It's not her first time following the corpse. She was a widow and that was hard enough. But now she's lost everything.

Her one and only son. This isn't supposed to happen. He was supposed to bury her.

And everyone else in all the commotion of the funeral procession? Eventually their job will be done and they'll go home.

What about her?

But right there on her worst day, in the hardest hour of her life, in the middle of a crowd, when she feels all alone, life got in the way. Look what the text says in verse 13 of chapter 7:

And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.”

Luke doesn't say he saw it, meaning the funeral. Luke does not say he saw them, meaning the confluence of people at the gates of Naine.

Luke says, He saw her.

He notices her. 

This little poor widow with nothing in the world and nothing left to offer.

He sees her.

He doesn't look away.

He doesn't put his head down.

He doesn't find a distraction.

Matthew Henry writes that his eye affected his heart.

Jesus had compassion for her. 

Jesus, right there in that moment, in the midst of all the people, shares the agony of this single woman in the midst of her greatest loss.

He feels it in his guts as if he's the one who lost a son.

He groans and he aches and he hates what death is doing to his people.

But He doesn't stop with compassion and hatred of death.

He sees her.

He feels compassion for her.

And then he approaches and engages her.

He interrupts her devastation.

He interrupts her mourning.

He interrupts her sorrows and her loneliness.

And he speaks to her.

And nothing stays the same.

Reader, in the midst of the crowd around you, where are you?

Where exactly is your heart today?

Know this:

the Lord Jesus Christ knows exactly where you are today. Friend, in the midst of everybody, He sees you. His eyes are locked on you and he doesn't look away.

"The Lord looks down from heaven. He sees all the children of man." Psalm 33:13

"The mountains may depart and the hills may be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you." Isaiah 54:10

He sees you. He has compassion on you. And before you can even come to him and say a single word, he speaks:

"I know. I'm right here. Do not weep."

After Jesus got out of his own grave, after his own death, he grabbed his friends and he said, "Behold, I am with you always." 

What does always mean?

Always means always.

He is always with you.

Even right now, there is no exception.

Your situation is not unique.

He is with you.

As Dane Ortland writes in Gentle and Lowly,

For those united to him, the heart of Jesus is not a rental. It is your permanent residence. You are not a tenant. You are a child of God.

The eyes of Jesus see you.

The heart of Jesus is for you.

The voice of Jesus speaks to you and over you and even in you as his presence lives inside you.

Jesus got in the way of the mother's sorrow, He can get in the way of your sorrow too.