The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: S. Luke
Chapter 7
Ver. 1. — Now when he had ended (or fulfilled), all his sayings.
Ver. 2. — Ready to die , nigh unto death. Syriac
Ver. 3. — He sent to him the elders of the Jews , beseeching him that he would come and heal his servant. S. Luke ascribes the request of the Jews to the Centurion himself, because they asked in his name; but the Centurion sought not that Christ should come unto him, but only that the Lord should be told, “ My servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.” S. Matt. viii. The Jews asked therefore that which they knew the Centurion desired, although he was too humble-minded to seek it.
“ That he would come,” i.e., would give up everything else, and apply himself to the healing of the servant. An expression equivalent to the Hebrew word בא, ba, come.
Thus God came to Abimelech, Gen. xx ; to Balaam, Num. xxii. ; and to the Hebrews, Deut. xxxiii., when He appeared to them and gave them the Law. So it is said of the Baptist. John came, shewed himself, neither eating nor drinking. The force of the passage lies therefore in the word “ heal,” that he would heal his servant, whether he came — went down — to his house or not.
Ver. 6. — Lord , trouble not thyself, do not incur the fatigue (Syriac) of such a journey, but speak the word only, and heal my servant.
Ver. 11. — And it came to pass the day after that He went into a city called Nain . A city of Galilee two miles distant from Mount Tabor, situated on the river Kison, and called Nain, from the Hebrew word which denotes beauty. Thus Naomi says, “Call me not Naomi,” i.e. fair or beautiful, “call me Mara ; for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me” (Ruth i. 20) — words which the widow of Nain, mourning the loss of her only son, might well make her own. So also Ps. cxxxiii., “ Behold how good and how pleasant (Nain) it is for brethren to dwell together in unity,” and therefore how sad and sorrowful for brother to be separated from brother, mother from son, by the hand of death.
The place is specially mentioned for the confirmation of the miracle, and also because “Jesus went about all the cities and villages, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people ” (S. Matt. ix. 35) ; and to show the bitterness of the mother's grief, for the death of her son at Nain was a greater trial to the mother than if they had been living in some country place. Just as it seems more hard for a man to be cut off in youth than in age, in health than in sickness, in prosperity than in adversity, in the springtide rather than in the winter of life, as it is written (Ecclus. xli. 1), “O Death, how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that liveth at rest in his possessions , unto the man that hath nothing to vex him, and that hath prosperity in all things. O Death, acceptable is thy sentence unto the needy and unto him whose strength faileth, to whom everything is a care.”
Ver. 12. — Now when he came nigh to the gate of the city , behold , there was a dead man carried out, &c. “ Behold,” i.e. by accident, humanly speaking, Christ met the bier ; but the meeting was foreseen and fore-ordained of Christ, that He might raise the dead to life. He willed, however, that it should seem accidental and not designed, in order that it might be the more esteemed ; for as the proverb runs, “ that is of little value which is voluntarily offered for sale.”
“ There was a dead man carried ” without the city. Because, for sanitary and other reasons, the Jews had their burial places without the walls.
So the sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathaea, in which the body of Christ lay, was without Jerusalem. So also the valley of Jehoshaphat, the scene of the judgment to come and the general resurrection, is the common burial-place of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with the exception of the kings, for whom David had provided a sepulchre in Zion, 1 Kings ii. 10. For similar reasons the Romans, who were forbidden by the twelve tables to bury their dead within the city, used the Campus Martius as a place of sepulture, until Theodoric revoked the law ; and there is abundant evidence to show that the Christians also, in the time of the persecution, used the crypts which they had excavated without the city for purposes of interment, but afterward, when peace was given to the Christians, they consecrated burial places within the walls near the temples in which they were wont to worship :
1. That the remembrance of death might be continually presented to the faithful as an incentive to a holy life. Like as the Spartans were commanded by Lycurgus to bury their dead within the city, in order to teach their young men that death was to be honoured and not to be feared.
2. That by their consecration they might be secure against the wiles of the devils, who are wont to dwell in the tombs and possess the bodies of those departed. S. Luke viii. 27.
3. And also that the faithful when on their way to worship might be led to pray that those who lay buried around might be released from purgatory, and counted worthy of a glorious resurrection at the last day, and also that they might be partakers in the holy sacrifices offered in the temples and might benefit by the merits and by the prayers of those Saints who either lie buried, or are in some way especially commemorated therein. Thus Constantine the Great wished to be buried in the porch of the Church of the Holy Apostles at Constantinople, and Theodosius in the Church of S. Peter at Rome. Also, as most of the churches at Rome show, the Christians built altars over the tombs of the martyrs, for reasons which I have given in my comments on the text, “ I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain.” Rev. vi. 9.
The only son , i.e. the only child of his mother, and therefore the sole object of her love. For he was to her her hope and her future, the support of her declining years, and the light of her eyes. Hence the mother’s grief was of the bitterest kind, like to that which the prophets tell of : “ They shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son,” Zech. xii. 10. And again, “O daughter of my people, gird thee with sackcloth and wallow thyself in ashes: make thee mourning as for an only son, most bitter lamentation.” Jer. vi. 26.
And much people of the city was with her. This widow seems to have been a woman highly esteemed by her fellow-citizens, “out of respect for whom they joined in the funeral procession.” S. Ambrose. Furthermore, there is generally at the gate of a city a great crowd of people going in and coming out, particularly as formerly the gate was not only the market-place, but also the seat of judgment.
Hence God willed that the miracle should be thus publicly wrought, that many being witnesses of it, many might be led to give praise to Him. Bede.
Ver. 13. — And when the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said unto her, Weep not. Nay, rather begin to rejoice, for I will restore your son to life again, mourn not as for one dead, whom thou shalt soon see brought back again to life. Bede. He forbids her to weep for him, who was about to rise from the dead. S. Ambrose.
Ver. 14. — And He came and touched the bier: and He said, Young man , I say unto thee , Arise. The bier, an open bier surely, as is common amongst the Jews.
Arise. Elijah, Elisha, and others restored the dead to life by means of prayer to God, but Christ at a word, as Lord of life and death, and therefore very God. He touched the bier, says Cyril, to show that his body was effectual for the salvation of men, for as iron heated in the fire does the work of fire, and kindles the chaff, so the flesh united to the Word gives life to mankind.
Ver. 15. — And he that was dead sat up and began to speak. Sat up , raised himself up into a sitting posture, and so returned to life ; for to sit up and to begin to speak are sure signs of returning animation.
And He delivered him to his mother , i.e. He took him by the hand and placed him on his feet, then led him to his mother. Behold thy son ! Take him home with thee, that thou mayest rejoice over him, and that he may render thee true filial obedience.
Ver. 16. — And there came a fear on all &c.
Ver. 17. — And this rumour of Him went forth throughout all Judaea , and throughout all the region round about. Fear, i.e. reverence, and a sacred awe, mixed with admiration and joy.
A great prophet. The Messiah, of whose coming all were in anxious expectation.