And it came to pass the next day that he went into a city called Nain; and many of his disciples went with him, and many people.
All Commentaries on Luke 7:11 Go To Luke 7
Bede
AD 735
Nain is a city of Galilee, within two miles of mount Tabor. But by the divine counsel there were large multitudes accompanying the Lord, that there might be many witnesses of so great a miracle. Hence it follows, And his disciples went with him, and much people.
As if He said, Cease to weep for one as dead, whom you shallsoon see rise again alive.
But well does the Evangelist testify that the Lord is first moved with compassion for the mother, and then raises her son, that in the one case Hemight set before us for our imitation an example of piety, in the other He might build up our belief in His wonderful power. Hence it follows, And there came a fear upon all, and they glorified God
But the dead man who was carried without the gate of the city in the sight of many 'signifies a man rendered senseless by the deadening power of mortal sin, and no longer concealing his soul's death within the folds of his heart, but proclaiming it to the knowledge of the world, through the evidence of words or deeds as through the gate of the city. For the gate of the city, I suppose, is some one of the bodily senses. And he is well said to be the only son of his mother, for there is one mother composed of many individuals, the Church, but every soul that remembers that it is redeemed by the death of the Lord, knows the Church tobe a widow.
Or the dogma of Novatus is crushed who ho endeavoring to do away with the purifying of the penitent, denies that the mother Church, weeping for tile spiritual extinction of her sons, ought to be consoled by tile hope of their restoration to life.
Or the coffin on which the dead is carried is the ill at ease conscience of adesperate sinner. But they who carry him to be buried are either unclean desires, or the allurements of companions, who stood when our Lord touched the bier, because the conscience, when touched by dread of the judgment from on high, often checking its carnal lusts, and those who unjustly praise, returns to itself, and answers its Savior's call to life.
But God has visited His people not only by the one incarnation of His Word, but by ever sending It into our hearts.
