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There were three persons raised from death to life by the powerful word of Christ's mouth; namely, Jairus's daughter, mentioned by St. Matthew; Lazarus recorded by St. John; and here the widow's son, only taken notice of by St. Luke.
The place where the miracle was wrought was the city of Nain; out of their cities, and not within them, the Jews were wont to bury their dead. Our Saviour at the gate of the city meets with the sad pomp of a funeral, a sorrowful widow attended with her mournful neighbors, following her only son to the grave.
Where note, 1. The doleful and distressed condition of the widow: there were many heart-piercing circumstances in her affliction.
1. It was the death of a son. To bury a child rends the heart of a parent; for what are children but the parent multiplied? But to lay a son in the grave, which continues the name and supports the family, is a sore affliction.
2. This was a young man in the strength and flower of his age, not carried from the cradle to the coffin. Had he died an infant, he had not been so much lamented; but then when the mother's expectations were highest, and the endearments greatest, even in the flower of his age, he is cut off.
3. He was not only a son, but an only son; one in whom all his mother's hopes and comforts were bound up. The death of one out of many, is much more tolerable than of all in one. The loss of that one admits of no consolation.
4. Still to heighten the affliction, it is added that she was a widow; she wanted the counsel and support of a loving yoke-fellow. Had the root been left entire, she might better have spared the branch; now both are cut down, and she has none left to comfort her in her comfortless state of widowhood. In this distressed conditon, Christ, the God of comfort, meets her, pities her, relieves her.
Observe, 2. Thee compassion of Christ towards this distressed widow: He saw her, and had compassion on her. Christ saw her, she did not speak to him; no tears, no prayers, can move Christ so much as our afflictions and his own compassion. Christ's heart pitied her, his tongue said to her, Weep not; his feet went to the bier, his hand touched the coffin, and the power of his Godhead raised the dead.
But how strange does Christ's counsel seem! To bid a woman not to weep for such a loss was to persuade her to be miserable, and not to feel it; to feel it, and not regard it; to regard it, and yet conceal and hide it. It is not the decent expression of our sorrow then which Christ condemns, but the undue excess and extravagance of it, which our Saviour blames.
And the lesson of instruction which we learn from hence is this, that Christians ought to moderate their sorrow for their dead relation, how many afflicting circumstances and aggravations soever do meet together in their death: here was a child, that child a son, that son an only son, that only son carried to the grave in the flower of his age; yet Christ says to the pensive mother, a sorrowful widow, Weep not.
Observe, 3. The power of Christ in raising the widow's son to life. The Lord of Life arrests the sergeant Death, and rescues the prisoner out of his hand. Christ says not, in the name of God, young man, arise; but, I say unto thee, arise.
Christ had a power in himself, and of himself, to command the dead to arise; and the same powerful voice which raised this young man, shall in the last day raise up our dead bodies; for it is as easy for Omnipotency to say, let them be repaired, as to say at first, let them be made.
The Socinians here own, that Christ raised this young man by a divine power, which God had communicated to him; yet deny him at the same time to be essentially God. But let them prove if they can, that a divine power, which is proper to God alone, ever was, or ever can be, communicated to a creature, without the communication of the divine nature.
True, we find St. Peter, Act_9:40, commanding Tabitha to arise; but we find all he did was by faith in Christ, and by prayer unto Christ, Act_9:34.
Jesus Christ healeth thee, arise: but Christ here raised the widow's son without prayer, purely by his own power; which undeniably proves him to be God.
Observe, 4. The reality of the miracle: he sits up, he begins to speak, and is delivered to his mother.
Death has no power to hold that man down, whom the Son of God bids rise up: Immediately he that was dead sat up; and the same power which raised one man, can raise a thousand, a million, a world; no power can raise one man but an almighty power, and that which is almighty can raise all men. It was not so much for the child's sake as the mother's sake, that the son was raised; it was an injury to the son, though a kindness to the mother, for he must twice pass through the gates of death, to others' once; it returned him from rest to labor, from the peaceful harbor, back again to the tempestous ocean.
Observe, lastly, what effects this miracle had upon the multitude: seeing the divine power thus manifestly exerted, they are filled with astonishment and amazement: they look upon our Saviour with awful and admiring looks; They glorify and praise God for sending a great prophet amongst them, accounting it a great act of favor that God had in this wonderful manner visited his people; yet a prophet was the highest name they could find for him, whom they saw like themselves in shape, but above themselves in power: A great prophet is risen up amongst us, and God hath visited his people.