Starting in Luke 6:20 and continuing to 6:49, the Lord Jesus gives a sermon, either a condensed version of Matthew’s account or a second Sermon on the Mount. This sermon is preached on a level place, which could be either on a plateau on the mountainside or at the bottom of the mountain. Either way, what follows both here and in Matthew could be referred to as the Sermon on the Move.
The Lord Jesus comes out of the “pulpit” and meets people in need. The people He comes into contact with in Luke 7 would be considered to be outside the realm of Jewish sympathies. The Lord meets a Gentile, a dead man, and a sinful woman. The Jews in prayer would thank God that they were not born a Gentile or a woman. To touch or deal with any one of these individuals would result in ceremonial defilement, the condition of being unclean. Yet the Lord Jesus could talk to the centurion and grant his request. He could touch the coffin and impart life. He could allow the sinful woman to wash His feet with her hair. In doing all of this, He was neither unclean nor defiled.
Meetings
Nain was a small village southwest of Capernaum, a distance of over 25 km away. It was an insignificant village, but it gained fame because of a great miracle. The Lord Jesus arrives, unannounced and unrequested, but just at the right moment to meet the procession as the funeral party leaves the town. Warren Wiersbe points out that there were a series of meetings at that moment. Two crowds met: one was mourning and the other rejoicing. Two only sons met: “one alive but destined to die, the other dead but destined to live.” The Lord Jesus was the only Son in a different way in that He was the only begotten or unique Son of God. Two sufferers met: the woman in her sorrow, mourning the loss of her son and facing an uncertain future, met Jesus, the Man of Sorrows. Also two enemies met: life met death. Death is the last enemy, but life conquered.
The two crowds were heading in different directions. The crowd surrounding the Saviour was reveling in His presence and marveling at His power, as was revealed in the previous story. The other crowd was headed toward the burial ground and was in the presence of death. This crowd was weeping in sympathy with this woman and her tremendous loss. One crowd had no hope while the other was with the Lord Jesus Christ. The latter’s focus was on Him, the Lord of life.
The Lord Jesus sympathized with the woman in her time of sorrow and had compassion on her. How often this phrase is used to describe His emotional response to the plight of people! His compassion moved Him to action, to reach out and touch the funeral bier. The One that has life in Himself imparted that life to a corpse. So like the work of the Lord in the gospel: moved with compassion and reaching out. His work is taking spiritually dead sinners, giving them life, and raising them to walk in newness of life.
Lessons
There are devotional lessons from this scene that can warm the heart of the believer. Note that on the three occasions the Lord appeared at a funeral, the mourning stopped; or, to put it colloquially, He spoiled the party. In raising Jairus’ daughter, in raising Lazarus, and in giving life to the widow’s son, He turned sorrow into gladness. He brought life to the dead and joy to the living. This is a reminder to God’s people that “weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning” (Ps. 30:5b).
The scene is also a precursor to a coming day when the Lord will speak, and the dead in Christ will arise.
Luke alone of the Gospel writers records that the Lord had dealings with three “only” children. Jarius’ daughter was his only child; the boy with a demon in Luke 9 was an only son; and the dead man in this story was the only son of his mother. The Lord Jesus was especially gracious to those in these extreme circumstances.
For the first time in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is referred to as “Lord” (v.13). This word meant “master” or “owner” in the common usage of the day. It is used by the translators of the Septuagint to translate the Old Testament names of God including that of Jehovah. As the New Testament progresses, the title is almost exclusively used of God and of Christ. It is found in Thomas’ declaration, “My Lord and my God” and in Peter’s proclamation that “God has made Him…Lord.” Jude, in verse 4 of his epistle, addresses “our only Lord” as the Lord Jesus Christ (see marg.); then, in the next verse, Jehovah is called the Lord. This is a strong affirmation of the deity of Jesus Christ, who is the originator of life and the Lord over life and death.
The crowd also exclaimed, “A great prophet has risen up among us.” This would be in response to Moses’ words in Deut. 18:15: “The Lord your God will raise up a prophet like me from your midst.” This is another of the Messianic designations of the Lord, though He was greater than the prophets.
Norman Crawford points out another word of note in this account. It is found in the response of the crowd in verse 16: “God has visited His people.” The word visited is found in Zacharias’s song in Luke 1:68: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people.” Later in the Gospel, the Lord Himself would say, “You did not know the time of your visitation” (Lk. 19:44). It was a word that in secular use meant “to look on in a charitable way,” such as a doctor visiting a patient. When used of God, it expresses His loving concern for a sick and fallen humanity. Luke uses it again in Acts 15:14, speaking of “how God at first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name.”
Resurrections
This miracle is also one of a series of significant events found throughout Scripture. In the Old Testament, there are three individuals brought back to life. There are two children, one brought to life through Elijah and the other through Elisha. The third was the soldier who was put into Elisha’s tomb; and when his body touched Elisha’s bones, the man came back to life. In the New Testament, there are also three individuals brought back to life by the Lord: Jairus’ daughter, Lazarus, and the widow’s son. That makes the Lord Jesus the seventh individual in recorded human history to be resurrected. This is one of many such patterns found throughout the Bible.
The Lord Jesus did a good work; when He let His light shine, others saw it and glorified God. They also had a reverential fear; they praised God and published the news far and wide. Believers today have a similar story to tell. They are aware of God’s great love, know the fear of the Lord, and have been brought from death to life. There is also a sense of symbolism in that just as the crowd went with the Lord Jesus along the road, believers today can experience His presence along the path of life. They also can see Him at work as the gospel is shared and the spiritually dead are given new life. “We’ve a story to tell to the nations, a story of truth and love.”
Endnotes
Warren W. Wiesbe, The Bible Exposition
Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1989).
Norman Crawford, What The Bible Teaches – Luke (Scotland: John Ritchie Ltd, 1989).