The "coffin" (Gr. sorou) was a litter that carried the shrouded corpse. By touching it Jesus expressed His compassion, but His act also rendered Him ritually unclean ( Numbers 19:11; Numbers 19:16). Probably His action told the bearers that He wanted to do something. So they stopped. Undoubtedly the residents of Nain knew Jesus, and His reputation was probably another reason they stopped. This was the first time Jesus restored to life someone who had died, according to the Gospel records. Again the simple but powerful word of "the Lord" proved sufficient to effect the miracle. [source][source][source]
Context Summary
Luke 7:11-23 - "god Hath Visited His People"
Nain lay near the plain of Esdraelon, on the slopes of Little Hermon. Two confluent streams met there-those with Christ and those with death, Luke 7:11-12. He wipes away tears by removing the cause. When the young are being borne by their young companions to graves of sin, it is thus that the Master arrests them. See Ephesians 5:14. There was a threefold gradation in the power He put forth-to Jairus' daughter, just dead; to this young man, on the way to burial; and to Lazarus, who was three days dead. The depression from John's long confinement in the gloomy fortress of Machaerus, east of the Dead Sea, and the fact that Jesus had not sent to deliver him, were the double root of this sad lapse from the position taken up on the Jordan bank, when he recognized and indicated the Lamb of God. But our Lord did not chide; He understood, Psalms 103:9. His miracles of mercy and power are His best evidences, and He left John to draw his own conclusions, Isaiah 35:5-6. May ours be the blessedness of the un-offended, who will trust Christ, even though He does not hasten to deliver them just as they had hoped! [source]
Chapter Summary: Luke 7
1Jesus finds a greater faith in the centurion; 10heals his servant, being absent; 11raises from death the widow's son at Nain; 18answers John's messengers with the declaration of his miracles; 24testifies to the people what opinion he held of John; 31compares this generation to the children in the marketplaces, 36and allowing his feet to be washed and anointed by a woman who was a sinner, 44he shows how he is a friend to sinners, to forgive them their sins, upon their repentance
Greek Commentary for Luke 7:14
Touched the bier [ηπσατο του σορου] An urn for the bones or ashes of the dead in Homer, then the coffin (Genesis 5:26), then the funeral couch or bier as here. Only here in the N.T. Jesus touched the bier to make the bearers stop, which they did (stood still, εστησαν estēsan), second aorist active indicative of ιστημι histēmi f0). [source]
Touched [] Not fearing the ceremonial defilement of contact with the dead. [source]
The bier [σορός] In classical Greek, originally, of a vessel for holding anything: sometimes of a cinerary urn. Here the open bier. Edersheim says “of wicker-work. ” [source]
What do the individual words in Luke 7:14 mean?
Andhaving come upHe touchedthebierthosethenbearing [it]stoppedHe saidYoung manto youI sayArise
Greek Commentary for Luke 7:14
An urn for the bones or ashes of the dead in Homer, then the coffin (Genesis 5:26), then the funeral couch or bier as here. Only here in the N.T. Jesus touched the bier to make the bearers stop, which they did (stood still, εστησαν estēsan), second aorist active indicative of ιστημι histēmi f0). [source]
Not fearing the ceremonial defilement of contact with the dead. [source]
In classical Greek, originally, of a vessel for holding anything: sometimes of a cinerary urn. Here the open bier. Edersheim says “of wicker-work. ” [source]