June 15 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Devotional

Two processions meet up with each other outside the town of Nain. At the head of the one procession, going into Nain, is Jesus, the Lord of life. At the head of the other, going out of the town, is the dead body of a widow’s only son. Jesus is almost in the town when a noisy funeral procession begins to file out of the city. These people are on their way to bury the young man in the local cemetery.

When death comes knocking no one can tell it to go away until proper arrangements have been made. Death has the final word...or so it seems. But does it? Jesus arrives at Nain to publicly display that in His presence, death does not have the final word.

The dead man is being carried away in an open casket. Jesus proceeds to do something shocking. He touches the coffin and the dead person. How could He do this? The law of the Lord clearly specified that a man is defiled by touching anything that has been in contact with the dead. Jesus, however, is not afraid of becoming contaminated by germs or disease. He did not go about His ministry wearing gloves and a face mask. He came to cleanse us of all our sins and the results of sin.

Christ commands the young man to arise. Such a statement sounds like nonsense. If a young man is dead, how can he sit up and talk? If he can sit up and talk, he can’t possibly be dead. It is either one or the other! Or is it? The dead man does as he is told! He sits up and starts talking!

Sometime later a procession would be seen making its way out of Jerusalem. Jesus made His way to the cross to conquer death and to restore us to life. He goes to the cross so that a procession of earthly pilgrims can enter into the New Jerusalem. On the last day Jesus will call the dead to rise from the grave. He will say to the infant and still-born child, “I say to you, arise!” He will say to the young man who drowned and to the young woman who died of cancer, “I say to you, arise!” He will say to the man who suffered a heart attack and to the woman who reached a ripe old age, “I say to you, arise!” Yes, on the last day the graves of all those who have died in the Lord will go open! Death cannot reign in the presence of Christ. May that truth provide us with comfort every time we are in a funeral procession.