a                     portrait

      of                   

   jesus 

            

A PORTRAIT OF JESUS       

                        The Grace of our Lord

                        

“…as they approached the village gate, they met a funeral procession—a woman’s only son was being carried out for burial and the mother was a widow.  When Jesus saw her, his heart broke.  He said to her, ‘Don’t cry.’ Then he went over and touched the coffin…He said, ‘Young man, I tell you: arise.”’ The dead son sat up and began talking.  Jesus presented him to his mother.” Luke 7:12-15

 

      Jesus upon entering the city of Nain is accosted by this scene of despair and sorrow.  A widow’s only son has died.  Jesus sees this widow, weeping, stumbling along, overcome by her grief.  Luke tells us that Jesus felt compassion for the woman.  What Jesus does next is striking ~ He reaches out and touches the coffin. Can you hear the gasp, as the people around him watch?  He did not need to do this to perform this miracle. He had raised others with just a word.  But, now He had made himself ritually unclean by touching the coffin. Jesus wanted to impress on His followers, that it is not what happens on the outside that makes us unclean, but what takes place in our heart.  At the command of Jesus, instantly, a son who had been snatched away by death is returned to his mother’s arms.

 

      This widow had not asked for this miracle, she had not thrown herself at Jesus’ feet and begged Him to intercede. She had not shown any great faith; in fact she had shown no faith at all. Jesus performed this miracle for one reason alone, His own heart had gone out to this poor woman.  When faced with her pain and grief He was so touched that He felt her anguish deeply and it broke His heart, and did something about it.  Jesus changed her grief to abounding joy. It is an act of sheer grace, one that gives her hope and a future.

 

       How blessed we are to have such a Savior!  One who is touched to the core with the weight of our grief and pain and who steps in and does something to change either the situation or us.  His act of grace in the city of Nain that day changed a widow’s life, turning her anguish into joy unspeakable.  Not long after, on the cross on Golgotha’s hill another act of sheer grace would give each of us hope and a future. One day the entire world will experience what the widow of Nain experienced, when all who are in their graves will be returned to the arms of their loved ones, all because of Jesus, whose compassion moves him to act and bestow grace so freely.

 

 D. Mathewson