7
“A Certain Roman Military Officer There Had a Slave Who Was Sick and About to Die”
1 When Jesus had finished saying everything he wished to say to the people, he entered Capernaum.
2 Now a certain Roman military officer there had a slave who was sick and about to die. The slave was very dear to him.
3 When the officer heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him to ask him to come and save his slave’s life.
4 When the elders reached Jesus, they began appealing to him for help with great urgency. “He truly deserves your help,” they said,
5 “for he loves our people. Our synagogue—he is the one who had it built for us.”
6 Jesus, then, went with them.
Now Jesus wasn’t very far from the house when the officer sent some friends to tell him, “Sir, please don’t go to any more trouble, seeing that I don’t deserve to have you come into my home.7 That is why I didn’t presume to come to you myself. Rather, please give the order, and my servant must be healed.
8 For I, too, am a man placed under authority, with other soldiers under my own command. Indeed I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes; and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.”
9 Jesus, when he heard these things, was amazed at the officer. Turning to the crowd that was following him, he said, “I tell ᵖyou this: Not even in Israel have I encountered faith so great as this!”
10 And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health.
“Young Man, to You I Say, ‘Wake Up’ ”
11 Soon afterward Jesus went to a town called Nain, accompanied by his disciples and a large crowd.
12 As he approached the gate into the town, a man who had died was being carried out for burial, the only son of his mother. His mother was a widow, and with her was a very large funeral procession from the town.
13 When the Lord saw the mother, his heart went out to her. “ˢYou can stop weeping,” he said to her.
14 Then he went up and touched the bier, and those who were carrying it stopped. “Young man,” he said, “to ˢyou I say, wake up.”
15 At that, the dead man sat up and began talking, and Jesus presented him to his mother.
16 Fear came over everyone, and they glorified and glorified God. “There has arisen among us a mighty prophet!” they said. “God has come to the aid of his people!”
17 And this news about Jesus spread all over Judea and throughout the surrounding areas.
“What Did You Go Out into the Wilderness to See?”
18 John’s disciples told him about all these things. So John, summoning two of his disciples,
19 sent them to the Lord with a question: “Are you yourself that one ‘who is going to come,’+ or is it someone else whom we should expect?”
20 When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptizer sent us to ˢyou with a question: ‘Are you yourself that one “who is going to come,” or is it someone else whom we should expect?’ ”
21 At that very time Jesus healed many people of diseases and afflictions and evil spirits, and graciously gave sight to indeed many people who were blind.
22 In reply he said to them, “Go back and tell John the things ᵖyou have seen and heard: ‘The blind are receiving their sight, the lame are now able to walk, people with leprosy are being healed and made clean, and the deaf can now hear, the dead are being raised, to the crushed the gospel is being proclaimed.’+
23 Also tell him, ‘blessed is he who does not stumble with offense because of me.’ ”
24 When John’s messengers had gone, Jesus began speaking to the crowds about John: “What did ᵖyou go out into the wilderness to see? A reed being shaken to and fro by the wind?
25 Well then, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothing? Come now, royal palaces are where those who wear elegant clothing and who indulge in luxury live!
26 Well then, what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and even more than a prophet.
27 This is the man about whom it is written:
“ ‘Listen! I am going to send my messenger just ahead of ˢyou,
who will prepare your way before you.’+
28 I tell ᵖyou this: There is no one greater than John of all who have ever lived. Yet, even the lowliest person in the Kingdom of God is greater than he.
29 All the people, when they heard John’s message—even the tax collectors—acknowledged God to be in the right by being baptized by John.
30 The Pharisees and the Torah-experts, however, rejected the very will of God concerning themselves by refusing to be baptized by him.
31 “To what then should I compare the people of this generation? What are they like?
32 They are like children sitting in the market area and calling out to one another,
“ ‘We played joyful wedding songs for ᵖyou,
yet you didn’t dance!
We lamented with funeral songs and wailing,
yet ᵖyou didn’t weep!’
33 John the Baptizer has appeared on the scene fasting often and abstaining from wine, you see, and in response ᵖyou say, ‘He has a demon!’
34 The Son of Man has appeared on the scene doing just the opposite, and in response ᵖyou say, ‘Look at that glutton and drunkard! A friend of tax-collectors and sinners!’
35 Yet Wisdom is acknowledged to be in the right as a result of all her children.”
“Her Many Sins Have Been Forgiven, As Shown by Her Great Love”
36 Now a certain man invited Jesus to have a meal with him, who belonged to the Pharisee party. So Jesus entered the Pharisee’s home and reclined at the meal table.
37 Then something shocking happened. There was a woman in that town who had lived a very sinful life. When she found out that Jesus was having a meal at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster flask of perfumed oil
38 and knelt behind Jesus at his feet, weeping. With her tears she began to wet his feet, wiping them with her hair. She kept kissing his feet and anointing them with the fragrant oil.
39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “This man, if he were a prophet, would know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, how utterly sinful she is.”
40 In response Jesus said to him, “Simon, I have something to tell ˢyou.”
“Teacher, tell me,” he replied.
41 “ Two men were in debt to a certain moneylender,” Jesus said. “One owed him almost two years’ worth of wages, and the other fifty days’ worth.
42 When neither of them was able to pay him back, both of them he graciously forgave. Which of the two debtors, then, will love the moneylender more?”
43 “I suppose the one for whom he forgave the larger amount,” answered Simon.
“ˢYou have judged correctly,” Jesus said to him.44 Then, turning to the woman, he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came as a guest into your home, yet you gave me not so much as a drop of water for my feet. This woman, however, wet my feet with her tears and wiped them off with her hair.
45 ˢYou greeted me with not so much as a single kiss. She, however, from the time I came in, hasn’t stopped kissing my feet.
46 ˢYou anointed not even my head with so much as a drop of olive oil. She, however, has anointed my feet, and with perfumed oil no less.
47 That is why I tell ˢyou this: Her many sins have been forgiven, as shown by her great love. A person who is forgiven only a little, however, loves only a little.”
48 Then he said to the woman, “Your sins are forgiven.”
49 Those who were reclining at the table with him began saying to themselves, “Who in the world is this man, that he even forgives sins?”
50 Jesus said to the woman, “This faith of ˢyours has saved you. Go in peace.”