Guided by the Holy Spirit, Jesus went to the city of Nain, 50 km. from Capernaum. Nain signifies "delightful", but death attacked this delightful, beautiful town as a monster, and cut off a young man. To the Jews, the death of a man in the prime of youth was considered as a divine judgment (Psalms 55:23; 102:26). Though the young man was the only son of his widowed mother, and the hope of his clan for the continuance of their seed, his death was considered as a punishment to all his house. His mother had already suffered the death of her husband, and now the second heavy blow hits her innermost being. She saw in those afflictions the proclamation of God’s condemnation on her, and was crushed, faithful, and God fearing. Many of the people of her town accompanied her in the funeral of her only child. The mother wept, shed tears, and tore out her hair. The procession of death went on to the open tomb to receive the dead body of the young man.
Opposite to this hopeless procession came the procession of life in the Prince of Life. Jesus saw the mother’s repentant heart, which neither complained nor blasphemed against God, but only complained about the sorrows of the mother who wept bitterly and penitently. The weeping of the repentant mother moved the heart of God. Christ said to her his comforting word, "Do not weep." The Son of Man says this kind, tender, and powerful word to all those who weep in the world if they repented, for he comes to them with the full comfort of the power of God present in his person.
Jesus Christ came silently toward the coffin and touched it. The procession of death stopped. Then Christ followed his consoling, merciful word with his saving authoritative work. Christ did not call God to help and support him, but immediately commanded the dead man in his own name and authority, "I say to you, arise." This word pierced the kingdom of the dead, and the dead man heard the call of his Lord. The word of the Creator breathed the powers of life into the dead body, and the man stood up and did not need anybody to support him. His spirit and his soul came back to him, and he spoke and lived as if he had never died. Christ raised the young man quickly from his coffin, as the father raises his sleeping son from his bed. Christ’s dominion is considerably great.
The crowds attending Christ became frightened, and those attending the funeral fixed their eyes stunningly on Christ’s mouth when they heard his words and saw the dead man starting up alive out of his coffin. They all felt the presence of God among them, trembled, and glorified the Holy One saying, "The prophet promised by Moses has truly come (Deuteronomy 18:15,18). He will make an new covenant with our God, and will guide his straying people into salvation." They thought that Jesus was Christ himself, for every Jewish was aware that the raising of the dead is one of the signs of Christ; so some of them dared to say, "God himself is present among us in the man Jesus, for he has visited his despised people." The report about the raising of the dead spread everywhere like a thunderbolt, and excited the hearts and minds.
Dear brother, did you realize the meaning of raising the dead at the hand of Christ? Whoever realizes and confesses that Jesus is Lord over death, must say with boldness and testimony that he is the true God and the Son of the Highest, filled with the Spirit, for God alone can raise the dead.
Did you realize the meaning of raising the young man before the walls of Nain with relation to yourself? You are like the young man in his coffin, full of corrupt thoughts and rotten sins, with the seed of death fixed to you. Now, Jesus Christ stands personally before you, blocks your way to the open tomb, touches you and says, "Young man, I say to you arise." And you arise and live full of the power of God, and serve your Lord and Savior, thankfully and living forever.