Christ's Compassion: Comfort Enough for a Miracle

Luke alone records this miracle of the widow's son at Nain—a narrative chosen not primarily to establish Christ's claims, but because it exemplifies His gracious relations with women and His unasked mercies. The striking truth Maclaren unveils is this: Jesus Christ performed a resurrection not to authenticate His divinity, but simply to comfort a desolate woman. "Was that a sufficient reason for a miracle?" Maclaren asks. His answer pierces the heart: Christ thought that "to comfort one poor, sorrowful heart was reason enough for putting His hand out, and dragging the prey from the very jaws of death, so loftily did He think of human sorrow and of the comforting thereof."

Here lies the revolutionary insight—miracles are not merely evidences of revelation; they are themselves revelation. They unveil the character of Elohim incarnate. The widow approaching the tomb is a stranger to Christ, expecting nothing. Yet His eye penetrates her sorrow with a tenderness no human compassion could match. "Swift as was His perception of the sorrow, so swiftly does He throw Himself into sympathy with it."

What makes Christ's sympathy incomparable is the perfection of His manhood. Our human compassion fails because we are absorbed with ourselves, making our hearts hard and insensitive. But Christ's sinless perfection freed Him entirely from self-preoccupation. Therefore His sympathy flows without obstruction—deeper, purer, more efficacious than any earthly comfort. The God who sees the widow's tears sees your tears. And He deems your sorrow sufficient reason to act.