I’ve received great inspiration this week from studying the story in the Christian Science Bible Lesson about when Jesus raised the young man of the widow in Nain. See below for the story.

When I first read the story, I visualized Jesus walking up to a stretcher with a dead body on it, and talking out loud to a corpse, “Young man, I say unto thee, Arise.” And I asked myself, “What was Jesus talking to?”

The body was dead. There was no hearing, consciousness or mind in that body. It was lifeless.

Was Jesus talking to a dead brain expecting it to think about what he was saying? Was he talking to silent eardrums expecting them to hear? From a medical and physical point of view, these possibilities are ludicrous. And Jesus never was ludicrous. He acted more intelligently than any other man to trod the globe.

So, what was Jesus talking to?

Obviously, by the nature of his statement, he was talking to a living, thinking, hearing being. “Young man…arise,” is not something you say to a dead body. It’s something you say to someone who you know is hearing you and able to respond.

As I thought the scenario through, it seemed to me that Jesus saw the young man alive. Not in any kind of weird, convoluted, have to take it on faith, kind of distorted thinking, but very matter of fact. Jesus saw, literally, completely, the young man alive, hearing, thinking, listening, and he was breaking the human mesmerism surrounding the young man to help everyone else see that he was alive too.

I thought about many stories I’ve heard from people who had life after death experiences. They relate how they hovered above their bodies while being operated on, or above their cars that just got in a horrible accident. One lady recently told me of a friend who was riding his Harley Davidson through an intersection and got smashed by a car. Instantly, he was elevated above the accident scene looking down and watching his body roll across the highway. An ambulance came, took the body to the hospital, and he came back to tell his story.

Back to the young man, it seems that Jesus was not looking at a dead body. He was beholding and seeing a live, healthy, well young man. And he told him to make himself known for his mother’s benefit.

In Christian Science, we’re taught to behold God’s man, not a mortal man. Eddy, the Discoverer of Christian Science wrote,

“Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God’s own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick.” Mary Baker Eddy

Jesus was not talking to a corpse. He did not buy into the dream of death. He saw a healthy well child of God, not figuratively or wistfully, but literally, and he talked with him. He lifted human consciousness surrounding the funereal scene to a higher level to glimpse a bit more of what he saw spiritually. The effect was an improved human condition, the boy “rising from the dead,” and proving to the widow that all was well. Jesus beheld, through his perfect understanding of Truth, the spiritual child of God that never dies, but lives eternally.

And this also proves that we are not material bodies. We have a spiritual individuality that exists independent of matter and never can be killed, hurt or harmed by anything that happens to a physique. I find this very heartening…

And it came to pass the day after, that he went into a city called Nain; and many of his disciples went with him, and much people.
Now when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried
out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow: and much people of the
city was with her.
And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not.
And he came and touched the bier: and they that bare him stood still. And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise.
And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother. Luke 7:11-15