THE LONG TRIP TO NAIN (LUKE 7:11-17)
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A website asked this question: “What is the average time to walk one mile?”
The quick answer was, “An average person can walk one mile on a flat, well-groomed surface in 17 to 20 minutes. A fit person walking briskly can walk a mile in 13 minutes. An estimated average walking speed for calculating how long a hike or walk will take is around 3 miles per hour.”
https://www.reference.com/health/average-time-walk-one-mile-4ead32baef6bea30#
The city of Nain is supposedly 25 miles from Capernaum, where Jesus was previously (Luke 7:1) before he made the travel to Nain, so the walk could take at least eight hours, or a day’s journey. If an average person with a stride length of approximately 2.1 to 2.5 feet takes over 2,000 steps to walk one mile, according to experts, then Jesus would have taken 50 thousand steps without rest to reach Nain 25 miles away. Nain was one of the farthest places south, if not the farthest, of Galilee in Jesus’ travels.
Jesus raised three people from the dead, of which the first was the widow’s son, followed by Jairus’ daughter (Luke 8:49) and Lazarus (John 11:17). The encounter of Jesus with the widow and her son is recorded in Luke’s gospel only and no other text in the Bible.
What is your happiness and hope in this life? How does the Lord comfort us in times of suffering and sorrow? Why is it necessary for us to rely on God and not on ourselves to our lives around?
Seek His Solace
11 Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. 12 As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out—the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. 13 When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.”
Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once told about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child, and the winner was a four-year-old boy.
The boy’s next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had lost his wife recently. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into his gentleman’s yard, climbed into his lap and just sat there. When his mother asked him what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, “Nothing. I just helped him cry.”
An anonymous writer once wrote that, “Kindness is a language that the blind can see and the deaf can hear.”
One cold evening during the holiday season, a little boy about six or seven was standing out in front of a ore window. The little child had no shoes on and his clothes were mere rags.
A young woman passing by saw the little boy and could read the longing in his pale blue eyes. She took the child by the hand and led him into the store. There she bought him new shoes and a complete suit of warm clothing.
They came back outside into the street and the woman said to the child, “Now you can go home and have a very happy holiday.”
The little boy looked up at her and asked, “are you God, Ma'am?” She smiled down at him and replied, “No son, I'm just one of His children.”
The little boy then said, “I knew you had to be some relation.”
Jesus was as tough and as tireless as ever. At the beginning of chapter 7 Jesus entered into Capernaum of Galilee and healed the centurion’s beloved servant, who was sick and about to die (v 2). The next day Jesus traveled to Nain, a 25-mile trek or a day’s journey, according to commentaries, all the way to south of the Sea of Galilee but north of Samaria. In Luke’s gospel of healing instances only two people did not take the initiative to contact Jesus for healing - the man with the withered hand (Luke 6:6) and the man suffering from dropsy (Luke 14:2), but they were, nevertheless, nearby and around him. In this chapter Jesus, however, took a special trip to Nain to visit the widow.
Three things about the woman he met outside the city touched Jesus. First, her son was dead and he was “being carried out” at that time, probably to a cave not too close to the city. The act of “carrying out” was as lonely a funeral procession as the word is, which appears for its only one time in the Bible. Despite the family’s crying, clamor and closeness, the dead must be cut off, cast away and carried out. The dead man was the woman’s only son (homogenes). Jesus definitely could understand the woman’s feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. Five of its nine occurrences of this noun in the Bible referred to Jesus as “the only son” (John 1:14, 18, 3:16, 18, 1 John 4:9). Second, she was a widow. A widow is a person who did not remarry after the death of her husband. So, two people close to her had died, not just one. Life had become so lonely, bitter and lost. Third many people were with her. Death touched a whole village. No one was unaffected, unmoved or unconcerned.
The verb “his heart went out” (v 13) is “had compassion” in KJV. The word occurs 12 times in the Bible, three times in parables. All the other nine times all described the feelings of Jesus or an appeal to his compassion and nobody else, including Jesus’ compassion on the multitude (Matt 9:36, 14:14, 15:32, Mark 6:34, 8:2), two blind men (Matt 20:34), a leper (Mark 1:41), the widow of this passage (v 13) and the father of a son with a dumb spirit who appealed to his compassion (Mark 9: 22). The three parables are the forgiving master (Matt 18:27), the good Samaritan (Luke 10:33) and the prodigal son’s father (Luke 15:20).
The verb “have compassion” (splagchnizomai) is a deponent word in Greek, which means it is in the passive voice in form but in the active voice in function. It is a feeling and an emotion that must be acted out or take place, not pushed aside or put down. The verb is from “splanxna” or the inward parts,' especially the nobler entrails – the heart, lungs, liver, and kidneys. These gradually came to denote the seat of the affections. Thayer's Greek Lexicon says “the bowels were thought to be the seat of love and pity.”
The verb “cry” (v 15) is an imperative, translated as weep (Matt 2:18) or bewail (Rev 18:9) and never cry or mourn. Surprisingly, Jesus’ commandment “Don’t cry/Weep not” was issued sparingly and selectively only in the presence of ladies, three times only in His earthly ministry, from the widow (v 15), to the synagogue ruler and his wife (Luke 8:52) and the daughters of Jerusalem (Luke 23:28). Here we see the supportive, sentimental and sympathetic side of Jesus.
See His Sacrifice
14 Then he went up and touched the bier they were carrying him on, and the bearers stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!”
During World War I the Prince of Wales visited 36 severely wounded men in a hospital in the outskirts of London.
The Prince and his escorts went through the main ward and shook hands with most of them. As preparations were made to leave, the Prince indicated that he had only seen 30 men. “Where are the other six?” Although he was informed that the six others were extremely severe cases and in a different section of the ward, the special visitor demanded to see the others.
Five other maimed and bruised men were viewed. “But where's the last one?” again the Prince inquired. Although the Prince was told that the grotesqueness of the man's appearance would be unbearable, the Prince insisted on seeing him.
The Prince stood silent for a moment, and then moved toward the man and stooping down, kissed him! With a breaking voice the Prince of Wales was heard to say, “Wounded for me.”
In the previous chapter the scribes and Pharisees, who were mad with rage, had already discussed with one another what to do to Jesus (Luke 6:11) after watching Him on the Sabbath day and found an accusation against him (Luke 6:7). Jesus, on the other hand, was oblivious to their religious and social sensitivities. For instance, He “touched” (v 14) the unclean quite often, including a leper (Matt 8:3), a woman with an issue of blood (Matt 9:20, Mark 5:27, Luke 5:13) and a sinner (Luke 7:39). The “bier,” its only occurrence in the Bible,” among the ancient Hebrews was simply an open coffin or a flat wooden frame, on which the body of the dead was carried from the house to the grave (ISBE). Contact with the wood or outside of the coffin was not considered unclean in this case, but contact with a dead body was considered defilement (Numbers 19:11). Jesus, nevertheless, risked the misunderstanding, misconduct and mistreatment.
What is more remarkable is that Jesus spoke to the dead man and personally he attached “to you I am speaking.” Jesus spoke to the young man like he was alive. The authoritative phrase from Jesus in Greek “to you I say” occurs in five instances in the Bible (Matt 16:18 Peter, Mark 2:11/Luke 5:24 Paralytic, Luke 5:41 Synagogue ruler’s daughter, Luke 7:14 Widow’s son, Luke 23:43 Thief on the cross). Jesus not only spoke to the living that way – Peter, the paralytic and the thief on the cross, he spoke to the dead that way too – the synagogue ruler’s daughter (Luke 5:41) and the widow’s son (Luke 7:14).
Jesus not only cared for the widow, He cared for the young man because it was to the young man that he was addressing. The one fascinating thing is that whenever he addressed the dead - the synagogue ruler’s daughter, the widow’s son or Lazarus (John 11:43, Lazarus come forth), he always called them affectionately by name or by an affectionate and apt replacement. For the synagogue ruler’s daughter it was damsel, and for the widow’s son it is young man.
Speak His Splendor
15 The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother. 16 They were all filled with awe 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 throughout Judea and the surrounding country.
One of the most celebrated athletes in America is Tim Tebow, who was on two college football championships for the University of Florida in 2006 and 2008 and was a Heisman Trophy (best player) winner for the 2007 season. Often criticized for kneeling in prayer, the college football player unapologetically wore Bible verses on black patches under his eye, a practice now banned.
One paper even published a “Top 5 Tim Tebow eye black biblical verses,” which included John 3:16, Mark 8:36, John 16:33, Ephesisans 2:8-10 and James 1:2-4.
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2010/0203/Top-5-Tim-Tebow-eye-black-biblical-verses
On his Twitter account, Tebow wrote:
“Happy moments, praise God. Difficult moments, seek God. Quiet moments, worship God. Painful moments, trust God. Every moment, THANK GOD.”
There is negative fear and positive “awe/fear” (v 16) in the gospels.
The nature or symptoms of negative fear includes being troubled (Luke 1:12), crying out (Matt 14:26), shaking (Matt 28:4), hearts failing (Luke 21:26) and not speaking (John 7:13), but positive fear results in great joy (Matt 28:8), feeling amazed (Luke 5:26) and in this case, glorifying God (Luke 7:16).
The phrase “glorify God” (v 16, “praise God” NIV) is a big motif in Luke’s gospel. The phrase occurs once in Mark (Mark 2:12) and John (John 21:19), twice in Matthew (Matt 9:8, 15:31) but seven times in Luke (Luke 5:25, 5:26, 7:16, 13:13, 17:15, 18:43, 23:47). Glorify God is more than praise God. To “praise God” is from the mouth, but to “glorify God” is in the person. Praise is to recount the deed, but glorify is to return the due. Praise is general for all, but glorify is specific to God alone.
The motif of God’s visiting is found only in Luke’s gospel and not other gospels (Luke 1:68, 78, 7:16). The verb “visit” (episkeptomai), derived from the preposition “upon” (epi) and “skopos” (scope), means “to look upon, care for, exercise oversight” (Vine’s). It implies his sight and oversight, looking and overlooking, eyeing, eyeballing, and The verb “upon” means caring, bearing and sharing - our sins, sufferings, struggles, shame and sorrow. Readers might be surprised that this was the first time Jesus “went into a city” (KJV). God had come a long way to the acquaintance and assistance of a lowly, lonely and luckless widow
Conclusion: Have you suffered a devastating and deflating emotional loss? Have you turned to the Lord of all creation and Lover of our souls, who can heal your broken heart and help you overcome tragedy? There is no problem too big that God cannot resolve or person too broken that God cannot repair.
Do you have compassion and care for the lost, the lonely and the lowly people in life? Are your feelings accompanied by actions, and are your actions consistent over time? May the Lord lift us up, look over you and light your path.
