It is Possible?

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

IS IT POSSIBLE

Luke 7:11-17

11 Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. 12 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. 13 When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, "Don't cry."  14 Then he went up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still. He said, "Young man, I say to you, get up!"  15 The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother. 16 They were all filled with awe and praised God. "A great prophet has appeared among us," they said. "God has come to help his people." 17 This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding country.

NIV

Interestingly, no one asked Jesus anything in the town of Nain. Although a large crowd followed Jesus, more than just the twelve. Luke tells us it was a large crowd. The Greek word here means numerous, abundant, so that means it was a large crowd, many people, a whole lot of folks. Were they looking for more miracles? That would cause a large crowd. We would have to think many of the crowd may have already been healed by Jesus and they wanted to hear more of his teaching. Then we have this large crowd following the funeral procession mourning along with the mother whose only son had just died. Here we see the compassion of Jesus as he saw this mother wailing over her dead son. Again, not a single person asked anything of Jesus, his compassion was his own, and he went to her and said, “Don’t cry”. It is also interesting the Greek word translated here as cry, carries this meaning of lamenting, mourning, weeping bitterly. We wonder how much compassion we can muster up over someone who is mourning the loss of a loved one, perhaps their only loved one, their only son, daughter, or their beloved spouse. Do we show that same kind of compassion that Jesus had and tell them not to cry, and then, Oh my, dare we even think that we could have the power to give their dead loved one back to them. That kind of power belongs only to God. This was not an official resurrection, which happened to Jesus, for he was resurrected into a new body, able to appear at will in a locked room. Jesus simply raised this son from the dead, as he did with the young girl and with his friend Lazarus, They all died at some later time in their lives, with a full resurrection to follow. It is true resurrection is only through the power of God, but could it be possible that if our compassion was as strong as Jesus’s and through the power of the Spirit who dwells within us, that we could tell someone, “Don’t cry” and speak to that dead person telling them to get up and give them back to their loved one. It has never happened that we know of, except by Jesus. Yet did he not tell us we would do even greater things than he has done. According to the gospel of John, Jesus said that anyone who has faith in him will do what he has been doing. He will do even greater things than these because he is going to the Father and he will do whatever we ask in his name, so that He may bring glory to the Father. Jesus told us that we may ask him anything in his name, and He will do it. That is far more powerful than our thinking that God says yes, no, or wait. So, it seems to us that faith is the key to everything, but compassion like Jesus felt, might also be a key to releasing our faith to do what Jesus did. Compassion that moves us to tell someone, “Don’t cry” and fill their need. I'm just wondering about this, thinking more and more about this. Is it possible?