1 Tim 3:1-13, Ps 101:1-3,5,6, Lk 7:11-17

Do you remember about a month ago when the readings were about Ruth and her mother-in-law Naomi? One of the circumstances in that reading from the Old Testament was that the women were particularly vulnerable because they had no men to stand for them in a patriarchal society.

In today’s Gospel the same situation occurs because a widow loses her only son. Jesus, “moved by pity” becomes involved when he steps forward to touch the casket breaking Jewish purity laws in the process. He then brings the son back to life and gives him to his mother. It is an amazingly straightforward story of God stepping in to rescue the life of a woman completely alone in the world. I think it is crucial to acknowledge why Jesus acts. Jesus does this because he was “moved with pity” for her.

Personally, I have always felt drawn to these statements of emotion on Jesus’ part. I think they are little windows into the long ago reality of what happened. I think these little asides, if you will, are there because people at the time were so touched by Jesus genuine human outreach that it became an integral part of the story. They couldn’t tell the story about this unbelievable miracle without including the emotion they saw in Jesus. It is important because in the history of the Church there was a long tradition that emphasized Jesus’ divinity over his humanity. For me it is the humanity of Jesus that helps me sense what God is all about. This story says that God is touched by the fragility of human life, by one woman’s need. God hurts when we hurt, God acts out of a deep personal attachment to each of us. Too often we have not come to see God’s love in those kinds of personal terms and, I think, we are the poorer for it. Perhaps we need to think and pray more about what God’s care, personal, deeply felt care, is and how we can recognize it today? Can we see how God still visits his people today?