Moved by compassion

   Bringing a dead person back to life is no easy task. We don’t know whether of not people in Nazareth knew of the boy’s passing (Nain is only about 6 miles away), but Jesus and his disciples were on their way when they met a funeral procession. A widow had lost her only son, a tragic story. As the procession was passing by, Jesus reached out and placed is hand on the funeral plank although according to Jewish custom that would make him ceremonially unclean. The procession stopped, and the dead copse sat up and began to talk. The mourners were astounded! Dead people don’t come back to life. Tears streamed down the face of the widow as she took her son in her arms. He was her sole source of financial help as well as family. What a day and how marvelous that Jesus did nothing but reach out and touch the passing group as it neared the place of burial.
        The account is rich with spiritual insights. Note, for instance, that Jesus was where he was supposed to be and alert to the needs of others. I believe that when he saw a funeral procession he immediately asked his Father how he could be of help. Then as the widow in her sorrow drew near his heart was “moved with compassion” (Luke 7:13). This picture forms a composite sketch of the One we worship. He is wherever there is need and brings a compassionate heart to the scene. He “reaches out” and touches. Here he touches the deceased son of a widow, then the wild waves on the Sea of Galilee, then the Gadarene demoniac who lived among the tombs, then the daughter of Jairus, the woman with a hemorrhage, and finally the two blind men (all in one chapter of Jesus, In His Own Words).
       I believe Jesus is still as watchful for need as he was in the days of his incarnation. He is among us now and his eyes are wide open looking for need. But what does he do about today’s deceased son of a widow? How does his compassionate heart move him to answer a problem from a “distance?” That should not be a problem because we who are his followers – who have been touched by his saving grace – are his body and we do whatever he, the head, tells us to do. At least that’s how it should be. What a unique privilege, to work with Jesus fulfilling the “demands” of his compassionate heart. It is almost like traveling with him back then in Galilee. May his concern for the welfare of others transform us into his image.