LUKE 7: JESUS AND VARIOUS PEOPLE – 7:1 – 50

© Rosemary Bardsley 2025

In Luke 7 we read of Jesus’ encounters with five different people. We will look at each of these in turn. But even in these encounters there are other people involved, other people responding to Jesus or reacting against him.

A. THE ROMAN CENTURION – Luke 7:1 – 10

In Luke 4 to 6 we have seen a range of responses to Jesus, and we have read Jesus’ statements about the critical importance of holding to his words and putting them into practice. In the Roman centurion we see a man who has obviously heard and observed what Jesus had been saying and doing. He knew with deep confidence that Jesus Christ had both the authority and the ability to do amazing things, things impossible for humans to do, and so he reached out to Jesus in his otherwise helpless and hopeless situation.

Read Luke 7:1 – 10. Answer these questions:
What made the situation desperate?

When the Jews approached Jesus on the centurion’s behalf, was their request based on the centurion’s merit or Jesus’ mercy?

How does the centurion’s second message to Jesus express his awareness of his personal lack of merit?

How does his second message reveal his strong faith in the identity, authority and ability of Jesus?

What was Jesus’ response to the centurion’s faith?

The Roman centurion seems to have been observing Jesus’ for some time, long enough to have come to some very significant conclusions about him, which produced a number of responses in him:

He instructed his Jewish messengers to address Jesus as ‘Lord’ (7:6).

So great is his opinion of Jesus, that he, a Roman centurion, considered himself unworthy to come to Jesus himself or to have Jesus come to his house (verses 6 & 7).

He recognised the authority of Jesus (verse 8).

He recognised the power and authority of Jesus’ word (verse 7 – ‘just say the word, and my servant will be healed.’)

Jesus is amazed at the man and his faith. No Israelite had shown such great faith. Some were already deliberately rejecting him. Yet this Gentile, this centurion, has seen through and beyond the obvious humanity of Jesus to the other truth: that Jesus is indeed the ‘Lord’, and that the word of Jesus has power – both the power of ability and the power of authority.

And Jesus healed the centurion’s servant ... without even speaking a word.

A.1 What was it that made this man’s faith ‘great’?
It was not ‘great’ because there was a great amount of it; it was ‘great’ because of its focus or content.

Consider:

[1] The centurion believed that Jesus Christ, though a poor Galilean carpenter, was actually someone far greater and far more important and worthy of respect than he himself. He said to Jesus:

‘Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you.’
This is the humility and sense of unworthiness that characterises genuine belief in the true identity of Jesus Christ. It is expressed by those who know themselves to be face to face with God.

[2] The centurion believed that Jesus Christ possessed a power and authority so great that even his word, spoken at a distance, would achieve whatever he willed. He said to Jesus: ‘But say the word, and my servant will be healed …’

This ‘great’ faith is faith in a great object: it is faith that believes that Jesus Christ is precisely the One he claimed to be, and the One his miracles demonstrated him to be: the Almighty Lord of all.

It was this faith that Jesus looked for in Israel, but did not find. It is this faith that he looks for in each of us. It is also this faith that determines our present and our future relationship with God.
As Jesus himself said: ‘Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son’ (John 3:18).

Because the greatness of faith derives not from itself but from its object, Jesus will later rebuke the disciples for their lack of faith (Luke 8:25), and refer to the impact of faith ‘as small as a mustard seed’ (Luke 17:6).

B. THE WIDOW OF NAIN – Luke 7:11 – 17

In contrast, the next encounter makes no mention of faith, no mention of recognition of Jesus, no request for him to do anything. Here Jesus, in an action of spontaneous compassion, raises a widow’s dead son to life.

In the case of the centurion’s servant, Jesus prevented death; here in this miracle he reversed death.

The son of a widow, imprisoned in the cold immobility and inactivity of death, was being carried out of the town of Nain for burial. Jesus Christ, the Lord and creator of life, was, at the same time, coming in.

His words to the widow would have seemed strange – ‘Don’t cry’ … Don’t cry … when death has come a second time to rob you of love and companionship, to leave you vulnerable and alone. Don’t cry? But is not death the deepest pain, the ultimate loss, the final separation?

Answer these questions:
Who were witnesses of this miracle?

How did Jesus bring the young man back to life?

How did the crowds respond?

What did they conclude Jesus was?

What impact did this miracle have?

What does this miracle teach you about the power and authority of Jesus’ word?

Deeply moved by her grief, Jesus shared the widow’s pain. And, deeply aware that death is an alien, an intruder, a temporary and unwelcome tenant on this planet, he grieved with the grief of God over his world disabled, disenfranchised, damaged and damned by sin and death.

In his hands, in the power of his word, by his divine authority, Jesus knew that he had the power and authority to reverse this most tragic consequence of our human sinfulness. Indeed, the purpose of his coming was that by dying he would undo the curse of sin and death.

Anticipating his own victorious encounter with sin and death, by which he would undo their power for ever, he put his hand on the coffin and spoke into the darkness and devastation of death: ‘Young man, I say to you, get up!’

A cruel thing to say, unless it happens; a heartless, foolish bad-taste joke, unless it is actually possible. But what mere man can command death to release its victim? What human voice can penetrate ears that have closed in death? Who has the authority to undo and reverse sin’s just penalty?

No mere human has that authority. No mere human has that power. In incredulous awe the accompanying crowds watched as the young man sat up and began to talk.

The Lord of life had spoken. Death itself fled before his word. And the crowds were filled with awe.

Thus Jesus gave us a preview of his death and resurrection and a preview of our resurrection. He graphically demonstrated that he has both the authority and the ability to undo this ultimate impact of sin.

C. JOHN THE BAPTIST – Luke 7:18 – 35

When Jesus approached John to be baptized, John expressed with great confidence that Jesus was the long expected Saviour.

How did John express this confidence?
Matthew 3:11 – 14

John 1:26 – 34

In addition to John’s own convictions about Jesus, he also heard and observed God’s affirmation that Jesus was his Son (Matthew 3:16, 17; Mark 1:10, 11; Luke 3:22).

But now Luke7:19 reports a lack of certainty that seems in conflict with John’s earlier convictions –‘Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?’ In Matthew 11:3 we read that it was after John the Baptist was imprisoned that he sent his disciples to ask this question; maybe it was his imprisonment that caused him to have doubts.

Answer these questions about Luke 7:21 – 23:
What was Jesus doing at the same time that John’s disciples arrived with his question?

How did Jesus answer their question?

What made Jesus’ answer a ‘yes, I am the one who was to come’? (Read Isaiah 35:5, 6; 61:1)

Reflect on verse 23. Do you consider Jesus’ words a rebuke or an encouragement to John? Explain your answer.

Jesus answered John’s question by referring to (1) the various miracles that he had done, and (2) his preaching of the good news. Both of these fulfilled Old Testament prophecies about him, confirming that he was ‘the one who was to come’.

C.1 Jesus’ affirmation of John – Luke 7:24 – 35
Jesus knew that many of those present who were hearing his teaching and observing or benefitting from his miracles had also gone out into the wilderness to listen to John’s teaching, and, for some of them, to be baptised by John. He talked about John to this crowd.

Answer these questions:
How did Jesus affirm John?
Verse 26:

Verse 27:

Verse 28:

How is John’s teaching identified as the word and purpose of God?
Verse 29:

Verse 30:

C.2 Jesus and the crowds
There were two distinct groups in the crowds of people present when John’s disciples asked Jesus John’s questions. There are ‘all the people’, which included the tax collectors and sinners, and there were ‘the Pharisees and experts in the law’.

When messengers came with John’s question: ‘Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?’ a simple ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ would have answered the question, but Jesus used it as a platform for stretching the understanding of the crowd that surrounded him.

Jesus’ answer that the blind see, the lame walk, the dead live, and the good news is proclaimed bore witness to his identity.

When John’s messengers had left Jesus seemed to take the focus off himself and put it on John. Describing John’s strange lifestyle Jesus then identified John as the one final prophet referred to by Malachi: ‘I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you’ – Luke 7:27. In thus referring to the prophets Jesus was also answering John’s question. Who was it that this long-expected messenger was preparing the way for? Both Malachi and Isaiah tell us that the one whose way John prepared was none other than the God:

Malachi 3:1: ‘See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple ...’

Isaiah 40:3, 4: ‘A voice of one calling: “In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. … the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it.”’

The prophecies about John’s coming identify the one who followed him as God, the LORD. As Jesus stated elsewhere, there is ample witness to his identity: John the Baptist, the works that Jesus did, and the Scriptures.

Here, although he is fully and truly human, is no ordinary man: here, in the one for whom John the Baptist prepared the way, is our God.

Because of this Jesus said in his message to John ‘Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.’ Blessed is the man who does not stumble over the true identity of Jesus Christ. If we stumble here … at this point of recognising that God is Jesus/Jesus is God … there is no other blessedness … there is no other hope … for there is no other God.[Note that the 2011 NIV (‘does not stumble’) corrects the 1984 NIV (‘does not fall away’) in verse 23.]

Jesus knew that there were those among his hearers who have rejected both his messenger, John the Baptist, and he himself – the Lord. The Pharisees, the experts in the law, and even many of the crowd who seemed to follow him everywhere – wanted him to do and to be only what they wanted, only what they thought appropriate, only what pleased them – Luke 7:31 – 34. The bottom line is that neither the stern Baptist nor the compassionate Lord met their expectations. Only the truly wise could see that both John’s preaching and Jesus teaching were right – verse 35.

D. SIMON THE PHARISEE and THE UNNAMED WOMAN – Luke 7:36 – 50

Two people with entirely different reputations. Two people with violently conflicting moral standards. Two people of diverse social status. Two people interacting with Jesus in one encounter.

Both had met Jesus before.
Both were sinners needing a Saviour.

One, Simon, did not realise he was a sinner. He did not realise that this teacher he had invited to dinner was the Saviour of the world. He did not realise that this man, to whom he did not show common courtesy, could see through his external righteousness right into the poverty of his heart.

The other, an unnamed woman, knew that she was a sinner. She didn’t hide it; she couldn’t hide it. Deep in her heart she had struggled with the guilt and the shame of it. The fear of God’s judgment was constantly in her thoughts. There was nothing she could do about it … until she listened to Jesus.

And that had happened some time before. Hearing Jesus speak of repentance and faith, hearing him offer the way of forgiveness into the kingdom of God, her guilt and shame and fear had been lifted, and now her heart was filled with incredible peace and overflowing with love and gratitude towards this man who had set her free from her deep guilt.

The cold and formal atmosphere of Simon’s dinner party was shattered when this uninvited woman came in and tearfully and extravagantly expressed her grateful love. She knew, and Jesus knew, that her many sins had been forgiven.

Highly offended by her behaviour, Simon questioned the integrity of Jesus. ‘Surely,’ he reasoned, ‘Jesus would know how sinful this woman is, if he were really a prophet? Surely, he would not let her defile him by her touch?’

But Jesus did know who she was. He knew the repentance and renewal that had taken place. He had seen her standing listening on the edge of a crowd. He had seen her heart’s response.
In a pointed story Jesus explained the difference between Simon and the woman: she loves much because she knows she has been forgiven much. Simon loves little because, confident of his own righteousness, he also has no awareness of any need for forgiveness, and, therefore, little, if any, love towards Jesus.

This incident highlights two opposite responses to Jesus and his teaching: a sinner who knows she is a sinner and who, knowing the grace of Jesus’ forgiveness, overflows with love for him; and a Pharisee, whose law-based perception of his own ‘righteousness’, leaves no room for mercy, grace, forgiveness and love.

Answer these questions about Luke 7:36 – 50
What did Jesus know about Simon that may not have been obvious to others?

What did Jesus know about this woman in addition to her reputation that was known by everyone?

What did Simon not know about this woman?

What did the woman know, that only she and Jesus knew?

What did this woman have that Simon did not have?

Which of these two people understood the mercy and grace of the Lord Jesus?

What right does Jesus have to forgive sins?

How did Jesus confirm her faith and assure her of her salvation?

With whom do you identify in this story?

What challenges you in this story?

This report gives us a living demonstration of the spiritual outcome of believing in Jesus Christ. This woman believed (verse 50) in Jesus and because she believed in him, she also believed him. Believing in him is what saved her. Believing in him, is what brought her forgiveness of sin (note the contrast with John 8:24). Believing in him, she also believed his teaching, his message, his good news, and, understanding/knowing that she was forgiven, cast aside everything but her desire to express her gratitude in this action of extravagant love.