Citation: Luke 7:11-17, unique to Luke; the first of Jesus' three raisings of the dead in the gospels.
Narrative
Jesus comes to a town called Nain with his disciples and a great crowd. As he approaches the town gate, a dead man is being carried out, "the only son of his mother, and she was a widow." A large crowd from the town is with her.
"When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said to her, 'Don't cry.'" He touches the bier; the bearers stand still. "Young man, I tell you, arise!" The dead man sits up and begins to speak, "and he gave him to his mother" (vv.13-15).
Fear seizes everyone, and they glorify God: "A great prophet has arisen among us!" and "God has visited his people!" The report spreads through Judea and the surrounding region (vv.16-17).
Theological significance
Compassion, unbidden, uniquely among Jesus' raisings, there is no request and no stated faith. He acts purely out of mercy for a widow who, having lost her only son, has lost her last social and economic protection. The first word is to her grief: "Don't cry." (Note also that he touches the bier, contact with the dead conveyed ritual defilement; instead of being defiled, Jesus' touch gives life.)
The first of three raisings, the gospels record an ascending series: the widow's son at Nain (just died, on the bier) → [Jairus's daughter] (recently dead, in the house) → [Lazarus] (four days entombed). Each pushes death further and makes the power over it less deniable, building toward Jesus' own resurrection.
Elijah / Elisha typology, the scene deliberately echoes the prophets who raised widows' sons: Elijah and the widow of Zarephath's son (1 Kings 17:17-24) and Elisha and the Shunammite's son (2 Kings 4:32-37). The phrase "he gave him to his mother" verbally mirrors 1 Kings 17:23; Nain lies near Shunem, Elisha's town. The crowd's acclamation, "a great prophet has arisen", names the typology, while Jesus surpasses it: he raises by his own word ("Young man, I tell you"), not by prayer like Elijah or by lying upon the child like Elisha. This sets up Jesus' answer to John the Baptist a few verses later: "the dead are raised up" (Luke 7:22).
"God has visited his people", episkeptomai ("visit") is a Lukan keyword for God's saving intervention (cf. Luke 1:68, 78); the miracle is read as God drawing near in person.
Theological framing (multiple views)
Most traditions read this as a genuine raising and a sign of Jesus' identity as the life-giving Lord and the prophet-greater-than-Elijah. As with the other raisings, some critical readings treat the account as legendary or as patterned on the OT prophets; The view is recorded here, but this synthesis presents the text as it stands, a compassion-driven resurrection miracle.