A widow’s son

Funerals are mournful events. And this one was particularly miserable. It was the funeral of a young man. He was his mother’s only son. She was a widow. Absolute misery. Remember, God did not make the world to be miserable. He made it very good. There was no pain, no sorrow and no death, originally. But we humans caused ourselves these problems by refusing to go God’s way, and by removing all thought of him from our lives.

He does not wait to be asked for help

This beautiful little story shows us the sincere compassion of Jesus. He really cares. He did not wait to be asked for help. His help was neither asked for nor expected. But he gave it, readily. That’s what he’s like. There is no friend or person who comforts that can be compared with him. But notice, too, the pure power of Jesus, here displayed as clearly as anywhere else in the gospels. He gives life back to a dead man – who proves it by talking.

He speaks to a cold corpse, and at once it becomes a living person. This Jesus has God’s life: he can give it when he chooses. And he can give spiritual life, too, to humans dead in self-centredness – their focus is on themselves.

God himself, no less

All these stories we have looked at, about what Jesus did, intend to show us who he is. Jesus is God himself, no less. He has come on a rescue mission to give us a new quality of life, life shared with him. That’s life at its best!