“He went to a city called Nain….As He drew near to the gate of the city a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother and she was a widow…and He had compassion on her. ‘Do not weep,’ and He came and touched the bier…. ‘Young man, I say to you, arise!’ And the dead man sat up, and began to speak” (Luke 7:11-16)
If this were happening in our time and we were looking down from an airplane, it would show a pathway between the villages. Two crowds of people are approaching on the pathway, one towards the town, the other leaving. The first are happy, active, milling around a figure ahead of them who is talking and gesturing with His hands. The other is not at all animated. They are trudging along in deep sadness, following half a dozen of men carrying their companion on a stretcher. Their young friend is dead. His mother is following, weeping, howling, bent over in grief. They are going outside the town to bury the young man.
We would see the two groups meet. Each crowd is blocked by the other. You would notice the leader of the active group raise His hand and touch the bier [they didn’t use coffins, just a stretcher], the dead man would stir, wanting to sit up, his friends frightened would lower him to the ground, and his mother would throw herself first on her son, then on the man who brought him to life. And we would wonder along with everybody in both groups how it could possibly happen. Don’t the dead stay dead when they die? Who can believe this tale? It’s too good to be true. Most people who tell us not to cry cannot do anything to dry our tears. What they mean is either that tears won’t help, or else they are uncomfortable when a loved one is crying. Either hopeless and helpless, or at least ill at ease.
Notice they are “near to the gate of the city.” In John 10:9-16, Jesus said: “I am the Gate.” Jesus blocked the way to the cemetery because He is the entrance to another life. Like the young man, everyone approaches the gate of death, and then when we pass through, we enter another door that opens in front of us. It’s time to leave the town and world we had been living in and the only life we had known, so that we may journey to the City of God.
He is the Gate [or Door], meaning that He is there at the entrance checking to find out who belongs and who doesn’t deserve to enter. He has that authority because He is the unique person assigned to fulfill the mission of the Father to come and redeem those who were on their way to death. In the same chapter 10 of St. John’s gospel, He said: “I am the Good Shepherd,” and then He tells us what that means. He cares for His sheep because like His heavenly Father, He loves them all. It’s not the death of the young man that caused the Lord grief. Death happens. But grasping the entire scene, He saw the poor mother, a widow, in great agony, and He “had compassion on her.” In fact, He cares so much for His sheep that He gave His life so that they will also have life.
When the apostle Philip said naively: “Lord, show us the Father and we will be satisfied,” the Lord Jesus answered, “Philip, have I been so long with you and you haven’t seen that the Father is in Me, and I am in the Father.” Here at the Nain cemetery is evidence of that taking place. The great love in the form of compassion that the Lord had for the widow came from the Father, Who is able to love the whole world with such a great affection that He alone can be called the ultimate Shepherd of all humanity. By raising the young man on his way to the grave, Jesus gave a sign of His own resurrection, just as His Father would give Him life by the Holy Spirit. How much greater can He display His affection? “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”