Luke 7:11-16 - Homiletics

The widow's son.

We are indebted to St. Luke for the touching incidents recorded in these verses. Observe—

I. THE SPRING OF THE ACTION . "When the Lord saw her, he had compassion." Some of Christ's most notable words and works were associated with, grew out of, circumstances which presented themselves in the course of his journeyings. There was no attempt at miracle. There was neither show nor effort. What was done was so spontaneous that it seemed as if he could not help doing it. Here a sad procession meets his eye. There are specialities in it which touch the fountains alike of Divine power and of brotherly sympathy. He is "moved with compassion." A beautiful phrase, which bids us not merely into but behind the humanity—into the light of such a sentence as "God so loved the world." What is redemption but the activity of Divine emotion? At Nain the compassion of Christ fulfilled itself by sparing an only son. The great love wherewith God has loved us has fulfilled itself by not sparing the only begotten Son. The compassion of Christ, as he approached the gate of the city, gave one son back to a mother. God's great love has, through the sacrifice of the cross, brought back many sons to the outstretched arms of a waiting Father. It is our faith in this infinite compassion that is the source of all our hopes for men. It cannot be a matter of indifference to the Father that one of even his little ones perish. There are problems, as bearing on this, which the facts we observe and some intimations of the meekest and lowliest himself suggest—problems so painful and awful that, in respect of them, we must hold our peace. But, against them, trust in a living God makes it almost a necessity to cling to this—that, in all possible states, God's compassion has a way towards the souls he has made. As regards this particular instance, the appeal to the compassion is threefold: a mother weeps behind the bier of an only son; a widow bewails the loss of her only comforter, the support and solace of her desolate heart; it is a son, a young man , with all the possibilities of use in this world cut off, who is being carried out. In response to this appeal, he is moved; and has he not, in thus yielding to a pure human impulse, left us an example? It is right to hold all impulses in obedience to reason. We must hold compassion with a firm rein; yet it is not to be restrained by irksome bit and bridle. The best teacher in all benevolences is the heart, like that of Jesus,

"... at leisure from itself

To soothe and sympathize."

II. THE MANNER OF THE ACTION . Interesting, with regard, first, to the event related. Note:

1 . The whisper straight from the heart of the God-Man to the heart of the sufferer: "Weep not!"

2 . The touch of the open coffin, causing ceremonial defilement, but expressive of the attitude of him who is the "Resurrection and the Life:" "He came and touched the bier."

3 . Then, as the pall-bearers stand still, the word with power; "Young man, I say unto thee, Arise!" What a change is wrought in that moment, and by that word! "Death is swallowed up in victory." Suggestive and eloquent when accepted as a symbol of Saviour love and work.

Behold in the action a picture and a prophecy.

1 . Hearken to the voice of God, "Weep not!" "Cure sin," it has been said, "and you cure sorrow." He who was made sin for us, of whom the forerunner had testified, "Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!" could alone effectually wipe away the tear. The comfort of others plays on the surface; his comfort reaches into the hidden place, the hidden cause of all trouble—it is the cure of sin. Are there now only faint echoes—echoes becoming fainter and fainter as the ages roll on—of the sentence uttered at Nain? Nay; this sentence, now that he has ascended and is the Prince and Saviour, giving repentance and forgiveness of sins, is fuller in its volume and mightier in its force. All that can give strength, that can inspire with hope, is confirmed and sealed for evermore. "Weep not!" O bruised, broken heart, there is in the " strong Son of God, immortal love," an oil of joy for all your mourning, a garment of praise for every spirit of heaviness.

2 . But the dead is there, with Christ; and the word for the dead is, "Arise!" Let us not think only of the physical death. The spiritual and the physical are always associated in the thought of Christ; and the work at Nain is a symbol of both. As special Christ-words conjoin "Weep not!" and "Arise!" "He saith," writes St. Paul, quoting no particular saying of God, but the substance of all God's sayings, "awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light!"

III. A SPECIAL APPLICATION OF THE SCENE AND ACTION . "Young man, I say unto thee, Arise!" This is the key-note of sermons and addresses to young men. Brother, too often asleep to the higher meanings of thine own existence—asleep and unconscious of the presence of him who loves thee, self-indulgent, dead in the death of the self-seeking worldly mind, the Lord is touching thy bier; the Lord is calling," Arise!" start from thy sad indifference. Give those who love thee the joy of the morning without clouds, the new, better life in God. Hear the voice of the Son of God, and thou too shalt live.