According to the Gospel records, Jesus miraculously raised three dead people to live again. The daughter of Jairus, Lazarus, and the widow’s son at Nain each passed through the portal of death only to be recalled by Jesus from death to life.
Concerning the widow’s son, we know very little. He lived in Nain, a small village overlooking the fertile Valley of Jezreel. Jesus traveled there with His band of disciples, and upon their arrival, a funeral procession was exiting though the village gates.
We don’t know how old the young man was. We don’t know if his death was a tragic accident or if he died after a lengthy illness. We also don’t know if he had died very recently, or if his body had been prepared for burial days earlier. (One writer has suggested that his blood had been drained and his internal organs had been removed, then his chest cavity had been packed with perfumes and spices. If that’s true, the miracle of his restored life is even more amazing!) Regardless, the young man was dead, and the funeral procession was headed to the graveyard.
We also know that he was “the only son of his mother, and she was a widow” (Luke 7:12) and that he was stone-cold dead until Jesus reached into the casket and touched his lifeless corpse.
As the grieving widow walked beside her son’s casket, “the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, ‘Do not weep’ ” (Luke 7:13). Jesus had compassion. He cared. He had sympathy. He took pity on her. He loved her and He was moved to action.
Jesus touched him, and everything changed! “And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother” (Luke 7:15). Praise the Lord for the Master’s miraculous touch!
I have so many questions. What was it like to make a round-trip from earth to Heaven and back again? How did this experience set the course for the rest of his journey here on earth? Did he ever stop sharing the story? … “I was dead, but Jesus called me to live again!”
Someday we’ll know the rest of the story!
“… think on these things” (Philippians 4:8, KJV).
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