Jesus Responds to Loss: Luke 7:11-17

When loss is obvious to Jesus, I believe He will always respond! We see Jesus at His best as He and His disciples are going into the town of Nain accompanied by a great crowd.

As most small cities were in the time of Jesus, Nain was a small walled city or village with a gate for entry and exit into that community.

As Jesus drew near to that gate to enter Nain a man who had recently passed away was being carried out of the city for burial. He must have been a younger man as Jesus refers to him as a young man. The young man was the only son of his mother who was a widow. The young man’s mother was accompanied by a great crowd who was going with her to mourn at the burial of her only son!

Jesus observed this extremely sad situation and spoke to the grieving mother compassionately saying, “Do not weep.” (Luke 7:13c ESV) Jesus now comes up to the bier carrying the man’s body out for burial and says to the dead man, “Young man, I say to you arise.” (Luke 7:14c ESV) What happens next? The young man sat up on the bier that was carrying him to his grave and started talking, and Jesus gave him back to his mother alive!

All the people present glorified God and exclaimed a great prophet was among them and God had visited His people! Any time someone is raised from the dead it’s obviously a miracle and this is the historical account of just such a miracle!

It’s also important to see Jesus is responding to loss! This is a miracle in response to a widowed mother losing her only son to death! Jesus had an incredible heart for people’s loss! If He wanted to respond to such loss by raising someone from the dead today, He could certainly do that! I have never seen Him respond to loss today by raising the dead but have seen Him respond to loss with the same heart we see in this history of Jesus raising the widow’s son from the dead.

Notice the Lord saw this widow and it’s obvious He saw her in her grief and loss! Do we make our grief and loss obvious to the Lord today? We should! By the time you read this our country will have passed 50,000 losses to the Covid-19 Pandemic! We have had our share in Tulare County. It’s appropriate to mourn our loss and make that loss known to Jesus! Why? He will respond to our loss! Typically, He doesn’t raise people from the dead, but His response to our loss is no less miraculous than Him raising the Widow of Nain’s son from the dead!

When we mourn and make that mourning obvious to the Lord, we claim Jesus’ promise in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:4; “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

Here’s the key to mourning and it’s obvious the widow from Nain was doing this. Make sure you mourn in the presence of Jesus! As you mourn a loss know Jesus is watching! How do you know that? If you’re operating by faith, then you know your mourning is in the presence of Jesus! Additionally, you need to make it clear to Jesus prayerfully you’re mourning and you need Him! We need to do this for our entire country right now! When we do, Jesus will show up and bring His comfort!

Over four decades have passed since I sat in a reception room at a hospital with a man while the doctor came in and explained a blood clot had killed his mother following surgery for a broken hip! The doctor stayed around and answered a couple of questions and then I sat with this gentleman as he began to sob! I told him what I have said several hundred times since, “I don’t know what to say so I will just stay here with you!” Eventually, he asked a couple of questions and we prayed! I could see the blessing and comfort of God begin to come to him as we spent several minutes together!

At least 50,000 American families need that comfort from Jesus in the midst of this pandemic! They will need it, not only now, but in the future! I have mentioned some of my losses in earlier articles, a good friend to suicide, a friend in combat in Viet Nam, my younger brother and sister and many others! The grief and loss will make their visits from time to time! When they do, I make sure I’m in the presence of Jesus and make my loss known to Him! He always responds providing His comfort!

When your loss comes Jesus will respond and bring comfort! It’s always a miracle!