Raising the Dead With a Word. (Luke 7:14)

And He came up and touched the coffin; and the bearers came to a halt. And He said, "Young man, I say to you, arise!" (Luke 7:14 NASB)

The KJV uses the word "bier" instead of coffin. It was not a box with a lid but, instead, an open box of sorts with very low side walls. The body would be clearly visible on this bier.  As you know, a dead body of any kind was considered unclean (Numbers 19:11), as was anything the body touched (Lev 22:4). When Jesus touched the bier, He became ceremonially unclean and would need to go through the ritual of cleansing to be made clean again. 

Jesus was not one bit worried about becoming unclean. He walked up to the bier and touched it. The men carrying it stopped in the street, and Jesus did the most remarkable thing anyone had ever seen. He spoke to the young man (who was dead) and said to him, "Arise!" and that is exactly what he did. The young man arose. He was raised from the dead (not as Jesus was, to a new body) but resuscitated to his former body. With that one word, arise, the boy regained his life. 

That single word from Jesus did what the tears of the mother and the efforts of the doctors could not. It restored life, and it was all that was needed. In fact, nothing else, no one else, could make any difference at all. 

We would do well to remember this story. In the most hopeless situations, those that are beyond any hope of redemption, there is still one thing that can change everything. There is still One who can enter the situation and transform it. Have your loved one's bad choices taken him or her to a place of horrid circumstances? Have your own choices left you in a dismal state? Jesus can still make a difference. Jesus still has the power to change. Take your burdens to Jesus and allow Him to bring whatever change is needed to redeem the situation. 

The hopelessness of the mother's situation did not deter Jesus, nor does your own situation. His power is not diminished by human failure. It is made perfect in our weakness. Turn to Him for whatever help you need. 

Pray today that Jesus would enter our circumstances and those of our loved ones to bring whatever change is needed and to restore life to weary, wandering hearts. 

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Read last night's post here: 

http://leannahollis.blogspot.com/2014/05/tough-love-hardest-love-of-all.html