Church of the resurrection of the son of the widow of Nain. Archpriest Vitaly Tkachev: Sunday sermon on the theme of the Gospel reading about the resurrection of the son of the Nain widow
After this Jesus went to a city called Nain; and with Him went many of His disciples and a great multitude of people. When He approached the city gates, they carried out the dead man, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow; and many people went with her out of the city.Seeing her, the Lord took pity on herand said to her, “Don’t cry.” And, approaching, he touched the bed; those carrying them stopped, and He said: young man! I'm telling you, get up! The dead man got up, sat down and began to speak; and Jesus gave him to his mother.And everyone was seized with fear, and they glorified God, saying: A great prophet has arisen among us, and God has visited His people.
Interpretation of the Gospel
St. Luka Voino-Yasenetsky
Let us transport our thoughts to distant ancient Palestine, approach the city of Nain and see there an indescribable, indescribable sight: we will see a huge crowd of people, together with the apostles, accompanying the Lord Jesus Christ, for crowds of people always followed Him, attracted by His Divine teaching, His glorious miracles.
A sad procession emerges from the gates of the city: they are carrying the only son of an unfortunate widow to burial, and her heart breaks, and she cries and sobs inconsolably. Her Jewish acquaintances follow the coffin and cry with her.
The Lord suddenly stops the procession. He approaches the bed of the deceased, touches the stretcher with his hand and says:
Young man, I tell you, get up!
And the deceased sat down on the stretcher, looking around in amazement.
The people recoiled in amazement, everyone’s heart trembled, and they exclaimed:
– Great Prophet rose up among us, and God visited His people.
This was one of the greatest miracles of the Lord Jesus.
But you know that not only did the Lord resurrect the son of the widow of Nain, you know that he also resurrected the dead daughter of Jairus, the leader of the synagogue; You also know the even more amazing resurrection of Lazarus, who had already been lying in the tomb for four days, already stinking, as his sister Martha said. Lazarus came out of the tomb, wrapped in burial shrouds, and the people trembled, the people were amazed.
Why, why did the Lord perform these amazing miracles of resurrecting the dead?
In this Gospel reading you heard that He had mercy on the unfortunate widow, and in the description of the great miracle of the resurrection of Lazarus we read. that the Lord was in great sadness and shed tears when he saw the crying and sobbing of Lazarus’s sisters and the Jews who came to console them.
So, God’s mercy, God’s love, God’s compassion prompted the Lord Jesus to create the resurrection of the dead.
But is that all there is to it? No, not only that: the greatest miracles in the world were also needed in order to confirm the faith of the people of Israel in Him, in order to shake the hearts of people and turn them to God.
But this is not enough: there is a third, most important reason for raising the dead Lord Jesus Christ.
In the troparion of the Feast of the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem we hear:
“Assuring the general resurrection before Your passion, You raised Lazarus from the dead, O Christ God...”
General resurrection... assuring... What does it mean?
This means that Christ raised Lazarus in order to assure us of the possibility of a general resurrection of all people on the day of the Last Judgment, in order to refute the wicked opinion of people who claim that there cannot be a resurrection of the dead, that with the death of a person everything ends, and he is plunged into eternal deepest darkness.
St. Apostle Paul spoke very important words about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ:“If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain. Moreover, we would also turn out to be false witnesses about God, because we would testify about God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if,that is , the dead do not rise; for if the dead are not raised, then Christ is not raised; and if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is also in vain.” (1 Cor. 15, 13-14).
Our faith is vain - faith in Christ, faith in God is vain, if we do not believe in the resurrection, the general resurrection, and above all the resurrection of Christ.
Tell me, isn’t the hearts of millions of people tormented by a difficult question: how. Why, why does God allow sinners, wicked people, those who oppress others, those who take away the property of widows and orphans, liars, false witnesses, informers, to prosper, as we often see.
How he allows pious people, quiet people, kind people, poor people to experience dire need, to be persecuted by the powerful. Where, they say, is God's truth?
Where?!! In resurrection - in the resurrection of the dead!
Tell us, in our scary days, when monstrous crimes, monstrous atrocities are being committed in the unfortunate country of Korea, from which the hearts of merciful people shudder, how, how can it be that the Lord allowed this heroic people to be destroyed?
Oh, it can't be, it can never be!
Even if the robber-aggressors remain unpunished now, in this life, then their resurrection awaits - a terrible resurrection for judgment.
And they will appear, drenched from head to toe in the blood of children and women, old men and women of Korea, these robbers who burned the homes of the civilian population with napalm will appear; these damned ones, throwing bombs with plague and other terrible bacteria.
They will appear, they will appear, for there will be a resurrection, for Christ has risen and thereby confirmed faith in the resurrection, for Christ's resurrection Death, eternal spiritual death, has been defeated.
And just as He rose on the third day after His grave death on the cross, so will everyone, all people, rise again.
The righteous will be resurrected in the resurrection of the belly, and the sinners in the resurrection of judgment. And there will be a Last Judgment - there will be judgment!
All the unfortunate will receive reward, all those who have suffered, all those persecuted, all those persecuted for Christ will receive reward in the joy of heaven.
Those damned ones who trampled on the law of Christ, who sowed satanic hatred everywhere, will also receive retribution. They too will arise and hear from the lips of our Savior:“Depart from me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” (Matt. 25:41).
(Luke 7.11-17; 8.41-56)
In addition to healings, the Lord performed resurrections of the dead - miracles that testified with special power to Him as the Son of God. These miracles showed that Christ is stronger than death and is the source of life. The evangelists talk about two resurrections performed by Christ during his stay in Galilee.
The resurrection of the youth took place near the city of Nain. As the Lord approached this city, a funeral procession came out of the gates: a poor Nain widow was burying her son. The mother, walking behind the stretcher, cried bitterly. The Lord, seeing her, took pity and said to her: “ Do not Cry" Then He, turning to the dead man, commanded: “ Young man! I'm telling you, get up"(Luke 7.14). And at the word of Christ, the dead man came to life, stood up and began to speak. The shocked crowd that witnessed the miracle began to glorify God, saying: “ A great prophet has risen among us, and God has visited His people"(Luke 7.16).
On one of Christ’s returns to Capernaum, Jairus, the leader of the Capernaum synagogue, approached Him. Heartbroken, he fell at the feet of Christ and begged Him to come to his house to heal his only daughter, who was dying. Christ did not refuse Jairus and went to his house. Many people accompanied Jesus on the way to the house of the leader of the synagogue.
At this time, a certain woman approached Him, who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years. She spent all her money on treatment, but ultimately ended up in a worse condition. She had no right to appear among people, because... was considered unclean, and touching it was considered desecration. When the sick woman heard that the great wonderworker Jesus of Nazareth had come to Capernaum, she, at the risk of being accused of breaking the Law, made her way through the crowd to Him and with unshakable faith secretly touched His clothes. At that same moment, a miracle happened: the woman’s bleeding stopped, and she felt that she was healed.
No one knew what happened except her and Jesus Christ, but the Lord apparently wanted the instructive faith and boldness of this woman to become known, so He stopped and, turning to the people crowding Him, asked who touched Him. The Apostle Peter expressed general surprise at this question: “ Mentor! the people surround you and crowd you, and you say: who touched me?? (Luke 8.45). But the Lord explained that the touch was not accidental: “ Someone touched Me, because I felt the power coming from Me"(Luke 8.46). Hearing this, the woman realized that her healing could not remain a secret. She approached Jesus, fell at His feet and publicly told the whole truth. For her self-will, the healed woman expected to be condemned, but the Lord reassured and encouraged her: “ Dare, daughter! your faith has saved you; go in peace"(Luke 8.48).
But at that moment, when the Lord blessed the healed woman, messengers from home approached Jairus and told him the sad news about the death of his daughter. They told him: " Your daughter has died; don't bother the teacher"(Luke 8.49). The Lord, seeing the despair of the grief-stricken father, said to him: “ Don't be afraid! just believe and you will be saved"(Luke 8.50).
The leader of the synagogue followed Jesus to his home with hope. A crowd followed them, but Christ allowed only Peter, John, James and the parents of the girl to enter the house. Approaching the deceased, the Lord took her hand and powerfully said: “ Girl, I'm telling you, get up" The girl came to life and immediately began to walk.
Many people were called the saviors of humanity, but when and which of them thought of saving people from death?
There have been many winners in history, but which of them defeated death?
There were many kings on earth who called millions of people their subjects, but which of them and when included the dead among their subjects along with the living?
No one except the One and incomparable Lord Jesus Christ. He is not just a new Man, He is new world, He is the Creator of the new world. He equally plowed both the field of the living and the field of the dead and sowed a new seed of life. The dead were like the living to Him, and the living were like the dead. Death was not the limit of His Kingdom. He trampled this border and extended His Kingdom back to Adam and Eve and forward to the last man born on earth. He looked at both human life and death differently than any other mortal had ever done. He looked and saw that life does not end with the death of the body, but that real death kills some people even before their physical death. He saw many living in tombs and many dead in living bodies.
During this time Jesus went to a city called Nain; and with Him went many of His disciples and a great multitude of people. This happened shortly after the miraculous healing of the servant of the Roman centurion in Capernaum. Hastening to do as much good as possible and thereby set a wondrous example for all His faithful, the Lord set out from Capernaum past Mount Tabor. Here, behind this mountain and on the slope of Hermon, today is the village of Nain, once former city enclosed by walls. The Lord was accompanied by a huge crowd of disciples and people. They all saw numerous miracles of Christ in Capernaum, but they were all full of desire to see and hear more. For until then nothing like the miracles of Christ had been seen or heard in Israel, and His speeches were like rivers of honey and milk.
When He approached the city gates, they carried out the dead man, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow; and many people went with her out of the city. As soon as the Lord and the people accompanying Him reached the city gates, the people accompanying the dead man came out of the city to meet them. And so the Lord and the slave, the Giver of Life and death met. The deceased was young, as indicated by the word youth with whom Christ addressed him, and also by the fact that the Savior, after the resurrection, gave him to his mother. Obviously, the mother of the deceased was from a rather rich and noble house, as evidenced by the large number of participants in the funeral procession: and many people walked with her from the city.
Seeing her, the Lord took pity on her and told her: don’t cry.
He looked into her soul and read everything that was there. Her husband died and she felt lonely; Now her only son had died, and she felt completely alone. Where is the Living God? Can anyone be alone while in the presence of God? And can a true person have a friend closer than God? Isn't God closer to us than father and mother, than brothers and sisters, than sons and daughters? He gives us relatives, and He takes them away, but He does not move away from us, and His eye over us does not grow old, and His love for us does not change. All the blows of death are designed to ensure that we cleave as closely as possible to our God, the Living God.
Do not Cry,- the Lord consoles the grieving mother. This is said by the One who does not think, as many of us do, that the soul of the deceased youth went to the grave before the body, the One who knows where the soul of the deceased is; or rather, the One who holds this soul in His power. And we console those who mourn with the same words: "Do not Cry!"- although our heart is filled with tears. But we feel powerless to offer the mourners anything other than these words and our pity. So much has the power of death surpassed our strength that we swarm in its shadow like insects; and, burying a dead person in the ground, we always feel that we are burying a part of ourselves in the grave darkness of death.
And, approaching, he touched the bed; those carrying them stopped, and He said: young man! I'm telling you, get up!
The dead man got up, sat down and began to speak; and Jesus gave him to his mother. The creation heard its Creator and obeyed his commandments. The same Divine power that initially breathed the breath of life into the dust of the earth and created man from the dust acted now, reviving dead dust, causing blood to flow and eyes to see, ears to hear, tongue to speak, bones and meat to move. Wherever the soul of the deceased youth was then, it heard the voice of its Chief and instantly returned to the body in order to fulfill His order together with the body. The subject recognized the voice of his King - and responded. The young man got up and sat down on the bed, and began to speak.
And everyone was seized with fear, and they glorified God, saying: A great prophet has arisen among us, and God has visited His people.
Christ, who easily resurrected others, resurrected Himself, and revealed Himself on earth and in heaven as greatest Light, Which flares up the more and the brighter it shines, the more it is extinguished. We all live, and breathe, and rejoice in this Light. And this Light of lights will once again, and soon, appear to the earth and to all living and dead. This will happen when our Lord Jesus Christ comes to complete human history, resurrect those in the tombs and judge all human beings who lived on earth, starting from Adam until the end of time. Then once again - and this time in full - the words of the Savior will come true: Truly, truly, I say to you, the time is coming, and has already come, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and having heard, they will live. The miracle of the resurrection of the son of the widow from Nain was created both out of mercy for the grieving mother, and in order to help our faith in the last and general resurrection, a miracle of miracles, truth above all truth and joy above all joy. To our Lord Jesus Christ be honor and glory, with the Father and the Holy Spirit - the Trinity, Consubstantial and Indivisible, now and ever, at all times and unto ages of ages. Amen.
Saint Nicholas of Serbia
Today's gospel narrative, which contains so much comfort and hope for every person, confronts us, however, with the Lord demanding that we open ourselves to the influence of His grace.
In the Holy Land, Palestine, there is a small city, which is now called Nablus, but earlier, in ancient times, was called Nain. By itself, it does not represent anything - there are now constant clashes between Jews and Arabs. But its name is captured in the Gospel and, both now and then, a story of sorrow is associated with it. Now there is enmity between two Semitic peoples, which has no end in sight, and in ancient times memories of two images of the ultimate human grief were associated with this city - widowhood and the loss of one’s child.
The Lord, bypassing many cities and villages of Palestine, came to this city. A great multitude of people went with Him, as always, because He is Life. “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life,” says the Lord. And when this procession approached the city gates, another procession came out to meet them - a funeral one. They carried out a dead young man - the only son of his mother, who was also a widow. Once she lost her husband, from whom she had her only son - her last consolation and support in old age. Her husband dies, she remains a widow, and now she is burying her dear son. No words can describe this grief - her grief is inconsolable. And the Gospel says that many sympathetic people went with her. And at the city gates these two processions meet: in front of one is the Lord Jesus Christ, in front of the other is the dead man. Ahead of one is Life, ahead of the other is Death. And how could they miss each other? Even if Christ were a simple Teacher, even then He would have had to say a few words of consolation to this poor woman. But she didn't need these words of comfort. She needed her only son.
We know that here on earth, in this temporary life, no matter how much you live, in the end you will always have to die. “Dust you are and to dust you will return.” Every life invariably ends in death. And the Gospel does not say that a crying mother asks the Lord for something. Yes, she, absorbed in her grief, hardly saw anyone around her. But the Lord saw her suffering, and, approaching her, said only: “Don’t cry.” And since then, these words have been for all those grieving for dead Christians not only consolation and mercy, but also some kind of firm, inexorable demand: “Don’t cry!” Subsequently, the Apostle Paul will not only repeat, but also explain these words, so that they would not be killed over the dead “and mourn like the pagans who have no hope.”
The woman, obviously, listened, submitted and responded with obedience to this demand, for those carrying the dead man stopped. The Lord touched him and said: “Young man, I tell you, get up!” And the dead man rose, sat down, and began to speak; and Jesus gave him to his mother. “Then,” the Scripture says, “everyone was seized with fear, and they praised God and said: “A great prophet has arisen among us, and God has visited His people.”
There is no need to say what joy filled the grieving mother. The Lord returned her son to her. And everyone saw with their own eyes the opposite - despite the fact that death always defeats life, here, at the city gates, life defeated death, because the Chief of Life intervened in the matter.
Very often this happens to us. When a person is beset by grief and his soul is torn apart by sorrows, then the Lord stands invisibly but really before his faith, and we rush to Him with our sadness and say: “Lord, help, Lord, comfort.” And then the Lord says to each of us: “Don’t cry!” Not in the sense that He requires us to forget our grief, but in the sense that by our faith in Him we do not humiliate our hope for eternal life, but can outgrow ourselves and time, and grow into the measure of a true person who is able to penetrate a love that is in no way different for both the living and the dead, because only love is eternal both on earth and unshakable after death. And it connects heaven and earth, God and man, time and eternity. That is why the Lord sets before us an inexorable demand of faith: stop feeling sorry for yourself, stop tearing your heart, stop thinkingonly about yourself and revel in your grief - for life continues even when a person goes into eternity. “God has no dead, but all are alive.” And there, beyond the threshold of death, the Lord stands and invites those who have left this world into His Kingdom. It is not for nothing that in the Gospel the Savior so often says: “In the world you will have sorrow, but take heart, I have overcome the world.” “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” “You now have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice.”
Therefore, the entire earthly life of our Savior and His entire redemptive feat from Christmas to death on the cross was the same Divine, omnipotent and love-filled call to every person - “don’t cry.” This call also applied to the Mother of God. That is why the Church exclaims with a special chant: “Do not weep for Me, Mother, visibly in the grave.”
Therefore, in extreme despair for the dead there is something blasphemous, for a person killing himself over a coffin seems to say: “My will be done, but I do not accept Yours, Divine.” And this prevents the possibility of interaction with God. After all, without the will of God, not a hair falls from a person’s head. This means that if we can even to some small extent call ourselves believers and want to participate in the coming resurrection of the dead in order to meet our relatives and friends resurrected, we now, parting with them for a while, must at least to some extent hear and react to this powerful call “don’t cry!”, spoken by the Lord for all peoples for all times, both over the living and over the dead!
Truly, truly, I say to you, the time is coming, and has already come,
when the dead hear the voice of the Son of God and, having heard, live...
We hear about the healing of the son of the widow of Nain. At the gates of the city of Nain, located near the city of Capernaum, the Lord, walking with many people who always accompany Him, meets another human stream - a funeral procession. He sees a woman who is in terrible grief because she recently lost her husband and is now burying her only son.
Truly, trouble does not come alone. And the Lord often lets us know the depth of grief that every person has to taste. This woman hoped that her only son, when he grew up, would be a support in her life and old age. And so, like a broken reed, he lies.
Can anyone say that things will be different for him? Is there even one person who could say that his life will not be cut short in the prime of his life? Is there even one person who could say that the Lord will not suddenly visit him with the greatest grief?
God, who became man, shows us what man is, what kindness and compassion for the grief of others he should have. This compassion comes from His nature. No one told him about what was happening at the city gates of the city of Nain. Seeing the grief of this woman, He approaches her, touches the coffin and the body of the deceased young man. And he says only one word to the woman: "Do not Cry".
He speaks this word as He speaks the words that follow: “Young man, I’m telling you, get up.”. As one who has authority, He says: “Do not weep” - not like the scribes and Pharisees. Not like us, who can know everything about true faith and the need to console other people, but who do not have the power to tell another person “don’t cry,” so that this would be a consolation for him.
This The Lord's power over death comes from the depth of love that He has for every person. This is life that conquers death - that is, that grace, that fragrance, that life-giving “scent of life” that He brought for all people. So that every soul becomes a pure fragrance for the Lord - for eternal, heavenly, blooming, Divine, true life.
We are called to be participants in this life. And we must confess to the Lord our spiritual powerlessness in today’s world, which so needs our consolation. In a world that is so cruel that, according to the word St. Seraphim Sarovsky, in human hearts there remains only devilish coldness and petrified insensibility, which are really like a gravestone in relation to the truth of life, to the truth, and to the grief of another person.
One article in the newspaper, amid the daily stream of murders, crimes and accidents, tells how young people were having fun at the so-called disco, and in the midst of this fun and dancing, one young man fell dead because his heart gave out. So what do you think, did this disco stop? Nothing like this. There was a short confusion, the young man was pulled aside, and with new strength There was fun until the morning. Here is a picture of our life today: someone is crying over the body of the deceased, and behind the wall there is drunkenness and bestial screams. Not because these people do not know about the grief of others (this can also happen), but because they know, and are still busy with their own.
What is the current picture of our Russian life? They say: a feast during a plague. When some crazy “new Russians” feast, while death mows down everyone, the people die out.
Previously, in Rus' there was such a custom: if someone died in the village, then, naturally, any kind of fun was considered indecent. It was an insult to the deceased person and the grief of his loved ones. Everyone, one way or another, took part in this grief. In today's Gospel we see how the people of the entire city of Nain walk with the unfortunate widow. Perhaps she occupied some special place of honor in the city. Or people simply haven’t become so depraved that they can no longer accept someone else’s death.
To learn mercy, we must put ourselves in the face of death, because, as you know, a wise man differs from a fool in that he sees everything to the end, in the face of the reality that awaits every person. The Lord visits us not only with some individual sorrows, but also with the death of our loved ones, so that we can see What such is human life.
The Church wisely established: not to immediately bury the body of the deceased, but on the third day - in the image of the Resurrection of Christ - for the sake of the mystery of that What is performed with the human soul in the first three days after it leaves the body. But also so that we can see through death itself dear person, What such is human life. So that at night we pray over this lifeless body and think about What such is life and death, and What ahead of us. We must gain the ability to offer genuine words of comfort to others who are experiencing the same grief. “I don’t want to leave you, brothers, - the Apostle tells us, - ignorant of the dead, so that you do not grieve like others who have no hope.”(1 Thess. 4:13).
We must see in the death of another person what Christ sees in the death of the son of the widow of Nain. Or when He says to the weeping crowd: "The girl is not dead, but she is sleeping"(Matthew 9:24), and everyone laughs at Him because they know that she died - but the Lord calls death a sleep. And just as we are not frightened when we see a sleeping person, because we know that he will wake up again, so we should not be immensely horrified when we see a dead person, because death is just a dream.
We call the death of the Mother of God and every person whose death is in the Lord the Dormition. One saint said: “Every day, waking up, we must exclaim, “Having seen the Resurrection of Christ,” because, truly, sleep is death, it is an image of death, and death is a long sleep.” When we go to sleep, we say the words the power of which we must learn on the last day: “Into Your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.” This is repeated every day, and every day is, as it were, an image of our entire life. Again and again, the Lord gives us a fresh start, so that we become people capable of perceiving other people’s grief, suffering and death, just as He Himself perceives it.
We cannot console another person with anything other than Christ God—Christ’s consolation. No one can help another person in any way as soon as more faith and true love.
Where does love come from? Of course, with Christ. And we must learn it. Just as He loved us, so we should love our brothers. In this the love of God was revealed, that He lays down His life for us. In the same way, says the Apostle, we must lay down our lives for our loved ones. “The love of God for us was revealed in this, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, so that we might receive life through Him. This is love, that we did not love God, but He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved! - says the Apostle John, - If God loved us so much, then we should love each other.”(1 John 4:9-11). Our whole life should be giving to others and teaching this secret.
Is there at least one kind person among us? Or at least one holy person? St. John Climacus said: “A good person is one who is not afraid of death, and a holy person is one who desires death.” Who can say with the Apostle Paul: “Death is gain for me”?
We must follow the path that the Savior Himself walked ahead of us. The resurrection of one person is not some kind of exceptional case that goes beyond everything that happens in the world. We know that the Lord Himself accepted death and thus participated in the suffering and death of every person without exception. In His Resurrection the first ray of the dawn of that Easter day, which will have no end - when God shines with the life of Christ for all of us.
Let us only remember the only lesson that the Lord offers us today - about the mystery of those words that we hear during church services: as is the mercy of God, such is His strength. This refers to the power of His Resurrection. And to the extent that we learn the mystery of mercy, to the extent that we partake of God’s victory for the sake of our own salvation and for the sake of the salvation of all.
And one more facet of the Lord’s word addressed to the Nain widow: “don’t cry”!.. It seems like, well, return your son, and the crying itself will turn into joy. But the Lord, who had previously said “blessed are those who mourn” (Matthew 5:4), now said so - because “natural” people, whom the Lord calls “pagans”, do not cry and rejoice like God’s people. The widow has lost her son and is crying inconsolably. And here is what Scripture says about the king and prophet David. When his child fell ill, “David prayed to God for the child, and David fasted, and in solitude,” he lay on the ground.
“On the seventh day the child died, and David’s servants were afraid to tell him that the child had died; for, they said, when the child was still alive, and we persuaded him, and he did not listen to our voice; How can we tell him: “The child has died”? He will do something bad. And David saw that his servants were whispering among themselves, and David realized that the child had died, and David asked his servants: Has the child died? And they said to David, It is dead. Then David rose from the ground, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his clothes, and went to the house of the Lord and prayed. Returning home, he demanded that they give him bread, and he ate. And the servants said to him: What does it mean that you do this: when the child was still alive, you fasted and wept; and when the child died, you got up and ate bread”? But in reality, how simple it is: “While the child was alive, I fasted and cried, for I thought: who knows if the Lord will have mercy on me and the child will remain alive? And now it has died; Why should I fast? Can I return it? I will go to him, but it will not return to me.” (2 Kings 12:16-23).
The secret is that David knows there is a God. And whoever does not know this, looks in a daze, with horror, into the gaping jaws of death. When her jaws close over one of her neighbors, she gives in to immeasurable sadness. And there is something blasphemous in this despair. The man cries: my will be done! I don't accept yours
will!.. And this prevents the possibility of long-term interaction with God. The Lord also demanded faith from witnesses of other resurrections.
And he said to Jairus: “Do not be afraid, just believe”! And to Martha, before the resurrection of Lazarus: “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God” (John 11:40)? So if we want to participate in the coming resurrection of the dead and accept our relatives and friends resurrected, then parting with them for a while, we must at least to some extent hear this powerful “do not cry” said by our Lord Jesus Christ, who rules over the living And
dead.
The miracle of the resurrection of the son of the widow from Nain was created both out of mercy for the grieving mother, and in order to help our faith in the last and general resurrection, a miracle of miracles, truth above all truth and joy above all joy. To our Lord Jesus Christ be honor and glory, with the Father and the Holy Spirit - the Trinity, Consubstantial and Indivisible, now and ever, at all times and unto ages of ages. Amen.
Archpriest Alexander Shargunov