True Revival (Luke 7:1–17) | The Gospel of Luke (Part 52)

Transcript

JRNT 103
3/15/2026
The Gospel of Luke (Part 52) – True Revival
Luke 7: 1-17
Jesse Randolph

D. L. Moody, the renowned preacher and evangelist of the late 1800s once told the story about how he was called upon as a young man to preach a last-minute funeral sermon. He tells the story this way:
“When a young man, I was called upon suddenly, in Chicago, to preach a funeral sermon. A good many Chicago businessmen were to be there, and I said to myself, ‘Now, it will be a good chance for me to preach the gospel to those men, and I will get one of Christ’s funeral sermons.’ I hunted all through the four Gospels trying to find one of Christ’s funeral sermons, but I couldn’t find any. I found He broke up every funeral He ever attended! He never preached a funeral sermon in the world. Death couldn’t exist where He was. When the dead heard His voice they sprang to life.”

And Moody’s right. Wherever Jesus went during His earthly ministry, He was stopping death in its tracks. He was arresting death. There is no biblical record of Jesus ever having preached a funeral sermon.

But what we do have in the scripture, is Jesus bringing about revival. And I don’t mean what passes for “revival” today, where folks are rolling-in-the-aisles and speaking in what they call “tongues” . . . and where the pastor is working himself into a lather, as he’s claiming to have a “word from the Lord.” Instead, what I mean by Jesus bringing about revival, and true revival, is that He was regularly resuscitating people, bringing them to wellness, to health. And He was also physically bringing back people from the dead. In fact, according to Merriam-Webster, one of the definitions of “revival” is: “to return to consciousness or life.” And using that definition, Jesus absolutely brought about “revival.” He absolutely was a source of true revival.

As I mentioned, we’ll be in Luke 7 this morning. This morning, we’re going to work through these twin accounts of true revival brought about by Jesus. One involving a Roman centurion and his slave. And the other involving a Gentile woman and her son.

Now, of course, every text has a context. The famous saying is a text without a context is a pretext. A text in the wrong hands, like a preacher’s putty, a wax nose can be used by the man behind the pulpit to say what he wants to say rather than being used by the text to say what it has to say. And we don’t want that to happen. We want to handle scripture contextually, so that we can understand it accurately, and then live in light of it faithfully.

So, what’s the context here of our passage in Luke 7? Well, the immediate context is this. The very last verse we were in six weeks ago, in the Gospel of Luke, at the end of Luke 6, Jesus was finishing up what’s known as His Sermon on the Plain. And the Sermon on the Plain, you’ll recall, spans from verse 20 through verse 49 of Luke 6. And it contains a number of memorable features. The Beatitudes of verses 20 through 23, moral instructions like we see in verse 27-28, “love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who disparage you.”

This Sermon on the Plain includes these vivid illustrations: “specks and logs.” And the Sermon on the Plain has these piercing questions, like it has in verse 46, “Now why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” And that’s where we left off last time, some six weeks ago, at the conclusion of Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain.

And here’s another point to bring out in terms of context. Up to this point in Luke’s Gospel as a whole, the context has largely been Jewish. Luke is a Gentile, as he’s writing this scripture. But the setting has largely been Jewish. Think about that. Jesus was born to Jewish parents. He was dedicated at the temple according to Jewish Law. John the Baptist announced Him as the promised Jewish Messiah. He had a distinctly Jewish genealogy. His parents found Him preaching in a Jewish synagogue. Luke 4 says He came to fulfill certain Jewish prophecy. He declared Himself Lord of the Jewish Sabbath. And then He preached His Sermon on the Plain to a largely Jewish crowd. So, though Luke was a Gentile up to this point, his Gospel has this distinctly Jewish flavor.

Now, here in Luke 7, that Jewish focus starts to broaden out a bit as Jesus has these distinct interactions with these Gentiles. First, a well-to-do military figure. And then second, with a worried widow. He ministers to them both. And in doing so Jesus accomplishes a few things. I’ll come back to these later. Number one, He rewarded faith. Number two, He demonstrated compassion. Number three, He showcased His divine power. And number four, He previewed the eventual reach of His message to the nations. I’ll say that again. In this setting that we’ll be in today, in Luke 7 Jesus rewarded faith, He demonstrated compassion, He showcased His divine power, and He previewed the eventual reach of His message to the nations.

Well with that, let’s get into it. We’ll be moving quickly today. It’s ok, I’m caffeinated. Let’s look at verse 1, it says, “When He had completed all His words in the hearing of the people, He went to Capernaum.” Now, this is a transitionary phrase with Luke explaining that after Jesus finished His Sermon on the Plain outside of Capernaum, He entered the city of Capernaum itself and began to minister there.

And Capernaum, we’ve already seen, was this fishing village on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee. And Jesus had already been there. Remember that after Jesus was thrown out of His hometown synagogue in Luke 4, Luke 4:31 tells us, “He came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and He was teaching them on the Sabbath.” It was in Capernaum where Jesus cast out the “spirit of an unclean demon” in Luke 4:33. It was in Capernaum that Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law along with many others in Luke 4:38-40. It was near Capernaum that to Peter’s amazement, Jesus caused this miraculous haul of fish. And it was there in Capernaum, as we’re told in Luke 5, that Jesus healed a leper and healed a paralytic. And it was near Capernaum that He called Levi out from his tax booth, outside the city limits. Jesus left Capernaum to go up on “the mountain to pray”, we’re told in Luke 6:12. And He was outside Capernaum when He came down that mountain and then delivered the Sermon on the Plain.

But now, here in chapter 7:1, after finishing that Sermon on the Plain: “When He had completed all His words in the hearing of the people” it says, you see it there, “He went to Capernaum.”
So now Jesus was back in what would essentially become His home base for ministry, His adopted hometown, before He ultimately set His face toward Jerusalem to go do the Father’s will. By going to the Cross, like a Lamb led to the slaughter on behalf of those sinners like you and me.

But we’re not there yet. We’re not getting to the Jerusalem scene, we’re still in Jesus’ Galilean ministry, and the headquarters is in Capernaum. And with that setting, Luke tells us in verse 2:
“a centurion’s slave who was highly regarded by him, was sick and about to die.” Now, I don’t think it’s either an accident or a coincidence that Luke places this account right here. Recall how this Sermon on the Plain ended, with that vivid illustration of the distinction between true faith and false faith. That distinction between true faith and fake faith.

In fact, look up the page at Luke 6, verses 47-49, this is the concluding words of the Sermon on the Plain where Jesus says, “Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and does them, I will show you whom he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug and went deep, and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the river burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.”

Well, with the account of this centurion, Luke, who back in the first chapter of this Gospel pledged to Theophilus to “write out for you” these various events according to an “orderly sequence”, that’s how he phrased it. He’s not recorded right after his Sermon on the Plain, where He commends solid-rock faith. And now, He gives this account of a man, this centurion, who had faith like that. Who had such faith.

We’ll get into to that in a minute, but for now, what is a “centurion”?
I’ve started throwing around words like “centurion”, we read it off the page here. But what was a “centurion”? Remember that in 1st century Judea, this territory was under the control of the Roman Empire. And the Romans had not only set political rulers over Judea. Men like Pontius Pilate – who was the “governor of Judea.” But under those political authorities and backing those political authorities were the Roman military. There was a massive Roman military force all throughout the Roman Empire . . . made of these different squads of foot soldiers.
Now, a “centurion” was a commander of a squad of one hundred Roman foot soldiers. So, his job was to keep 100 unruly men, military guys, away from their wives, under control, in the season that they were in. That was no small task.

Now, this “centurion here in chapter 7, he’s not being singled out in scripture because of his military prowess or his administrative skill. Again, as we’re going to see, he’s being singled out for his faith. But first, a few more details. Verse 2 says:
“And a centurion’s slave, who was highly regarded by him, was sick and about to die.”
Now, right away a couple of things jump off the page to us about this centurion. For starters, this high-ranking military official was a clear man of means. We know on average, that centurions at this time made something like 15 times more than the average soldier for the Roman army. And this centurion was no different. We’re told here that he had a “slave.” And those who had slaves were people of means.

But also note this, that this man’s slave, it says, “was highly regarded by him.” Meaning, highly regarded by the centurion. At least to me, this centurion calls to mind Boaz. That leading figure from the Old Testament book of Ruth, who in Ruth 2:1 is described as “a mighty man of excellence.” And who we saw last fall when we went through the book of Ruth. We saw that Boaz was this wealthy man, this man of means, this wealthy landowner. But also, he took very good care of his field hands. Something similar is happening here with this centurion. He’s this high-powered Roman official, this Roman military ruler. And yet, he has this slave, this doulos. And it says whom he “highly regarded.”

This centurion, in other words, not only had a large estate, he was large-hearted. He was not only wealthy, he was humane. He cared about his slave. This slave was “highly regarded” by this centurion, highly esteemed by this centurion, highly valued by this centurion. Not only because of his economic benefit to this centurion, but personally. In fact, the Greek word here for “highly regarded” in verse 2, is the same word that we find over in 1 Peter 2:4, which just describes you and I as believers, being “precious in the sight of God.” It’s translated precious. So, this slave, you could say, was “precious” to this centurion.

But at the same time, we note, this slave was not doing well. End of verse 2, we’re told that this slave “was sick and about to die.” He had taken ill with some disease. He was on the verge of death. In Matthew’s Gospel, the cross reference in Matthew 8, we’re told that his illness had something to do potentially with paralysis or even a demonic torment. Luke doesn’t give us that detail for reasons only the Spirit knows. Luke, the physician, leaves that detail out. And Luke is really stressing here the gravity of the situation. The bleakness of this, of this slave’s prognosis. As Luke is reporting it in our passage, this man is on death’s doorstep and there’s nothing anyone can do. Not even a doctor to take care of him, to make him well, to make him better. This situation, in other words, was urgent.

And look what this man, this centurion, did in his urgency. Verse 3 says:
“Now when he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders asking Him to come and save the life of his slave.”
Now, those “elders” would not necessarily have been elderly men, though they could have been. The idea here is that these were local Jewish religious leaders there in Capernaum, who were esteemed men, respected men in the community. Not the type of men who typically would be considering themselves errand boys for a Gentile like this centurion.

It didn’t matter though. This centurion, Gentile though he was, he was desperate. He’s in a state of desperation over the well-being of this slave whom he holds in such high regard. And having heard of Jesus’ healing ministry making its way through Capernaum, and assuming that somebody with a following like Jesus, surely wouldn’t give him the time of day, he calls on these “elders” to contact Jesus to heal his slave, to “come and save [it says] the life of his slave.”

Now, I’ve already alluded to this, but Luke is presenting here somewhat of an ill-fitting scenario. You know, you have this Gentile, this high-ranking man, but still a Gentile, making this appeal to this group of Jewish religious leaders, to contact a Jewish man, Jesus, who has been claiming to be the Messiah. So that this Jewish man can heal this Gentile man’s slave. And not only that, this Gentile who’s making this request happens to be a Roman military official. Meaning, he’s part of the Roman establishment which has set itself over and annexed Judea – the land of the Jews. In other words, this man would have been highly unpopular with the Jewish religious establishment. And he had the audacity though to make this request to these Jewish rulers. Like, seriously, who did he think he was? And why would they even think about entertaining his request?

Well, verses 4 and 5 fill in some of the details. Let’s keep reading, it says:
“And when they came to Jesus, they were earnestly pleading with Him, saying, ‘He is worthy for You to grant this to him; for he loves our nation and it was he who built us our synagogue.’”
In other words, these Jewish elders not only heard this centurion’s request . . . they heeded it. They heard this centurion’s words about his sick slave and his desperate desire to save his slave’s life. And now, these elders take that request to Jesus. They “came” to Him, it says, and not only did they come to Him, “they were earnestly pleading with Him.” They were stepping up on behalf of this man, going to bat for him. But why? Why would they lobby for an uncircumcised Gentile? Why would they lobby for a dog? Why would they lobby for one of the henchmen of their hostile oppressor – the Romans? Why would they be willing to be this go-between between this goyim – this Gentile and this Rabbi who was causing all this ruckus?

Well, as it turns out, though he was of Gentile blood, apparently this centurion was a God-fearer. Meaning, he was a Gentile who had been exposed, to some degree, to the Old Testament scriptures. He had, to some degree, embraced Jewish teaching and Jewish culture, and even certain religious practices of the Jews. He just hadn’t become a full Jewish proselyte. He hadn’t become a true convert. By that I mean he hadn’t undergone circumcision, which would indicate his total covenant commitment.

Nevertheless though, this “centurion” had embraced the God of Israel. And he had embraced the people of Israel, hence this expression here in verse 5: “for he loves our nation.”
And so strong was his embrace of both, both the God of Israel and the people of Israel, that he committed his own personal wealth to building a house of worship for the people of Israel. The end of verse 5: “. . . and it was he who built us our synagogue.”

This centurion, then, was a man of means. He had a slave. He had the funds to build an entire synagogue. And he loved Israel. And for these “Jewish elders” that was good enough. Through his support and through his generosity he had earned the right to have them approach Jesus to grant him a hearing. Look at verse 4 again, it says:
“And when they came to Jesus, they were earnestly pleading with Him, saying, ‘He [meaning the Roman centurion] is worthy for You to grant this to him.”
Now, you can already hear the bias that these religious rulers had toward their own notions of works-based religion. They looked at what one “deserved.” And what one is “worthy” of, in purely merit-spaced terms. Meaning, if someone like this centurion had been kind enough, or generous enough, or supportive enough – well then, he deserved what he was asking for. In this case, a hearing with Jesus on behalf of his slave. Note that faith isn’t even a thought here. Rather, this is more a matter of mutual backscratching. You know, “You scratch my back and build me a synagogue.” “And I’ll scratch your back and give you an audience with this faith healer.”

For these “Jewish elders,” then to say that this centurion was “worthy”, it wasn’t anything like what you and I would say, if we were asked “Lord willing”, if we deem ourselves worthy to be in the presence of Jesus. We answer with words like Ephesians 2:8-9:
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works that no one may boast.”
You know, we answer with words like Philippians 3:9, that we are:
“. . . found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own which is from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ.”
We echo the words of the tax collector in Luke 18:13:
“God, be merciful to me, the sinner!”
In other words, we know that we’re not worthy to stand before Christ. We know that we are not worthy, and there’s nothing that we could do, or earn, or perform to gain that worthiness to stand before Christ. Rather, we are completely and utterly unworthy to stand before Him. And seeing that and recognizing that only magnifies the grace and the mercy of God, in bringing us to Him in the first place.
Well, these Jewish religious leaders had no such conception of what it means to be “worthy”, so they said to Jesus, “earnestly pleading with Him,” “He is worthy for You to grant this to him.”

The narrative continues in verse 6, it says: “Now Jesus was going on His way with them.”
Meaning, Jesus had heard the pleas of these “Jewish elders” . . . and He had joined them in this procession of some sort, to the centurion’s house. And note, there’s no record here of Jesus saying, ‘wait a minute, this guy’s a Gentile?’ ‘Why am I going to minister to him?’ Nor is there any indication here that Jesus is saying ‘Oh, he built us a synagogue? That’s really impressive, I want to go minister to him now.’
No, He simply heard of a need, a help, a request for help, and He got on the road with this group, to meet this man.

Reading on in verse 6, it says: “. . . and when He was not far from the house,” meaning, the house of the centurion, there in Capernaum, “. . . the centurion sent friends.”
So, the centurion sent this entourage to meet Jesus out on the front lawn, the courtyard, the driveway. And look at what his friends said to Jesus, on his behalf.
First, they called Him “Lord.” Now, here that’s not merely a polite form of address. Instead, speaking on behalf of the centurion, this is a direct acknowledgment of Jesus as the divine Lord. As the Son of God. As the promised Messiah of Israel. Though not of Israel, this centurion apparently had been doing his homework. And he had put two-and-two together. And with eyes of faith, he recognized who Jesus was. So, on behalf of this centurion, his friends say here, in verse 6:
“Lord, do not trouble Yourself further, for I am not good enough for You to come under my roof.”
Note the humility there. And then verse 7:
“For this reason I did not even consider myself worthy to come to You.”

Now, stop there for a moment. Note the contrast that Luke is drawing masterfully in his recounting of this event. You know, the “Jewish elders” of Capernaum, they see this centurion as “worthy” because he’s supportive of their Judaism. Because he’s built them a synagogue. But for the centurion himself, when told that Jesus is now making His way toward him he recoils, not with horror, but with humility. And why? Well, because he had some sense of the greatness of Jesus. And he had some sense of the goodness of Jesus.

Not only that, this man had faith in Jesus. He had faith in Jesus’ word. End of verse 7:
“. . . but just say the word, and my servant will be healed.”
And then verse 8: “For I also am a man placed under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, “Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.”
So, this centurion is saying to Jesus here “I’m a military guy. I’m in a position of authority. I give commands, and those under my command, they obey me. When I want something done, it gets done. And I know, Jesus, that You can do the same. You’ve been healing the sick and You’ve been healing the lame, and You’ve been healing the diseased. And You’ve been casting out demons. And You’ve been causing fish to swim into nets that they shouldn’t be swimming into. You have ultimate authority. You have total authority. You have all authority. So I know Jesus, that You can heal my slave. In fact, so powerful are you, Lord, that I know that You don’t even need to come into my house to heal the slave. You can merely speak the word, and it will be done.” “You’re Almighty!”
No sighs needed. No wonders requested. Look at the end of verse 7 again:
“. . . just say the word, and my servant will be healed.”

This centurion, in other words, was not some ordinary Gentile. This was a man who had faith. This was a man who had faith, not in some abstract form, he had faith in Jesus, and he had faith, specifically in Jesus’ word. And his faith struck Jesus. Verse 9:
“Now then Jesus heard this.” Meaning, when he heard the centurion’s recitation of his faith note what comes next:
“He marveled at him.” – Jesus marveled at this man’s faith. In His humanity, He was astonished at what He had beheld.

And aware of who was surrounding Him and who was following Him, middle of verse 9:
“. . . He turned to the crowd that was following Him and said, ‘I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such great faith.”
This, for Jesus, was an intentional teaching moment. He was intentionally making a point. He had come to bring the good news of the kingdom of God to Israel, but to this point, they had rejected Him. They had thrown Him out of their synagogue in His hometown of Nazareth. Their religious leaders, the Pharisees, as we saw back in Luke 6:11, were “filled with rage” after He declared Himself the Lord of the Sabbath. And they were plotting and “discussing together what they might do to Jesus.”

But then, on the other hand, was this Gentile, this centurion, who simply wanted to see his slave spared. A slave he obviously cared about. A slave whom he deemed precious.

And this centurion believed not only that Jesus could accomplish this feat, but he believed in Jesus – period. Which caused Jesus to marvel, verse 9, and then turn dramatically to this crowd made up largely of Jewish followers and say to them: “not even in Israel have I found such faith.”
Now, to be clear, Jesus here is not saying, sometimes this is taken a little bit too far, Jesus isn’t saying here that there was zero faith in Israel. Or that there is no faith in Israel. Rather, this is a statement of comparison. He’s saying compared to the faith that I have found in Israel it’s not as great as the faith I’ve seen right here, with this centurion.

This centurion had faith and it wasn’t going to go unrewarded. Look at verse 10, it says:
“And when those who had been sent returned to the house.”
Meaning, when the centurion’s friends went back to the centurion’s house and, then look at these last words: “. . . they found the slave in good health.”
There was no laying on of hands. There was no holy healing water sprinkled. There was no organ dramatically playing off to the side. Right? There was no white jacket waving. And there was no performance. There was no camera. Instead, in a demonstration of His divine power, as the One who, Revelation 1:18 – “. . . holds the keys of death.” Jesus saved this man’s life from afar. He spoke from down the road, and this sick man was healed. His deadly disease, whatever it was, paralysis, says Matthew, departed from him. This slave’s life had been hanging by a thread. He’d been knocking on death’s door. But no longer. Jesus commended and rewarded his master’s, the centurion’s faith, his humble faith, his deep whole-hearted faith in Jesus, His power and His word.

Continuing on in chapter 7, we’re going to see now, that Jesus, in a short period of time, caused the delay, not only of one funeral, but two - Verse 11:
“And it happened that soon afterwards He went to a city called Nain, and His disciples were going along with Him, accompanied by a large crowd.”
“And it happened.” We’ll start there. There’s that familiar expression again, from Luke – “And it happened.” Which is really his way of literarily tracing out how God is providentially directing these events from one to the other, to the other.
And it happened “that soon afterwards.” Meaning, “soon after” the resuscitation of that slave in Capernaum, that Jesus “went to a city called Nain.”
And as was becoming more common by this point, not only did Jesus’ “disciples”, His true followers, follow Him, but He was “accompanied [it says] by a large crowd.” Meaning, not those who were necessarily His followers, but the lookie-lues, those who were trekking around Him out of curiosity. And Jesus, being followed by this group, ends up in this city called “Nain” which is about 25 miles southwest of Capernaum. A full day’s journey on foot.

And note, as He and His disciples and His followers arrived there at Nain a funeral procession is coming out of this city. Verse 12 says:
“Now, as He approached the gate of the city, behold, a dead man was being carried out.”
Now, that word “behold” is like a literary magnifying glass. Luke here is very intentionally saying: “look at this!” Like, dial in, pay attention to what I’m about to share with you. It’s intended to put us on high alert. To give us that feeling like when an ambulance flies by us on the street, on the way to take care of whatever crisis is going to take care of.

Luke wants us to focus here on this “dead man.” Why? Why is this dead man being carried out? What’s the story here?
Well, first of all, why is he being carried out of the city gate, out of the city? Well, in these times, it was unlawful to bury one’s dead inside city limits. The dead had to be buried outside the city, outside the city walls, outside the city gates. So, this man is rightly, according to the custom and law and practice, being transported outside of the city. Perhaps to be placed in a cave, if the family had means to cover that. But based on the next detail, we learn from Luke here, it’s more likely he was simply going to be taken outside of the city and put in a hole in the ground. Which is how the poor were buried. And then how this worked, once you were buried in a hole, and they placed dirt on top of you, they’d put a pile of rocks over that site, so that passersby would know that they couldn’t put their dead there. No room, it’s occupied by our dead guy. Not here.
Well, this dead man was likely destined for this hole in the ground – not a cave, because of the next thing we learn in verse 12, that he was “the only son of his mother, and she was a widow.”
And widowhood meant poverty. Widowhood, this was not a family of means.

Now, you’d be hard pressed to dream up a sadder scenario than what we see here. Right? There’s this woman, this widow who’s likely somewhat older. She’s already lost her husband. But at least she still has her one son. That one child to continue on the family name. That one child who’s going to look after her and care for her and protect her and provide for her in her later years. But now, she’s watching him being carried out, lifeless and breathless. He’s dead. And she’s been here before. And she could be going through some form of Deja vu view at this point. Because she remembers a similar procession when she saw her husband carried out the exact same way. But now, the one comfort and the one source of consolation she has left, her son, is now gone. Leaving her not only alone, but in a world without retirement accounts and social Security and life insurance and pensions. This is going to leave desperately poor depending entirely upon the good graces of others.

Well, in the immediate context of this scene, we are told, end of verse 12, that on this day, she’s not completely alone. There’s this “. . . sizeable crowd from the city was with her.” But most of those were likely paid mourners, hired mourners. The reality is, and the reality was, once her son was buried, once he was placed in that hole in the ground, once she went back to her home. And once the days and the weeks and the months rolled on, and once reality hit, her remaining years on this earth were going to be marked by loneliness and risk and worry. This would have been a crippling set of events to cross her mind.

Well, it’s at that moment, with her son being carried out, that this woman encountered Jesus. Fresh off His 25-mile journey from Capernaum. Fresh off healing this centurion’s slave. And look what Luke records here in verse 13, it says:
“And when the Lord saw her, He felt compassion for her and said to her, ‘Do not cry.’”

Now, a lot of the time, those in our camp, in our circles, in Bible church circles, we will place a good amount of emphasis on the attributes of Jesus which soft, and liberal, and woke churches have stripped Him of. You know, they strum the solitary “Jesus love you” cord. And so, we swing the other way, and we swing the other way hard, and we emphasize to Jesus being holy and righteous, and just and wrathful. But sometimes, when we do so we can end up with this, also wrong one-dimensional view of Jesus. A lopsided view of Jesus. Where He’s exclusively: warrior Jesus, or Navy Seal Jesus, or whips-and-cords Jesus, or blood and vengeance Jesus. But in reality, and in proper biblical balance, God’s Word, taken as a whole, really tones that image of Him down.
The Bible portrays Jesus as a tender and compassionate Savior.
Mark 1:39 says:
“And He went, preaching in their synagogues throughout all Galilee and casting out the demons. And a leper came to Jesus, pleading with Him and falling on his knees before Him, and saying, ‘If You are willing, You can make me clean.’ And moved with compassion, [it says] He stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I am willing; be cleansed.’”
Matthew 11:28, Jesus says:
“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
It’s that side of Jesus that we see here in this account in Luke. He didn’t walk up to this widowed, grieving woman in Nain, and say something like: “Well, your son got what he deserved – after all, all have sinned.” Right?
No. He saw this heartbroken woman. He “felt compassion” for her. And that word “compassion” comes from a Greek word that means “insides.” Like the “insides of one’s body.” One’s intestines, one’s stomach, one’s guts, if you want to put it that way. In these times, that was thought of as the seat of human emotions.

And the point is, from deep within, Jesus felt pity for this woman. He felt compassion for this woman. His heart went out to her. And so, He immediately began to comfort her. He didn’t say to her, in her time of grief, “You know, your feelings aren’t truth.” He didn’t say to her, “You know, lady, you should read your Bible more, or trust God more.” He didn’t give her some platitude to get her out of his hair. No. He “felt compassion” for her. He was moved to the core of His being, in sorrow.

And then He said this: “Do not cry.”
Do not cry because tears are a sign of weakness, right? Do not cry because tears show weak faith, or no faith, right? No. We know that‘s not true. Jesus Himself wept outside the tomb of Lazarus. Jesus told this woman not to cry because of what He was about to do. He told her not to cry because He didn’t want her to miss through the mistiness caused by her tear ducts, the miracle He was about to perform.

Look at verse 14:
“And He came up and touched the coffin, and the bearers came to a halt.”
Now, that word “coffin” in our English Bible, it can mean a wooden coffin the way that we would think of the term today. But it can also mean a stretcher carried on the shoulders of the men who are transporting the body. I think it’s actually that, in this context. This is not a coffin like a pine box like we think of. This is more of a stretcher, from which a lifeless body could easily be transferred into a hole in the ground.

And the real point here is that Jesus touched whatever this man was being transported on. And that “the bearers [verse 14] came to a halt.” They had been marching forward, but now they are stopped dead in their tracts. Why? Well, because Jesus had touched an item which was carrying a dead body. And under the Mosaic Law to touch a dead body rendered the one unclean.
Numbers 19:16 says:
“. . . anyone who in the open field touches one who has been slain with a sword or who has died naturally, or a human bone or a grave, shall be unclean for seven days.”
So, the Law prohibited touching a dead body. But remember, there was tradition that had developed in these days. That tradition was a fence around the law. And the way that the law of Moses was interpreted, that law in these days, was that simply by touching the stretcher on which this body was being transported, that would render somebody like Jesus, ceremonially unclean.

But the God-Man wasn’t defiled by touching this stretcher. In fact, the exact opposite occurred. See, in touching this man’s stretcher, Jesus actually was reversing death. He was reversing the very source of what would have defiled this man, under the Mosaic Law. And when Jesus touched this man’s stretcher, I believe it’s at that very moment, that life surged back through his body with his heart starting to beat, and his lungs starting to heave, and the brain synapses starting to fire. It was a true miracle.

And then came the command, end of verse 14, it says: “And He said, ‘Young man, I say to you, arise!’”
Not only from your stretcher, but from the dead.
And he did. Verse 15, it says: “And the dead man sat up.”
What a sentence that is. The dead man sat up. You know, this once prone, lifeless man, is now sitting straight up on his stretcher. If it weren’t in God’s Word, it’d be the stuff of nightmares, right? Think of a dead man sitting up. But here, the scene unfolds for a purpose. Where Jesus is demonstrating, not only His compassion toward the widowed mother at Nain, but He’s demonstrating His power over death by bringing her son back to life.

And then, as if to verify that this once-dead man who’s now sitting up, that he’s not sitting up involuntarily, some post-death twitch. Dr. Luke tells us that “. . . [He] began to speak.”
What he said we don’t know. The secret thing belongs to the Lord.

But then, there’s this sweet statement, end of verse 15: “And Jesus gave him back to his mother.”
You know, moments earlier, this woman was desperate. And she was despairing with this bleak and lonely future ahead of her. But now, suddenly, she has her son back. Who is now inexplicably sitting up, alive and talking.
And it all happened on account of this Man who had just “happened” to pass through her village of Nain that day. Who was this Man?

Well, the crowd there in Nain started to catch on, at least in part. In verse 26, it says:
“And fear gripped them all, and they began glorifying God, saying, ‘A great prophet has arisen among us!’ and, ‘God has visited His people!’”
So, the crowd at Nain was rightly filled with “fear”, with awe. It’s not every day that you see a dead man sitting up in his stretcher, coming back to life.
But note what their fear led to: “they began [it says] glorifying God.”
And why? Well, they recognized they were in the presence of greatness. To them, at minimum, it was evident that Jesus was some sort of “great prophet” through whom “God [was visiting] His people.” Like He had done in the days of the prophets of old.
Now, don’t take this too far and assume that what they’re saying here, is that this is the Messiah, or this is God. That’s not what’s being communicated. But they did understand that something extra ordinary was happening here. And something powerful and special was happening here. And it must have been God ordained. And so, they began glorifying God.

And then that fear that they experienced, that fear of what they had witnessed, naturally spread to other towns in the district. Verse 17:
“And this report concerning Him went out all over Judea and in all the surrounding district.”

Well, as we started this morning, I mentioned that the events recorded in this section of Luke’s Gospel where we’ve encountered this healing of the centurion’s slave, and then also this raising of the widow’s son at Nain. They provide us with several bigger-picture themes that we would be wise to sit with and reflect upon.
For instance, in these two episodes, we’ve seen these interactions that Jesus had with these two Gentiles, one rich, one poor, one male, one female. And these episodes preview the eventual reach of His message to the nations beyond Israel.
Not only that, these episodes showcase the fact that Jesus is sovereign over life and death as an aspect of His being all-powerful, omnipotent, as God. At the same time, this lesson from this Gospel account, has shown us that Jesus is merciful and compassionate, as He demonstrated to both of these individuals. And finally, what we’ve seen here, especially as it relates to the healing of the slave of the centurion, is that Jesus is the rewarder of those who place their faith – their simple faith – in Him. Who place their faith in Him, His person, His power and His word.