Article April 10, 1965 Issue

Let It Not Be Said, "She was a widow"

MYRTLE C. AYRES

In the time of Jesus it was considered a courtesy for one who came upon a funeral procession to join the mourners and follow along with them. How glad we can be that in the narrative of the healing of the son of the widow of Nain, as given in the seventh chapter of Luke's Gospel, Jesus did not follow along with the crowd! No, he who was in the habit of beholding the perfect man was not influenced by the material evidences of death. Instead, he caused the mourners to stop, and he bade the young man arise. The mourners were privileged to see the healing, for the young man was restored to his grieving mother.

This story is a remarkable illustration of the master Christian's ability to meet human problems, and it gives a dramatic example of his spiritual ability to discern and heal the thought of those in need. Jesus may have detected that in the mother's consent to the apparent loss of good, she was suffering from the belief of widowhood, for the account says that "she was a widow" (verse 12). She was not alone in her belief of grief and sorrow, because her friends were following along in consent to the loss. But Jesus did not acquiesce in such ungodlike reasoning. With quick rejection of the seemingly justified grief, he restored the son to his mother.

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