Passage: Luke 7:11-17. Jesus issued a command, and the boy responded.

Jesus never presumed to “name it and claim it” out of sympathy or citing Scriptural precedence (e.g. Elijah raising people from dead). He listened to his Father. Let’s not presume, either, but also follow the Spirit’s directions. (See more on this, below.)

The translations are mine, but if you would like to see many other translations, please go to biblegateway.com. I include the Greek text to bring out the nuances, but readers may ignore the left column, if they wish.

Let’s begin.

A Widow’s Only Son Is Raised from the Dead (Luke 7:11-17)

11 Καὶ ἐγένετο ἐν τῷ ἑξῆς ἐπορεύθη εἰς πόλιν καλουμένην Ναῒν καὶ συνεπορεύοντο αὐτῷ οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ καὶ ὄχλος πολύς. 12 ὡς δὲ ἤγγισεν τῇ πύλῃ τῆς πόλεως, καὶ ἰδοὺ ἐξεκομίζετο τεθνηκὼς μονογενὴς υἱὸς τῇ μητρὶ αὐτοῦ καὶ αὐτὴ ἦν χήρα, καὶ ὄχλος τῆς πόλεως ἱκανὸς ἦν σὺν αὐτῇ. 13 καὶ ἰδὼν αὐτὴν ὁ κύριος ἐσπλαγχνίσθη ἐπ’ αὐτῇ καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῇ· μὴ κλαῖε. 14 καὶ προσελθὼν ἥψατο τῆς σοροῦ, οἱ δὲ βαστάζοντες ἔστησαν, καὶ εἶπεν· νεανίσκε, σοὶ λέγω, ἐγέρθητι. 15 καὶ ἀνεκάθισεν ὁ νεκρὸς καὶ ἤρξατο λαλεῖν, καὶ ἔδωκεν αὐτὸν τῇ μητρὶ αὐτοῦ. 16 ἔλαβεν δὲ φόβος πάντας καὶ ἐδόξαζον τὸν θεὸν λέγοντες ὅτι προφήτης μέγας ἠγέρθη ἐν ἡμῖν καὶ ὅτι ἐπεσκέψατο ὁ θεὸς τὸν λαὸν αὐτοῦ. 17 καὶ ἐξῆλθεν ὁ λόγος οὗτος ἐν ὅλῃ τῇ Ἰουδαίᾳ περὶ αὐτοῦ καὶ πάσῃ τῇ περιχώρῳ.

11 And it happened soon afterwards that he went into a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd accompanied him. 12 As he got near the gate of the town, look! The only son, deceased, of his mother was being carried out, and she was a widow! A large crowd from the town was with her! 13 When the Lord saw her, he was moved with compassion for her and said to her, “Don’t weep!” 14 He approached and touched the open plank, and the ones carrying it stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, ‘Get up!’” 15 And the dead person sat up and began to talk, and he gave him to his mother. 16 Fear gripped everyone, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us,” and “God has visited his people.” 17 This report about him spread around all of Judea and the entire region.

Comments:

Soon after the healing of the centurion’s servant, something remarkable is about to happen. Luke sets up the scene. It is in the town of Nain (you can google where that is), and his disciples and a large crowd are with him.

This boy’s resuscitation is not the same as Jesus’s resurrection, for Jesus’s body was transformed and glorified. The boy’s body simply recovered from the dead, and when he was older he died, like everyone else of his generation. So we should call it a resuscitation from the dead.

“only son”: Luke likes to mention this fact, because it adds drama and it was true (see 8:42; 9:48). The listener to his story would feel the suspense rising. “Can Jesus raise the dead? He has to, because he’s woman’s only son! What will happen next?” The only son of his mother indicates that she lost her only child. She could have had daughters, however, but her son would have been about the only means of financial support, as he learned a trade or how to farm. This fact, not lost on the people of Nain and Luke’s readers, would have been obvious, once they learned of this family.

Luke described the scene even more. Men were carrying an open plank out of the town in conformity to Jewish law that says those who touch a dead body are unclean (Num 5:2; 9:6-11; 19:10-22), so they were to take the body away from the people, to a cemetery.

“open plank”: it is how things were done back then. It seems the body was not wrapped up, but it was anointed with oil (the boy got up instantly without being unwrapped). So the widow was poor.

“deceased”: Jewish custom of the time did not have a burial until the authorities knew the person really was dead. That seems strange to us, but they did not have fancy equipment back then, like beeping monitors. The boy was dead.

When Jesus saw her, he was “moved with compassion”: The verb is splanchnizomai (pronounced splankh-NEE-zoh-my) and is used 12 times, exclusively in the Gospels. “It describes the compassion Jesus had for those he saw in difficulty” (Mounce, New Expository Dictionary, p. 128). BDAG, a thick Greek lexicon, defines the verb simply: “have pity, feel sympathy.”

BDAG further says the noun splanchnon (pronounced splankh-non) is related to the inward part of the body, especially the viscera, inward parts, entrails. But some update their translation with the noun as “heart.” So the verb is also related to the inward parts of a person. It could be translated as “Jesus felt compassion in the depths of his heart.”

Due to the dead body, the carriers of the open plank would be unclean for seven days, but must wash themselves on the third day. Even touching a grave would make someone unclean (Num. 19:16). When Jesus touched the open plank, he would be unclean, but what happened when the human is no longer dead? No doubt people ignored such a quibble and were gripped by fear (Luke 7:16). In any case, he was not worried about clean and unclean laws when a widow woman was weeping over her only child (or more specifically her only son). He was about to perform a resuscitation miracle.

I liked how the bearers of the open plank stood (still), as the verb could be translated, with “still” being implied. Jesus touched it possibly to get them to stop. They did not shield the body, for they sensed something significant was about to happen, something miraculous. Remember that Jesus was well known as a healer. And something significant and miraculous did happen.

“gripped”: it is the frequent verb lambanō (pronounced lahm-bah-noh, and used 258 times) which means, depending on the context, “to take, take hold of, grasp … seize … receive” (among other things).

“Fear”: it is the standard noun phobos (pronounced foh-boss). It did the gripping of their minds, hearts, spirits, souls. In Luke 5:26 amazement gripped them. It can also mean “awe.” Here it is fear. Luke often expresses the emotional reaction to God’s work in terms of awe and respect (Luke 1:65; 5:26; 8:25, 37; Acts 2:43; 5:5, 11; 19:17) (Bock, p. 653).

There is nothing wrong, and everything right, with the fear of God settling over your minds. Don’t let the Happy Highlight Preachers on TV tell you otherwise.

Application for Ministry Today

We can learn and apply to our own ministries the ministry practice of Jesus. Let me number my points in this section, for order and clarity.

1.. Jesus issued a command. He did not pray a flowery prayer: “O thou God of the universe, I beg and plead with thee, if it be thy will, to raise up this child. But if it be not thy will, then keep him dead.” No. He said, “Get up!” It could be translated old school, “Arise!” Or “I tell you, “Be raised up!” But I like the abrupt command. “Get up!” It sounds more authoritative and commanding.

2.. What else could the boy do than sit up? Jesus commanded even death to loosen its grip on the young man and commanded life to go back into the dead body. It is an amazing scene for us Renewalists who believe that the dead are raised even today. Reports like this circulate around the web and in people’s lives. I wonder what the boy said. “Where am I? What am I doing on this open plank?”

3.. Then Jesus gave him to his mother. No doubt Jesus held his hand and presented him alive. The open plank may have still been carried by the bearers, up in the air. Jesus may have helped him down and walked him over to his mother.(Or maybe they lowered it.) Mother and son must have held on to each other tightly.

4.. Other accounts of resuscitations are recorded in the OT. In contrast to Jesus, who moved with more authority, Elijah stretched himself over a boy and raised him from the dead (1 Kings 17:21), and Elisha touched a child with his staff and then later lay over him (2 Kings 4:31, 34-35). Jesus issued a command.

5.. Through the Spirit of Jesus, Peter raised Tabitha-Dorcas from the dead (Acts 9:36-43). Peter also commanded the girl to get up, and she did, using the same verb for sitting up (v. 40). Result in Acts: many believed on the Lord, who is the right direction for their faith, not Peter. Jesus got all the glory.

7.. As I write in all the healing posts:

Let it be noted that Jesus never went in for “decree and declare.” (Name one time he used such verbiage during his prayer for the sick. Nor did the disciples use those formulaic words in Acts).

Instead, God the Father through his Son who was anointed by the Spirit performed miracles of healing. Jesus clarified that he does only what he sees his Father doing (John 5:19). He lives because of the Father (John 6:57). He speaks only what the Father taught him (John 8:28). He does what he sees the Father do (John 10:37).  What Jesus says is just what the Father told him to say (John 12:49-50, 57). Perhaps the most important verse about miracles: “Many good works I have shown you from My Father” (John 10:32). (In John’s Gospel, “good works” = miracles, at a minimum.)

Jesus was anointed by the Spirit; he was the Anointed One. He worked this miracle by the Spirit (Acts 10:38). So now we see the Father, his Son, and the Spirit working together to usher in the kingdom, including miracles of recovery (Luke 4:18-19). We will never be able to figure out completely and in detail how the three interact within the person of Jesus of Nazareth, until we get glimpses like this. But we observe the Trinity in action.

8..We too should develop life in the Spirit (Gal. 5), so we can hear from the Father through the Spirit, in Jesus’s name and authority granted to us. We will never heal as Jesus did, because he is the Anointed One without limits (John 3:34). But after the cross and the Son’s ascension, the Spirit can distribute the gifts of healings (plural) as he determines (1 Cor. 12:11), not as we “name and claim” or “decree and declare.” Let the Spirit work, and you listen and obey, and then rebuke a disease (not the person) or pray for healing.

4. Gifts of the Spirit: Gifts of Healings

Kenneth Copeland Gets a Pacemaker

Is ‘Decreeing’ Biblical for Christians?

What Is Biblical Confession?

For a fuller commentary, read the entire chapter:

Luke 7

Scroll down to the right verses.