THE COMPASSION OF CHRIST

THE COMPASSION OF CHRIST: An Exegesis of Luke 7:11-17

By: Daniel McMillin

When I was six years old, I visited Huntsville, AL, to go to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center with a group from elementary school. I remember sitting on the bus with my mom and enjoying my time at the museum. But when we were on this field trip, I first met one of the best friends I will ever have, who sat in the seat in front of me with his dad. His name was Alex. Our friendship began on this trip and expanded when we had class together in second grade. We continued to be close friends all throughout middle school and high school and would always hang out since we were in marching band together. He played the saxophone, and I played the trumpet. Alex always had the same rehearsed jokes; he would sing everywhere we went and would often perform magic tricks. So, obviously, all of the girls would follow him. But he was incredibly talented. He was a good musician, an excellent artist, and a highly intelligent individual. All around, he was a great guy and a friend. I would often visit home when I was in college, and we would hang out, and it was almost like no time had passed. There was one week that I visited Ripley for Thanksgiving break, and he came to our house to hang out, talk, and play games. Two days later, I heard that he was missing, and his family was looking for him. This was very strange and out of character for Alex. On Thanksgiving, my family and I were coming back from Memphis after eating dinner, and my mom informed me that the police had found Alex’s body. He was gone. I visited his family the next day to comfort his family at their home. People came to visit his family for hours. Later I would go with his mother to the funeral home to identify the body. I can still see him lying there, lifeless, as I stood beside his mother. And I still hear her voice crying to him, “Wake up!”  The reason I tell this story is to set the tone for our reading Luke 7, so we hear the voice of this mother crying for her lost son to “Wake up!”

Previously, Jesus healed a Centurion’s servant in Capernaum before he departed to the city of Nain (Luke 7:1-10). Luke’s retelling of events is intentional since there are similarities and differences between the healing of the servant and the son. Interestingly, one major difference between the two stories is what is missing in this story: the faith of the woman is not required. In fact, the story is told as though Jesus interrupted the funeral procession to perform this miracle unannounced, whereas, in the previous account, Jesus was sought out by the Centurion, and Jesus celebrates this man’s “great faith” (Luke 7:9).

But the woman did not have faith in Jesus; she did not really know who he was, and she certainly did not expect her son to rise from the dead. Here, the only person who has faith is Jesus. Jesus does not always require faith before He heals; He is not bound by this rule. The takeaway is not “We don’t have to have faith, and we can do whatever we want, and Jesus will heal us.” This story is centered on the character of Jesus. It shows that Jesus acts freely; it demonstrates His generous compassion and grace by actively raising the widow’s son.[1] Jesus does not heal to get something out of it, but He heals to give life and hope to those who are desperately in need.

As Jesus traveled from Capernaum to Nain, He was accompanied by His apostles and a great crowd of disciples.[2] The city was located about 6 miles southeast of Nazareth, surprisingly close to where Jesus grew up. As He enters from the city gates (cf. 1 Kings 17:10), Jesus sees this group of people carrying[3] a coffin or, more accurately, a bier outside of the city.[4] In Judaism, they did not have nice wooden caskets to carry their dead. They had bone boxes or, in this case, biers, which were stretchers of boards that had a pallet or bed inside them. The body would be carefully prepared and wrapped in linen.[5]

Jesus saw a “sizeable crowd from the city” walking alongside the mourning mother (Luke 7:12). Imagine this scene for a moment. In a small Middle Eastern city, the death of a young man who was the only son of a widow would touch every life in the community. In fact, the Jewish people’s participation in the funeral proceedings was a social expectation and rabbinic requirement in the ancient world. They would drop everything to participate in the funeral procession.[6] In fact, they would even stop their study of the Torah for the funeral.[7] The presence of the community “shows that her plight was widely appreciated in that there was a depth of sympathy for her.”[8]

The son certainly died that day since it was Jewish custom to bury the dead on the day they had fallen asleep. “Jewish tradition encouraged a quick burial in order to avoid ceremonial uncleanliness.”[9] They would travel outside the walls of the Jewish town since it was customary to bury the dead on the outskirts of the city limits.[10] They would take his body to the family burial plot, possibly to a small cave on the side of a hill where his father was buried. The widow-mother would walk in front of the bier where her son’s body lay.

In this bier laid the body of a man, either a child or a young man; we are not told his age by Luke, but this may be intentional. Luke focuses primarily on the widow-mother in this scene, who had lost not only her husband since she was a “widow,” but now her “only son” as well (Luke 7:12). This is a heartbreaking situation that Luke is describing to us as readers as our attention is drawn to this woman who was now all alone in the world. The death of an only child represented extreme sorrow to the Jewish people (Jer. 6:26; Zech. 12:10; Amos 8:10). She is obviously filled with a sorrow that is unimaginable at this point. “An only child is an especially beloved child, and its loss especially agonizing.”[11] The loss of her son is tragic, especially in light of the loss of her husband, because now she has no male protector or provider at this point. There is no one to carry on the family lineage and care for this woman. In this ancient patriarchal society during the first century, she has no opportunities to earn a living. At this time, she is followed by friends and family as they weep with her, but will they be with her for the days to come? [12] “Her son had comforted her in her first loss of a husband, but now that her son was dead, there was none left to comfort.”[13]

            Luke now directs our attention to the only person who could possibly comfort this woman in her time of need: the Lord. Interestingly, this is the first time the title “Lord” appears in Luke. “It has undoubted fitness in the scene in which Jesus will show himself to be Lord over death itself.”[14] It speaks of Jesus’ authority here and later as His exalted status in Acts 2:36. It also identifies Jesus as the compassionate Lord and Redeemer of Isaiah 54:7–10.[15] The Lord not only sovereignly rules with great authority but also reigns as one with a heart of compassion.

When the Lord saw this woman in this deep sorrow, Luke says that the Lord “felt compassion for her” (Luke 7:13). But He did not stand idly by and witness her wailing in sorrow. He sees the woman’s intense pain. His “heart went out to her” (NIV), and He determined to do something about it! He approached the grieving mother and said, “Do not weep.”[16]  At first glance, Jesus’ words appear harsh or very abrasive and certainly unsympathetic for someone whom Luke says is compassionate. But His actions reveal the opposite. Jesus “removes the cause of bereavement (1 Kings 17:17-24).”[17] His words “implied promise of action, a sense of anticipation” as He looks to the moment her son will wake up.[18]

The Lord then proceeded to walk to the bier and placed His hands upon it. This was a big problem for multiple reasons. First, interrupting a funeral was a “blatant breach of Jewish law and custom.”[19]  It was obviously disrespectful since it would offend those who were mourning. Secondly, Jesus’ touching of the corpse would render Him unclean. In Jewish custom, touching a corpse exposed Him to a week’s uncleanness (Num. 5:2-3; 19:11-22). This was “the severest form of ritual impurity in Judaism.” [20] The only people who would usually touch the bier were the official bearers, similar to our pallbearers today. They were expected to expose themselves to these impurities, but Jesus volunteered to touch the bier and corpse.

Surprisingly, Luke does not note that Jesus was unclean for touching the body, which would normally be the case. This is because Jesus is not rendered unclean because of what happens next.[21] Jesus ignores the Jewish customs to compassionately care for the needs of this mourning mother. He demonstrates that compassion trumps human ceremonies or traditions.

The bearers who carried the bier came to an immediate halt. All eyes were upon Jesus, and they heard Him speak to the corpse, “Young man, I say to you, arise!” (Luke 7:14). Imagine the absurdity of this scene for these commoners. They had never seen a miracle before. They did not know Jesus. This was just some man who traveled with his entourage and made Himself unclean by touching the body, and now He’s speaking to it. In other contexts, this would be really strange, but when you know who Jesus is, it becomes quite clear that we are to expect the unexpected since the impossible is possible with Him, and the strange becomes the norm.

But Jesus spoke to this man and said, “Wake up,” and immediately, this dead body rose from the dead, sat up, and spoke. “The young man’s movement and speech are clear proof that life is fully restored.”[22] This is absolutely amazing! Resurrection was a rare miracle in the Bible, whether we are talking about the Old or New Testament.[23] This is not even the norm for the supernatural. This is not something you see every day. “Jesus displays a divine intolerance of death.”[24] The Lord of Life confronts death and wins! It also anticipates the resurrection of the dead in the last days. Since Jesus can raise this man from the dead and since He can raise from the dead, it is possible that those whose citizenship is in heaven will surely rise from the grave and receive their inheritance. In Christ, “those who are resurrected from the dead belong no longer to this world, but to the Lord of Life, who redeemed them.”[25]

After the son’s resurrection, Jesus “gave him back to his mother” (Luke 7:15), a detail that appears in the resurrection performed by Elijah in 1 Kings 17:23. In that event, Elijah cried out to the Lord, saying, “Lord my God, let this boy’s life return to him!” God heard his plea and “returned” the boy’s life to him. Then, “Elijah picked up the child and carried him down for the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, ‘Look, your son is alive!” Jesus appears to be just like Elijah in this scene. But instead of crying out to the Lord to resurrect the boy, Jesus, by His own authority as Lord, gave the son life and gave him back to his mother. “Giving the boy back to his mother is a further demonstration of Jesus’ compassion for her.”[26] He truly cares about this woman and her situation and ensures that she is taken care of.

Those who were witnesses of this miracle were “filled with awe” (NIV). They did not know what to do other than to glorify God[27] and spread the good news of what had occurred. “The whole funeral procession goes wild with astonishment, delight, disbelief.”[28] Their reaction of “awe” or “fear” is one that is similar to being “in the presence of God.”[29] After all, it is “the natural reaction to the presence of the action of God” in the Gospel of Luke (1:12, 65; 2:9; 5:26; 8:25, 37).[30] They were all clearly in awe after seeing the dead come alive. This would be truly breathtaking to witness. But the reason they reacted in this manner is because they rightly discerned God’s involvement in this miracle. They reported these things about Jesus throughout all of Judea and the surrounding district. They would tell of the amazing miracle that they had witnessed with their own eyes of how Jesus had the power to command the dead to rise and come to life again.

The crowds’ assessment that “a great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited His people!” (Lk 7:16) are spectacular insights.  “The response from the people shows that they see the prophetic nature of his actions.”[31] The most popular conclusion of the Jewish people was that Jesus was a prophet. They identify Jesus as a prophet because they see the prophets of old present in this miracle. “The Gospels make it clear that the masses saw in the words and actions of Jesus convincing evidence that he was a prophet.”[32] There are allusions to prophets like Elijah and Elisha (1 Kings 17; 2 Kings 4) in Jesus’ activity here which demonstrates that “God’s present acts” through Jesus are truly “in line with those of the past.”[33] But there is more here, too; since these prophets are alluded to here, Jesus is to be viewed as this “prophetic messiah” who is “greater even than the prophet Elijah.”[34] The prophet who is promised in Deuteronomy to be better than Moses.

This title is not a decisive description of Jesus. Everything you need to know about Jesus is not summed up in His work as a prophet. Alone, this title is inadequate, but this is certainly the best that these people can do with limited experience and information.[35] “When the crowd fears and recognizes Jesus as a great prophet, they are not wrong; their view of Jesus is merely incomplete.”[36] There is much more to Jesus that makes Him so special. What we see here is a glimpse of His compassion as this mighty Lord and prominent prophet.

As the crowd sees Jesus act mercifully and powerfully through this miracle, they say that “God has visited His people.” He truly is Immanuel, “God among us,” who dwells with and heals His people. Luke introduced this theme of God raising a great prophet who would dwell among His people and redeem them in 1:68. “God’s visitation is a key theme in Luke (1:68, 78; 19:41–44; Acts 15:14). God is active through Jesus…God is at work through him.”[37] In the Bible, the idea of God visiting Israel is often tied to the Exodus, where God draws near to His people and rescues them.[38] Ultimately, Luke is taking us on a journey to the cross to show us that the life of Jesus, the purpose of the incarnation, is about redeeming God’s people.

This story is painful on two levels. On the surface, we follow the story the way Luke intended us to and begin to sympathize with this woman and feel her pain. But as we dig deeper into the core of Luke’s gospel, the reason this story hurts so deeply is because the cross is so near. When we approach the cross, we see a man who is beaten and bruised, denied and betrayed, mocked and humiliated, tried and slandered. A man who is broken. A man who is stripped of all dignity. A man who is ridiculed. One who truly is a “man of sorrows” who bears the burdens of the whole world on His shoulders and the sins of all humanity. He stood innocent but was condemned by the masses. He was alone, and He died on that cruel cross. How could we have allowed this to happen? What could move us to murder the innocent? Why must He suffer for our mistakes, for our sins? Isaiah describes Jesus Christ, this Suffering Servant, in this way:

“He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face. He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging, we are healed.” (Is. 53:3–5)

The Lord suffered to save. This was His mission all along— “to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). He saw us in a worse condition than this man on the bier. We were spiritually dead, and the Lord told us to “wake up” and rise in newness of life. But this was only possible because His death was not the end. But before we move any further, there is a correlation between this story of Christ’s compassion and the passion of Christ on the cross. In the final moments of Christ, He is not worried about Himself. He does not curse God and cry for mercy. Instead, He pleads to the Father to forgive those who crucified Him and forgives a sinner on the cross. But He looks to the audience and sees His mother, Mary, is present. It must have been torture for her to see Jesus on this cross. “When Jesus then saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, ‘Woman, behold, your son!’ Then He said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother!’ From that hour the disciple took her into his own household” (John 19:26-27). In Jesus’ final moments, He cares for His mother and ensures she is taken care of before He gives up His spirit (John 19:30). Jesus does not leave His mother alone. He knew what He was sent here to do. He knew He would suffer and die. He could have easily suffered in silence and still accomplished His mission. But His words on the cross were words of mercy and grace, wisdom and power, love and compassion. If there is one truth that we can take away from this lesson, it is this: Jesus cares. He cares about us. He sympathizes with us. He sees us in need, and He heals us. Jesus cares.

The final comparison may be made three days after Jesus’ death. Unlike the woman in Luke 7, Mary’s Son has rested in the tomb for multiple days. She goes to visit the tomb along with other women to bring some spices that they had prepared. To their surprise, “they found the stone rolled away from the tomb.” As they entered the tomb, they did not see Jesus’ body and “were perplexed.” But then they saw “two men” who “stood near them in dazzling clothing” and were utterly terrified by this angelic interruption. It is at this moment that the angels say to the women, “Why do you seek the living One among the dead? He is not here, but He has risen” (Luke 24:1–6). Before, the world was hopelessly lost in despair. They were depraved because the Son of God was slain. But now, there is no need to weep any longer because Jesus is not asleep…He is awake! He is alive! Now, we may rejoice that the Lord of life has risen from the grave.

As we close, we see that “Jesus’ ministry is about compassion.”[39] His death is an act of compassion. And so our lives as Christians should be about compassion. Our aim as disciples of Christ should be to appreciate the passion of Christ and imitate His compassion.

END NOTES

[1] N.T. Wright, Luke for Everyone, 82.

[2] “The great crowd that went with Jesus shows us how popular He was at this period of His ministry. As He moved from town to town people attached themselves to Him and went along.” (Morris 139)

“Jesus is depicted as an itinerant rabbi with a large following.” (Edwards, The Gospel according to Luke, 213)

[3] “To carry out,” according to Nolland, “is a technical term for carrying out a corpse to burial.” (322)

[4] Oftentimes, they would bring the remains of their dead outside of the city where their sepultures were located since dead bodies were seen as unclean.

[5] (McGarvey and Pendleton 184)

[6] Keener 207

[7] James R. Edwards, The Gospel according to Luke, ed. D. A. Carson, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.; Nottingham, England: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Apollos, 2015), 213–214.

[8] Morris, Luke, 139.

[9] Darrell L. Bock, Luke, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994), Lk 7:11–17.

[10] Nolland suggests that this meeting may be understood providentially, (Luke 1:1–9:20, 322)

[11] James R. Edwards, The Gospel according to Luke, ed. D. A. Carson, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.; Nottingham, England: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Apollos, 2015), 214.

[12] Leon Morris, The Gospel According to St. Luke: An Introduction and Commentary, TNTC (Grand Rapids, MI: Mm. B. Eerdmans, 1982), 139; Bock, Jesus According to Scripture, 239.

[13] McGarvey and Pendleton, Fourfold Gospel, 184.

[14] Morris, Luke, 140.

[15] James R. Edwards, The Gospel according to Luke, ed. D. A. Carson, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.; Nottingham, England: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Apollos, 2015), 214.

[16] “The command to stop weeping creates in the narrative a sense of anticipation to add to that already engendered by the echoes of 1 Kgs 17:8–24.” (Nolland 323)

[17] Keener 207

[18] John Nolland, Luke 1:1–9:20, vol. 35A, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1989), 324.

[19] Keener 207

[20] Keener 207

[21] Bock, Jesus According to Scripture, 240.

[22] John Nolland, Luke 1:1–9:20, vol. 35A, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1989), 324.

[23] “Jesus and his belief in resurrection not only by his words but also by his deeds. In one sense these are not true resurrections but miracles of resuscitation, for the recipients would still face death at a later date. However, in the Gospels they are treated as harbingers of Jesus’ coming resurrection, proof of God’s (and Jesus’) control over the power of death.” (G. R. Osborne, “Resurrection” in Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1992), 677.

[24] James R. Edwards, The Gospel according to Luke, ed. D. A. Carson, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.; Nottingham, England: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Apollos, 2015), 215.

[25] James R. Edwards, The Gospel according to Luke, ed. D. A. Carson, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.; Nottingham, England: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Apollos, 2015), 215.

[26] James R. Edwards, The Gospel according to Luke, ed. D. A. Carson, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.; Nottingham, England: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Apollos, 2015), 215.

[27] Interestingly, those who witnessed this miracle did not worship Jesus, but instead, Luke notes that they “praised God,” demonstrating that they at least “recognized the hand of God in what had happened and gave praise where it was due.” (Morris, Luke, 140)

[28] Wright 83

[29] Morris, Luke, 140.

[30] John Nolland, Luke 1:1–9:20, vol. 35A, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1989), 323.

[31] Black, Luke, 156.

[32] G.F. Hawthrone, “Prophets, Prophecy” in Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1992), 641.

[33] John Nolland, Luke 1:1–9:20, vol. 35A, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1989), 324.

[34] Black, Luke, 156.

[35] Morris, Luke, 140-141. For more on the typology of Jesus and the prophets Elijah and Elisha, see James M. Hamilton Jr.’s Typology: Understanding the Bible’s Promise-Shaped Patterns (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic, 2022), 137-138.

[36] Darrell L. Bock, Luke, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994), Lk 7:11–17.

[37] Darrell L. Bock, Luke, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994), Lk 7:11–17.

[38] Wright 84

[39] Darrell L. Bock, Luke, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994), Lk 7:11–17.