The widow of Nain: Luke 7 v 11-17: ‘Young man, I say to you, get up!’
As a curate long ago I remember knocking on the door of a house one particular evening as part of an ongoing visiting project. It was entirely co-incidental that I was on that doorstep that night but one member of the family living there, who had no previous connection with church, had just that day finished reading a copy of John’s Gospel. It had, in his words, ‘changed him’ and this ‘chance meeting’ was an important moment in his spiritual journey as we were able to talk through then and there what he had been reading and its impact on him.
Today’s reading is about Jesus and his disciples being in the right place at the right time; a ‘chance encounter’ as they happen to enter the village of Nain in the middle of a funeral procession involving the entire community. A mother is burying her only son having already, at some time in the past, buried her husband. Not only is it a deeply felt personal loss, it potentially leaves her destitute as the two men who could provide her with an income are now both now dead.
Let’s just pause a moment and consider the intuitive emotional response of Jesus in this passage. Mark tells us that ‘his heart went out to her’ (v 13). Jesus encountered tragic and distressing situations throughout his ministry and in spite of (or because of) the fact that he was so often able to provide miraculous healing this would surely have taken its toll on him. Yet as he watches the funeral of an unknown person in a town that wasn’t his home his heart is full and he feels for the woman’s loss so keenly that he cannot stand by. It is a reminder to us that Jesus is not the kind of miracle worker who rises above it all and is untouched by the pain and sorrow he encounters; there is always a cost to those who really care and there surely was for him. One of the reasons that he very often went off on his own for hours on end, much to the consternation of the baffled disciples (Mark 1 v 35-37), was to pour it all out to his heavenly Father and ask for ongoing strength for the task.
So it’s important that we understand the real emotional engagement that Jesus makes with this bereaved mother. We can perhaps imagine silence falling as he gently encourages the mother to still her tears. Time seems to stand still as he approaches the young man’s bier with the intention of significantly delaying his burial. As he touches the coffin there is perhaps a sharp intake of breath as any such contact would, according to the beliefs of the time, render him unclean - once again Jesus goes out on a limb. As life returns to the dead body and words pour forth from his mouth he is ‘given back’ to his mother (v 15). His life henceforth is a divine gift which will profoundly shape the lives of both mother and son in the years to come.
Two thoughts occur. Firstly that although this mother received her child back and Mary, even after having her soul pierced as she watched her son die naked on a Roman cross, was a witness to his resurrection, all other parents who face the loss of a child do so without the happy ending. I once heard of a priest visiting a family who had lost a child and remarking, ‘this isn’t God’s fault, you know’. I wouldn’t have blamed them for ejecting him from the premises without ceremony. Those who have experienced such crushing loss and those who have ministered to them will understand the impossibility of explaining why, for instance, childhood cancers take such young and precious lives. Jesus’ ministry was a signpost pointing us to what the kingdom of God looks like; it was never designed to establish a universal panacea for the world’s pain or provide us with a way of explaining it. This is why there are times when words do more harm than good; sometimes it is just being there that speaks more eloquently than a thousand words.
Secondly we need to remember that by raising her son, Jesus ministered to this mother on more than one level. We noted earlier that as he turned her tears of mourning to tears of joy he also addressed her financial vulnerability. In a previous study we noted the plight of widows in the days when most women relied on their menfolk for financial security. In the course of Paul’s detailed instructions to Timothy he makes it clear that those who fail in their duty to provide adequately for vulnerable family members have ‘denied their faith’ (1 Tim 5 v 4, 8). The son will now have the opportunity to fulfil his own responsibilities to his mother.
Visiting the bereaved and the sick, conducting baptisms, weddings and funerals, leading worship and preaching, leading Bible studies and helping people think through their own personal faith and walk with God are a central parts of the church’s vocation and in parish ministry I spent lots of time doing all of those things. Yet in the UK today churches are also involved in running food banks, debt counselling services and breakfast clubs for children from low income families as well as helping people into employment, providing street pastors for city centres at weekends and providing food, drink and accommodation to those living on the streets amongst many, many other things. Christians are also involved in mission and relief projects across the globe. The day before writing this, my wife and I delivered 137 shoeboxes filled with such things as notebooks, pencils, hats, gloves and small toys that had been donated by many generous people to a Christian organisation based near Preston who will be taking them to disadvantaged children in Ukraine. It’s just one small expression of care among very many.
As far as both the ministry of Jesus and his church is concerned there is no distinction between what we might call the spiritual and the social. By way of a chance meeting in Nain Jesus brought both joy and a more certain future to a widow in a single act of compassion. Whilst global news coverage means that we are all keenly aware of an ocean of need in our less than perfect world, which can overwhelm us if we’re not careful, it is important that we all do something rather than nothing in response. The following words of the Franciscan priest Richard Rohr in the context of addressing issues of inequality and injustice particularly struck me when I read them the other day, ‘I believe that if we can do one or two things wholeheartedly in our life, that is all God expects.’ I think there is great wisdom here and it is in the ‘wholehearted’ nature of whatever we do in response to God’s call that the personal commitment and sacrifice lies. So what one or two things could you do?
Questions: Do you have difficult questions to ask God about things that have happened in your own life or those of people you care about? In what way is addressing poverty and inequality part of the mission of the church?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, you gave the widow her son back, open us to your call and help us to share your gifts generously and wholeheartedly. Amen.