Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Luke 7:1-17

This passage in Luke contains two well-known stories: the healing of centurion’s slave, and the raising of the widow’s son at Nain. With these two accounts we are witness to some major of themes in Luke’s gospel. First, the centurion’s story illustrates Luke’s universalism. Both Jews and Gentiles, such as the centurion, are capable of great faith and worthy of Jesus’ saving activity. Both vignettes emphasize the compassion of Jesus, especially the second one. Here, the text goes out of its way to stress Jesus’ compassion for the widow at Nain, who had lost her only son (who would have been her life support). This latter story also emphasizes Jesus’ identity as a prophet, which is underlined again and again throughout Luke’s gospel. Finally, the juxtaposition of the two stories is representative of Luke’s overall compositional arrangement. He likes to present male-female pairs throughout the gospel. In this example, it is interesting how we encounter a story of a man of considerable power and influence paired with one of a woman, who would have been marginal and vulnerable in her widowed state, with no son to assist her. In Luke, Jesus has come to save all, male and female, Jew and Gentile, rich and poor.

- Alicia Batten