Jesus was not only a master teacher but also a gifted outdoor instructor. He often put his nature-filled classroom to work leaning into its physical geography, human geography, and natural history. But Jesus used geography in another way as well. He taught in places that held the memory of an earlier event and built his teaching on what had happened there before. The raising of the widow’s son at Nain (Luke 7:11-17) is just such a story.
Why Jesus’s Geography Matters
As a Bible geographer, my first step in reading a text is to notice the presence of geography. In this story, I’m barely halfway through the first sentence before I bump into the placename. This will be a Nain story. Its mention is arresting because it is not where I usually find Jesus at work. Most of his earthly ministry took place on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee near Capernaum. Nain is a full day’s walk south of there. So, I join him on the walk wondering how this new setting will participate in the unfolding story.
My second step in reading the text with geographical awareness is to better understand the place.
Understanding Nain and Its Biblical Connection
Nain is a small, agricultural village that resides on the northern slope of Mount Moreh. At first blush, it seems unremarkable, indistinguishable from the other agricultural villages around it. What’s more, Nain is only mentioned once in the Bible, in Luke 7. So, it would be easy to dismiss the place and miss the Old Testament connection unless I widen my view. On the south side of Mount Moreh over a low ridge and just a mile and a half from Nain is Shunem. That is where this mountain witnessed a remarkable miracle at the time of Elisha (2 Kings 4:8-37).
In this story the prophet Elisha raised a young man from the dead and returned him to his mother. Her tears of grief became tears of joy as she embraced the son she thought she had lost. This is the kind of story that sticks to a place. And when I realize that Jesus is headed right for this mountain, I’m primed to see how its distinctive backstory might play a role in Jesus’s visit.
Jesus’s Geography in Action
This brings me to the third step, integrating the lesson with the place. Let’s watch it evolve. As Jesus approached the village, he met a funeral procession. A young man, the only son of his widowed mother, had died. Waves of grief washed over her as she accompanied his cooling body to the cemetery. The crowd with Jesus became respectfully silent and stepped aside so that the funeral procession could pass. But not Jesus. He stepped in front of the bier on which the body lay and stopped the procession in its tracks. Then he addressed the young man as if he had overslept. “Young man, I say to you get up.” The crowd gasped as the young man did just that. Jesus raised a young man from the dead and gave him back to his mother.
Mount Moreh: From Elisha to Jesus
Stop the story there and you have a wonderful story that highlights Jesus’s compassion for the grieving. But Luke goes on to report how the locals responded to the miracle. And in their response, we see the role of place in this event. “They were all filled with awe and praised God. ‘A great prophet has appeared among us,’ they said. ‘God has come to help his people.’” (Luke 7:16 NIV) Jesus replicated a miracle Elisha had performed on this mountain to get the response he received. The people of Mount Moreh hail Jesus as “a great prophet” further noting “God has come to help” his people (a phrase that in Hebrew is El-isha). Jesus would raise the dead in two other locations. And those locations each have a unique role to play in those miracles. But in Nain, Jesus raised the dead to affirm his role as the prophet who had come to help his people. Of course, Jesus could have said that anywhere. But in Nain, he could show it. Knowing when he did this miracle in this place, people would draw the desired conclusion. That is the power of place in this story.
Applying the Geography of Jesus to Our Teaching
The Bible is not a geography book, but it is a book filled with geography. Such geography is not incidental to the message of the Bible but integral to a full understanding of those text in which the Lord has chosen to speak with us using geography. As a Bible geographer, I work to notice the geography, work to understand the place, and then integrate it into the messaging. These are the steps that help us make Jesus’s use of geography meaningful.
John A. Beck, Ph.D.
