Jesus

Jesus' Son: Stories Denis Johnson
Publisher: Harper Perennial

Jesus didn't go looking for it in order to be a hero. Next Sunday's Gospel: Luke 7:11-17, is the story of Jesus raising the son of the widow of Nain. Right before this healing story is the tale of a centurion [a Roman soldier] asking Jesus to heal his own servant. Now, we have Jesus encountering a woman who is a widow, and her son is sick. We see this same grace and love in the story from Luke. And yet Jesus loved and helped them both. It is more commonly referred to as the story of the prodigal son, though the word prodigal is not found in Scripture. The two characters in these stories could not be more different. Jesus Raises the Son of the Widow of Nain You may remember that last week, as we were looking at the story of Elijah competing with the prophets of Ba'al, I said that Elijah was an unpleasant person. Jesus comes across a funeral procession, again a widow's only son. The parable of the prodigal son is one of the most well-known stories of Jesus.