Luke 7:12 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Luke 7:12

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You can see it in your mind, a great procession of Christ and his disciples, and many, many people with him coming down this small track of a road, and as they approached the village, coming out of it are most of the occupants of the village to bury a dead man. He was the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. Probably he was quite young, just into early manhood, not yet married, and all were married in those days in that culture, yet he isn't yet married, so he's young, healthy, all of life in front of him, and we're not told how, it isn't relevant to us, but he's died. There would have been immense sympathy for one who had lost her only son. To lose any child is terrible, but this was her only son! Her name would be cut off in Israel; she would have no descendants. All the worse: she was a widow. Her son had been her only consolation at the death of husband. She had known all the grief of adjusting to life without a husband, facing the responsibilities of caring for the family home and finances on her own. But at least she retained hope for the future that her son would care for her. Now she watched him sicken. She prayed but no answer seemed to come. She could only expect poverty, dependence on the charity of the people of her city – there was no welfare state in those days. Gone was the son who would remind her of her lost husband, who would be a companion to her in old age. The promises of God seemed far away, and perhaps she thought of herself as another Naomi, but worse, with not even a Ruth to care for her. So we can feel the sympathy that was with her in the village, and much people of the city have come with her. There are then two parties, one the Lord Jesus Christ and his followers, and the other this downcast group of mourning people from the village, a procession of death and a procession of life, and immediately Luke has secured our interest. What is going to happen with these two large groups of people with opposite feelings and concerns? Christ and his followers enter Nain, passing by the burial ground which is thought to have been beside that road – the Jews buried their dead outside the city perimeter. They meet funeral procession on its way to the burial ground. There is no record of Christ attending a funeral in the New Testament, although he surely attended the funeral of Joseph who seems to have died earlier, but not once his public ministry had begun and he had started to work miracles. This is the only funeral he went to and it never happened; it never took place. What is Lord of life doing at a funeral? How could he encounter a funeral and do nothing? For the two processions simply to pass by each other would suggest he was unable to do anything, that he was as helpless as others in the face of death. But how could that be true of one who said, ‘I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: ²⁶ And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die’ (John 11:25-26). How could he not do the only possible thing that could relieve the situation? Otherwise he would fail; the limits of his power would be exposed; he could never claim to be the resurrection; this case would be too hard for him. By contrast what can we do when we encounter a funeral procession? We may slow down or pull to side of road to let the hearse pass. If it is close friends, we may join family in mourning, in recognition of our common destiny, but cannot do anything substantial, however much sympathy we may have.So, a large procession following Christ, the Prince of life, meets a large procession going in opposite direction, carrying a coffin. Death meets life – what will be the outcome? For those in the funeral procession – all is gloom. There is no cause for rejoicing; this is the sad untimely end of a life. For those following Christ, nothing is too hard for the Lord. They are full of expectation to see some miracle. Now the disciples see the funeral procession. Will they just pass by each other on opposite sides of the road? Will one give way to the other? Is this why they have come to Nain? Could it be that he will even do something? Surely not.

Application

You cannot negotiate with death; it cannot be persuaded to soften its blow. You cannot say, ‘Please delay till a better time.’ It strikes without asking. It takes the kind and generous as well as the wicked and selfish, the young and old, the healthy and sick. It leaves nothing behind, not the slightest hint of hope. It brings an end to all human plans and purposes. How many half-finished projects are left behind at death! Often people cannot bring lives to a tidy end. The day when hopes and dreams are stripped away, and all will be in the same state one day. All influence is suddenly gone: kings can command no longer; athletes cannot stir their bodies anymore; professors cease to teach. Each one must hand over the concerns of life to others, and each one is forced to face up to what we may have put out of mind so long. If you speak to young people about death, they may respond that death is a long way off, that we should not be so gloomy. ‘I have a lot of living to do first’, they tell us. We see they are totally unprepared: one who cannot take death seriously cannot take life seriously. What does it matter if we have gained great riches, fame, power, if we are not ready for that day.

It does not matter how strong is our love for the departed or how keen is our desire to see them again, it will not bring them back. And we too must go that way. For many it will be a day for which they are totally unprepared. They will be summoned before God reluctantly; they would rather be anywhere else. It is a day of reckoning. They go into next life with the record of their sin still pinned on them, carrying their shame with them, unforgiven, and weighed down to hell by their sin. The wise keep their mortality ever before their eyes.

But God makes provision for us before we are aware of it. Unlike the other two people who Christ raised to life, there was no request to come in this case, no urgent plea to come soon as from the sisters of Lazarus. No one even knew he was coming before he arrived, yet he knew about situation without being told, as he knows all things, because he is omniscient, equal with the Father.

Life is a march to death. Without God it is futile, it is very sad. There are moments of happiness yes; we get what happiness we can. God has graciously left in this world a limited capacity for joy and happiness, but without him it is limited, for we are under condemnation. If we have never repented of our sins, and never sought his forgiveness, we are under that condemnation which is just and one day we must go to him in judgment and there is nothing but grief ahead. That is life, bluntly put, as presented in the Scripture. Viewed spiritually, we have to ask this, are you dead or are you alive? Of course we are all physically alive and mentally alive also, intellectually alive; that is the wonder of being human beings. We have rationality, we have the power of reason, we have creative abilities and so on, we are not only physically alive, we are also rationally, intellectually alive, but that's not all there is to life. Are we spiritually alive? Are we engaged with God and joined with him? You cannot be half alive spiritually, life as the old preachers again used to say is not something which allows for degrees. Either you are alive or you are dead: there is no middle ground, and it is the same with spiritual life. Do you have spiritual life, communion with God, life in the soul, or not? That is why this miracle is so helpful to us and speaks to us so much.

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Luke 7:12 Commentary and Bible Study