Verses 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."
The he went up and touched the bier they were carrying him on, and the bearers 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.
This seems to be a prefect example about the power of intercessory prayer. Of all the statistics known to man, I wonder about these two- how many prayers have been prayed by mothers, and how many answered prayers are those of mothers. Is there anything more powerful than a praying mother (or parent, or grandparent)?
Jesus obviously had compassion for the mom. He could have pledged to support her financially, he could have comforted her grief, but he went all out on this one, he went beyond anyone's wildest expectations- he didn't do what was expected or hoped for, he was "off the charts" in his action. Isn't this just who Jesus is- he probably laughs at our low level requests, or maybe worse, he is disappointed and saddened by our petty requests, when he is capable of so much more. I heard someone once preach a sermon about how we need to think, desire, and believe bigger, because Jesus is that kind of God. On the other hand, we are thankful that we have a God who does listen to and answer our smallest of prayers.
verse 28: "I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he."
This is a verse I struggle to understand. Its hard to imagine anyone being greater than John the Baptist, but here it says "yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he." I don't even pretend to understand how this could be so. Maybe a good question for me to take to Nathanael :)
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