The Widow of Nain's son
...they glorified God, saying, 'A great prophet has risen up among us'; and, 'God has visited His people.' LUKE 7:16
Being part of a funeral or a funeral procession is probably a common experience to most of us here. We're mostly too old for death to have passed us by. And as for me...there is not only the experience of personal loss but as a priest I am often present at a funeral...I am often in a funeral procession leading to the grave or crematorium. It is one of the most privileged things I do. To walk alongside others in their grief is never less than moving...never less than very responsible.
There is always a mixed bundle of emotions...there is first and foremost a sense of deep compassion for those who are suffering loss but alongside that is the need to remain up together and strong, for those who mourn need to be supported by strength and by a certainty. Yes, they need to be loved...but love of the tougher kind...things need to be done well...in decent and proper order for in that lies a security. Strength and security is important when life seems to be crumbling around us.
The priest needs by manner and action as well as by word to hold things together and demonstrate that even as the faith and understanding of those who are bereaved is being shaken that there is nothing to fear, God's promises hold true. Our faith is not in vain.
Some of you will have noticed that I always lay my hands on a coffin when it is here in the sanctuary before me. There is nothing to be afraid of and I believe that should be shown and proclaimed and it is always the moment when I silently give thanks for the one who has died and pray for the bereaved family who stand behind me. If I have been fortunate enough to walk with that person through to the moment of death I will have anointed him or her and proclaimed absolution, fed them with the body and blood of Jesus and given the assurance that the sacraments of the church bring in their wake. And even if that has not been possible through emergency or whatever, my prayers and those of the church will have surrounded that person and walked with them into the arms of God.
When we read that simple and moving narrative of the Widow of Nain's son we almost have a pattern of that ministry. Jesus approaches this funeral procession and instead of just observing it with a little interest as we might do in the street (and death was even more common as a daily experience at that time)...he joins the procession and takes charge with an unparalleled but quiet authority. We are told he was full of compassion and well he might have been...a woman with neither son nor husband was in an desperate place...even her male relatives from the wider family could take all she had and whilst some childless widows would have been cared for by those relatives others were not...no wonder the prophets thunder from the Old Testament about the need to care for the widows and the orphans... for they had nothing.
Jesus takes charge and full of a deep compassion he tells the boy to get up. There is no faith required on the part of the mother, no test of righteousness...no qualifiers of belief...the dead are simply raised.
The miracles of Jesus have been described as paradigms of who he is and what he does...he brings life to the despairing and gives eternal life to the dead. You notice he is not afraid to touch the bier even though at his time it would have rendered him unclean for worship and decent rabbis did not do such things...no, it is death itself that is afraid in his presence...he is not afraid of death and that is what it means for us. There is nothing to fear.
Most people in the time of Jesus believed in life after death but it was usually linked with various qualifiers to do with quality of life, obedience to the law, membership of the people of God. Ironically only the Jerusalem priesthood...the Sadducees did not so believe clinging to the old beliefs that there is nothing more...but all those who ran the synagogues did believe and they would have supported Jesus in his beliefs if not his actions.
Jesus calmly does what we proclaim at every funeral held since his death and resurrection...his is the great example. It is not for us to judge the worthiness of the dead...that is not for us to do...we proclaim God's love and his compassion and tell the dead that life continues... and we do that with all the authority that Jesus gives us.
All the miracles of Jesus demonstrate something of his message...proclaim his trust in the God who loves us accepts us in his arms and gives us life for ever. We have just proclaimed that over the fifty days of Easter...and on this the first Sunday after trinity we proclaim it again...we walk in the steps of the Jesus who died and rose again for us for he said
I am the resurrection and the life.
The Widow of Nain Trinity 1 All Saints 2010
Rev Canon Ann Philp