11/3/21 Day 20

TODAY'S VERSE: 11/3/21 Day 20

“’Jesus went with his disciples to the village of Nain, and a large crowd followed him. A funeral procession was coming out as he approached the village gate. The young man who had died was a widow’s only son, and a large crowd from the village was with her. When the Lord saw her, his heart overflowed with compassion. “Don’t cry!” he said. Then he walked over to the coffin and touched it, and the bearers stopped. ‘Young man,’ he said, ‘I tell you, get up.’ Then the dead boy sat up and began to talk! And Jesus gave him back to his mother.’” - Luke 7:11-15

 

 

TODAY'S DEVOTION:

My first job as a teenager was working at a funeral home. I know, it’s not your “typical” entry level minimum wage job, but there I was spending my time before and after school, scrubbing the toilets, vacuuming the carpet, and rearranging flower bouquets, all to prepare for our next round of visitors.

Part of my weekly routine was to dust off the dozen or so empty caskets on display in a room next to the chapel. It’s a strange feeling to polish up “new” but soon to be “used” long wooden boxes. Sitting there empty and above ground one day but soon to be occupied and covered with dirt the next.

All that aside, I’ll never forget the most nerve-racking part of my job was the handful of times I had to drive the big blue hearse down the road as the lead car of a funeral procession. Even with a priest or pastor riding shotgun next to me on the way to the cemetery, I was still a nervous teenager behind the wheel.

As I think back to those days driving the hearse, I wonder what it might have been like to see Jesus walking down the sidewalk as the funeral procession passed by. There he is, in his denim blue jeans and bright white t-shirt, watching all these people grieving. With a look of compassion on his face, what if Jesus stepped out onto the street in front of the hearse and gently placed his hand on the hood? Imagine if he stopped the entire funeral procession just like he did all those years ago?

What would the people in the cars behind me think as they watched this bizarre scene unfold? Who on earth is this man, and what exactly does he think he’s doing? Does he not know just how incredibly rude and disrespectful it is to interrupt this solemn procession of people mourning the loss of a loved one?

I imagine Jesus walking up to the driver’s side window and saying, “open up the back.”

Are you kidding me?! He just stopped the hearse and now he wants to see the casket?!

As the back door opens up and the casket gets pulled out, Jesus now knows everybody is watching him. People are getting out of their cars to get a better look, and he has officially put his entire reputation on the line. No matter what happens next, this will be a moment no one will ever forget.

The young boy, who a moment ago was laying in the casket on his way to be buried, now emerges and begins to speak.

Whoa. Jesus just stopped a funeral.

He couldn’t simply walk past a woman who had lost her husband, and now had lost her only son, too. Instead, he chose to reunite a mother with her son; and he promises to do the same for all of us one day too.

For all who believe; someday, Jesus will stop your funeral as well. Not to give you a little more time here on earth. But instead, to give you something even better; eternal life reunited with those you love with no more sickness or pain, no more tears, and no more death. Just life. The way it was always meant to be lived forever and ever. Amen.

Justin Stoffa
Jr. High (PowerLife) Minister

TODAY'S PRAYER:

Jesus, thank you for giving us the gift of life and for reminding us there is nothing here on earth you cannot overcome. Help us to see you more clearly today and all the ways you are bringing the dead back to life. Amen.