Jesus: Prioritizing What’s Important at Nain                                                                      E - 5

 

Knowing someone means you know how they think and then act.  Let’s learn how Jesus prioritizes US!

Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him.  As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out - the only son of his mother, and she was a widow.  And a large crowd from the town was with her.  When the Lord saw her, His heart went out to her and He said, “Don’t cry.”

Then He went up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still.  He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!”  The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother. 

Luke 7:11-15 (NIV)

 

Have you ever seen a referee or umpire in a sport make a really bad call?  Or perhaps a baseball player is ready to catch a flyball, and then loses it in the sun at the last second?  Or perhaps you somehow missed a one-foot putt on a golfing green.  Astonishing, embarrassing!

Someone could easily say that Jesus missed the boat on this easy call.  He comes near a village, He sees a widow, He spots the casket, and the obvious solution would be to raise the young man first, then talk to the widow in a victorious celebration.  Kind of a no-brainer, right?  Perhaps Jesus was getting tired from all the miracles He was doing?

Wrong!

How many other people told her not to cry on that day?  Probably several people.  But was there something special in the eyes of Jesus and in His voice, which gave her a glimmer of hope, even while she stood near the casket.  Were some impossible and outlandish expectations and dreams aroused through His words?  Why did this stranger even care?

The answer to the question of speaking with the widow FIRST is simple.  Because “His heart went out to her”.  Raising someone from the dead is easy for Jesus, but seeing a lonely grieving widow is gut-wrenching, even for the God-Man Jesus.  So in the mind and heart of Jesus, He simply prioritized what was more important: a hurting sister.  Like we can sometimes be!

So often we want Jesus to do a certain action in our lives, but it seems He doesn’t.  We easily see the problem and that is where we direct, and expect, Him to go. But He often doesn’t. That’s because His first priority is us seeing Him face to face, and having us begin to hear His reassuring voice, knowing that healing will follow.

Know that physical death is not to be feared. What is to be feared is living life in sad shadows, having a fear filled face, and a sense of hopelessness for the future. The goal Jesus has for us is an abundant life filled with the Holy Spirit, with Jesus and our Father God as well as the Holy Spirit living right in our hearts. You need never be alone, nor fear the future any longer!

First and foremost, try to see and understand that Jesus cares about us and our lives more than we can imagine.  Talk to Him and see.

 

1) How might you have acted when first seeing that funeral procession?

2) How did that widow move through the steps from the trauma, to meeting Jesus, to a “BUT NOW” outlook on life? 

3) In her later life, how much would she remember about meeting that carpenter-turned-preacher?

4) What does the expression about Jesus’ “heart going out” to the widow mean? Would He do that for us?  For you?

5) Can you even imagine what words Jesus might have used speaking with the widow?

6) Do you think Jesus was thinking about the widow or was He also thinking of the crowd’s reaction. Or, a great opportunity for some effective “PR”?  Putting it another way, if there was no crowd, would He have done things the same way?

7) Why was this story included in the Gospel?  What can we learn for our lives?