Many years ago in a far away land among the parched pastures of a little hillside hamlet in the middle of nowhere, there lived a woman who was known to everyone as “the weeping widow.” There always seemed to be a steady trickle of tears flowing down her grief-filled face. The source of her sorrow was the untimely death of her beloved husband.
The two had fallen madly in love with each and were inseparable. They married at a youth age and had their whole lives before them. Like twin oak trees in an ancient forest, they planned to grow old together and watch the years pass by under their shadow. They had plans of raising a large family and living a simple but satisfied life together. Even at their tender age they often discussed their visions of one day bouncing a bundle of grandbabies on their laps. But with the husband’s unexpected passing, their dreams and expectations were shattered.
Not only was this widowed woman forced to persevere through the pain of losing the love of her life, but she also had to bear the burden of raising their one and only son alone as a single-mother. As a young widow, she worried about many things. How would she make enough money to make ends meet? Who would teach her boy the virtues of manhood? How would she do this on her own? Would this whole in her heart ever heal?
I can only imagine that the death of a spouse is one of the most excruciating tragedies one can endure in this life. I have never experienced it myself, but I have watched many others go through it. Whether it happens after only five years or fifty years of marriage, it is incredibly difficult to adjust to life without your true companion. Some of you sitting here today are all too familiar with the sorrow of losing your lover and companion.
Likewise, some of you know the challenges of being a single parent. I know hard and exhausting it is to raise a child with two parents; it must be exceptionally difficult to do it alone. May God bless all widows and single parents with an extra measure of his grace!
Even though this weeping widow’s heart would be forever haunted by the anguish of unforeseen tragedy, she was strong and determined. She worked hard to provide for her son’s needs and extended family and friends from their rural village helped to fill in the gaps. In God’s providence, they discovered that their unfortunate circumstances forged an uncommonly close bond between mother and son. She turned out to be an exceptional mom and her only son grew into a fine young man.
A Mourning Mother
As time went by and the widow’s tears almost fully dried, misfortune struck again. Her son had always been such an active and healthy boy. He was full of life and loved to do all of the things that small-town boys do. But one morning when he woke up to do his chores, he felt abnormally fatigued and his face was flushed. When his mother felt the fever on his forehead, she told him to go back to bed and rest for the day. She wasn’t particularly alarmed; she had seen dozens of fevers come and go before. But after a few days, the fever grew worse and other symptoms surfaced. She called for the country doctor, but the boy’s sickness was well beyond his skill level. Being in such a remote location, more advanced medical assistance was a long way off and they didn’t have transportation to get him there.
As they passed through the night, the boy’s body was burning up inside. His poor mother was helpless; there wasn’t anything she or anyone else could do for him. He was, as they say “in God’s hands now.”
As word spread throughout the village, family members and friends began to flock to the house. They brought food and offered prayers and support, but even these kind acts brought little comfort. The mother’s heart fell into the depths of despair; she could feel it in her soul; her only son was going to die. And sure enough, a few hours later, the boy closed his eyes and breathed his final breath, and the torrent of tears returned to his mother’s eyes. The weeping widow now became the mourning mother.
As I mentioned earlier, it is hard to imagine the pain a person feels when they lose a spouse, but I can’t even fathom how it would feel to lose a child. From the time even before they are born, your whole life is invested in caring for their little body and soul. Nine months of pregnancy definitely changes your life. And once the child is born, you feed, snuggle, rock, bathe, and change countless diapers. You play, read, teach, and discipline them. You laugh with them, cry with them, and get ripped mad at them. As the years go by, you watch your child’s personality develop, and for better or worse, resemble your own likeness.
A Peculiar Funeral Procession
Soon after the young man died, the undertaker came with some of his men to take the body and make preparations for the funeral. The mother’s family and friends tried to console her as they watched the men wrap a white sheet around two crude wooden planks and lift her son’s lifeless body onto the makeshift stretcher and carry the body outside. The mother, along with the crowd of family and friends, followed the bearers to the cemetery which was located just outside the village. As was the custom in that community, they preferred to burry their dead on the same day that they died.
When the funeral procession came to the town gate on their way to the cemetery, they were met by a crowd of strangers coming into the village. This was really odd. Their town didn’t get many visitors, certainly not a crowd of this size. As they bottlenecked together at the gate, the locals wondered what these outsiders were doing there.
If this scene wasn’t awkward enough already, one of the strangers, a man who appeared to be the leader of the group, stepped right in front of the bearers and interrupted the funeral procession. After he took a moment to view the dead body on the bier, he approached the mourning mother. Even though she had never seen him before, he acted as if he had known her his whole life. His demeanor was compassionate, his words were desperately confusing. He gazed into the mother’s misty eyes and said, “Do not weep.” At first, everyone thought this man was out of his mind. What kind of lunatic would interrupt a funeral procession to tell a mourning mother not to cry? Can you imagine the audacity of this man?
Then, adding insult to injury, the man went back to the stretcher, laid his hand on it, and said, “Young man, I say to you, arise!” Everyone gasped in protest as they considered this despicable display of insensitivity. But everyone was shocked by what happened next! The boy’s eyes opened, color returned to his flesh, and he sat up in the stretcher, and began to speak. When the bearer saw a “dead man talking,” they were so terrified that they almost dropped him.
How you would react if a dead person came back to life at their own funeral? What would you do if you saw the deceased sit up in their coffin and speak?
As the strange man presented the boy to his mother and the crowds saw that he was really alive, they all began to shout for joy and sang songs of praise and glory to God. They recognized that they all had just witnessed an incredible miracle. They also recognized that the man who did this was a great prophet who was sent by God. In the days following, the people from that village scattered throughout the whole countryside and told the story of the marvel that they had seen.
Who was this strange man who entered the Galilean village of Nain two-thousand years ago and brought back a widow’s son from the dead? You have probably figured it out by now; it was none other than our Lord Jesus Christ! This remarkable story is found in Luke 7:11-17.
The Reality of Resurrection
This story showcases Jesus’ immense compassion for the brokenhearted and his great power over the enemy of death. This poor woman had the double misfortune of losing her husband and her only son. She experienced tremendous pain, but Jesus’ compassion met her in the midst of her sorrow. When Jesus told her not to cry, he wasn’t rebuking her or telling her that it was wrong to cry. He wasn’t minimizing her pain or tritely telling her to “buck up and get over it.” What he meant was “don’t cry…let me take your turmoil, let me carry your chaos…let me redeem your sadness!”
Now I can’t promise you that Jesus will bring your loved one back from the dead, but I do know that he grieves with us when we grieve. I know that he wants to help us through our heartache, if we will let him. Unfortunately, I meet people all the time who don’t want Jesus’ help when they are grieving. They either blame God for their loss or they don’t think that Jesus has anything to offer them. They would rather suffer alone than turn to Jesus.
If you are grieving the loss of a loved one today, whether recent or from a long time ago, give your grief to Jesus. He is a “Man of Sorrows” who is familiar with your pain. He knows what you are going through and he wants to help you.
The crowds immediately recognized that Jesus was a great prophet because this miracle reminded them of the great Old Testament prophets Elijah and Elisha, who on separate occasions, raised a person from the dead. The crowds also verbally expressed that this miracle was evidence that they had been visited by God. Even though both of these statements are true, they failed to put them together and see that Jesus is God in human flesh.
Although they witnessed his power over death, they did not know that himself would one day die on a Roman cross and that his lifeless body would be carried away on wooden planks. They did not know that the stone would be rolled away on the third day and that Jesus himself would be resurrected to new life. They did not know that Jesus did this to atone for our sins and offer us resurrection to eternal life through faith in him.
Do you know this? Do you know that Jesus did all of this for you? Don’t make the same mistake that others have made about Jesus in the past. He is not just a great prophet—he is not just a good moral teacher—he is not just a marvelous miracle worker—he is God himself and he offers us eternal life.
It is true that one day we will all taste death. Most of us will not be brought back to this life like the young man in the story, but we do have the opportunity to experience resurrection and eternal life in heaven forever. All we have to do is give our lives to Jesus today!