This
miracle of Jesus raising a widow’s son is recorded only once in the Bible in
Luke 7 and is probably the first recorded incident of Jesus raising a dead man
to life. The other two incidents are the raising of Jairus’ daughter and the
raising of Lazarus.
Why did Jesus have to perform the miracle of
raising a dead man to life again?
Miracles
lead us to know that Jesus Himself is God. Signs and wonders are done to draw
us nearer to God. When something out of this world has happened, surely most of
us would be curious to find out more.
In this
incident of the raising of the widow’s son, we saw how this incident glorified
the name of God, for who has power over life and death other than God Himself?
There was two large crowds, one following Jesus and another following the
widow, and hence the news about Jesus spread throughout the region.
In all
three accounts of the dead being raised to life in the Bible, we see how Jesus
took pity and had compassion on the weakness of man.
Miracles as a manifestation of God’s grace and
mercy
Jesus came
down to earth for one sole purpose - to preach the gospel of salvation and to
die for the sins of all men so that we can be reconciled with God. Hence, in
other words, Jesus need not perform
signs and wonders.
He need not
turn water into wine, He need not heal the sick, and He need not feed the
people…. These are physical conditions, and if we say that we are a spiritual
nation of God, why should we place so much emphasis on the physical? Jesus
needs only to preach the gospel of salvation and to bear the sins of man on the
cross. Anything more would be extra.
Jesus
had compassion - giving back the most precious
In today’s
passage, we see how the widow and the son must have been people with great
character, attracting a large crowd from the city to accompany her as she sent
her dead son on his way.
Anyone who
has ever lost a loved one would probably agree with me that the separation by
death is one of the most painful events in one’s life. Moreover, this was a
widow who had lost her husband, and now she has lost her only son. She must
have been weeping, with no words to express the pain in her heart.
Jesus saw
her. And Jesus must have seen the pain in her heart and had compassion on her.
He came
forth and touched the coffin and commanded the young man to arise.
Jesus need
not have performed this miracle of raising the dead son to life, yet because He
had compassion on the widow and understood her pain, He gave the son back to
her.
Jesus
took pity - doing the most impossible
Similarly, Jesus
took pity on man’s weakness by allowing the people to witness this raising of
the dead to life and see it as a testimony that He is the Son of God. Because
we are still limited by flesh and blood, we are still guided by our sight and
emotions. To help us in our faith, sometimes, Jesus has to show His
nail-scarred hands before we would believe.
It is
really amazing to know that our Lord is full of compassion and understands the
weakness of man. He need not have performed the miracles, yet He did it for our
sakes.
Think about it: In what areas of your life has
God “raised the dead to life” because He had compassion or took pity on your
weakness?
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