A teacher was fond of asking students in his counseling classes this question: "What can you know about a perfect stranger the moment you meet?" After the students had a go at the question, the professor shared his own answer, "You can bet that the stranger has just lost something." That person has just lost a job, a promotion, a loved one, a home, a car, a girlfriend, a boyfriend, their health, their zest for living, or God forbid, the very desire to live. Whatever it is, you can bet your life on it. The stranger before you has just lost something.
When you just heard that, your reaction may have been like mine. I thought to myself, surely that is too pessimistic a way to look at life. Surely, some of those strangers out there must have just found something. Surely, some of them are rejoicing over a new job, having graduated, having received a scholarship, or are looking forward to being married to a person with whom they wish to spend the rest of their lives. Maybe they have just moved into a new home or are off on a vacation of a lifetime. Who knows, one of those strangers might have just won the lottery. Why focus so much on the losses of life instead of the gains?
Well, maybe, because on the whole, in this life, there may just be more losses than gains, more sorrows than joys. Life can be very hard at times for some people, but as I pondered this question and its answer, I don't think that's what the teacher was thinking about. I've come to the conclusion that the reason the professor focused on the downside rather than the upside was because he knew that's the way we become more sensitive and compassionate. That's how we learn to understand what others are going through. When we focus on the good fortunes that come to others, it has a way of making us jealous and envious. But when we direct our attention to what others are having to go through, we open ourselves to becoming more sympathetic. If you're a teacher of counseling at a divinity school, it's a good approach. If your goal is to train pastors to help people, and to be ready to do it at a moment's notice, I can't think of a better way to go about it.
Certainly, we can learn this from the story in Luke's Gospel for today. Jesus has just arrived in a town called Nain, about 25 miles down the road from Capernaum where he had been teaching and healing. A large crowd together with his disciples has followed him here. Jesus is just outside the gate of the town when a large funeral procession goes by. We know it was large, for Luke tells us it was, but at that time all funeral processions were large. Back then, everyone in the town knew everyone else. Most everyone would have been there to pay their respects.
Most likely, there would also have been a group of professional mourners. It was their responsibility to play flutes and cymbals to work the crowd up into a frenzy. The women would be screaming loudly, shrill cries of grief. If you've never heard such Mideastern wails of grief, there's no way to describe it adequately. If you have, then you'll never forget it. The sound is piercing, and goes right through you.
The man who was dead, we are told, was the only son of a widow. Luke then adds this telling comment, "When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, ‘Do not weep' " (Luke 7:13). Spontaneously and without so much as a thought, Jesus' heart goes out to this woman. Jesus knows that she has not only lost her only son, but also the sole means of support in her old age. Later, on the cross, Jesus will repeat a similar act of compassion with his own mother. He will turn to John, the disciple, and make sure that John will look after Mary when he's gone.
As the funeral procession passes by, so moved is Jesus that he touches the bier upon which the bearers are carrying the corpse. It was not probably the kind of bier that Luke had in mind. Luke is familiar with funeral customs in Greek and Roman culture. This bier, if you can call it that, was probably more like a stretcher or perhaps even a large woven basket. But that's not the point. Luke may have gotten the exact specifications wrong about the bier, but he didn't get the point wrong. Jesus was so moved to help this woman that he risked ritual contamination by touching the dead body of her son in an effort to revive him. But it was worth it. Besides, Jesus was never one to stand on ceremony. He says, "Young man, I say to you, rise!" (Luke 7:14b), at which the dead man sits up and begins to speak.
When this story is compared with other stories like this, or even with others in Luke's Gospel, what's remarkable is that there is no mention of faith as a requirement for the resuscitation to take place. Neither the faith of the mother, much less that of her dead son, is necessary for Jesus to perform the life-restoring feat. Just before in Capernaum, Jesus had healed the slave of a Roman centurion, apparently because of the trust the Roman officer had placed in Jesus. "Not even in Israel have I found such faith," said Jesus (Luke 7:9b). But here in this story, the good deed is done with no other motive or assistance whatsoever. Jesus' own compassionate heart is sufficient to perform the deed. The widow's son is restored to life simply because Jesus' heart went out to her.
In response to this unsolicited act of compassion by Jesus, fear, or more like it, reverent awe, filled the crowd. "And they glorified God, saying, ‘a great prophet has arisen among us!' and ‘God has looked favorably on his people' " (Luke 7:16).
The words, "a great prophet," are code words for a prophet like Elijah. This story in Luke is based on one of the Elijah stories in 1 Kings. If there was one person Jesus patterned his ministry after, that person would have to be Elijah. I wish we had more time to trace the many ways Jesus' actions in the gospels have counterparts to those of the prophet Elijah in the Old Testament. The story we are looking at today is perhaps the clearest of all. Even some exact phrases have been carried over from the Elijah stories into Luke's Gospel account. When Luke tells us that Jesus gave him "back to his mother," that is the exact word-for-word phrase found in 1 Kings 17:23.
But this story of Jesus' raising the widow's only son is not just a rerun of what Elijah did long, long ago. Jesus is most certainly a prophet of the order of Elijah, but he's much more than that. In the Elijah story in 1 Kings, Elijah restores a widow's son. In this story, the mother is quite distraught. She accuses Elijah of somehow having a part in the death of her son. After all, she has welcomed the prophet into her home, and through the power of God, Elijah has provided for her and her son with enough to eat and more. She has been grateful, but now that her son has died, it's another matter. It has all taken place with the famous prophet under her roof. So she wonders if Elijah could have had a part in it. She says to Elijah, "What have you against me, O Man of God? You have come to bring my sin to remembrance, and cause the death of my son!" (1 Kings 17:18). Upon hearing this, Elijah is confused and bewildered. He takes the son up to a chamber and proceeds to revive him through the power of God. But first, Elijah himself has a few words with God about the unfairness of what has happened. In an act of what appears to be the transferring of vital life force from his body to the body of the young man, Elijah stretches himself out over the boy's body three times and cries to the Lord. "O Lord, my God, let this child's life come into him again" (Luke 16:21b). We're told that the Lord hears Elijah's prayer, and the boy is revived.
With Jesus, matters are much more simple. It's all done with dispatch. The word is spoken, and the deed is done. The son is returned to his mother. The mother does not even have to ask Jesus for her son's life. It all takes place simply because, "When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her" (Luke 7:13).
The word for compassion Luke uses is the strongest word for sympathy in the Bible. In English, compassion literally means "with passion." Empathy is perhaps the word that comes closest today. However we speak of it and regardless of the words we use, it's a very strong and powerful word. So much so, that in this story it can bring life to the dead. Our lesson for today: Compassion can do more than you may think.
I recall a story I heard a long time ago, and since it has been a long time, the exact details are little fuzzy in my memory. As I recall the story, which is also supposedly a true story, it went like this: A prominent businessman was walking down the street of a large city on his way home from a meeting. It was night. Since his meeting had lasted later than it should, it was long after it was safe to be on the streets alone. By this time, there were all kinds of derelicts and people of questionable reputation on the streets. As he was walking by, the businessman happened to look down and see a man all curled up in the gutter trying to stay warm. The cool night air was progressively getting chillier and chillier. Something about this man made the businessman take another look at him, and then another. Finally, he walked over to get a good look. When he saw the man, and the look in his eyes, the businessman instinctively did what Jesus did with the widow who had lost her only son that day in the town of Nain. The businessman's heart went out to the man in the gutter. He bent down to him and said, "Whoever you are, you don't belong here!" The businessman took the man home with him to see if he could help him. As it turned out, the businessman was right. This man didn't belong there. He was a prominent physician who had taken to drink and had all but ruined his career. Just as Jesus had seen that the young man did not belong on the funeral bier, so the businessman saw that this man, whoever he was, didn't belong in the gutter. This story also has a happy ending. The businessman saw to it that the man got into a rehabilitation program and turned his life around. All because of that little word "compassion."
Compassion can do more than you may think. Especially if it's straight from the heart of Jesus.