Luke 7:15

‘And he who was dead sat up, and began to speak. And he gave him to his mother.'

And the dead man sat up and began to talk (compare 1 Kings 17:22 LXX where the child on being raised from the dead by Elijah ‘cried out'). And Jesus then handed him over to his mother. For ‘He gave him to his mother' compare 1 Kings 17:23 LXX where the same words are used. Jesus would not call someone who was so necessary to his aged mother to follow Him. It is impossible for us to appreciate quite how she must have felt. In one instant of meeting Jesus her whole life was transformed from misery and hopelessness to joy and hope. Today somewhere in the world the same thing happens daily as men who are dead in sin meet the Lord of life and have their lives transformed. For Luke wants us to know that His power is still the same today.

The comments above make clear that we are intended to connect this incident with the miracle performed by Elijah. Jesus is greater than Elijah, greater than Moses, greater than all the prophets (compare Luke 9:10).

We only have details of three occasions on which Jesus raised people from the dead, one a son (here), one a daughter (Luke 8:54), and the third was Lazarus (John 11). But Luke 7:22 suggests a number of others. Eusebius quotes Quadratus (125 AD) as saying in his Apology to Hadrian, ‘The persons who were healed, and those who were raised from the dead, by Jesus, were not only seen when they were healed and raised but were always present also afterwards, and not only during the time when the Saviour walked on the earth, but after His departure also, they were present for a considerable time, so that some of them even lived until our times'.