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Gospel: Luke 7: 11 – 17
Jesus journeyed to a city called Nain,
and his disciples and a large crowd accompanied him.
As 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.
When the Lord saw her,
he was moved with pity for her and said to her,
“Do not weep.”
He stepped forward and touched the coffin;
at this the bearers halted,
and he said, “Young man, I tell you, arise!”
The dead man sat up and began to speak,
and Jesus gave him to his mother.
Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, exclaiming,
“A great prophet has arisen in our midst,”
and “God has visited his people.”
This report about him spread through the whole of Judea
and in all the surrounding region.
The Gospel of the Lord.
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I wonder what moved Jesus to perform this miracle.
Usually, he heals someone after a display of faith: think of Jesus healing Simon’s mother-in-law, or the Centurion’s servant, or the paralytic lowered to the feet of Jesus by his friends.
In each case, someone else took the initiative, asking for Christ to offer his healing power.
But today Jesus takes the initiative. He breaks into a funeral procession, brings a dead man back to life, then hands him back to his mother. Why would he be compelled do this?
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Perhaps he saw his own future – and by extension, Mary’s future – that day.
The Gospel tells us that this woman was a widow. After burying her son, she’d have neither her husband nor her child to provide for her, meaning she’d be reduced to a life of begging.
Maybe Jesus saw his mother, Mary, in that weeping widow’s face.
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Consider another interesting detail.
People have been raised from the dead before. In the Old Testament, for example, the prophets Elijah and Elisha both brought a person back to life. But they were only able to do so after praying to God.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus doesn’t pray. He simply says, “Young man, I tell you, arise!”
Meaning, the same power given to Elijah and Elisha by God is already present in Jesus, which causes some within the crowd to exclaim, “God has visited his people!”
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God still visits his people through us. So, how might we extend his compassion to widows or those grieving today?
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Image credits: (1) Admiral Farragut Academy (2) pravmir.com (3) Community Tool Box, The University of Kansas