Luke 7

The centurion episode opens with a layered presentation of intercession: the officer sends Jewish elders as intermediaries, they argue on his behalf that he is worthy because he loves the Jewish nation and built them a synagogue, and Jesus starts toward the house. Before he arrives, the centurion sends a second delegation with a message of remarkable self-assessed unworthiness combined with an argument from authority: I am not worthy for you to come under my roof, but say the word and my servant will be healed. I understand authority because I am under it and I exercise it. Jesus turns to the crowd and marvels — Luke uses the word of amazement that crowds and observers more usually feel toward Jesus — and says he has not found such faith even in Israel. The healing is narrated economically: when the messengers return to the house, they find the servant well. The centurion is one of Luke's recurring Gentile figures who recognize something before Israel does.

At Nain, Jesus encounters a widow whose only son is being carried out for burial; a large crowd accompanies the procession. He has compassion and tells her not to weep, then touches the bier — another act of ritual boundary-crossing, since contact with a corpse confers uncleanness — and commands the young man to rise. The dead man sits up and begins to speak, and Jesus gives him back to his mother. The crowd's response is fear and glorification of God, and the word spreads. John the Baptist, now in prison, sends disciples to ask Jesus whether he is the coming one or whether they are to look for another; Jesus answers by describing what is happening — the blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor receive good news — and pronounces a blessing on anyone not caused to stumble by him. The chapter ends with the anointing: a woman described as a sinner obtains access to a Pharisee's dinner party, kneels at Jesus's feet weeping, wets his feet with her tears, wipes them with her hair, and anoints them with ointment. The host thinks to himself that if Jesus were a prophet he would know what kind of woman this is. Jesus tells the parable of the two debtors — one forgiven five hundred denarii, one fifty — and asks which will love more, then applies it directly: her many sins are forgiven, because she loved much.