Biblical
stories are only meaningful if we can put ourselves inside the story. Any
effective story is the same way. A well-written novel has us identifying with
the characters, just as a news story has us wincing or cheering for the
protagonist of the story. The challenge of biblical stories, as I’ve mentioned
before, is that so many of them no longer fit the context of our lives.
Take this
morning’s Gospel, for instance. How often do we see a dead body without its
being decently shrouded inside a casket at a funeral home? How recently have
you seen a dead body carried on a stretcher to the graveyard? Unless you have
traveled overseas recently, this sight has eluded you. And how many of us have
a real sense of what it was like to be a widow in Jesus’ time? Why does Luke,
the writer of today’s Gospel make such a big deal about widows anyway?
A widow in
Jesus’ time was a lot like a street person today. If the widow had no son to
care for her and for her to live with, she was open to violence, cheating,
scorn, accusations of, let’s call it “impropriety.” Widows in Jesus’ time some
times starved to death despite injunctions from the Law and the Prophets to
care for widows and orphans. Like street people today, it was easy to walk by,
easy to ignore a widow.
Burying her son
was probably the last party, if you can call it that, this widow would have. With
the death of her son, the sole means of support was taken from her; truly in
her day people’s children were their retirement. The death of her son was the
difference between survival and starvation. Unable to own property, restricted
from working all but the poorest of jobs, and shunted aside in the marketplace
and at the well, she was considered cursed and unlucky because both husband and
son had died. The life of most widows was no life. And so it was for orphans as
well.
Luke makes such
a big deal about widows and orphans because he is making a point about Jesus in
his Gospel. In this morning’s Gospel, the first time Luke uses the title of
“Lord” is when Jesus sees the widow, Luke has it this way, “When the Lord saw
her, he had compassion for her.”[1]
This might be a clue for us that Luke is telling us how to respond to God. In
his actions with the widow, Jesus is first moved; he becomes vulnerable to the
suffering of the widow. But he does more than have compassion, more than simply
suffer with her. He acts on her suffering. He alleviates her suffering with the
means available to him.
What is
especially fascinating about Luke’s story is that there are two ways to
interpret what the crowd says when the young man is raised. Translated into
English it reads like this, “Fear seized all of them; and they glorified God,
saying, ‘A great prophet has risen among us!’”[2]
Most of us assume the crowd is talking about Jesus. But the Greek can go either
way. It is unclear whether Luke means Jesus is the great prophet, or the young
man arisen from the dead is the great prophet.
Suppose just
for a moment we tinker with the idea of the crowd meaning the young man just
risen from the dead is the great prophet. What might that mean for us? It might
mean us! It might mean we are
expected to respond the way the crowd did to the young man arisen from the dead
as a prophet. The crowd became prophets too!
Those are scary thoughts, aren’t they?
Yet we too have been raised from the dead to new life in Christ Jesus. That
just might mean we are expected to be prophets too. And we are expected to be
more than prophets to one another. We are expected to be prophets to the
greater world. Because right after the crowd exclaims in awe, “A great prophet
has arisen among us!” They continue with thanks. “God has looked favorably on
his people!”
The next and
most important thing that happens, I hardly need to point out: word spreads.
The crowd shares what happened. No, that’s not in the text itself, but how else
would it happen? “This word about him (Jesus) spread throughout Judea and all
the surrounding countryside.”
There are three
simple things to being a prophet. Awe. Thanks. Share. That’s what it takes to
be a prophet. First: Recognize God’s presence and stand in awe. Second: The generosity of spirit and liveliness of heart to
give God thanks. Third: The
willingness to spread the good news abroad in the world: Awe. Thanks. Share.
That’s what this story calls us to do, if only we will listen. AMEN.
The Rev Nicolette
Papanek
©2016
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