A Centurion Illustrates Faith
Luke 7After he had completed all his teaching to the people who were listening, he entered Capernaum. A certain centurion had a servant whom he highly regarded, who was sick and about to die. When he heard about Jesus, he sent some elders of the Jews to ask him to come and heal his servant. When they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly, “He is worthy for you to grant this for him, because he loves our ethnic group, and he built our synagogue for us.”
So Jesus went with them. When he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to say to him, “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I am not worthy for you to come under my roof. That is why I didn’t even consider myself worthy to come to you. Just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a human under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
When Jesus heard this, he marveled at him. Then he turned to the crowd following him and said, “I tell y’all, not even in Israel have I found such great faith.” When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found that the servant was well.
Jesus Raises a Widow’s Only Son
Soon afterward, he went to a city called Nain. Many of his disciples and a large crowd went with him. As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. A large crowd from the town was with her. When the Lord saw her, he felt gut-wrenching sympathy for her and said to her, “Don’t cry.”
Then he came up and touched the open coffin, and the bearers stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” The dead man sat up and began to speak, and then Jesus gave him to his mother.
Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and, “God has come to help his people!” This news about him spread throughout all of Judea and the surrounding region.
Jesus Affirms John the Baptizer’s Ministry
John’s disciples told him about all these things. So John summoned two of them and sent them to the Lord to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for someone else?”
When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptizer has sent us to you, saying, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for someone else?’”
At that very time, he cured many people of diseases, afflictions, and evil spirits, and he gave sight to many who were blind. Jesus answered them, “Y’all go and tell John what you* have seen and heard: that the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is anyone does not stumble on account of me.”
When John’s messengers had left, Jesus began to tell the crowd about John, “What did y’all go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? But what did y’all go out to see? A human dressed in plush clothing? Look, those who wear fancy clothes and live in luxury are in the palaces. But what did y’all go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell y’all, and much more than a prophet. This is the one of whom it is written,
‘Look, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’+Mal 3:1“For I tell y’all, among those born of women there is not a greater prophet than John. Yet the one who is least in the Empire of God is greater than he.”
When all the people and the tax collectors heard this, they acknowledged God’s justice, because they had been baptized by John. But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the counsel of God for them, because they had not been baptized by John.
Jesus continued, “To what then should I compare the humans of this generation? What are they like? They are like children who sit in the marketplace and call to one another, saying,
‘We played the flute for y’all, and y’all didn’t dance. We sang a mourning song, and y’all didn’t weep.’For John the Baptizer came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and y’all say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Humanity has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is vindicated by all her children.”
A Sinful Woman Anoints Jesus’s Feet
One of the Pharisees invited Jesus to eat with him. So he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. Then a woman of that town who was a sinner learned that Jesus was reclining in the Pharisee’s house. So she brought an alabaster jar of perfume and stood behind him at his feet weeping. She began to wet his feet with her tears, and she wiped them with her hair, kissed his feet, and anointed them with the perfume. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman is touching him, that she is a sinner.”
Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”
“Say it, teacher,” he replied.
“A certain lender had two debtors. The one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither had enough to repay, so he forgave the debts them both. Now which of them will love him more?”
Simon answered, “I suppose the one he forgave more.”
Jesus said to him, “You have judged correctly.” Turning to the woman, he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house, and you gave me no water for my feet. But she has wet my feet with her tears, and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but since the time I came in, she has not stopped kissing my feet. You didn’t anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with perfume. Therefore I tell you, she sinned much, but they have been forgiven, for she loved much. But whoever is forgiven little, loves little.” Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
Those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”
He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”