A Resurrection Collision: a poem reflection on Luke 7

I wrote this poem as a reflection on the story of Jesus raising the dead son of a widow on the outskirts of Nain. You can read the text from Luke’s gospel below the sonnet, but all through this text themes of sons and mothers, death and resurrection, sadness and joy loomed large in my eyes.

Two crowds colliding at the edge of town.
One led by Jesus, the wonder-worker,
and the other by a widow with her
dead only son. All her townsfolk surround
her but nothing penetrates the sorrow
hanging round her heart or the fierce fear
slowly swallowing her unknown future.
All the past—dead. The future does not grow.
The seed she bore and planted from her life
into the world has gone silent and still,
like another woman’s son, who soon will
give His life like a seed is sown and dies.
But for now, the crowds and their lives collide
in resurrection. And her son does rise.

Luke 7:11-17

¹¹ Soon afterward he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. ¹² As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. ¹³ And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, ‘Do not weep.’ ¹⁴ Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, ‘Young man, I say to you, arise.’ ¹⁵ And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. ¹⁶ Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, ‘A great prophet has arisen among us!’ and ‘God has visited his people!’ ¹⁷ And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country.”