Joel M Bradshaw

11Soon afterward he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. 12As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. 13And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” 14Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” 15And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. 16Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited his people!” 17And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country. Luke 7

We Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God. We believe he is God made flesh, fully man and fully God. So for a student who remembers their Torah, today’s passage presents a problem to consider.

11“Whoever touches a human corpse will be unclean for seven days. 12They must purify themselves with the water on the third day and on the seventh day; then they will be clean. But if they do not purify themselves on the third and seventh days, they will not be clean. 13If they fail to purify themselves after touching a human corpse, they defile the Lord’s tabernacle. They must be cut off from Israel. (Numbers 19:11-13)

I don’t theologically know if Jesus could have become ritually unclean, but if he could, then in our text he did. How great was his compassion for that widow! And in that compassion he told her not to weep. I would imagine the last time you went to a funeral and saw a grieving mother or widow you didn’t tell her to stop crying, even in a gentle way. It was her time to cry in public and the ones closest to her protect her time to do so.

So was Jesus being inconsiderate here? I argue that he had compassion in that he took upon his emotions her emotions. He also suffered with her loss and sought to identify with her pain. He then touched the corpse when he certainly had the power to raise the boy from distance. He restored the man and provided for her second greatest need. Salvation is always the greatest.

The times I have said ‘don’t weep’ I felt awkward and wanted that moment to be over. I was selfish. But Jesus was about to change her category to FORMERLY grieving mother. He alone is the basis to stop all weeping. Jesus reconciles and restores. He is familiar with our pain, enters into our messy situations, and cares for us. Check out what I underlined in these next two verses.

People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. (Isaiah 30:19)

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Revelation 21:3-4)

Trust Jesus with your situation; give him your emotional pain. He provides the basis for the day when there will be no more weeping. If you weep, weep with him and in faith. We weep with a heavenly hope!–JMB