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.

            Luke 7:11-17 is the story of the miracle of the raising of the son of a widow. The source is material unique to Luke. In non-biblical literature, scholars point to the similarity it has with encounters to that of Apollonius (Book III. 3.38-40).[1] I confess that I must be obtuse on this one, for I do not see a similarity. This story recalls I Kings 17:17-24, both in continuity and in contrast. Stories of raising the dead were widespread. Luke uses the story to highlight his view of Jesus as a prophet. Bultmann claimed the story arose in a Greek context, but Marshall says it has too many elements consistent with Palestine for this to be true.

Luke begins the narrative in a rather matter of fact way. ¹¹ Soon afterwards he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went with him. This prosaic transition does little to arouse curiosity. 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. We need to remember the vulnerability of widows in this time. ¹³ When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her. The focus of this story is the compassion of Jesus. Further, Jesus said to her, "Do not weep." While there is no doubt about the extent of his compassion once her son had been brought back to life and given to her, Jesus' initial remark, surely struck her as insensitive and harsh, especially given that he is a stranger. As she walks near the bier that carries her only son to the grave, an unknown outsider approaches and directs her not to cry. In light of the circumstances, how can she not cry? Indeed, it is likely her tears cannot stop; in this moment, she is truly alone. ¹⁴ Then he came forward and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. Then, in a radically unexpected way, Jesus further demonstrates his compassion for her when he touches the coffin, contaminating himself by violating Jewish purity laws, thus intimately sharing in her sorrow as she grieves the loss of her only son. At this point, according to Numbers 19:11-22, Jesus will be unclean for a week, requiring purifying water on the third and seventh days, and the sprinkling of water by a ritually clean person. Failure to seek such ritual cleanliness will result in the priest cutting them off from the worshipping congregation. 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, Luke using tender language borrowed word for word from I Kings 17:23. In contrast to the story in I Kings 17:17-24, where the text carefully avoids describing the condition of the boy as death, Luke is clear that the young man here is dead. Jesus seems to have rather calm words to say to the young man. Elijah prays intensely to the Lord, stretching himself out upon the boy, and only then does breath return to him. Both Elijah and Jesus return the son to the 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. Luke does not mention the faith of the widow. However, he does mention the faith of others based upon this miracle.

This story shows an important theme of Luke as he points to parallels with the Elijah narrative, a characteristic that many scholars have often noted. In this case, the specific correspondence is with the story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath. When King Ahab rules over Israel, Elijah predicts a lengthy drought. Following this pronouncement, the Lord directs Elijah to go to Zarephath and stay with a widow who will provide him with food. During his stay, the widow's son dies, and in her grief, she blames Elijah's presence for her son's death. In response, Elijah takes her son, carries him to his room, and, after praying and "stretch[ing] himself upon the child three times," God restores the widow's son to life (1 Kings 17:1-24).

Although some readers may challenge the validity of the parallel with Elijah, this objection is unconvincing given the shared language found in both narratives. Luke notes that John the Baptist proclaims God's word "with the spirit and power of Elijah" (1:17; cf. 7:18-30; 9:7-9). We also see the interest of Luke in Elijah when Jesus reads from the scroll of Isaiah and declares to his Nazarene neighbors, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." Jesus specifically mentions the widow of Zarephath along with Naaman the Syrian leper. Then, once the people of Nazareth grasp what Jesus means by these two references -- namely, they need to alter the expectations they have of their hometown boy (prophet) -- they become angry and attempt to throw him off a cliff (4:16-30, esp. vv. 21-29). Simply put, Jesus' suggestion that he will aid foreigners offends the Nazarenes, thereby snubbing them -- individuals who are his neighbors and fellow Jews. Arguably, Luke's inclusion of these two foreigners from the days of Elijah and Elisha is a clever literary technique employed to anticipate the healing of the centurion's slave and the resurrection of the widow's son. The first parallel between the centurion and Naaman the Syrian clearly flows out of the following: both commanders willingly submit to a prophet's authority. Even so, the centurion is admittedly a more commendable figure than Naaman, since he recognizes Jesus' power without any objections or qualifications (cf. II Kings 5:1-19a; Luke 7:1-10). The second parallel, which is even more definitive, centers on a devastating loss when a widow's only son dies (cf. I Kings 17:17-24; Luke 7:11-17).

In light of the incidents described when Jesus reads and interprets one of Isaiah's prophecies in the synagogue at Nazareth (specifically, 61:1-2; 58:6), readers of Luke's gospel might reasonably assume that the Nain widow serves to reinforce the notion that Jesus' ministry is for the benefit of outsiders rather than his Jewish kinfolk. However, the juxtaposition of the widow from Nain (a village located near Nazareth) immediately after the centurion whose faith exceeded that of anyone in Israel instead actually confirms God's favor on all nations -- both gentiles and Israelites (cf. 2:28-32) -- a point the townspeople of Nazareth failed to grasp.

The story reminds us that anything short of real resurrection is just a temporary fix, a resuscitation in which death will eventually win again. We need the permanent defeat of death that began with the resurrection of Jesus and that God will complete when Christ returns in power -- the day when all the dead will sit up.  Then we will say, along with the apostle Paul, "Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? ... But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (I Corinthians 15:54-57). In the meantime, we know that the risen Jesus meets us on every funeral procession, reminding us again that death will not have the last word.

Someone asked the great 19th-century evangelist Dwight L. Moody to preach a funeral sermon. He searched the gospels to find a funeral sermon that Jesus himself had preached. Moody wrote, "I hunted through the four gospels trying to find one of Christ's funeral sermons, but I couldn't find any. I found he broke up every funeral he ever attended! He never preached a funeral sermon in the world. Death could not exist where he was. When the dead heard his voice, they sprang to life."

After all, Christianity appeals to history. The resurrection of Jesus bursts the boundaries of history. Yet, it also remains within those boundaries. Recognizing this is why the resurrection of Jesus is so important and so disturbing. It becomes a matter of life and death. We could more easily cope with the teachings of Jesus that his disciples then share in a loving way with us. We find it harder to cope with the notion that Jesus comes out of the tomb, inaugurating the new creation of God right in the middle of the old one.[2]

The gospel points us to this promise. One day, God will cancel all funerals forever.

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[1] CHAPTER XXXVIII

THIS discussion was interrupted by the appearance among the sages of the messenger bringing in certain Indians who were in want of succor. And he brought forward a poor woman who interceded in behalf of her child, who was, she said, a boy of sixteen years of age, but had been for two years possessed by a devil. Now the character of the devil was that of a mocker and a liar. Here one of the sages asked, why she said this, and she replied: "This child of mine is extremely good-looking, and therefore the devil is amorous of him and will not allow him to retain his reason, nor will he permit him to go to school, or to learn archery, nor even to remain at home, but drives him out into desert places. And the boy does not even retain his own voice, but speaks in a deep hollow tone, as men do; and he looks at you with other eyes rather than with his own. As for myself I weep over all this and I tear my cheeks, and I rebuke my son so far as I well may; but he does not know me. And I made my mind to repair hither, indeed I planned to do so a year ago; only the demon discovered himself using my child as a mask, and what he told me was this, that he was the ghost of man, who fell long ago in battle, but that at death he was passionately attached to his wife. Now he had been dead for only three days when his wife insulted their union by marrying another man, and the consequence was that he had come to detest the love of women, and had transferred himself wholly into this boy. But he promised, if I would only not denounce him to yourselves, to endow the child with many noble blessings. As for myself, I was influenced by these promises; but he has put me off and off for such a long time now, that he has got sole control of my household, yet has no honest or true intentions." Here the sage asked afresh, if the boy was at hand; and she said not, for, although she had done all she could to get him to come with her, the demon had threatened her with steep places and precipices and declared that he would kill her son, "in case," she added, "I haled him hither for trial." "Take courage," said the sage, "for he will not slay him when he has read this." And so saying he drew a letter out of his bosom and gave it to the woman; and the letter, it appears, was addressed to the ghost and contained threats of an alarming kind.

CHAPTER XXXIX

THERE also arrived a man who was lame. He already thirty years old and was a keen hunter of lions; but a lion had sprung upon him and dislocated his hip so that he limped with one leg. However when they massaged with their hands his hip, the youth immediately recovered his upright gait. And another man had had his eyes put out, and he went away having recovered the sight of both of them. Yet another man had his hand paralyzed; but left their presence in full possession of the limb. And a certain woman had suffered in labor already seven times, but was healed in the following way through the intercession of her husband. He bade the man, whenever his wife should be about to bring forth her next child, to enter her chamber carrying in his bosom a live hare; then he was to walk once round her and at the same moment to release the hare; for that the womb would be extruded together with the fetus, unless the hare was at once driven out.

CHAPTER XL

AND again a certain man who was a father said that he had had several sons, but that they had died the moment they began to drink wine. Iarchas took him up and said: "Yes, and it is just as well they did die; for they would inevitably have gone mad, having inherited, as it appears, from their parents too warm a temperament. Your children," he added, "must therefore abstain from wine, but in order that they may be never led even to desire wine, supposing you should have another boy, and I perceive you had one only six days ago, you must carefully watch the hen owl and find where it builds its nest; then you must snatch its eggs and give them to the child to chew after boiling them properly; for if it is fed upon these, before it tastes wine, a distaste for wine will be bred in it, and it will keep sober by your excluding from its temperament any but natural warmth."

With such lore as this then they surfeited themselves, and they were astonished at the many-sided wisdom of the company, and day after day they asked all sorts of questions, and were themselves asked many in turn.

[2] Inspired by  --N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church (HarperCollins, 2008), 68.