Conversation Points for Luke 7:11-17

Study Format:
1. Read passage aloud. What did you notice in the reading? What words or phrase caught your attention?
2. Read passage aloud a second time. What questions would you ask the text?
3. Read passage aloud a third time. What do you hear God calling you to do or be in response to this text?

Interesting Ideas to Consider:
• The theme of the section of Luke we will read this week and throughout the month of June centers around the idea of Jesus as the one who continues the work of the prophets and fulfills their words, and yet is greater than all the prophets. This story is a clear parallel to 1 Kings 17:17-24, where Elijah raised the widow’s son. In the 1 Kings story, Elijah stretched himself over the boy three times and cried out to God, Jesus had only to speak the words, and the boy was made alive.
• By Jewish custom, the burial has to take place within 24 hours of the death. So the widow’s grief over her son is still very raw.
• Having the healing of a widow’s son follow immediately after the healing of the centurion’s servant shows Jesus’ disregard for human status, as he offered care to both a high-status man and a low-status woman. The death of an only son would have been catastrophic to a widow. Without a son she would have been denied legal inheritance and would be dependent upon charity.
• Nain is a small village about five miles southwest of Nazareth and twenty-five miles from Capernaum. Verse 16, “God has looked favorably upon his people” is a nod to the song of Zechariah in Luke 1:68. Later God’s favor will expand throughout “Judea, Samaria, and all the world.” Right now we are in the “Judea” part.
• The word for “compassion” in verse 13 is splagchnizomai and means a deep visceral gut reaction.

Works Sourced:
Attridge, Harold W. ed. The HarperCollins Study Bible. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 2006.

Culpepper, R. Alan. “The Gospel of Luke.” The New Interpreter’s Bible Volume IX. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995.

Hogan, Lucy Lind. “Commentary on Luke 7:11-17.” Working Preacher. . Accessed 31 May 2016.