NOTES for Luk 7:11-17

For the Jews, death and everything connected with it were considered unclean: the dead were buried before sunset, cemeteries were located outside the city, and an observant Jew was not supposed to touch a dead body. But when Jesus meets a funeral procession at the gates of the city of Nain, He unexpectedly breaks the traditional prohibitions before everyone. He addresses an unfamiliar woman with words of comfort and touches the dead boy. This alone should have astonished those around Him. But for the Lord there are no prohibitions when the poorest and most deprived are involved, as was this widow who had lost her sole provider. He does not wait for the woman to approach Him; He goes to meet her Himself, not only comforting her but performing a true miracle—returning to her the son for whom she mourns. Sometimes we are so deeply immersed in our grief that we cannot see Jesus walking beside us. We notice Him only when He has already worked in us the miracle of His Resurrection, when the joy of His presence unexpectedly begins to grow in a place of sorrow and pain.