action here begins with identification, which he showed by touching the bier. He was not meant to do this according to the ceremonial law, but on many occasions he revealed that compassion was more important than rituals. After all, Jesus’ identification with the young man involved far more than attending his funeral. Jesus was going to go to the cross for the young man’s sins.

It is clear that those carrying the bier did not know what to do. Up until then, they would have been participating in an everyday event in which nothing unusual happened. But something unusual had happened – a Stranger had touched the bier. Although they probably did not realise it at the time, those men are good models for us to stand still and gaze on the salvation of God.

Then there came the word of power that penetrated into the world of the dead. Jesus did not have to give the command several times. In fact, he does not need to articulate it – he spoke only for the benefit of his hearers so that they would know that he had done it. All he had to do was think the command and it would have taken place. But we can see the simplicity of his word and the stupendous power that accompanies what he says. One day, this will be the experience of all who have died, but on this occasion it was limited to the young man.

In response, the man showed he was alive by moving and speaking. What would we expect to happen after a resurrection? And what do we expect to happen after the future resurrection but moving and speaking? Have you ever wondered what your first words will be on the resurrection morning? We are not told what the man said, and we are not told who he spoke to. But even as he said something, so shall we.

Then Jesus gave the young man to his mother. Her sadness was gone, her fears for the future were gone. Jesus the Messiah had overcome the disaster of death in her family for the time being. The day is coming when Jesus will do something even greater when he presents the risen children of God to the heavenly Father and says to him, ‘Behold I and the children whom you gave to me!’ Luke tells us to look beyond this incident to the greater event of which it is a sample.

The discovery

Luke closes his account of the incident by mentioning that the people realised that God had been behind what Jesus did. Probably they thought Jesus was like Elijah and Elisha whom God had used to raise individuals from the dead centuries before. They started to think about what they had seen and to tell others because the news spread far away from Galilee into Judea. This is a reminder that coming to faith in Jesus often occurs in stages, but the people of Nain would have a living witness in their midst reminding them of the power and compassion of Jesus. The final day will tell us what the effects in that little village were.

Applications

The world is full of hurting people. They need more than sympathy, they need Jesus and his grace. We can have confidence that he will know how to speak into a person’s heart.

Living people speak. This is true in the natural world and it is also true in the spiritual world. In the spiritual world, living people speak to God and they speak about Jesus. It is automatic. They don’t have to shout, but it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.

Death has been defeated. We don’t see this in the young man of Nain because although he was brought back to life eventually he would die. We don’t go to Nain to see that death has been permanently defeated. Instead we go to the garden of Joseph of Arimathea and there see a man raised from the dead to die no more. We see Jesus.