Luke 7, Part One

Healing the centurion’s servant (vs. 1-10)—We’ve run across this story in Matthew 8. Here are my comments there: “A centurion was a Roman military officer, so he wasn’t a Jew. He had a “dreadfully tormented” paralyzed servant (v. 6), and requested that Jesus come heal him. The Lord immediately agrees, but the centurion, who actually had sent friends rather than go himself (Luke 7:6), told Jesus to just speak the word and the servant would be healed. The officer, a man of authority, knew how powerful the spoken word could be. Jesus marveled at his faith, perhaps because he was a Gentile, or perhaps just because he showed great faith. Christ then indicates in verses 11-12 that many Gentiles will be saved but many Jews lost. The servant was healed at that very hour.”  The “great faith” (Luke 7:9), as noted, appears to have been that the centurion was, number one, a Gentile, and number two, he didn’t have to see to believe. The statement I made in Matthew 8, “who actually had sent friends rather than go himself” raises an interesting issue, but it will take too long to deal with here. When I get to Luke 7 on my “Bible Journeys” blog, I will consider it. It’s actually a very important point and a misunderstanding of it has led to grievous interpretive errors. Stay tuned and check that blog periodically. I’ll be there soon.

Raising the widow of Nain’s son (vs. 11-17)—This miracle is peculiar to Luke, and puts two miracles, back-to-back, that are a little unusual. The healing of the centurion’s son was not so irregular, except that it was via long distance, and here, Jesus raises a dead man. Luke is giving some very solid evidence for the deity of Christ. In this story, Jesus and His disciples approach a city called Nain, which was about 25 miles southwest of Capernaum. The dead man was “the only son of his mother; and she was a widow” (v. 12). That could put her in dire straits; there was no government “safety net” to take care of destitute people; children were expected to provide for their aged parents, and without this son, the widow had lost her protection, though she might have had other family to help. Luke does indicate “a large crowd from the city was with her” (v. 12), so she obviously had friends, but poverty was the rule among people of that day, so her pickings might have been slim. Regardless, Jesus raises the young man and “presented him to his mother” (v. 15). One can only imagine how she felt--euphoria, no doubt.  The response of the multitudes was typical: “fear came upon all” (v. 16), they wondered who He was, and “this report about Him went throughout all Judea and all the surrounding region” (v. 17). If modern day “faith healers” would truly raise the dead, then their fame would be legendary as well and people would wonder about their identity, too.

On John the Baptist (vs. 18-28)—Matthew covers this material in some detail in Matthew 11:2-15, and I do, too. Here are my thoughts at that location: “Jesus just wasn’t acting the way the Jews thought he would. Even as great a man as John the Baptist was apparently expecting an all-conquering Messiah, which was the common, and desired, Jewish wish of that day. Jesus was running around preaching, not raising an army. So John, who was in prison at the time, sent a couple of his disciples to query Jesus, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?" (v. 3). Christ doesn’t answer with a direct “yes” or “no.” Any fool can claim to be the Messiah, so He points them to His works: “’Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them’” (vs. 4-5). What does the evidence say? Jesus asks them. Draw your own conclusions. Jesus didn’t want people to believe in Him just on His say-so; a lot of people will do that. Jesus wanted our faith to be grounded in something much deeper than simply human words—believe because of the demonstrations of power and good works. That would produce a greater, deeper foundation for commitment to Him. God has never asked us to believe anything without evidence, so this is in total keeping with the way He constituted man in the first place. He gave us a mind, a brain, a logical intuition, and He expects us to use it. But if we put emotion, prejudice, human reason, or desire before that, then our vision will be skewed and we will not see the truth of the evidence laid before us. God doesn’t make the evidence so overwhelming that we can’t reject it; that would deny our freedom of choice. But the proof is there if we are willing to receive it….John was indeed a great man, a prophet (v. 9), and the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy (v. 10). There were none greater—except the least in the kingdom of heaven (v. 11). Jesus, of course, is not slapping John here, He is exalting God’s kingdom. The lowliest widow in the church is greater than John the Baptist. Verse 12 is a bit confusing: “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.” The Greek is clearer. Without going into word studies, the basic idea is that those who enter the kingdom of heaven are so earnest to do so that they will let nothing stop them, even if, in effect, they must be violent about it. Jesus is emphasizing again the value of the kingdom: don’t let anything, or anybody, keep you from being right with God. Jesus then tells His hearers that John was the “Elijah” who was to come, an expectation of the Jews from Malachi 4:5—“ Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.” The “day of the Lord” will be “great” for those who accept Jesus, and “dreadful” for those who do not. Some thought Jesus was the “Elijah” to come (Matt. 16:14), but John was. Jesus is the Christ.” Matthew has some material that Luke does not cover and I included it as well.