Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for June 5, 2016
Elijah Resuscitating the Son of the Widow of Zarephath; painting by Louis Hersent.
We meet the Prophet Elijah again, this week sent by God to travel outside Israel to a Gentile town called Zarephath. God assures Elijah that an elderly widow and her son will feed him. But this isn’t so easy. Zarephath is gripped by a drought, and the widow and her child are about to die from the famine; she is not at all eager to feed a man of different faith. With God’s help, though, a tiny portion of meal and oil is enough to feed them all and to last until the rains come. (In the following verses, the boy sadly dies anyway, but God answers Elijah’s prayer and revives him.)
As we’ve noticed before, the six Psalms that conclude the Psalm book – the hymn book of the Temple in Jerusalem – ring out with resounding worship and praise. Pay particular attention to this Psalm’s sharp focus on God’s preferential care for those whom Jesus would call “the least of these”: The oppressed, the hungry, the prisoner; the blind, and “those who are bowed down.” And – echoing God’s care for the widow of Zerephath and her child – the stranger, the widow and the orphan.
Second Reading: Galatians 1:11-24
Picking up where we left off last week with Paul’s “astonished” response to the Galatians, Paul continues pushing back against other evangelizers who came to Galatia after he had left and taught a less inclusive Gospel, demanding that Gentile converts follow strict Jewish law requiring circumcision and dietary practices. Paul presents his credentials, recalling that he had been zealous in his Judaism but now proclaims Jesus to Jews and Gentiles alike, having received revelation directly from God.
Gospel: Luke 7:11-17
Can we hear parallels between Elijah and the widow of Zarepeth and Jesus and the widow of Nain? Immediately after healing the centurion’s servant, Jesus goes to a nearby town and restores life to a widow’s son. Like the widow of Zarephath and the centurion, too, this widow responds to her son’s new life with joy and faith. She declares Jesus a prophet and a man of God, and the crowds that will follow Jesus throughout the Gospel continue to grow.