"Back into the City"

"When the Lord saw her, He felt compassion for her, and said to her, 'Do not weep.'"  (Luke 7:13)

 I love just how loving the God we serve is.  First to humble himself and take the form of a child, to become sin yet He Himself did not sin, to sacrifice his life to give life, and to become a priest forever in the presence of God to make concession for our sins.  He took our sorrows, our anxieties, and He took pain in them.  What a marvel it is to even think that my God came to experience pain just for me.  Compassion is not what Jesus had, compassion is what Jesus is. 

This woman that Jesus saw, and had compassion for, had lost her only son.  He was her only means of survival, income and protection.  She had no husband; a widow, left on her own to fend and provide for herself.  So here she is walking out of the city with a sizeable crowd that is carrying her dead son. 

"When He saw her, He felt compassion for her..."   Now this man, this womans son has been dead for a while.  The mourning of a person would last for at least 40 days; Jesus knew this and still He came 25 miles out of His way just for this woman.  He heard her cry, her heartache miles and miles away.  How often we tend to forget that our God hears us in our deepest sorrow and pain.  At times it may feel like God is miles away but He is closer than it appears.  And what we see here is so beautiful why? Because Jesus CAME TO HER.  Christ met her on her level, went out of His way by choice to meet her needs, not her wants, her needs.  And whats neat is that God has perfect timing. 

God is never late for a meeting, He never overschedules His book, He never forgets his appointments and His employees...God never forgets YOU.  Lets say you just lost your parents and all you have left is your sibling.  Its almost inevitable that you will eventually embrace somebody.  But if you've ever felt a hug from someone who truly cares for you the embrace is intense, its firm, filled with all the grief and sorrow that has built up in you it is in them. And it has at times a CRUSHING EFFECT, they hug you with a death grip seeming to never let you go and you have to mimic that hug or be crushed, yet in that embrace it releases something within the grief stricken person that gives them a brief moment of relief, a sense of understanding, a knowing that they are loved by the things that are unspoken.

God looked from on high and He saw you in your grief and your loss, and so He sent Compassion in the form of His Son Jesus Christ, to embrace you with a forever love to CRUSH the death grip that once held you down in your sorrows.  To give you not a brief moment of relief, but a forever moment with Him, to give you a deeper sense of understanding, a knowing that you are loved by the things that were spoken unto you and written for you in blood; HE SAW YOU AND HAD COMPASSION...

"Do not weep.  And He came up and touched the coffin; and the bearers came to a halt.  And He said, 'Young man, I say to you, arise!'"

What powerful truths Jesus spoke not only into the woman but also into the young man.  I understand and know why you are weeping but there will be no need for that, so do not cry no more; I understand and know that you are dead and are condemned by death, but there will be no need for that soon enough, arise!  Dearest Christian, arise and weep no more for you have a salvation unlike any other.  Christ came to die so that you may live.  As the young man was being carried out of the city because of his death with a sizeable crowd following him, Christ raises you back up because of His (christ) death, marches you right back into the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God (Hebrews 11:10) and you join in His crowd, His following of believers; where there is no tears no pain but eternal life with God.

Nothing that hasnt died cant be resurrected.  You were once dead in sin but Christ looked on you and HAD COMPASSION ON YOU. Salvation is knocking at your door, are you going to answer it?

God knows you, He sees you, He hears you, He comes to you, and He touches you.  May Christ continually touch you in all of your endeavors, hardships and pain. 

"If I should say, 'My foot has slipped,' Your lovingkindness, O Lord, will hold me up.  When my anxious thoughts multiply within me, Your consolations delight my soul."  (Psalm 94-18-19)