Luke 7:11-17

Luke 7:11-17

¹¹ Soon afterwards he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went with him. ¹² As he approached the gate of the town, a man who had died was being carried out. He was his mother's only son, and she was a widow; and with her was a large crowd from the town. ¹³ When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, "Do not weep." ¹⁴ Then he came forward and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, "Young man, I say to you, rise!" ¹⁵ The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. ¹⁶ Fear seized all of them; and they glorified God, saying, "A great prophet has risen among us!" and "God has looked favorably on his people!" ¹⁷ This word about him spread throughout Judea and all the surrounding country.

           In a rare occasion, the themes Old Testament Lesson of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath and the widow of Nain intersect with each other.

         Luke 7:11-17 (unique to Luke) (Year C June 5-11) relates a story, about the raising of the son of a widow from Nain. It derives from the Hellenistic community with a miraculous resuscitation of a young man of a widow, in which It both compares with and contrasts with the story in I Kings 17:17-24.[1] There is a story of Apollonius in which the tragic death of a young bride, in which Rome mourns her death, is brought back to life by a touch from Apollonius.[2]

A girl had died just in the hour of her marriage, and the bridegroom was following her bier lamenting as was natural his marriage left unfulfilled, and the whole of Rome was mourning with him, for the maiden belonged to a consular family. Apollonius then witnessing their grief, said: "Put down the bier, for I will stay the tears that you are shedding for this maiden." And withal he asked what was her name. The crowd accordingly thought that he was about to deliver such an oration as is commonly delivered to grace the funeral as to stir up lamentation; but he did nothing of the kind, but merely touching her and whispering in secret some spell over her, at once woke up the maiden from her seeming death; and the girl spoke out loud, and returned to her father's house, just as Alcestis did when she was brought back to life by Heracles. And the relations of the maiden wanted to present him with the sum of 150,000 sesterces, but he said that he would freely present the money to the young lady by way of dowry. Now whether he detected some spark of life in her, which those who were nursing her had not noticed—for it is said that although it was raining at the time, a vapor went up from her face—or whether her life was really extinct, and he restored it by the warmth of his touch, is a mysterious problem which neither I myself nor those who were present could decide.

 

Among the characteristics of Luke is to draw parallels between Elijah and Jesus. Luke has already noted that John the Baptist proclaims God's word "with the spirit and power of Elijah" (1:17; cf. 7:18-30; 9:7-9). He even has Jesus refer to the story (4:16-20, esp 21-29), thereby preparing the way for and anticipating the action of Jesus toward the Roman centurion and the son of a widow. Stories of raising the dead were widespread. Luke uses the story to highlight his view of Jesus as a prophet. She exemplifies the poor to whom Jesus has come to bring the good news. Raising her son to life is a compassionate act done for her benefit, for her restoration to life. As Jesus approaches Nain, at the gate of the town he meets a funeral procession of a man who was the only son of a widow. When the Lord (ὁ κύριος) saw her, he has compassion, which is the focus of this story, showing Jesus deeply touched by loss, suffering, and death, and he says to her in verse 13, Do not weep, he touches the bier, contaminating himself ritually and becoming ritually unclean for a week according to Jewish purity law of Num 19:11-22. Failure to comply with the use of water to ritually cleanse him would have meant the priest would cut him off from the worshipping congregation. In all this, he shows the depth of his compassion and sharing in the sorrow of the woman. Luke uses the tender language of I Kgs 17:23 in verse 14, Young man, I say to you, arise. He got up, and he spoke, with Jesus returning the young man to his mother. However, the calmness of Jesus contrasts sharply with the intensity of Elijah. Only after the miracle does Luke mention the faith of the crowd, as it has an experience of awe that leads them to glorify God, while Luke does not mention the faith of the widow. This experience of the crowd leads them to testify, which is the point of this story, that a great prophet has risen among the Jewish people and that God has looked favorably on the Jewish people. This word spread about him throughout Judea and the surrounding country.

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[1] (Bultmann, The History of the Synoptic Tradition, 1921, 1931, 1958), 215.

[2] (Jeremias, New Testament Theology: The Proclamation of Jesus, 1971), 88, 89, in Life of Apollonius, 4.45.