Cry

“‘Don’t cry.’” (Luke 7:13).

The Miracle of Nain (Cranach the Younger)

When my little baby died before he was even born I was so terrible grief-stricken that I was unable to even speak.

I literally could not get words out of my mouth.  I could not answer my phone.  I could not speak to people – even people who cared very deeply about me.  I could not answer their questions or think about what they wanted me to think about.  I could not speak to my doctor and could not address myself to my children.

Those first few days were the most terrible time of my life and I felt very alone.

But I realise now – with the Grace afforded to me (through no merit of my own) – that I was never really alone.  Although I could not articulate what was happening to anyone around me and although I felt completely misunderstood by the people around me – even those who cared about me very deeply – I was never really alone.

Christ was with me.  He still is.

You see, God does not wait to be invited into grief.  I know this because He touched the funeral bier in the town of Nain…  During Christ’s time it was considered ritually unclean to touch a bier or anyone associated with death.  The funeral procession stopped at His touch – not only at His power – but perhaps because of their shock at a Jewish man deliberately making Himself unclean…

In those days, the body was covered in cloth and was carried on a wooden frame, called a bier, to the place of burial.  But Christ interrupted that. 

“Then He went up and touched the bier they were carrying him on, and the bearers stood still. He said, ‘Young man, I say to you, get up!’” (Luke 7:14).

Christ did not need to touch that bier.  His word alone had authority.  And yet He deliberately reached out and touched what others were afraid to touch.  He reached past the boundaries of death and custom – He defied distance and separation.  He – God of the Universe – took on my suffering, my grief and my sorrow, by touching that bier…

For my Beloved is a Merciful God.  He is not waiting for my sorrow to subside.  He is reaching into it to lift me out of it…

“When the Lord saw her, His heart went out to her and He said, ‘Don’t cry.’” (Luke 7:13).

And as a result of His intervention, Christ reversed death.  Death was not the thing that created separation, it was the thing that He used as a channel for life.  And this was not just the difference between a grieving mother and a mother who was not grieving.  A widow with no son to care for her was cast into a very uncertain future.  She had nobody to care for her or provide for her financially.  She had no secure place to live and no way to function in the world.  A childless widow was the most vulnerable member of society.

And Christ had compassion on this widow of Nain as He had compassion on His widowed mother and as He has compassion on me – who is no widow at all…

For Christ loves me so much that He spoke to me too when He spoke to that widow and asked her not to cry.  I can hear Him in my soul today saying to me, “Don’t cry”…  “Don’t cry”… “Don’t cry”…

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.