The Palestinian village of Nain is a short distrance from Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth and a day’s walk from Capernaum, Jesus’ center of ministry. The pallbearers are carrrying the body of a young man in a long wicker basket, covered by a shroud, for burial outside the city. Except for very important people, ancient Jews buried their dead outside the city, usually on the day of death, for embalming was not practiced.
The dead man was the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. This means she was without any economic support or security. Jesus saw this defeated mother and had compassion for her. “Do not weep,” He said.
Talk about overcoming life’s defeats: THIS WAS IT! Jesus raises this young man as He had Jairus’ daughter and Lazarus, brother of Mary and Martha. Now, Jesus didn’t raise everybody from the dead, just as He didn’t heal everybody. But what Jesus did do then, and still does today, is help everyone rise above despair and defeat.
How do we rise above defeat? For one thing, we do not deny the reality of our trouble. Biblical scholar William Barclay wrote:
(I remember the quote, not the source.) Newspapers daily have stories of premature deaths, fractured
relationships and broken dreams. We have only to look at our own families, friends and neighbors. We have only to look into our own hearts.
Jesus never insulted people by telling them their problems weren’t real. Jesus never told the sick they were not really sick or that their pain didn’t exist. Jesus never told people that death wasn’t real, nor did He offer this widowed mother platitudes to soothe her grieving heart. The storms of the spiritual, psychological world are real. Trouble and tragedy are real. Evil and death are real.
Are you out of a job?
Admit the problems. Don’t deny them. That’s the first step in overcoming.
Then, we need to have the courage to consider alternatives. A few years ago, I was counseling a woman, and over the course of several weeks, she recited in great detail the woes of her marriage, and the faults and foibles of her husband and their life together. She was a very unhappy woman. Yet, when it came to considering alternatives, she had an excuse every time:
- Her husband was abusive and would not consider counseling.
- Separation or divorce was not an option, even though their son was grown.
- She couldn’t afford to live on just her very good salary, her standard of living would be lower without his money.
And so it went. She stayed unhappy because she would not look at any alternatives.
I see this over and over again. People come to a dead end because they want the future to be just like the past -- but better -- without any effort on their part. They are afraid of possibility, adjustment or change.
Jesus told the sick:
It was Jesus who refused to be defeated by circumstances. Instead, He considered alternative ways of thinking and acting. Want to rise above defeat? Then let go of the past, the dead-ends, the cul-de-sacs and the corners you’ve painted yourself into. Consider the alternatives Jesus wants to show you.
Then, we must allow ourselves to be touched by Jesus. One of the surest ways to defeat is to assume that all reality begins and ends with you.
When we feel defeated, we’ve allowed our own world and self-understanding to collapse in around us. Many discouraged and despairing people suffocate in their own conceit, caught in the grip of doubt, refusing to question their own stale definitions of self and reality.
In contrast, Jesus calls us to open up to God in prayer for possibilities within God’s Will.
We are forever learning that God is FOR us, not against us.
It is we who are against ourselves, in our myopia, our rigidity, our fear, our arrogance and stubbornness. We are slow learners, refusing God’s touch of a new idea, a new self-understanding, a new job, a new opportunity, a new vital power God has to give.
Isaiah the prophet wrote:
Seek the Lord while He may be found
(Is 55:6,8-9)
Jesus spoke to the dead man that day in the village of Nain and raised him to new life. Jesus still raises people up from discouragement, despair and death itself –- into new life.
As Jesus said to that young man in Nain long ago, so Jesus says to each of us today: “I say to you, arise.”
And you will.