The Savior for All: Across Every Line

Luke 7 is a chapter of crossings.

A Roman centurion — a Gentile, an occupier, an enemy of the Jews — sends to Jesus for help, and Jesus marvels at his faith. A widow in Nain follows her only son's coffin out of the city, and Jesus stops the procession with one word. John the Baptist sends from prison, asking whether Jesus is really the One. A woman with a sinful reputation crashes a dinner party and washes Jesus' feet with her tears.

In every scene, the Savior for All crosses a line — of ethnicity, of grief, of doubt, of moral failure — to meet the people no one else would meet.

A Roman centurion's faith

After finishing His sermon, Jesus enters Capernaum. A centurion there has a servant who is sick and at the point of death. The servant is dear to him.

The centurion has heard of Jesus. He sends Jewish elders to ask Him to come and heal his servant. They earnestly plead:

"He is worthy to have you do this for him, for he loves our nation, and he is the one who built us our synagogue."

Jesus goes with them. When He is not far from the house, the centurion sends friends with a message:

"Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. Therefore I did not presume to come to you. But say the word, and let my servant be healed. For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me… I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come,' and he comes."

He understands authority. He knows that if Jesus simply gives the order, the disease will obey — the way his soldiers obey him.

When Jesus hears these things, He marvels:

"I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith."

The servant is healed.

The Savior for All commends the faith of a Gentile soldier above any faith He has found in Israel. The dividing wall is already being crossed.

A widow at Nain

Soon afterward He goes to a town called Nain. As He draws near, behold, a man who has died is being carried out — the only son of his mother, and she is a widow.

A widow whose only son had died had no one. No husband. No son. No support. Her grief is also her ruin.

When the Lord sees her, He has compassion on her:

"Do not weep."

Then He comes up and touches the bier. The bearers stand still.

"Young man, I say to you, arise."

The dead man sits up and begins to speak. Jesus gives him to his mother.

Fear seizes them all. They glorify God:

"A great prophet has arisen among us! God has visited his people!"

The Savior for All does not pass by the grieving mother. He stops the funeral procession. And He gives back the only son.

This is the gospel in miniature. God has visited His people. The Son raises the dead. The Father gives the Son back to those who weep.

John the Baptist's question

The disciples of John report all these things to him. John, sitting in prison, sends two of them to Jesus with a question:

"Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?"

Even John has moments of doubt. The prison cell is dark. The mission seems delayed. The Messiah he announced has not yet thrown down Herod or established the Kingdom.

Jesus does not rebuke the question. He answers it with evidence:

"Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them."

These are the marks of the Messiah promised by Isaiah. Jesus is doing them.

Then He adds:

"And blessed is the one who is not offended by me."

The Savior for All does not always come the way we expect. Some are offended that He has not come as a political deliverer. He says: blessed are those whose faith is not shaken when He turns out to be different from their expectations.

Jesus' praise of John

When John's messengers leave, Jesus turns to the crowds and praises John:

"What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? A man dressed in soft clothing? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written, 'Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.'"

John is the greatest born of women. And yet, Jesus says:

"The one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he."

The Kingdom has now come. The smallest disciple after the cross stands in a privileged position John could only foresee.

The tax collectors and common people justified God by being baptized by John. But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him.

Religion that will not repent will not receive the Savior.

"A friend of sinners"

Jesus says of His generation: "They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another." John came not eating or drinking, and they said he had a demon. The Son of Man comes eating and drinking, and they say, Behold, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!

That last accusation — meant as slander — was perhaps the truest thing they ever said about Him.

A friend of tax collectors and sinners. This is who He is. This is who we are. And this is why we are loved.

A sinful woman anoints His feet

One of the Pharisees, Simon, asks Jesus to eat with him. He goes into the Pharisee's house and reclines at table.

A woman of the city, who is a sinner — known to be one — when she learns He is at table in the Pharisee's house, brings an alabaster flask of ointment.

Standing behind Him at His feet, weeping, she begins to wet His feet with her tears and wipe them with the hair of her head and kiss His feet and anoint them with the ointment.

The Pharisee thinks to himself: If this man were a prophet, he would have known what sort of woman this is who is touching him — for she is a sinner.

Jesus addresses his thoughts with a parable. A moneylender forgave two debts — one of five hundred denarii, one of fifty.

"Now which of them will love him more?"

Simon answers: "The one, I suppose, for whom he canceled the larger debt."

Jesus turns to the woman and says to Simon:

"Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven — for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little."

To the woman He says:

"Your sins are forgiven."

And then:

"Your faith has saved you; go in peace."

The Savior for All measures love by how much we know we have been forgiven. The Pharisee saw a sinner. Jesus saw a worshiper. The Pharisee gave no welcome. The woman gave everything.

Closing prayer

Father, thank You that Your Savior crosses every line we draw — the Gentile soldier, the grieving widow, the doubting prophet, the sinful woman. Save us from the religion that despises the people Jesus loves. Make us those who, like the woman with the alabaster jar, know how much we have been forgiven — and love much in return. In Jesus' name, amen.