Death happens. The living grieves over the dead. Those who pass away leave an unfillable hole in the lives of the living and the world is never the same after the loss of a loved one. Our life story is full of encounters with death until death takes us. But could our story could be rewritten?
There was once a woman named Kisa Gautami[1] whose son had passed away from an illness. Grief stricken she relentlessly traveled about begging to find someone who could revive her lifeless child. Nobody could be found. She then brought her child to Buddha. Buddha patiently and compassionately listen to her story. He then instructed her to solve the problem she needed a mustard seed from a family which has never experienced death. Kisa then began her search with renewed hope, but discovered that families had mustard seeds, yet all experienced death. Kisa realized that Buddha wanted her to know that death is what happens.
We all die. Human wisdom, magic, and science has never been able to reverse death. The common experience of death even moved ancient philosophers to tell the bereaved, “Do not grieve, for it will do no good.”[2]
But imagine the Author of life rewriting our story? Luke tells about a remarkable happening that gives us hope about life being a never-ending story:
Soon afterward [Jesus] went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited his people!” And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country (Lk. 7:11-17).[3]
This woman from Nain was alone without a husband, and the loss of her only son meant “she would be deprived of her last means of support.” [4]
Witnessing the suffering of the woman, Jesus places his hand on the bier, i.e., coffin. This stops the funeral processional but also causes the Lord to “contract corpse-uncleanness, the severest form of ritual impurity in Judaism.”[5] Moreover, Jesus declares, “Young man, I say to you, arise” (Lk. 7:14). Easy to figure that “if there were no authority behind his words, the action would be blackly humorous or tragically misguided. But Jesus reveals the extent of his authority by confronting death.”[6] The corpse is reanimated and the young man sat up then talked with Jesus.
The God of heaven comes to us, experiences the messiness of life in a sinful and fallen world, and extends grace to those ravaged by death. Out of compassion, Jesus resurrects the young man. He rewrites the end to the story. He brings the dead back to life.
All the witnesses to the miracle are astounded. For the first century Jews in Palestine “The resuscitation of the son of a widow undoubtedly reminded the people of Elijah (1 Kings 17:17–24; cf. also 2 Kings 4:18–37), which explains why the people immediately conclude that Jesus is ‘a great prophet’ (Luke 7:16).” [7]
This raising of the dead served as an indirect self-disclosure of Jesus’ true messianic identity. The miracle demonstrates Him to be the Messiah (i.e., the Christ) without Him ever having to say, “Hey everybody, guess what? I’m the Messiah!” Coincidentally, when the disciples of John the Baptist inquired about the Jesus being the Messiah, they were told: “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me” (Lk. 7:22-23).
The raising of the widow’s son additionally serves as a foretaste of something far more spectacular. The Lord tells us, “Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment” (Jn. 5:28-29).
To Sadducee doubters of the resurrection, Jesus said, “But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him” (Lk. 20:37-38). Even from the very first moment that Moses conversed with Yahweh though the burning bush, the truth that those with the Lord never really gone, but they are with the God of the living.
Jesus’ resurrection secures the decisive victory over death. It is only a matter of time till the reign of death comes to its end. Thus, Paul declared, “Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ” (1 Cor. 15:20-23). John likewise writes of that moment in the past tense: “Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:14).
Suffering and death are never really the way life is supposed to be. Jesus never just directs the widow in Nain to accept death and realize the futility of trying to hold on to something that cannot be held forever. It is wrongheaded to suppose death is part of the circle of life. No. Death is the enemy, who ravages humanity, tears apart the body from the soul, and disrupts our relationships. When somebody pass way, the life of the living is never the same. But death is defeated by Christ. This is good news.
“O death, where is your victory? | O death, where is your sting?” (1 Cor. 15:55).
— WGN
[1] I heard the story of Kisa from Daniel J. McCoy on a recent Postmodern Realities podcast interview — https://www.equip.org/articles/why-do-we-exist-opposite-answers-from-buddhism-and-christianity/
[2] Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), Lk 7:13.
[3] All Scripture cited from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), unless noted.
[4] Thomas R. Schreiner, The Baker Illustrated Bible Commentary, ed., Gary M. Burge and Andrew E. Hill (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2012), 1074.
[5] Keener, s.v. Lk 7:14. See also Numbers 19:11-13; cf. 9:1-14;
[6] Darrell L. Bock, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series: Luke, ed. Grant R. Osborne (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994), 135.
[7] Schreiner, 1074.
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