by By Rebecca Jordan Heys
“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
The widow at Nain met Jesus. Jesus performed an amazing miracle when he raised her son who had died. But the Bible makes clear that Jesus didn’t do this miracle to put on a show or to impress anyone; he did it because he had compassion on this grieving mother. As Luke puts it, “When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her, and he said, ‘Don’t cry.’” Jesus spoke words of comfort to her, and then he restored her son to her.
This amazing story about a miracle gives us a little hint of an even greater miracle that will happen soon. The fact that Jesus could raise the son of this widow from the dead shows that Jesus is stronger than death. And after Jesus himself died on the cross, bearing all the punishment for our sins, he rose from the dead on the third day. His own resurrection means not only that Jesus is stronger than death but also that he has defeated the power of death once and for all.
When we grieve the loss of people we love, we can be assured that Jesus feels compassion for us in our grief, just as he did for the widow in Nain. We can also be assured that death does not have the last word because of the power of Jesus’ resurrection.
Prayer
God of hope, we are saddened and frightened by death. Show us a way forward and give us comfort, courage, and hope, we pray, because of the power of Jesus’ resurrection. Amen.