God is SO Good!

This morning we continue our series “Grace that is Simply Amazing.”  This story truly touched me.  You will be hard pressed to find a better story of grace than this one.  Get your heart ready to receive.

In Luke 7 we find Jesus traveling into the town of Nain.  Jesus disciples and the usual large crowd followed.  As Jesus approached the town gate He came in contact with a funeral precession.  The precession was for a dead man that happened to be the only son of his mother.  This would be bad enough, but to make a bad situation worse, the mother was also a widow.  So she was husbandless and sonless.  Talk about a bad situation.  This would be bad enough today, but in her day this was terrible.  Under the Law of Moses (see Duet 25:5,6), if a woman’s husband died she would be left to live with her children, in most cases, grown sons.  If a woman’s husband died and they did not have any children, she would have to marry one of her deceased husband’s brothers.  Her brother-in-law would become her husband.  A woman with a dead husband and a dead son was in a difficult situation.  The text makes no mention of a brother-in-law.  This woman was basically on her own and in the culture of the time, that meant she would more then likely struggle.  Women had very little public interaction with men outside of their family.

With all of that in mind, take a minute now to picture this woman.  Her husband had already died and she had transitioned her life into becoming comfortable with living with her grown son.  Her son had become her source of security, stability and strength.  Her son was her interface with the community.  Her son was also a perpetual reminder of her dead husband.  In many ways, her son was her source of sanity.  But now even her son was dead and her life was in disarray.

This woman did not know what she would do.  She was following the casket of her dead son while grieving the loss of her husband, her son, and her life as she knew it.  It was at this point, at her lowest of lows, at her worst of times, that Jesus showed up in her life.  Jesus saw her and His heart immediately rang with compassion.  Jesus initiated the contact.  He walked up to her and said, “Don’t cry.”  But how could she stop?  The people she cared for the most were gone.  Jesus knew how grave her situation was, but He also knew He had the power to change it.  Not because she deserved it, not because she exhibited exceptional faith, not because she did anything to gain God’s approval.  No, Jesus was motivated by love and full of grace.  He walked over to the coffin, touched it and said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!”  The dead man sat up and began to talk.  The son was alive again.  If the focus of the miracle was the young man, then Jesus would have left at that point.  But the focus of the miracle was not so much the man, but his mother.  Jesus took the man and led him back to his mother, as if to restore her broken heart and to resurrect her life and hope.  That, my friends, is a picture of grace.  Not just any grace; the Grace of God, and yes, it is amazing!

So what does this mean to you today?  It means that you should thank God for grace.  Grace is completely unmerited.  We know faith moves God, but this woman did not exhibit faith.  She did not say anything to Jesus, nor did she say anything at all.  Her tears spoke the language of pain and Jesus’ love spoke the language of grace.  This message is a reminder that our God is a good God who wants to heal our hurt, remove our pain, recover us from brokenness, and rejuvenate our joy!  So no matter where you are this morning – physically, spiritually, emotionally, or mentally – know that God is there with you, He cares, and because of His grace He wants to touch your heart and fill you with His supernatural peace.

Closing Confession:  Father, I thank You for Your overwhelming goodness and grace.  You have been, are now, and will always be good to me.  Your goodness motivates You to move in my life at the times where I am incapable of doing anything but weep.  Thank You for loving me when I needed You the most and for showing up in my life on those occasions where I could not muster up any faith or conjure up any hope.  Knowing that You love me enough to bless me by Your grace keeps me going when I feel like giving up.  Thank You Father for being so good!  In Jesus’ name.  Amen!