Jesus is like no one
else. Take the time he walks over a Galilean hill to the little town of Nain and
meets a funeral procession. They are carrying the body of a young man out of
town for burial. His mother, a widow, follows--weeping for the loss of her only
son whom she loved more than life itself. With no one to care for her she is
facing both loneliness and destitution. The Bible says that as Jesus took all
this in "his heart went out to her." So he goes up to her and says the last
thing you would expect, "Don't cry."
He wasn't embarrassed by her grief and tears, as we
often are in our culture. In first century Galilee people grieved publicly and
loudly. This poor woman probably fell to her knees in the road repeatedly and
threw dirt over her head, wailing all the while. No one but Jesus would dream of
telling her not to cry. Here's what happened next:
Then Jesus went up and touched the [open] coffin and
those carrying it stood still. He said, "Young man, I say to you, get up!"
The dead man sat up and
began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother. --Luke 7:14-15 NIV
You and I may sympathize with the bereaved and pray for
them. Jesus can remove the cause of their grief--he has power over death itself.
Perfect compassion combined with limitless power! Jesus is like no one else.
Pastor Charlie Scott
