Luke 7:11-17--Jesus Raises a Widow's Son

Luke 7:11-17
English Standard Version
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Jesus Raises a Widow's Son
11 Soon afterward he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. 12 As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. 13 And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” 14 Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” 15 And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. 16 Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited his people!” 17 And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country.

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This is the only time this small town in Galilee is mentioned by name in the Bible.  It's a border-town of sorts between Galilee and Samaria and is probably known for it's scenic views of the surrounding mountains and probably was full of green pasture as the word "Nain" in Hebrew means both "beautiful" and "pleasantness," especially as it refers to lush green pasture land.  (See www.gotquestions.org/Nain-in-the-Bible.html)

While this was a place known for its beauty, Jesus comes upon a funeral party here and people mourning for the loss of someone that has recently died.  Luke tells us that the dead man was the only son of his mother and that she was a widow.  The implication seems to be that this woman has no one else left other than hoping that the people of the town will take care of her, and it appears by the crowd surrounding her that she did have quite a few friends that cared for her.

Jesus has compassion on her, the mother, and touches the coffin and raised the dead boy to life.  This is quite the amazing miracle!  The woman doesn't ask for help.   There is no question and answer about how much she believes, how much faith she has, or who she believes Jesus to be.  The person being "healed" here is already dead, well beyond when they would think to bring someone to Jesus for healing.  To those with Jesus I'm sure they imagined that He had power over disease and demons, but no one probably thought about bringing someone back from the dead.

And yet, that is exactly what Jesus does.  All Jesus says to the woman before the resurrection is "Do not weep," and all the bearers of the man's coffin stood still.  They must have known who Jesus was and expected something to happen.  When Jesus touched the dead man's coffin, he spoke for everyone to hear that by His own authority, He commanded the dead man to "Arise" and "Get up."  The dead men did exactly that and all the people started glorifying God saying "God has visited us today!" (I'm not sure they knew how right they were) and that "A great prophet has arisen among us!" (Close, but this is actually The Prophet from the book of Deuteronomy when God Himself would come to teach the people).

While we see a lot of people praising God and the words spreading about Jesus, we're not sure from this passage that anyone really "got" what Jesus did here.  He demonstrated that He is God in the flesh.  God had not just "visited" them, He was right there in front of them.  Maybe this is what they meant, but I don't think so.  They missed that Jesus spoke by His own authority here and that even death had to obey Him.  We don't see any "I AM" statement to reinforce what Jesus is teaching here like we do with the resurrection of Lazarus in the gospel of John where Jesus says "I am the Resurrection and the Life."  This may be an "object lesson" for the people and the disciples, but it seems that it's not one they are meant to fully understand yet.  Right now, it seems that they are just supposed to realize that Jesus is doing even greater miracles than Elijah or Elisha.  I'm not saying that Jesus didn't pray to the Father about this incident, but Jesus didn't have to beg and plead for the life of this widow's son like Elijah and Elisha did.  No, whatever the Son asks for is good and the Father is willing to give it to Him, even making those who were dead to be alive.

So then, we begin to see that Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life and that there is something bigger about Jesus' teaching than we may have seen before.  Jesus didn't just come to teach bad people how to be good people or to make sick people well, but He came to make dead people alive!  Now that is altogether new and different, and exactly what those like us who are dead in their trespasses and sins need to hear.  This will be one of the signs (though that word will not be used) that Jesus will point to in our next passage to answer the question of John the Baptist because apparently everyone, including John who is in prison, would have heard about this event.  So then, why are there still questions about the identity of Jesus?  Why can't people "read" and understand these signs that seem so clear to us?  Let's see what Jesus says to John and his disciples next time, because Jesus does not seem to condemn them for not understanding.