Nain

 This week's verses are Luke 7:11-17:

Soon afterward Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went with him. As he approached the town gate, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother (who was a widow), and a large crowd from the town was with her. When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, “Do not weep.” Then he came up and touched the bier, and those who carried it stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” So the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him back to his mother. Fear seized them all, and they began to glorify God, saying, “A great prophet has appeared among us!” and “God has come to help his people!” This report about Jesus circulated throughout Judea and all the surrounding country.

 There are two cool things in these verses besides the obvious awesomeness of a young man being raised from the dead and his previously destitute mom being saved from certain ruin.

The first cool thing is the grace of God. Why did Jesus choose this widow over all of the other widows? The verses say he had compassion on her, but didn't he have compassion on lots of people? Why her? It is the central question of grace.

She had nothing to reward him with. And there isn't really any indication that Jesus would have known her. Nain wasn't any particularly strategic village. Did he come to Nain just for her? Or was he just passing through?

We can't really find anything to explain it. Jesus sees her and makes a decision to reverse the horrible twist of fate she is suffering. In one moment, everything is made right again. Just like he has done for us in saving us from our sin. Why us, of all of the people who have sinned? Why does he enter our lives when he does?

The second cool thing is how people react. We've lost our sense of our place in the universe. We are able to control almost everything now, like we're gods. We can create water out of air, make plastic taste like strawberries, heal previously fatal diseases, kill any creature in the world, and go to the moon. Nothing really surprises us or worries us anymore. We don't fear lions and wild dogs and demons the way that people would have back when mankind was more helpless.

So, when they see a miracle, they don't react to it the way we do now, like it's a cool circus trick for us to try to explain away later. No, they recognize instantly that there is a much more powerful force in their midst, one which has control over literally everything, and does not obey any predictable set of rules. 

They have no box to put this into. Their reality has just been demolished in front of them. God is in their midst, and he has walked past plenty of deserving people to stop and help one random person they themselves might have looked down on.

So they react in fear. It feels unsafe and unfair and arbitrary. There's no rhyme or reason to it. And this is all being driven by a God who can do anything. It also reminds them that God exists, and that he is in their midst. They've heard that being in God's presence is deadly if he sees the sin in their hearts. All of this was theoretical up until a minute ago, when Jesus touched the bier and the dead guy sat up and started talking. It's a lot to process.

Do we even consider anymore how crazy a miracle is? Do we consider, in the moment, that the all powerful God has just struck like lightning next to us? I don't know how we could not at least be in awe.

When the shock wears off, they begin to worship God. They feel the widow's joy and they understand. God has come to save us. We have to tell people about this.

When we witness something amazing God has done, or even hear about it from others, do we worship him? Not in a "oh that was cool" sense, but in a sense of recognizing that God is in our midst and has come to help us? Do we spread the word about what he's done?

Nowadays the widow would probably write a book about how she earned the miracle and she and her son would probably have a huge social media following. God would get second mention, as supporting details for why this ministry was so great, or why this or that practice led to the results. No fear and admiration, just a "like" and on to the next thing.

But God deserves our fear and admiration when he bursts forth in our midst in an act of grace. He deserves our worship, miracle or no miracle, but how much easier it is to talk about his greatness when there's something we can point to that can't be explained any other way.

So take some time to dwell on this story. Eyewitnesses wrote it down two thousand years ago because it was important that we knew. God has come to help us. And he is more awesome than we could have known.