“But what is grief, if not love persevering?”
Quoted by Vision in the Disney+ series Wandavision, this question quickly resonated with viewers all over the country and all over the world when episode eight aired. We live in a broken world, and none of us are strangers to grief. We’ve all experienced the deaths of aging parents, close friends, and unborn children. We’ve all dealt with painful break-ups and awful falling-outs with people we loved dearly. We’ve all been betrayed or attacked by someone we once trusted and thought very highly of. And with everything that has happened in our world over the past two years, our levels of grief are higher than they’ve ever been before.
Grief causes us to feel a lot of things. Angry. Confused. Numb. Depressed. Anxious. Devastated. Guilty. Listless. Helpless. Alone. When we’re grieving the loss of someone or something, we may even feel like God is far away from us, ignoring our prayers and pleas. But the truth is that God draws near to us in our grief. And this is made evident to us when we see Jesus encounter a grieving widow in Luke 7.
Shortly after healing the servant of the God-fearing centurion, Jesus entered a town called Nain, followed by his disciples and a large crowd of people who were listening to His teachings and witnessing His miracles. As He drew near to the town, He came upon a funeral procession.
“As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her.” Luke 7:12, ESV
This woman was deep in grief. Her husband had died. Now, her only son has died. And her entire life has been turned upside-down. In this day and age, no husband and no sons meant you had no way of providing for yourself. She was in a desperate situation and was likely feeling some of those emotions I mentioned earlier: devastated, anxious, helpless, and numb.
Many times when we encounter someone who is experiencing raw grief and dealing with these kinds of emotions, we don’t know what to do. We don’t know what to say. We don’t know how to comfort and encourage them while also acknowledging their pain and letting them process what has happened. But Jesus knew exactly what to do. He had compassion for the woman and drew near to her.
“And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, ‘Do not weep.’ Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, ‘Young man, I say to you, arise.’” Luke 7:13-14
As He drew near to the funeral procession, Jesus touched the bier, which was essentially an open coffin that was used to transport corpses to the burial place outside the city. Most Jews would not have even thought for a second to touch a bier because touching a dead body, whether it’s a human or an animal, made you ceremonially unclean. But Jesus touching death did not make Him unclean. His touch made the dead alive.
“And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, ‘A great prophet has arisen among us!’ and ‘God has visited his people!’ And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country.” Luke 7:15-17
The widow’s only son, her only source of provision, was alive, and her grief quickly turned to joy. In fact, the entire crowd of people there were overjoyed and glorified God and called Jesus a great prophet. They probably called Jesus this because this miracle closely resembles a miracle performed by the prophet Elijah. He visited a widow whose only son became ill and died. In her grief, she became angry at Elijah. But Elijah went to her son, touched him, and gave him to his mother alive. And the woman told Elijah that she now knew that he was a man of God and that she could trust that his words from the Lord were true (1 Kings 17:17-24).
But Jesus is more than just a great prophet. He is more than just a man of God. He is the Son of God, God incarnate, our Healer and Savior who loves us and is compassionate towards us. He sees us in our grief, and He draws near to us, offering the peace, hope, and joy that we so desperately need and can only find in Him.
If you are struggling with grief right now, I want you to remember that you are never alone. Jesus is with you, and He loves you with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3). He sees your pain and sorrow, and He has compassion for you. Cry out to the Lord and cast your cares on Him, for He truly cares about you (1 Peter 5:7). Pray for healing, pray for reconciliation, pray for comfort, pray for peace.
I also encourage you to not isolate yourself during this time. Reach out to someone you trust – a close friend, someone at church, your pastor – and tell them about what you’re going through so they can pray for you and help you and be an encouragement to you. And don’t be afraid to contact a Christian counselor because they usually have resources they can share with you that will help you cope with your grief in a godly way.
