<h2>How Jesus Stopped a Funeral</h2><div class="chaptertitle">CHAPTER 31</div>
<div class='cap'>JESUS WENT on a journey for preaching through
the southern parts of Galilee, as before he had
visited the villages among the mountains near the
sea. He walked out of Capernaum with the twelve
disciples and a crowd of followers which grew larger as
he went on. They passed by Mount Tabor, and just
before sunset they came to a small city at the foot of
another mountain, the Hill Moreh. This place was named
Nain. Outside the gate Jesus and his followers paused
to allow a funeral procession to pass by. In front were
women wailing aloud, flinging their arms up and down
and chanting a song about the young man who had died.
The body was wrapped in long strips of linen, and was
lying upon a couch, carried by bearers. After it walked
an old woman, the young man's mother, who was a
widow, burying her only son; and with her were many of
the people in the city, showing their sorrow for the widow
at the loss of her son.</div>
<p>When Jesus saw this weeping mother, he felt a great
pity for her and said to her, "Do not weep." He
stepped forward and touched the couch on which the
body was lying. The men who were carrying it stood
still with wonder at the coming of this stranger, whose
look showed power. Standing beside the dead young
man, he said:</p>
<p>"Young man, I say unto you, Rise up!"</p>
<p>Instantly the young man sat up and began to speak.
Jesus took him by the hand and gave him to his mother.
She received him into her arms, and found his cold body<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</SPAN></span>
now warm with life, the dull eyes now bright. Her son
that had died that day was alive once more.</p>
<p>The people who were looking on now felt that indeed
a marvelous work had been done. Many of them had
seen Jesus before, and knew him; and even those who had
not seen him had heard of him, and said, "This must be
that great teacher from Nazareth!" Many fell on their
faces before him; and some said, "A great prophet has
come among us," and others said, "Surely God has
visited his people!"</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus-206.jpg" width-obs="500" height-obs="464" alt="photo" /> <span class="caption">Ruins of Nain, near which Jesus restored to life the widow's son</span></div>
<p>The news that Jesus had raised a dead man to life<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</SPAN></span>
spread through all the land and even to the countries
around. More and more people after this sought to see
Jesus and to hear his words.</p>
<p>While Jesus was slowly journeying through southern
Galilee, visiting the towns, teaching the people and curing
the sick, two men came asking to see him. These men
were followers of John the Baptist, who was still in the
prison where Herod had sent him. In his prison John
heard of the works that Jesus was doing and of the teaching
that Jesus was giving. It may be that John was
expecting Jesus to set up his kingdom at once, instead of
merely going up and down the land as a teacher. Perhaps
also, John, shut up in prison, had grown discouraged
and doubtful. In other days he had said to all the people
that Jesus was the Coming King, so high above him that
he was not worthy to tie his shoestrings. But now these
two men had brought from John this question to Jesus:</p>
<p>"John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask—are you
the Coming One, the promised King of Israel? Or are
we to look for another?"</p>
<p>Jesus did not at once answer this question. He acted
for a time as though it had not been asked, and left these
two men standing, while he turned to the people about
him.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus-208.jpg" width-obs="408" height-obs="600" alt="painting" /> <span class="caption">Standing beside the dead young man, Jesus said: "Young man, I say unto you, rise up!" Instantly he sat up and began to speak.</span></div>
<p>At the Saviour's feet were many suffering people—the
sick brought upon couches by their friends, the blind
crying for sight, the deaf and dumb holding out their
hands toward him, the lepers with all their horrible
sores, the wild people in whom were evil spirits. Jesus
attended to the needs of all these sufferers. He laid his
hands upon the sick, and they rose up well; he touched
the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf, and gave
them their sight and hearing; he gave each leper a new,
pure, perfect body; and he cast out the evil spirits by
his words. Then he went on and made his usual talk<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</SPAN></span>
to the crowds about the Kingdom of God, and how any
man might come into it.</p>
<p>When at last his morning's work of healing and teaching
was over, he turned to these two message-bearers
from John the Baptist, and said to them:</p>
<p>"Go back and tell John in his prison what you have
seen and heard. Here are men once blind who now can
see; lame men who now can walk; leprous men who have
been made clean; deaf men made to hear; men having
in them evil spirits, who are now free from their power.
You have heard too of dead men raised to life; and you
have listened while the gospel has been preached to the
poor. You go and tell John all these things that you have
seen and heard. Then let John think about these things
and judge whether I am not the One whom he promised
should come."</p>
<p>That was a far better way to bring John the Baptist
back to believing fully in Jesus as the promised King of
Israel and the Saviour of the world than to send the
answer back, "Go and tell John that I am the Saviour."
For John's faith would be the stronger, because he would
now have the proofs that Jesus was the promised Lord.</p>
<p>After these messengers from John the Baptist had
left, Jesus began to talk to the people about John. Some
may have thought that in sending this question to Jesus,
John had showed weakness and a change of his mind.
Jesus said to the people:</p>
<p>"What was it that you went out to the desert to see?
Was it a reed swayed to and fro by the wind? No, this
man John was no weak, wind-shaken reed. Did you go
out to look at a man clothed in the robes of a prince, and
eating delicate food? No, that skin-clad man in the
desert was no such princely person. To see such people
you go to the palaces of kings. Come, what <i>did</i> you
go out to see? Was it a prophet, a man sent from God?<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</SPAN></span>
Yes, I tell you, John the Baptist was indeed a prophet,
and more than a prophet. He was the King's messenger,
to prepare the way for the King himself. Of a truth,
I tell you all that no greater man was ever born into this
world than John the Baptist. And yet he that is least
in the Kingdom of God is higher even than John."</p>
<p>Jesus meant that those who could come into the
Kingdom of God, as those who heard the gospel might
come, were higher than even the greatest of those who
prepare the way for the Kingdom.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus-210.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="451" alt="photo" /> <span class="caption">The Jaffa Gate of Jerusalem</span></div>
<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</SPAN></span></p>
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