Luke is the only Gospel that records what the Lord did at the small village of Nain. He stopped a funeral in progress and raised a dead man back to life.
I recently noticed something while studying this passage. Luke tells us that a crowd was following Jesus as He approached the town (Luke 7:11). This crowd was made up of His disciples and many others. The many others would have included those who had believed in Him as the Christ and were deciding if they would follow Him in discipleship. There might have been others in the crowd who were following Him in order to determine whether He was the Christ. They were willing to listen to what He was teaching. He had recently preached the Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:20-49) and had made a positive impression on many.
In my mind, the Lord was leading a large crowd of people. He was the One who had eternal life to give to all who believe in Him for it. Many in that crowd had already received that wonderful gift. We might call this crowd “the crowd of life.” They were with the Author of life. He brought them together.
But as they came into Nain, they met another crowd of people coming out of it (7:12). These people were following somebody else. A widow had just lost her only son. This crowd was carrying his dead body on a pallet. They were with the widow.
What characterized this crowd was death. They were there to mourn with this widow of Nain. Her husband had died. Her son had died. This woman found herself in dire circumstances. She had no means of support. Her future looked bleak. She would be destitute. Her situation had brought this group together.
We all know what happened when these two groups met. The Author of life touched the dead man’s pallet. He told the young man to rise. At the word of the Author of life, the man sat up and began talking. He had enough life to go around.
As the crowd of life approached Nain, it is easy to imagine the conversations among those in the group. The believers knew they had eternal life through the One leading them. The nation had waited centuries for Him to come. Now He was with them. His presence gave them hope that the eternal kingdom was just around the corner. It was not only a crowd of life, but also a crowd of joy.
The crowd coming out of Nain was different. Between sobs, their conversations were filled with despair. They spoke about a young man cut down in his youth. They spoke about the dismal future of this widow.
The resurrection of this young man is a picture of the believer’s future. The Lord will raise our bodies. For those who have died, He will call their bodies from the grave. They will rise, never to die again. The bodies of believers who are alive at that time will be transformed into bodies that will never see death.
If you have believed in Jesus for eternal life, you are in the crowd of life. The believers who followed Him that day could have a richer experience of that life. That is why they were following Him.
We can too. What a joy to be a part of that wonderful crowd.
