Flashback Episode — Compassion, Comfort, Commitment: Luke 7:11-17

If you have ever wondered if Jesus clashed with first century culture, or if you have ever opened your Bible looking for examples of something Jesus did that would have been culturally upsetting, you don’t need to look further than the passage we will be looking at in this episode.

However, for our time looking at this passage, instead of focusing on the culturally upsetting nature of the event, allow me to think out loud with you about a question that we might not have any way of answering. The question that I have about Jesus revolves around what prompted Jesus to act in the way He did leading up to the miracle this passage includes.

In this passage, Jesus breaks some cultural norms, and it appears as though He says something we might think is really insensitive, before shifting the focus of this event with a miracle. From this event, we are able to see a glimpse into Jesus’ heart and His motivation that may be easily missed if we read through this passage too quickly.

Whether you have studied this passage before or not, we can learn a lot from spending time focusing on how Jesus acted and responded to others while walking this earth. As disciples of Jesus, we are called to be like Him, and the first step is to understand who He is through how He acted.

The event we’ll be digging into is a short one, and it is only included in the gospel of Luke. Our passage can be found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 7, and we will be reading it using the New International Reader’s Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 11, Luke tells us that:

¹¹ Some time later, Jesus went to a town called Nain. His disciples and a large crowd went along with him. ¹² He approached the town gate. Just then, a dead person was being carried out. He was the only son of his mother. She was a widow. A large crowd from the town was with her. ¹³ When the Lord saw her, he felt sorry for her. So he said, “Don’t cry.”

¹⁴ Then he went up and touched the coffin. Those carrying it stood still. Jesus said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” ¹⁵ The dead man sat up and began to talk. Then Jesus gave him back to his mother.

¹⁶ The people were all filled with wonder and praised God. “A great prophet has appeared among us,” they said. “God has come to help his people.” ¹⁷ This news about Jesus spread all through Judea and the whole country.

In this passage, Jesus resurrects the son of a widow. While it probably wasn’t commonplace to have a dead person being carried out of town, it wouldn’t be a stretch for me to imagine it was rare. Life expectancies were shorter during that era than they are now, which meant that there may have been dozens, if not hundreds, of these funeral processions every year. With this detail in mind, we could logically conclude that this was not the only funeral procession Jesus ever passed. If Jesus passed by dozens of funerals during His time on earth, not many resurrection miracles were recorded.

That makes this event extra special, extra important, and worth digging in to. While stopping a funeral processional is inconsiderate at best, Jesus does the unthinkable because He wants to do the impossible – specifically raise a dead boy back to life.

For this event, Luke sets the stage by saying that the deceased person was the only son of a widow. This detail may have pushed Jesus to act. The deceased individual could have been a young boy, a teenager, or a young adult, and we have no idea what caused his death. The fact that a large crowd was present could mean that this was a very prominent widow in this town, or perhaps that her late husband was well known and respected and the townspeople cared for the widows who lived there. At the very least, a large crowd in this procession meant that many people wished to support this woman in her loss, and that they felt sorry for her situation.

With the stage set and the funeral procession leaving town, Jesus enters the scene. The first thing Luke includes in this event about Jesus is that Jesus felt sorry for the widow and that He had compassion. He focuses first on the woman who has lost so much. This is important for us to note because what He says next could be seen as the opposite of compassion.

While feeling sorry for the widow, the first words out of Jesus’ mouth to the woman in verse 13 are “Don’t cry.” If you have wondered if Jesus was ever insensitive to someone, a quick reading of Jesus’ first words to this widow would be a very clear example. This widow has a very valid reason to cry. Her husband is dead, and now her only son is too. She has lost the two most important people in her life. With this phrase, Jesus could come across as sounding really arrogant and insensitive. Imagine walking into a funeral where a young child has just died and telling the mother to stop crying. In situations like these, context matters, and this is why Luke specifically tells us that Jesus felt sorry for the woman before He said anything.

In my mind, this woman was hysterical and overwhelmed with grief. I believe Jesus’ tone when He spoke to the woman was filled with compassion and sympathy. While it was shocking to stop the funeral procession and tell this woman to stop crying, this combined set of actions likely served the dual purposes of getting the woman to pay attention and shift her focus onto the life that God is able to give being more powerful than the death and loss she was currently experiencing.

From Jesus’ love and compassion for the woman, we ultimately are able to read about this miracle. After getting the woman’s attention, Jesus raises the young man from the dead and then gives him back to her.

Everything about this miracle speaks to Jesus having compassion for someone who was hurting. Raising the young man from the dead was not for the crowd’s benefit, or for the disciple’s attention, or even for the young man’s future – it was entirely centered on comforting a grieving mother and giving her back the most precious thing she had.

Seeing Jesus as someone who is moved to act when He sees people who are hurting helps us understand an important part of His character. Jesus was moved to help people not from a detached logical frame of mind, but from an emotional, compassionate love for individual people. As modern day disciples of Jesus, we are called to help people in an emotionally loving and compassionate way.

In our world today, we show Jesus’ compassion to others best when we help others who are hurting in compassionate and loving ways. By understanding Jesus’ heart and how He was moved by compassion, we are able to do the same for those we meet in our own lives.

For Jesus, it was first compassion, then comfort, then committing to help where He could. If all of us who call ourselves modern day disciples and followers of Jesus did just these three things, the world as we know it would be transformed.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life. Choose to be a representative and model of Jesus to a world that is desperate for God’s love even if it doesn’t know how to show it, or even recognized it.

To accomplish this, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to discover what God is really like, and while you study, keep your eyes open for examples of how Jesus loved people. While other people have ideas about God and about Jesus, choose to study the truth out for yourself from the pages of the Bible.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or abandon where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!