Luke 7:10

‘And those who were sent, returning to the house, found the servant whole.'

And when those who had been sent returned to the Centurion's house they discovered that the servant had fully recovered. He was made whole.

Luke here tells the story so as to bring out the acknowledged uncleanness and unworthiness of the Gentiles vividly. It is not blurred over. But the point for his readers to see is that in spite of that uncleanness Jesus was undeterred and acted on the Gentile's behalf and in response to his plea. His Kingly word is thus seen to be also for Gentiles even at that stage.

Note. In Matthew the centurion is depicted as coming to Jesus himself. This may be because in the end the centurion did come himself because he was so het up over his servant being so close to death, or because the thought of the Prophet defiling Himself appalled him, something which either Luke's source had not known about, or that Luke wanted to avoid mentioning in order to bring out the barrier of separation between Jesus and the centurion. He also omits Jesus' meeting with the Syrophoenician woman. He wants the impact of the Gospel coming to the Gentiles to be centred on Acts. (Luke has a way of not drawing attention to things when we would normally expect him to. He speaks through silences). In contrast with Luke, who was writing for Gentile readers, Matthew, who was writing mainly for Jewish Christian readers, wanted to stress how the centurion had humbled himself before a Hebrew prophet by personalising the incident. His view may have been that for a man to approach through his servants who gave his personal words to Jesus was the same as the man himself approaching. Matthew does have a tendency to abbreviate his sources. It is quite normal in historical records for them to say that some famous person did something, when in fact it was done by his servants (compare how I quite naturally said that Titus destroyed the synagogue in Capernaum above).

End of note.

The Raising From the Dead of the Widow of Nain's Son. Jesus' Kingly Rule Over Death (Luke 7:11).

Here we have an unforgettable scene. On the one hand we see a sad and dreary procession coming out of Nain, full of weeping and despair. Hope has gone. All id darkness. On the other we see a joyous and happy crowd seeking to enter it, full of hope and expectancy. All is light. The attention of one was concentrated on the dead body of the one who had been his mother's only hope, for she was a widow, on the other the concentration was on the Lord of life Who was the hope of Israel. And the two met. The result was inevitable. Death was swept aside and Jesus was revealed as ruling over death and Hades (Revelation 1:18). It was a foreview of the resurrection. Part of the reason for the telling of the story here is that it illustrates Jesus' words to John (Luke 7:22), words of hope pointing to the resurrection.

But there is also another motif lying behind this story brought out by Jesus' words to the widow, ‘Do not weep.' A weeping widow was a picture of Israel in its need, ‘A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping, Rachel is weeping for her children, she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are not' (Jeremiah 31:15, compare Lamentations 1:1) which can be combined with the promise ‘the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more' (Isaiah 54:4). Thus here we see the promise of life made avalable to Israel through the Messiah.

The passage analyses as follows:

a He went to a city called Nain, and His disciples went with Him, and a great crowd (Luke 7:11).

b When he drew near to the gate of the city, behold, there was carried out one who was dead, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and many people of the city were with her (Luke 7:12).

c When ‘the Lord' saw her, he had compassion on her, and said to her, “Do not cry” (Luke 7:13 a).

d He came near and touched the bier: and the bearers stood still (Luke 7:13 b).

c And he said, “Young man, I say to you, Arise” (Luke 7:14).

b He who was dead sat up, and began to speak. And He gave him to his mother (Luke 7:15).

a Fear took hold on all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet is arisen among us,” and, “God has visited his people” (Luke 7:16).

Note that in ‘a' Jesus approached Nain with His disciples and a great crowd, and in the parallel all are filled with awe and glorify God and declare that God has visited His people. In ‘b' the dead body is being carried out to be buried, and in the parallel the dead body sits up and begins to speak. In ‘c' Jesus speaks to the widow, and in the parallel He speaks to the son. In ‘d' He is seen to be in overall control of the situation.