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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadMatthew Poole Commentary - Luke 7:11 - 7:11
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Ver. 11-15. Luke alone gives us an account of this miracle of our Saviour’s. Matthew mentions only the raising from the dead of Jairus’s daughter. Luke adds this. John adds that of Lazarus, Joh_11:57, by which our Lord did mightily show his Divine power, and gave us some firstfruits of the more general resurrection, as well as declared himself to be, as he elsewhere saith, the resurrection and the life. The place where this miracle was done was called Nain. H. Stephen Heb., Chald., Gr. et Lat. nomina, & c., tells us, it was a city or town about two miles from Mount Tabor, at the foot of the lesser Mount Hermon, near to Hendor. It was the custom of the Jews to bury their dead without their cities. Christ met this dead body carrying out. He was it seems her only child, and she was a widow, so under a great affliction, God by this providence having quenched the only coal she had left in Israel.
And when the Lord saw her, (the text saith), he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not. None moved him on the behalf of the widow, neither do we read that she herself spake to him; only our Saviour’s bowels were moved at the sight of her sorrow, and consideration of her loss. It is observable that our Saviour wrought his healing miracles:
1. Sometimes at the motion and desire of the parties to be healed.
2. Sometimes at the desires of others on their behalf.
3. Sometimes of his own free motion, neither themselves nor others soliciting him for any such act of mercy toward them;
and that in the three first miracles, (of which Matthew and Luke give us an account here and Mat_8:1-34), which he wrought after his famous sermon on the mount, he gave us an instance of all these, in his healing of the leper personally beseeching him, of the centurion’s servant at the entreaty of the elders of the Jews, and of the widow’s son here, upon his sight of the woman’s affliction, none soliciting him. Thereby showing us that we ought not to stay our hand from doing good when we have proper objects and opportunities before us, until we be importuned and solicited there unto. Christ saying to her,
Weep not, forbade not the natural expression of her passion, but signified a sudden and not expected resurrection, so as she should not weep without hope. This said, he cometh and toucheth the bier, or the coffin, and saith not, Young man, in the name of God, I say unto thee, Arise; but,
Young man, I say unto thee, Arise; thereby declaring to them (would they have understood it) that he was the Son of God, and while he was on earth had a power in and from himself by the word of his mouth to command the dead to arise. His word was effective, and to evidence it, it is said, that
he that was dead sat up, so as all might take notice of the miracle,
and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother; to let him know his duty to be subject to her, and the jurisdiction she had over him.