Luke 7:9-15: in context

As Jesus approaches the town of Nain, he meets a funeral procession coming out. A young man has died, the only son of his mother, and she is a widow, now bereft of her only child, with a great crowd accompanying her grief. When the Lord sees her, he is moved with compassion, and says to her, do not weep. Then he touches the coffin, the bearers stand still, and he says, young man, arise. The dead man sits up and begins to speak, and Jesus gives him back to his mother.

Two things move us in this scene: Jesus' compassion, and his power over death. First, his compassion. No one asked Jesus to intervene; the widow had not come to him, made no request. But when he saw her grief, the loss of her only son, her doubled bereavement as a widow now childless, he was moved with compassion. Her sorrow moved his heart, unbidden, and he acted. Jesus is moved by our grief; he does not stand aloof from human sorrow but enters into it with compassion. When the Lord saw her, the account says, he had compassion on her. And second, his power over death. Jesus does not merely comfort the widow with words; he touches the coffin and speaks, and the dead man rises. Christ is master even over death, able to raise the dead, to reverse the grief that death brings, to give back what death has taken. Both of these are a comfort to us in our grief. Jesus' compassion assures us that he is moved by our sorrow. When we grieve, we do not grieve before an unmoved God, indifferent to our pain; we grieve before the Lord who was moved with compassion at a widow's tears, who enters into human sorrow, who is touched by our grief. He does not despise our tears but is moved by them, as he was moved by the widow's. And his power over death assures us that death does not have the final word. Christ, who raised the widow's son, is master over death; and for those who are his, death is not the end. We do not grieve, Paul says, as those who have no hope; for Christ has conquered death, and will raise the dead, and will wipe away every tear. The Lord who wept and who raised the dead is our hope in the face of death. This calls us to bring our grief to the compassionate Christ who is master over death. When we grieve, whether over death or any sorrow, we may bring our grief to Jesus, who is moved with compassion at our tears and who holds power even over death. He does not stand aloof from our sorrow but enters into it; and he is master over the death that grieves us, so that our grief is held within his compassion and his power. Do not weep, he said to the widow, and gave her back her son; and to all who grieve, the compassionate Christ who is master over death offers his comfort and his sure hope, that death does not have the final word, and that he who was moved by a widow's tears is moved by ours, and will one day wipe every tear away.

When I grieve, over death or any sorrow, do I imagine I grieve before an unmoved and indifferent God, or can Jesus at Nain, moved with compassion at a widow's tears and master even over death, raising her only son and giving him back to her, assure me that I grieve before the Lord who is moved by my sorrow and who holds power over the death that grieves me, so that I bring my grief to the compassionate Christ, held within his compassion and his sure hope that death does not have the final word?