The Widow of Nain
As Jesus approached the gate of the little town of Nain, he met a funeral procession carrying out a young man - 'the only son of his mother, and she was a widow.' In that world, a widow who lost her only son lost everything: her family line, her legal protector, and her means of survival. Luke records no request, no demonstration of faith, nothing asked of her at all; the miracle begins entirely with Jesus's own heart - 'when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not.' He touched the bier, told the young man to arise, and 'delivered him to his mother.' The stunned crowd's cry - 'a great prophet is risen up among us' - deliberately echoed Elijah and Elisha, who had each raised a widow's son in that same region centuries before. It is the only Gospel miracle prompted purely by compassion for a bystander who never asked.
Biography
- Children
- one son, raised from the dead by Jesus
- Era
- New Testament
- Nationality
- Jewish
Family
Did You Know?
Nain lies just a few miles from Shunem, where Elisha raised another woman's son - the watching crowd's cry 'a great prophet is risen up' shows they knew their geography.
This is the first of three people Jesus raised from the dead, before Jairus's daughter and Lazarus - and the only one where nobody asked him to do it.
By touching the bier, Jesus deliberately took on ritual uncleanness under the law - and reversed it, cleansing death itself instead of being defiled by it.
Key Chapters
Key Passages
Jesus Raises the Widow's Son
Luke 7:11-16
No one asks, no faith is tested - compassion alone moves the miracle, and Jesus's first recorded raising of the dead restores not just a life but a widow's whole future.
11nd it came to pass the day after, that he went into a city called Nain; and many of his disciples went with him, and much people.