Preached at Redmarley, 16th Sunday after Trinity, September 15, 1861.
“And it came to pass the day after, that He went into a city called Nain; and many of His disciples went with him and much people. Now when He came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow; and much people of the city was with her, And when the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not. And He came and touched the bier, and they that bare him stood still.”—St. Luke vii. 11-14.
Here are not many instances of our Lord raising the dead told us in the Gospels. The daughter of Jairus, and Lazarus, and this one of the widow of Nain’s son, are, I think, all; and I think it is good for us that there should be no more. We are all ready enough to fancy, as I said to you once before, that those who were upon earth when our Lord was here in the flesh, were treated better than we are. If widows who are weeping for their only sons in our day and our land were to think that all the widows in Galilee and Judea at that time had their children given back to them, they might ask, ‘Why were we not born there? Why are we so far from that blessed time?’ But if they only read of this the widow of Nain—they may begin to consider that that must have been intended as a sign to a multitude of people beside her, to them amongst the rest. And then they may ask, ‘And what is it a sign of? How are we better for the sign? Will it give us any comfort in our trouble?’ Let us look at the story and see.
It is a common story enough. Out of the gate of a city a body is carried to be buried. That is all that most would have said who saw the funeral passing. A few may have asked, ‘Whose is it?’ A few will have known that it was the widow’s son. A few will have cared both for him and for her. But there is one who meets the bier; He is called in the Gospels the Son of Man. He, it is said, saw the widow, and had compassion upon her. He knew exactly what was passing in her mind, all the thoughts that she had about her son; all her recollections of him; all that she could tell to anyone else, or make anyone else understand; all her anxiety about what he had been, and what he was then. Her friends might say a great many words in her ear some good, some foolish. One or two of their words might go down into her heart. But He had compassion upon her—that is to say, He bore her pain with her; He felt it Himself in His own heart. He did not stand aloof from any one of her pains and perplexities. He went into them as she could not do. It is written, “Himself took our infirmities;” and that thought must mean more than I or any one can imagine—it must mean this, that He entered into the trials and infirmities of all human beings. Well, then, the compassion of Jesus the Son of Man, for this particular woman, is a sign of His compassion for all who are going through the trial which she went through. I say for all. We are not told that there was anything peculiar in this widow of Nain. She was a woman who had lost her husband and her son; that is all we know of her. No doubt she felt her loss as if no one had felt the same before, and as if no one could feel it after. Everyone does; everyone feels the whole burden of death pressing upon herself. And He bore that burden with her; and He bears it with all others who have the same laid upon them, in that country or this, eighteen hundred years ago or now. Remember that. And when you read the words, “Jesus had compassion on her,” do not take them for light words; they are the mightiest words you can hear. It is the compassion of the Son of God and the Son of Man. It is compassion for all sorrowing people, and for each sorrowing man or woman, for He is the brother of each, and He was Himself the great sorrower of all.
But next he said, “Young man, I say unto thee, arise.” Here you say the likeness ends. The first words might be a sign to us; these cannot be. He does not meet the biers that we crowd into our churchyards. He does not say to those in them “Arise.” My friends, the Gospel calls these acts of our Lord signs, and I am sure the Gospel speaks truly. I am not, therefore, going to give up the belief that these words are a sign to widows, a sign to all of us, however at first we may be inclined to think that they are not so, and cannot be. I could not explain this to you, but Christ can. Let us hear His words, as they were written in the 25th verse of the 5th chapter of the Gospel of St. John—“Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and those that hear shall live.” Well, perhaps that applied to Lazarus, whom the people to whom He was then speaking would afterwards see coming out of the grave in which he had been laid four days. But now hear how He proceeds in the 28th verse—“Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice and shall come forth.” So that you see He tells them it was not wonderful that even men in their graves should hear the voice of the Son of God, because all that are in the graves shall hear His voice. Afterwards He gave them a sign in one case of what was true always. One man actually appeared before their eyes in answer to His voice; actually came back into this earth which he had left, that they might understand how it would be with all. And this was to show that, as he had told the Jews, He had life in Himself, and gives that life to men. As He told this to the Jews, so he told Martha—when she would not believe it, but spoke in a despairing way about the resurrection,—that He was the resurrection and the life, and that whosoever believed in Him, though he were dead, yet should he live. So then I have a right to tell you, that when He said to the widow’s son, “Young man, arise!” He was as much giving a sign to other widows, as He was when He had compassion on her, and felt with her. He was saying to them all—“Your sons are all to arise.” You cannot see them again for a few years more, as the widow of Nain may have seen her son, and then had to part with him again when he died, or when she died. But you may be sure that they will hear the voice of the Son of Man; you may be sure that that will go through them, and will have power to quicken their mortal bodies. You may be sure that as He raised up His own body out of the grave, He will raise up theirs. For He died because He had taken our nature upon Him, and He rose again because He had redeemed us from death and the grave. Therefore, I say, we are to receive this sign—all of us—and to lay it to heart, and to assure ourselves that the Son of Man had not more power on earth than He has now; but that the power He used on earth was only a pledge and a witness of that which He has been putting forth ever since, and of that which He will put forth for all whom we know, and for every one of us.
And I would not have you forget the next words. “The young man sat up and began to speak.” That was a sign that he was really the same person he had always been. He had the same power of speech as when his eyes closed, and he ceased to breathe. He was a human being still in all respects. He was able to know his mother, to care for her and comfort her again. It was by Christ’s power that he had been able to speak, when he first called her by her name; and by Christ’s power that that speech had been preserved to him up to that hour; and Christ’s power preserved it in him still. Do not think that it can be otherwise with any that depart out of sight. We may be quite unable to hear their voices. We need not to hear them, but we should not think that they have lost any power they had while they were on earth; we should not think they have less than when they lived on earth; perhaps they may have more.
And there is one more sign still. He delivered the youth to his mother. Mothers ought to receive their children at first as delivered to them by Christ, as placed in their hands by Him. They should remember that He is entrusting their children to them from hour to hour, and then they may delight to receive them back from His hands when they have passed out of this world, and have gone where He is.
My friends, you must teach your children to know the voice of the Son of Man whilst they are on earth. You must teach them that that voice chose them in their baptism, when we sealed them at the font as His. You must teach them that that voice is speaking to them in their consciences every moment, and is bidding them turn from the wrong and do the right. You must teach them that the Son of God became a child and a boy, and grew to be man, that He might claim them as well as you for Himself. You must teach them that He will never leave them nor forsake them. You must show them by your acts that you know He is speaking to you, and guiding and governing you. You must show them that you may turn to Him in weakness and in sorrow; that you believe He died and rose again for us.
And then you may deliver up your children into His hands as to a merciful Saviour, to keep them His, and to use them for His purposes in His kingdom on earth, or in His kingdom in heaven; and then you shall find that He owns you and them as part of that great family which He has rescued from His enemies and presented to His Father.