Raising of the widow’s son

Today's Reflections


                            

 

Raising of the widow’s son

Lk 7:11-17

¹¹[Jesus] journeyed to a city called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd accompanied him. ¹²As he drew near to the gate of the city, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. A large crowd from the city was with her. ¹³When the Lord saw her, he was moved with pity for her and said to her, “Do not weep.” ¹⁴He stepped forward and touched the coffin; at this the bearers halted, and he said, “Young man, I tell you, arise!” ¹⁵The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. ¹⁶Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, exclaiming, “A great prophet has arisen in our midst,” and “God has visited his people.” ¹⁷This report about him spread through the whole of Judea and in all the surrounding region.

Only son of his mother… a widow. To lose a husband is painful enough. But for a widow to lose her only son is tantamount, in Jewish culture, to wishing herself dead. In a patriarchal society, a woman is highly dependent on her man. If a woman’s husband dies, she can still count on her son. But if her only son dies, her chance of survival is slim.

Jesus recognizes this pitiable situation when he and his disciples encounter near Nain the funeral procession of a widow’s only son. He is moved to the depths of his being and gives the young man back alive to his mother.

Jesus’ great miracle is similar to the stories of the prophet Elijah raising the son of the widow at Zarephath (cf 1 Kgs 17:23) and the prophet Elisha bringing the son of the widow at Shunem back to life (cf 2 Kgs 4:32-36), which showed the magnificence of God. But the big difference is that Jesus performs the miracle by his own authority, through the power of his word. The evangelist Luke stresses this by calling Jesus “Lord” (v 13)—the only evangelist to speak of Jesus as Lord before the Resurrection.

The miracle depicts a God who is in solidarity with our sorrows. God is not watching us from a distance, as a Bette Midler song goes. God is moved by our sufferings. Ours is a God who joins us in our lowest moments, comforts us in the midst of our struggles, and shares with us the glory of Jesus’ resurrection.

God does not promise to remove our sufferings,

but God promises to help us overcome them.