March 3 | Luke 7:11-17

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DAILY READING

Luke 7:11-17

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REFLECTION

Be in Awe

By Pam Mann

There’s nothing to add to an account of the dead being raised by Jesus of Nazareth.  Simply read the passage again and be in awe. Feel the chill that fell over the large crowd that had gathered to support the doubly forlorn widow. With her husband dead and now her son headed to join him in the grave, she has nothing. She has no financial future in that society. Life is hard. Funerals happen all the time. People of all ages keep dying. She knows she’s not the first to grieve, and she won’t be the last. Then, Jesus comes into town.

What’s the pivotal moment at the Nain town gate? Jesus saw the hurting woman and “his heart went out to her.” Ah, that each of us, when our moment of grief and deep personal sorrow comes, would hear the Savior of the world speak directly to us and gently say: “Don’t cry.” (That is, I have plans for you beyond this heavy loss.)

What happens next? He touches the bier that bears the dead son. The pall bearers halt. Likely, the crowd also slows and quiets, except for their whispers about who the stranger is. Then, Jesus does the craziest thing. He speaks to the dead. He commands him to get up! The dead man sits up and begins to speak!  Of course, everyone is in awe!

I know something of bearing a dead son to his grave. My oldest son died at age 40 after a routine gall bladder removal that went awry. Just prior to his committal service at Mill Run columbarium, Pastor Joe handed Josh’s cremains container to me. This surprised me.

First, because Joe acted like this weight was mine to bear, and, secondly, because the box was really heavy. I looked about at my husband and my living children. They also looked like this weight was mine to bear. So, I straightened my spine and pulled the hefty box in tight toward my pelvis. In pregnancy for nine months, I carried my son in approximately the place position, and now I was carrying him to his grave. This modern-day "bier," I felt, was also touched by Jesus. I did not halt as the Luke 7 pall bearers did. I walked to the columbarium and held that “bier” as Joe led the graveside committal. That box didn’t get any lighter. Oddly, however, there was comfort in bearing the weight of it.

In the days prior to Josh’s death, many had prayed for Josh’s healing. Jesus never said to Josh in his hospital bed, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” Josh was on a ventilator; his gut had shut down; he was in sepsis, medicated against the pain. But one afternoon Josh rallied when I was alone at his bedside. His eyes opened, looking past me, above me, with an expression of awe. He saw something I couldn’t see, and he had no strength or means to communicate to me what he saw.

I now take comfort in his awestruck countenance and the memory of it. We have a Savior who speaks to the dead. In my experience, Jesus rarely does this in the style He chose in Luke 7. But the day is coming when the dead in Christ will know the Savior’s touch. We

each will hear Jesus say: “Get up!”

While you wait for that glorious day, do not turn away when Jesus’ heart goes out to you and He whispers: “Don’t cry.” Breathe His kindness into your sorrow and be in awe that the day of resurrection is coming.

PRAYER

Thank You, Jesus, that You are walking with us in our sorrows. We are in awe of Your power. When we walk with the weight of grief, we ask You to touch us and sustain us.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

PAM MANN

I first joined UALC when my husband (then my fiancé) and I were college students involved in youth ministry. God has used UALC to nurture our family’s faith, even in our years outside the U.S. I’ve participated in UALC ministries with kids, art, prayer, exercise, ESL, and Bible teaching. I do all the fun church things.