Sermon Tone Analysis

I am sure that you will be able to relate to the following.

I am not sure on which side of the story you will be.

Being part of a conversation is a lovely thing however at times it can be one of the most frustrating things.

So frustrating that you just want to step away or even just keep quiet.

This happens to me when people just but in.

They Just burst into the middle of you thought and drown you out.

When this happens repeatedly in the same conversation how do you feel?

For me at times I try and talk the other person down by speaking louder or faster but most of the time that does not help because it seems as if everyone is not listening to what I have to say.

It can get really irritating when it happens time and again.

I remember there were times while I was in class that one person would often overpower other students while they were speaking.

It happened so often that the rest of the class would look at each other thinking how rude is that.

Granted the person had a valid point to make but they could have waited their turn.

Have you ever been over powered by people like that?

If you have you know that it is never a pleasant feeling.

Have you ever been over powered by people like that?

If you have you know that it is never a pleasant feeling.

Jesus stepping into our lives might at times have this impact.

We see this in the story of the Widow of Nain.

A traditional funeral service was taking place.

As was the custom most of the villages of Nain were accompanying the widow to the beryl sight.

It was customary to have hired whalers as the dead person was carried either on a stretcher or in a coffin to the location where they would be berried.

Jesus arrives on the scene of this funeral not only with His disciples but also with a large crowed.

He fits in with the custom of the day and joins in the procession.

However, Jesus does not just join but rather He steps into this ladies life.

Jesus interjects into her life.

Scripture tells us that she is a widow and no she has lost her only child.

In the biblical world she is not destitute.

She has no family no means of taking care of her self.

Her son would have been her provider in the absence of her husband but now all was gone.

We might think of a widow as just a lady who had lost her husband but in the times of Jesus there was a greater meaning behind this name.

Being a widow or “chera” has its root meaning in being forsaken, abandoned, deserted, desolate.

This is the state of mind this lady finds her self in.

This ladies husband was her protector and so was her son now that they were both gone she would inevitably experience social and economic hardships.

There are many passages of Scripture that point out that the widows need to be taken care.

It is almost as if it is a command because God must have know that they would have been neglected.

So, Jesus steps into this ladies life and has compassion on her for He must have known the struggles that lay a head of her.

Compassion might not really convey the intensity of the Greek word as it is very difficult to this.

The word relates to the inner parts of a sacrifice, or the inner parts of the body.

When Jesus had compassion on this lady the seat of His feelings were touched.

The inner core of Jesus was moved due to the destitute position of this woman.

He says to her “do not weep”, and then He does the unthinkable.

He goes and touches the open coffin and says arise.

Jesus gives to this dead young man that which no one other than God can give.

In Christ was life unborrowed, original, underived.

Only He could give life because He is life.

Jesus stepping into our lives might at times have this impact.

We see this in the story of the Widow of Nain.

A traditional funeral service was taking place.

As was the custom most of the villages of Nain were accompanying the widow to the beryl sight.

It was customary to have hired whalers as the dead person was carried either on a stretcher or in a coffin to the location where they would be berried.

Jesus arrives on the scene of this funeral not only with His disciples but also with a large crowed.

He fits in with the custom of the day and joins in the procession.

However, Jesus does not just join but rather He steps into this ladies life.

Jesus interjects into her life.

Scripture tells us that she is a widow and no she has lost her only child.

In the biblical world she is not destitute.

She has no family no means of taking care of her self.

Her son would have been her provider in the absence of her husband but now all was gone.

We might think of a widow as just a lady who had lost her husband but in the times of Jesus there was a greater meaning behind this name.

Being a widow or “chera” has its root meaning in being forsaken, abandoned, deserted, desolate.

This is the state of mind this lady finds her self in.

This ladies husband was her protector and so was her son now that they were both gone she would inevitably experience social and economic hardships.

There are many passages of Scripture that point out that the widows need to be taken care.

It is almost as if it is a command because God must have know that they would have been neglected.

So, Jesus steps into this ladies life and has compassion on her for He must have known the struggles that lay a head of her.

Compassion might not really convey the intensity of the Greek word as it is very difficult to this.

The word relates to the inner parts of a sacrifice, or the inner parts of the body.

When Jesus had compassion on this lady the seat of His feelings were touched.

The inner core of Jesus was moved due to the destitute position of this woman.

He says to her “do not weep”, and then He does the unthinkable.

He goes and touches the open coffin and says arise.

Jesus gives to this dead young man that which no one other than God can give.

In Christ was life unborrowed, original, underived.

Only He could give life because He is life.

It is a wonderful story of how Jesus was able to meet the need of this lady but what is the need that it addresses us?

Maybe we can start to answer this question as we look at how Luke starts this story.

It starts out with, “Now it happened, the day after, that He went into a city called Nain;” and when we compare this to which says, “He arose and went to Zarephath to the gate of the town.”

We can see that Luke is creating a comparison between Elijah and Jesus by recalling the story where Elijah healed the widow’s son.

We might think that it is a bit far-fetched but when we read earlier in we see Jesus making specific reference to Elijah and the town of Zarephath.

, But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land; but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.

26 But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land; but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.

Luke is wanting the read back then and us to know that the way in which God had acted in the past means that we can trust Him in the present.

Luke jogs the memory of the readers to says that God is trustworthy and is intimately concerned and interested in our lives.

The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), .

When we look at this story, we do not see many details there is a man, dead and unnamed, do not know the cause of his death, do not know his age, the mother is also unnamed and because of this we might just brush it a side.

But Luke wants us to see that even the unnamed and insignificant people get the attention of Jesus and matter to Him.

Jesus could have just passed by.