The Story

The Lord had spoken the Blessings and the rest of the Sermon, on the mountain. Now He was coming down to the busy towns to help people to do what He had been teaching. There was sorrow in a house in Capernaum; it was the house of the centurion, the leader of soldiers who were stationed there. A century when full contained a hundred men. The centurion was not an Israelite, but was the representative of Herod and the Roman power. The servant of the centurion was sick and ready to die - sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. (Matthew 8:6)

The Lord had come down from the mountain and the centurion heard that He was in the city. He sent elders of the Jews, begging that the Lord would come and help him. Perhaps they doubted whether the Lord would go, because the centurion was not a Jew and the Jews despised those who were not of their own nation. The Lord loves everybody and He went with them. But while He was coming, the centurion sent asking that He would say the word only, for he was not worthy that the Lord should come under his roof. It showed great faith in the Lord's power. The centurion knew how he obeyed his commander, and how his soldiers and his servant obeyed him. In the same way he felt that the Lord could command and be obeyed, and so it was. Read verses 1-10.

Nain means "pleasant"; it was the name of a little city at the foot of the northern slope of Little Hermon; can you find it? If so you will see that it looked out over the broad green plain and across to Mount Tabor. A young man had died in Nain, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. A sad procession of friends was carrying the body from the widow's house. The company grew as they went, for in that country people showed their sympathy by turning and going with a funeral procession. They came to the city gate and were passing out to go to the tombs in the rocky hillside. Suddenly they stood still; some One had touched the bier and was speaking to the young man. The Lord had come from Capernaum to help the people of Nain and of other towns. He took the young man by the hand and said, "Young man, arise," and gave him again, to his mother. The people knew that God had done it. By the same power the Lord raises us all up into the other world when we die. Happy friends were about the young man at Nain, and the mother was glad to receive her son again. So loving friends welcome everyone when the Lord wakens him into the other world. Read verses 11-16.

The report of the Lord's works and teaching spread through all the country. Some faithful men heard it and brought word to their master and teacher who was in prison, in a strong fortress on the mountains, east of the Dead Sea. He had been put in prison because he taught that men must repent, and told Herod boldly that he had done wrong. Who was it that was in prison? Can some one tell me the whole story of his life, how he was promised by the angel in the temple, how he was born and received his name in the hill country of Judea, how he lived in the wilderness, and taught and baptized at the Jordan? When had John seen the Lord? And how did he know that it was the Lord? But as John was kept day after day in prison, we cannot wonder if he longed to be made more sure that it really was the Lord. He heard the report of His miracles and teaching, and he sent two of his disciples to ask, "Art thou He that should come? or look we for another?" They found the Lord in Galilee. He went on doing His works of mercy and sent the messengers back to tell John what they saw. He would feel how abundant and how good the Lord's works were, and would know that He was the promised One, God with us. Read verses 17-23.

1. What did the centurion ask of the Lord when He came again to Capernaum? What is a centurion?

2. What was the feeling of the Jews toward Gentiles? How did the Lord feel toward them?

3. Where was Nain? What miracle did the Lord do there? What did it picture which He does for us all?

4. Who heard in the prison about the Lord's miracles and teaching? What question did he send to ask the Lord? What answer did the Lord give?

When are we in a mountain with the Lord? When does He come down with us into the plain and the busy city? What in us are represented by the sickness and death which needed the Lord's help?

The centurion's servant whom the Lord helped when He came down from the mountain, represents in a general way our ability to obey the Lord and carry out His teaching in practical life. Natural ability ministering to spiritual life is suggested by the Gentile centurion who loved the Jewish nation and built them a synagogue. The orderly discipline of all the faculties when each does its part, the lower obeying the higher and all obeying the Lord, is suggested by the centurion's words about authority and obedience. We ought all to desire such order and discipline, and we can attain it with the Lord's help. As He was ready to go to the centurion's house, so He is always ready to help us in the most external, everyday things of life, and to give power to make them strong, obedient servants.

Older children should learn about the change of death by which we pass to the spiritual world. (H. 449-452)

The young man lying dead is a picture of our spiritual selves when the heavenly life, especially the intelligence which is characteristic of a young man, is dead. This may be on account of ignorance, and there may still be some feeble desire for what is good and heavenly; this desire is represented by the young man's mother. Its weakness, because it has no real truth to guide and support it, is emphasized by her being called a widow. The Lord will restore heavenly intelligence and strength as He restored the young man to his mother. We must arise, must do our part to look up to and attain better things. (E. 899; A. 2401, 4881)

The Lord showed the messengers of John His loving works and bade them tell John about them, for he would feel that they were Divine. The Pharisees could not feel the Divinity in the Lord, because the evil in themselves closed their minds to Him; neither can we feel that He is Divine while we are disobedient. Repentance, which John the Baptist taught, opens the mind and heart to know and love the Lord. "If any man will do his will," the Lord said, "he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of Myself." (John 7:17)

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