The Gospel of Luke
Jesus and the Widow Lk 7,11-17
The story of Elijah and the Widow of Zarepath in 1st Kings 17 provides the Old Testament background for this story of Nain. In both stories, the widow is met at the gate of the city (7,12 & 1 Kings 17,10). In both, the dead son is an only son and this heightens the distress of the widows - without either husband or son they would have been completely alone in the world with no one to care or protect them. Yet we are assured that God does protect widows (Exodus 22,22-23). Both stories have identical wording when the raised son is given back to his mother (7,16; 1 Kings 17,24)
The most important difference between the two stories is that Elijah has to ask God to intercede (1 Kings 17,20-22) whereas Jesus acts on his own authority: "Young man, arise" (7,14) with instant results (7,15).
The incident at Nain was also notably public. Two large crowds were present, the crowd with Jesus and the mourners with the widow (7,11 & 7,12). We could say that the crowd with Jesus was following life while the crowd with the widow was following death.
The other comparison is between the centurion and the widow. Both would have been outsiders; the centurion because he was a gentile, the widow for her vulnerability. Unlike Elijah's widow though, the widow of Nain would have been a daughter of Israel.
The stories of the centurion and the widow are linked by the crowd. It is present in verse 9 and again in verse 11, though it is a large crowd by this time - only to be joined by another large crowd of mourners in verse 12. The story of the centurion's slave was quite private, the widow in her solitary grief is surrounded by a huge number of people.
Whereas the centurion took the initiative and showed faith, the widow says nothing at all. For her, Jesus is exercising pure compassion, there are no preconditions for his actions. By touching the coffin in verse 14, Jesus would have made himself unclean, he was breaking boundaries. But by breaking boundaries, he was able to turn death into life. It is therefore significant that for the first time in this Gospel the evangelist in verse 13 speaks of Jesus as "the Lord". This is the usual Christian title for Jesus after the resurrection, though Luke will now use it quite frequently in his Gospel.
Elijah's widow made a previous appearance in the Gospel when Jesus mentioned her in his sermon in the synagogue in Nazareth (4,26).
As with that synagogue sermon, once again we have a comparison of Jesus with Elisha (for the centurion) and Elijah (for the widow). The reference to a great prophet takes us back to Moses in Deuteronomy 18,18 - though the comparison works best with the Greek Old Testament rather than the Hebrew. This is quoted in Acts 3,22. Comparing the proclamation of Jesus as a prophet in 7,16 with the widow's reaction to Elijah in 1 Kings 17,24 gives us one understanding of a prophet, as a man of God with the word of God. There are then echoes of Zechariah and the Benedictus (1,78), God visiting his people to save them.
Verse 17 with the reports of Jesus being spread around recalls the beginning of Jesus' ministry in 4,14.37.
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