In the first part of Luke 7 we see two very different sorts of people. On the one hand, we have a Roman Centurion—a figure of strength. On the other hand, we have a grieving widow, who just lost her only son—a figure of weakness and frailty. But they're both visited by the merciful restoring power of Jesus.
These two accounts are closely connected in at least 3 ways:
1. It's not the person Jesus heals who's at the center of the narrative. Jesus heals the Centurion's servant and the widow's son. But his focus isn't on the ones he heals. Instead it's on the Centurion and the widow.
2. These two people Jesus focuses on are opposites: The one, a powerful Centurion, takes all the initiative and sends messengers to Jesus. The other, a grieving widow who just lost her only son, and is now all alone, is entirely passive. Jesus takes initiative and comes to her in compassion.
3. These two scenes each evoke events from the ministries of Elijah and Elisha, which Jesus referenced as antecedents to his own ministry back in chapter 4.
In healing the Centurion's servant, Jesus ministers to a commander of a Gentile army, just like Elisha did with Naaman, commander of the Syrian army in 2 Kings 5.
And in raising the widow's son, he does something very similar to what Elijah did in 1 Kings 17, when the Lord through Elijah raised the only son of the widow of Zerephath....
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