The Spirit presents, in a few words, the deep loneliness of the condition of the widow of Nain. The dead man was “the only son of his mother, and she was a widow.” The heart of Jesus was arrested, and then He arrested the bier of the dead young man. His compassions always went before His mercies. It is commonly said that the heart moves the hand. Do you not prize a blessing that comes to you in that way? Salvation came gushing forth from the heart of Christ. To say that the cross of Christ is the source of our blessedness would be slandering the heart of God. God loved the world and sent His Son; Christ’s heart went before His hand. A blessing from Christ is given, as Jeremiah says, with His whole heart and His whole soul. “He came and touched the bier.” He was undefilable, or He must have gone to the priest to cleanse Himself after touching it. Did Christ ever need the washings of the sanctuary? He might have restored the young man without touching him, but He has God’s relationship to iniquity. He not only stood apart from the actuality of sin, but from the possibility of it. “He delivered him to his mother.” Let me be bold and say, The Lord does not save you that you may serve Him. To suggest the thought would be to qualify the beauty of grace. He did not say, I give you life that you may spend it for Me. Let His love constrain you to spend and be spent for Him, but He never stands before your heart and says, Now I will forgive you if you will serve Me. Surely, He had purchased him, yet He gave him back to his mother. Yet you and I go back to the world and seek to make ourselves happy and important in it. Ah, throw the cords of love around your heart, and keep it fast by Jesus! Amen.
J. G. Bellett