We all envision our future in some way, shape, or form. And as believers, we know that God is a part of this future. But what about when we do face desolation? Or when we’re proclaiming the name of Jesus in a world of senseless pain and suffering?
This past Sunday, in the Gospel of Luke (7:11-17) we heard of a woman without a husband, living in the small city of Nain. When we look ahead to her future as a widow in the ancient Near East, we see a person without property rights, without standing in the community, and without any source of income—a life of material poverty and struggle. But, at least there is a son, he can provide. The responsible son provides the answer, the key to a future. There is a plan for this woman.
But then, the unthinkable occurs. The son dies. We mourn along with her, at the pure pain of losing a child—the unnatural cruelty of suffering such loss. Now what? No husband. No sons. The future cannot be changed. Begging, prostitution, what other options are there for her? How can we still believe this is God’s plan? How can we be authentically enthusiastic evangelists on behalf of a loving God, if this is what God has provided for her?
Suddenly a man called Jesus who has just arrived at the city gate interrupts the funeral narrative. “Do not weep,” he declares. A more literal translation would be, “be not weeping.” Jesus commands the woman to enter a different state of being. To the body of the son, he orders, “arise.” A new reality emerges. A redeemed reality, not just for the woman and her son, but a for every person who witnessed the event in Nain.
The new reality Jesus orders us to is undoubtedly positive, but we can still wonder about the negatives, why? The sting of not knowing why the woman suffered loss as to become a widow in the first place, why she lost her son and suffered the agony of grief and hopelessness. And we don’t get an answer from Jesus in the moment. Our new reality is redeemed—in Nain we see complete healing as all relationships are rightly restored. And yet, life is still not completely free of the pains of the old reality. What if this widow’s son dies again and Jesus does not raise him from the dead? What if famine strikes and many in Nain are made widows? Then what?
When we share the story of salvation in Jesus Christ and what He offers us in personal encounter with Him, we’re not sharing a magical cure-all, a prescription for a “happy” life, or the answers we all sometimes yearn for. Even after Jesus visits Nain and brings redemption, pain still exists, the future is still an uncertain place, the unthinkable could happen again.
The events of Nain make clear that our evangel, our “Good News” is that God is with us. God has visited us, met us intimately, and stays with us—this is the heart of our redeemed reality as believers. Our “Good News” is relationship with a person, not simply an emotional reaction or cognitive belief.
When we hear Jesus directing us, go, enter a new state of being, arise from the past—we respond, we go. And while our painful questions and heartache do not disappear for good, we engage those questions, knowing that Jesus comes to us, and remains with us. And, through the Spirit of Jesus Christ, we proclaim that God enters into the suffering of the world to meet every human in need of salvation. It happened in Nain and it happens today.
Copyright © 2013, Colleen Vermeulen
Colleen Vermeulen
Colleen Reiss Vermeulen, M.Div., M.N.A., blogs, ministers in parish life and lay/deacon formation, and serves as a U.S. Army Reserve officer. She and her husband, Luke, have been married since 2011 and live in Ypsilanti, MI with their two young sons.
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