Don Friesen
Funeral processions are usually solemn occasions, and for good reason; a funeral procession is the journey of a loved one to his or her final resting place. That is why I was very embarrassed to receive my first traffic ticket at the age of sixteen for breaking into a funeral procession. Forty years ago funeral processions commanded more respect than they do today, and the process for dealing with the ticket was considerably more public than today, when simply sending a cheque by mail dispenses with matter.
Luke's Gospel tells us that Jesus and his disciples happened upon a funeral procession in a town called Nain, and they also disrupted the procession, but their intrusion was not considered an infraction. A widow's only son had died and his body was being carried out of town, followed by a large crowd. Although Jesus appears unaware of the circumstances leading up to the procession, when he saw the woman, "he had compassion for her and said to her, ‘Do not weep.'" (Luke 7:13) He moved toward the coffin, touched it, the pallbearers came to a stop, and Jesus said, "Young man, I say to you, arise!" (Luke 7:14, NASB) And Luke tells that "the dead man sat up and began to speak," only at that point I doubt he was any longer dead! Jesus took the young man to his mother, the crowd began to celebrate and praise God, and having just witnessed the arising of the person of honour in a funeral procession, they said, "A great prophet has arisen among us!" (Luke 7:16, NASB) And word about Jesus began to spread throughout Judea and all the surrounding country! (Luke 7:17)
Perhaps it is Gospels stories like this that inspired the famous jazz funeral processions of New Orleans, in which a brass band begins its solemn procession at the church, playing hymns like "Just a Closer Walk with Thee" in slow tempo, with no improvisation, no frills – only "sadness blown low and blue to the beat of a muted snare drum." (Kim Buchanan) A New Orleans funeral procession slowly winds its way to the cemetery, and it is only after the final words are spoken and the body is lowered into the ground that the mood shifts. The drummer removes his mute, brightly festooned umbrellas burst open, and the funeral procession heads back into town to the raucous strains of "When the Saints Go Marching in."
Folks in New Orleans who hear the sombre hymns earlier in the day wait for the procession's return. They know a celebration's coming! When the procession left the widow's home in Nain, however, I doubt that she was expecting a celebration. She was a widow, and her only child was dead. Widows in first-century Judea were women on the margins. Widows were notoriously poor and vulnerable; they relied on their extended families for support. This woman had not only lost her loved one, her economic survival was in jeopardy. She was likely without any means of support. And Jesus, happening upon the funeral procession, was so gripped with compassion that he decided to intervene. And the crowd said, "A great prophet has risen among us!" "God has looked favourably on his people!" (Luke 7:16)
A Great Procession of Prophets
Jesus is identified as a prophet, and in the context of first-century Judea this is an astounding claim! In the context of a tradition that boasted a long procession of great prophets and an impressive body of prophetic literature, and that had not seen a prophet for four centuries or more, this is high praise!
The medieval Church, during its Christmas liturgy, presented the ordo prophetarum, the "Procession of the Prophets," the origins of this procession found in a sermon attributed to Saint Augustine. It featured an impressive roster of prophets, including Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, David, Habakkuk, Nebuchadnezzar, Ballaam, Simeon, Elisabeth and John the Baptist, as well as Virgil and Sybil. I'm not sure how some of these got on the roster, but during that part of the liturgy the preacher summoned each of these prophetic witnesses by name, and they proclaimed their prophetic messages. (David Jeffrey, A Dictionary of Biblical Tradition in English Literature, page 645)
Luke, more than any other gospel writer, portrays Jesus as a prophet and as someone who used Israel's prophets as his own interpretive lens. (Ched Meyers, "Easter Faith and Empire: Recovering the Prophetic Tradition on the Emmaus Road") In Luke, chapter 1, Luke tells us, "(God) has raised up a mighty saviour for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old...." (Luke 1:69-71)
In Luke, chapter 4, Jesus stands up in the synagogue to read from the prophet Isaiah, using it as his "speech from the throne," and adding the wry comment, "no prophet is acceptable in his own country." (Luke 4:24, RSV)
In chapter 6 Jesus proclaims a blessing upon those who are excluded, reviled, defamed and whatnot by their opponents – something he too would experience – and adds, "for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets." (Luke 6:22-23)
In chapter 7, right after the crowd in the funeral procession hailed Jesus as a great prophet, John the Baptist sends out his emissaries to check out Jesus' prophetic credentials. (Luke 7:18-23)
In chapter 9 Jesus asks his disciples what people are saying about him, and the disciples tell him, "Some say that you are John the Baptist. Others (say) that you are Elijah, and others think that one of the old-time prophets has come back to life." (Luke 9:19)
Walt Whitman, in preparing to write Leaves of Grass, thoroughly re-read the Old and New Testaments, and lamented the fact that the word, "prophecy," is much misused, often narrowly understood as prediction. Rather, he wrote, "it means one whose mind bubbles up and pours forth as a fountain, from inner, divine spontaneities revealing God. Prediction is a very minor part of prophecy. The great matter is to reveal and outpour the God-like suggestions pressing for birth in the soul." (David Jeffrey, A Dictionary of Biblical Tradition in English Literature, page 645)
The Old Testament prophets throughout Israel's history engaged the way things were with the vision of what could and should be. And if that meant they questioned authority, made trouble, interrupted business-as-usual, spoke truth to power, and gave voice to the voiceless, so be it! If the Hebrew prophets condemned unethical behaviour, social injustices, and religious abuses, well... it went with the prophetic territory, and it's no surprise that the cost of being the inconvenient conscience of the nation was jail-time, exile, or worse!
You're no Elijah!
Listening to the two Scripture lessons earlier in the service, you may have been struck by the parallels in the two stories. In the first story (1 King 17:17-24) Elijah meets a widow; in the second story (Luke 7:11-17) Jesus meets a widow. In the first story the widow's son has died; in the second story the widow's son has died. In the Old Testament story Elijah resuscitated the widow's son; in the Gospel story Jesus resuscitated the widow's son (Luke 7:11-17). The parallels between Jesus and Elijah are deliberate and become explicit later in the Gospel. (Luke 9:8, 19, 30)
However, there are some interesting differences in the two stories. For example, the comparative ease with which Jesus raises the young man from the dead is in contrast to the more involved procedure Elijah undertakes. The Old Testament story has more detail, describing how Elijah had to stretch himself over the boy three times, praying each time, whereas Jesus simply touches the coffin and commands the young man to rise. One could argue that the Gospel story is a pale imitation of the Old Testament story. Yes, they both performed a miraculous deed, but Jesus lacks Elijah's flair. Elijah was a dramatic prophet, at one time taking on 450 prophets of Baal in a fiery confrontation (1 Kings 18), another time persevering in telling the truth, even though 400 other prophets were telling the king what he wanted to hear (1 Kings 22), endorsing his military engagements. (1 Kings 22)
I remember the vice-presidential debate about twenty years ago when Dan Quayle, desperate to prove his presidential mettle, compared the length of his political experience to that of John Kennedy. In response, his debating opponent uttered four terse sentences with surgical precision: "Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy."
It would not have surprised me if the crowd in the funeral procession near the town of Nain would have said of Jesus, "He's no Elijah!" Elijah was one of the greatest of the Old Testament prophets, and after almost a millennium the stories about Elijah had only grown larger than life. Elijah was a prophet-on-a-pedestal, right up there with Moses. Both appear on the Mount of Transfiguration.
Some suggest that there is another difference between Elijah and Jesus, that Elijah is a prophet of judgment and that Jesus is a prophet of grace. The Old Testament prophets were prophets of judgment – and John the Baptist certainly fits that mould, his dramatic apparel included – but Jesus is a prophet of grace, here to announce God's favour rather than God's judgment. It's a vivid contrast, but a false one, I believe. There is plenty in the Old Testament prophetic tradition that conveys God's favour, and there is much in Jesus' prophetic message and presence that stirred up opposition. It is interesting that in our Gospel passage the crowds' assessment that a "great prophet has arisen among us" (Luke 7:16, NASB) is immediately followed by the statement, "God has looked favourably on his people!" Well, which is it?!?
God Has Looked Favourably on His People!
Which is it? The presence of a prophet and the presence of God's favour don't seem to fit together. Jonah didn't go to Nineveh to declare that God thought Ninevites were okay, and inviting them to even more spiritual wellness! Jeremiah didn't stir up his compatriots by telling them that idolatry is but one option among many! Amos wasn't run out of town because he considered wealth a spiritual gift!
There is much about Jesus to make us uncomfortable, and when the presence of Jesus' spirit in our life becomes too comfortable, it's time to return to and to re-read the Gospels! Perhaps Jesus' prophetic character and message could be compared to surgery, or to a trip to the dentist. I don't like going to the dentist. I tense up in the dentists's chair. I spend half the appointment keeping vigil, lest the dentist sneak his long needle into my mouth without my knowing it! I know from experience, however, that a negligent dentist can be costly, both in terms of pain, good teeth, and money!
Jesus' spirit does not rest comfortably with all of our assumptions and perspectives and behaviours, and our faithfulness to his vision will cost us something, but we know that his way – the Jesus way – is the way to salvation! We follow a great prophet, and we know that God's favour will rest upon us as we live in faithfulness to him, whatever the cost.
All quotations of Scripture, unless otherwise noted, are from the New Revised Standard Version.