Stop the funeral (Pt. 1)

Part 1

 

“11 Soon afterward Jesus went with his disciples to the village of Nain, and a large crowd followed him. 12 A funeral procession was coming out as he approached the village gate. The young man who had died was a widow’s only son, and a large crowd from the village was with her. 13 When the Lord saw her, his heart overflowed with compassion. “Don’t cry!” he said. 14 Then he walked over to the coffin and touched it, and the bearers stopped. “Young man,” he said, “I tell you, get up.” 15 Then the dead boy sat up and began to talk! And Jesus gave him back to his mother. 16 Great fear swept the crowd, and they praised God, saying, “A mighty prophet has risen among us,” and “God has visited his people today.” 17 And the news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding countryside.”-Luke 7:11-17

 

After miraculously healing a Roman Officer’s servant, Jesus traveled to a village called Nain. As he is approaching the town the first thing he encounters is funeral procession carrying a widow’s only son. Interestingly enough, the word Nain: means pleasantness. A name which seems completely contrary to what Jesus was walking into. He was walking into grief, mourning, despair and death. There was nothing pleasant about that at all. 

 

As I thought about this passage, the Lord rehearsed in my mind the hopes, plans, and dreams that we had for 2020. We looked at 2020 with great anticipation and expectation. However, like Nain, our encounter with 2020 hasn’t been as pleasant as we had thought it would be. We were introduced to Covid-19, an economic recession, a government shut-down, social unrest, followed by deep political division. How many would agree that this wasn’t at all what we thought 2020 would be like?

 

Along with everything else, the events of 2020 have created a mental health crisis in our country and around the world. Like the widow of Nain we are grieving a loss. Not just the tragic loss of loved ones, but job losses, health setbacks, vacations canceled, savings accounts depleted, weddings postponed, and graduations and proms rescinded. Couple that with the regular tragedies that we’ve been accustomed to all our lives: like drug overdoses, heart disease, wildfires, hurricanes, cancer, and automobile accidents and you can see why it has caused so many to want to escape 2020. 

 

 It has caused many of us to declare things like this: “I am so done with 2020!”, “I will be so glad when 2020 is over.”, “Can we just fast forward to Christmas! In many of our hearts and minds we do not see anything redeeming ahead for this year and have already moved it over into the loss column.

Just like the widow of Nain, she counted her son as dead and was moving towards burying him along with her hope, provision, and future. In like manner, many of you have declared this year officially dead and are moving towards burying it, but I want to declare to you today “It ain’t over yet!!” 

 

Scott Burr

Dayspring Community Church