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.
Jesus and his disciples came upon tis little village, which probably had a population of a hundred to a hundred-and-fifty souls. It is also about six miles south of Nazareth. As Jesus and his disciples approached the village near the gate, a funeral procession got his attention. Funerals would process out of the city gate to bury the person outside the city walls where the family cemeteries were located. Funerals were usually at the end of the day and as much as was possible it was on the day of the death of the person. Luke makes a point of telling us that this death involved an only-begotten son. The mother was a widow who was now childless. She had no family left and she had become an “orphaned parent.” This passage bristles with emotion. Many people in the town shared in the widow’s grief as they gathered around her in mourning. Such mourning was seen as an act of love by one’s neighbors. This sad scene greeted Jesus as he enters the little village.
The burial customs in Judaism in antiquity required that the person not be prepared for burial until the death was certain and then the family tore their cloths as a sign of mourning and physically shut the eyes of the corpse to show that they were dead. Next it was important to quickly wash and anoint the body for burial. They were not generally kept in the house overnight. The corpse was wrapped in linen and spices and placed on a wooden plank. This is what the text refers to as a bier. They were not placed in coffins. Everyone could see the corpse, wrapped in strips of linen, on the plank as they processed to the family cemetery.
Jesus, moved by compassion, first approached the widow and told her to stop crying. He then approached the men carrying the dead boy and then he touched the plank. As soon as he touched the bier the procession stopped, not because of a miracle, but more likely out of shock because touching the bier defiled a person according to the Law. That person would have to stay out of the community and forsake the worship of God for seven days. Luke tells us that our Lord actions were motivated by his compassion for the widow. This motive –- the motive of compassion –- is attributed to Jesus in all four Gospels. Here is a point I want you to take away: part of the collective memory of Luke’s eyewitnesses was that on more than one occasion they witnessed the Word of God made flesh so moved by his very own human compassion for other people that he stopped everything he was doing and made the wrong thing right. And I submit to you that he still does that today. A dead man cannot ask to be brought back to life. God does not wait for the lost to find their way back to him. Jesus took the initiative to raise the widow’s son.
Now, here is something else I want you to consider: what is absent from this account is the every present, every critical, Pharisee. But for the original audience, his touching of the bier was probably enough to bring back the contrast between Jesus’ love for people and the self-righteousness of those who had nothing to offer but the Law. The righteousness of God is not attained in its pursuit, holiness does not glory in itself — but rather as we follow Jesus in his love for others, the righteousness of God overcomes us.
We don’t know how the people carrying the plank responded to Jesus at first other than the fact that they stop in their tracks. When he started talking to the dead boy they and others may have thought he was deranged. Why would a stranger, who did not know this family, interrupt such a sad and necessary ritual at the most grievous moment? They may have laughed at him. The very idea of speaking to a dead person would have been humorous had the context not been so heart breaking. But unthinkable was about to happen: The way of all flesh had crossed paths with the Word made flesh.
And he (Jesus) said, Young man, I say unto thee Arise. And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother.
This account of Jesus raising the widow’s son from the dead first of all demonstrates Jesus’ compassion and willingness to reach out and meets our most profound needs. It is Jesus taking the initiative in this account. He comforts the widow and he restores her boy to life and health. This account also displays the power of Jesus to reach to the very limits of our personal existence. He can and does overpower death. And please note once again that it is not that the Kingdom of God is coming in the future, not that the Kingdom has come in part, not that the promise of the Kingdom has come. No. The Kingdom of God has come. A new and happy state of being has come upon all creation through Jesus and he has put a stop to death:
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.