In Luke 7:11-17, Jesus raises a widow’s son in the town of Nain. Luke’s Gospel is the only place where we read of this compassionate act of Jesus and it only takes up 7 verses. The passage explicitly mentions that this dead man was the only son of his mother. Luke wants us to clearly understand that this woman’s situation is dire.

After Jesus raised the son, it says in Luke 7:15b that Jesus “gave him back to his mother“. This short passage speaks volumes regarding the character of God that is revealed in Jesus. Nain seems to have been a very insignificant town. And this grieving woman probably doesn’t have a lot of social or economic clout in her male-dominated society. But in Jesus’ eyes, this husbandless and childless lady, who’s name we don’t even know, matters to him.

It is significant that the passage states that after Jesus raised the son, he “gave him back to his mother“. The heart of God is consistently revealed in the Jewish-Christian Scriptures as a heart for the marginalized and the vulnerable. He is intimately aware of their precarious circumstances. Over and over in the biblical record we read passages like Deuteronomy 24:19 –“When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.”  And Exodus 23:9 – “Do not oppress an alien; you yourselves know how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in Egypt.”

As I contemplate these kind of exhortations from the LORD for His people, I am reminded of Isaiah 55:15 – For this is what the high and lofty One says – he who lives forever, whose name is holy: ‘I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite”. This is the kind of divine character on display in Luke 7 when Jesus “gave (the son) back to his mother“.

It is also the divine character revealed when Jesus heals a demon-possessed man on the eastern side of Lake Galilee. This man was so alienated from the image of God that he was created with, that he was unable to live in a house, but lived in the tombs by himself, without wearing clothes (Lk. 8:27). Jesus delivers him from the powers of darkness and he ends up “sitting at Jesus’ feet, dressed and in his right mind” (Lk. 8:35). Jesus then went back to the other side of Lake Galilee. It’s like Jesus went all that way just to minster to that one helpless soul. The demoniac was probably the last person that people in Gerasenes thought would become a faithful follower of Jesus.

We see the same kind of divine action in Jesus’ healing of the nameless woman who had the issue of blood for 12 years (Lk. 8:43). This woman was ceremonially unclean and anyone who touched her would be declared ceremonially unclean. She was unable to worship at the Jerusalem Temple or any synagogues. She was alienated socially and religiously from the mainstream of Jewish life. She lived a lonely existence in which she experienced much physical suffering with her perpetual hemorrhaging. But Jesus heals her and then declares to her “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace” (Lk. 8:48). Jesus wants her to not only experience physical healing, but emotional healing. He wants to know that she is a fully-accepted member of God’s family. She is a faithful daughter of Abraham and a partaker of the spiritual birthright that belongs to all believers.

As we meditate on these remarkably consistent portrayals of the divine character right through the Scriptures, including our reading in Luke’s Gospel, let us adore the Lord Jesus Christ. And humbly claim the spiritual birthright and blessing of 2 Corinthians 3:18 – “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit”. Let us grow in our heart to serve others, especially those who are easily overlooked by the mainstream of our society.

QOTD: Are we growing in Christ-like character and are we faithfully representing him to the world?