Touch the Coffins

Luke 7:12 - 15 "As He approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out - the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. When the Lord saw her, His heart went out to her and He said, 'Don't cry.' Then He went up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still. he said, 'Young man, I say to you, get up!' The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother."


My poor niece. She was over my house the other day and started yelling at my son when he killed an inchworm. I didn't have the heart to tell her that in a few days I was going to be committing "inchworm genocide." My trees are going to be sprayed because I can't let these inchworms do what they did last year - eat every leaf off every tree.

Last year the trees did end up "releafing" themselves within a few months, which encouraged me. (I want to say that the trees "releaved" themselves but that just doesn't sound right.) But my neighbor told me, and I believe him because his daughter has a degree in botany, that every time a tree has to "releaf" itself it is weakened severely. It has only a limited amount of times that it can do it before it is in danger of dying. So I'm not taking any chances this year and I'm having them sprayed.

What does this have to do with Luke 7 when Jesus raises the young man? I believe that we need to start raising the dead young men that are all around us, and we have to start doing it now, before they're past the point of restoration. I'm not saying that we don't have a huge God who is capable of complete restoration when we think anyone is past their limit. What I'm saying is that in our own humanity - apart from His divinity which can raise the dead - but again, in our own humanity we don't have a lot of personal resuscitations in us.

The body is a finite thing and it does wear down and I have seen countless people get to a point where they try to "revive themselves" over and over again, and then they simply fade away and die out before the healing hand of Jesus can ever touch them. Our flesh is weak and will eventually wear out. You can see it in their faces every day when you walk past them. They have nothing left.

That’s why we have to touch the coffins of these young people now. Jesus reached into a funeral procession and touched a dead man's coffin. You just didn't do that in Jewish culture. It was the epitome of unclean. But if we are to bring the healing hand of Jesus to them, we have to first get into the funeral and then touch the coffin.

As we approach Mother's Day, I can think of no better gift or ministry than to start bringing sons back to their mothers.