GREAT PROPHET

This passage gives one of the three recorded occasions in which Christ personally confronted death. There was a young girl,just moments before cut off so tragically at the beginning of life, Luke 8. Then there was a special friend, Lazarus, already dead for four days - such a hopeless case, so far gone, John 11. And here there was an only son of a widowed mother en route to the cemetery - a doubly grief-stricken lady, a pitiful sight. We learn that Christ, our Great High Priest, can draw near in any situation, no matter how far gone things are, Heb. 4.15.

He who wept at the grave of Lazarus says here, ‘Weep not’. Perhaps some others had spoken similar words to her, trying to make her feel better. But not so with Christ! He had power to change her entire situation, and so He told her not to weep. For her the reversal of life’s sorrows came in life, but for many of us it will come in the future when we are in His presence. In fulfilment of Isaiah chapter 25 verse 8 and as a mirror image of what He did while on earth, we are reminded in Revelation 7.17 that the Lamb will feed us as He did the 5,000. He will lead us to springs of life-giving water, as He did for the woman of John 4, and He will wipe away every tear as He did for Mary in John 20, as well as for the woman in today’s reading.

How different from the supposed faith healers of our day. This was no contrived situation. Meeting the public funeral procession almost, as it seems, by accident, He speaks to the obviously dead man and without delay he lives again. The young man did not exercise faith - Jesus simply exercised His power.

In the Old Testament many prophets had performed special miracles, including the revered Moses. There had even been great prophets who had brought back people to life through God’s power - Elijah, 1 Kgs. 17.17-24, and Elisha, 2 Kgs. 4. 32-27. But in the mind of the people these days were long gone, and they were looking for fresh hope, a new prophet, Luke 9. 8. ‘Perhaps Jesus could be the one?’ they thought. But they lacked the faith to confess that He was much more than a prophet. They said that God had visited His people, but actually God manifest in flesh was among His people!