Author: Bill Hall

Luke 7:13 “When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.”

   At first glance this seems a very unfeeling thing to say. Here this widow woman has lost her only son, and her only supporter. Her situation is doubly pathetic. She has lost all that she could depend on in this world. But, Jesus tells her, quite directly, don’t cry.
   Are these the words of one who has no feeling for the loss this woman has endured? No. It is said in the same tone, and with the same meaning, that is employed by the mother speaking to the child that has just skinned his or her knee. It is a soothing comfort. It is said from a heart full of love, and from a heart that, above all others, has the best hope of helping to alleviate the pain of the moment.
   Jesus often approaches those who are hurting in a similar way. At first, if we do not know Him, or the ability behind His words, the command to quit crying comes abruptly and can be offensive to us. But, after we experience the power of His comfort, it is the most welcome sound in the universe. By His fiat, He mollifies the grief that He understands better than we do ourselves.

   Heavenly Father, thank You for making us know Your great love! We at first may cringe, as we have learned not to trust anyone or anything. But, with time we see You are all that we need to trust. With dependence upon You, we have no need left for trust in our own attempts, and our trust in all else is tempered by our reliance upon You. We will praise You for Your great faithfulness! We tell ourselves we are loyal to You, but even that is a reminder that You are ever loyal to Your own. To You be all the glory! In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

Luke 7:12 “And when He came near the gate of the city, behold, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother; and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the city was with her.”

  Do not for a minute miss the significance of this beautiful miracle. Are we to think that this was the only funeral procession Jesus ever passed on the road? Likely no. What is significant about this one is immediately pointed out here by Luke. And, it makes for one of the loveliest of testaments to the long-suffering love of Almighty God for the weak and suffering among sinful mankind.
   Jesus was here about to do the unthinkable. To interrupt this procession without an intent to give this woman back her son would be the cruelest thing any person could ever do. But that was exactly His intent, and He did it very much on purpose.
   We have to be careful to remember something so very important about our Lord Jesus. He it is Who was there at the beginning as the Godhead framed the worlds. He is no less than the Lord of Glory. And as such, He owns this entire universe and everything and everyone in it. Thus, it is all up to Him what is done with it. And in that power He decides here to make a statement to all of the weak, downtrodden, oppressed, sin-sick, troubled mass of humanity.
   He intersects with the suffering of mankind here to make a statement. He comes in between us and the horrific consequences of a life that involves death. Death is the great plague, and Jesus is the Great Healer. That is how we are to view Him, because that is how He chooses to be seen.
   Why not make it all better all at once? Why not take us all to heaven today? Why let this world go on in darkness and sin? Let me provide you who are troubled by this three excellent points. One: Will the formed say to the Creator, what are you making? No! We must never forget, He made us, and not we ourselves. Thus, we belong to Him. Two: The story is not long, but it is significant. This life is brief. God has not made us to live forever in this state, but has instead provided to us a clear picture of reality. Every moment is in preparation for eternity. Three: Though it is difficult for us to see now, the Spirit of God can provide visibility into the truth. The truth is that there is more significance to an individual life than our natural sinful ways will ever reveal to us. God has a plan for each one. But He has chosen to reveal it in this way. All are called upon to walk the path of Christ. All must be born, grow, learn, survive, suffer, cry, laugh, and so forth. All that the Lord has done is the standard. Some may die faster, and they are among the blessed. Others will live long, but they will see many hard things. In any case, each will walk behind Christ, and some will take His way, and others will not. But as Job of old, all will have their day in court, all will have an audience with God, and none shall come out the victim.

   Heavenly Father, as we go through this life, give us eyes to see and ears to hear. Jesus time and again helps us understand the importance of that. We long to see Your Truth, and hear Your Words. I know this is no game. Life is real and vital and all-important. Each moment matters, each word and thought counts. We are composing a story, a book of existence. And You have it all marked down. You know it all from beginning to end. Oh give us hearts to love Your law! Grace has given us the matchless law of Christ, which is no heavy burden. It is a yoke of joy, making wise the simple. We will praise You Father. You alone are worthy. You are the Self-Existent God. You need no other to prop You up. We do not have to see You for You to be real. You have made Your nature so abundantly clear to us by hiding the parts of it that You do. Give us the grace to be those who see You though invisible, who love You through suffering, and who trust You in the shadow of death. Show us that the law of life, the very power of Your Living Son is all that matters for us. Life in Him, and that abundantly experienced, is the greatest and best that we can know or have or love. In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

Luke 7:11 “Now it happened, the day after, that He went into a city called Nain; and many of His disciples went with Him, and a large crowd.”

   There is always a crowd. Except for when really bad things are happening or the going is rough. Then only the most committed disciples stick around. But when things are fine, the crowd is present.

   Heavenly Father, thank You for the truth in Christ. Though the crowd doesn’t really believe it, at least they recognize the truth. They are drawn to Christ because He is genuine. Help His disciples to reach them with the life-changing power of the truth. In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

Luke 7:10 “And those who were sent, returning to the house, found the servant well who had been sick.”

   It is quite interesting here how Luke chooses to report the event of the actual healing. He does not here record what Jesus said to the servants in regards to the healing itself. We know from Matthew’s account that Jesus did let them know they could go back and find the servant healed. But Luke chooses not to include that detail. Why?
   Luke was a fairly detailed historian, and one would think he would include all of the details he had. However, Luke does not here include this particular part of the account for two reasons. First, it was superfluous. It goes without saying that if the servant was healed, this was a result of Christ’s power. But, secondly, and more significantly, Luke left it out to highlight it. To highlight it? Yes. Its absence reminds Luke’s readers not only that Jesus could heal over a distance, but also that the healing need not be tied to any action on Christ’s part. He didn’t have to say something to accomplish it. He didn’t have to snap His fingers or twitch His nose. There was no requirement that He perform any prescribed action.
   And why is this so significant? It is so very important because it points out that His power is His own. He is by nature the Lord of Glory. His power is innate. The only thing we do see is His submission to the Father, but that is a part of the plan of the ages. This operation of the Trinity does not limit Christ in an artificial way. So, He has no need for some outward effort to perform the most amazing of miracles. It is naturally within His ability. The very Word of God is what He is, and as such He has the power to frame the worlds in the very word of His mouth. But even at that it is enough for Him to think it and will it for it to be reality.

   Heavenly Father, we are awed by the beauty and power of Your Christ! You have given Him all power in heaven and earth. We can be confident that greater is He that is in us that he that is in the world. His power extends beyond day to day miracles, and to the transforming work of making the human heart a good place. You are making in us by Him something of eternal worth. Thank You! In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

Luke 7:9 “When Jesus heard these things, He marveled at him, and turned around and said to the crowd that followed Him, “I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!”

   It is hard to imagine Jesus being astonished! But, that is the clear meaning here. How? How is it possible for Christ to experience that emotion? Two answers will suffice to explain this. First, remember that Jesus had emptied Himself of much of His heavenly glory. Though we do not know the exact particulars, it seems that included certain self-imposed limitations. But, secondly, and likely more to the point, Jesus is human. This does not in any way mean He is not sufficiently Divine. It simply means that He is capable of all the feelings that human kind may experience.
   It will be helpful to take this a step further. Is it really impossible for God to be astonished? Of course He is not surprised in the sense of discovering something He didn’t know. But, even if a regular human happened to know everything (just for the sake of illustration), would that keep that person from finding certain things to be remarkable? Astonishment as we see it here seems to be an understanding of the unique strength of this man’s faith in relation to the faith of others. And the human part of the response simply goes along with it.
   So really what needs to be understood here is that God does have feelings just as humans do. However, Jesus may experience and express these in a uniquely human way being Himself God and man at once. Thus, the very Trinity is not unfamiliar with the inner workings of humans not only due to having made us, but due to experience itself. The Godhead knows and knows. And in this case, God knows great faith when He sees it!

   Heavenly Father, You are so amazing to us! Never can we understand it all. We will always be learning more about You. How can we do any less with an infinite person? You are more intricate than anything with which we have to do. Thank You for the beauty of Your Person, and for giving us a glimpse into it. In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

Luke 7:8 “For I also am a man placed under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to one,`Go,’ and he goes; and to another,`Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant,`Do this,’ and he does it.”

   Jesus told His disciples on one occasion that they needed the faith of a child, else they could never enter heaven. This is the kind of faith we find in the centurion. He understood Jesus very simply, but very well. Jesus was submitted to the will of the Father, and the centurion was submitted to the will of Rome. While the centurion had only his servants under him, Jesus had all of the authority of heaven under His control. Thus the centurion understood that the healing of his servant was a simple task for Christ, totally within His power, and that His power was not limited by time and space.
   It is this simple but profound faith that we must have. It is vitally important. It is what brings a child of this present evil world out of the darkness and into the glorious light of eternal life in Jesus Christ.

   Heavenly Father, we understand and know that the appropriate response to You and Your Christ is praise. We are completely indebted to Him, and yet we are so free in His service. Our very lives belong to Him, and yet we feel as if all the universe is at our feet. The beauty of life in Jesus is so overwhelming! All I can give to worship I give in praise to You! Truly this life in Christ is the eternal reality that outlasts this world of evil. I long for the future home of the new heaven and earth! In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

Luke 7:7 “Therefore I did not even think myself worthy to come to You. But say the word, and my servant will be healed.”

   It was the Word of Christ back at the very beginning that framed the world. The centurion understood that this was all that was needed. Jesus has at His disposal all the power that there ever could be, so He needs only to say the word and He has His will.
   This has caused many to treat the Lord like a cosmic genie, thinking He will do whatever whenever to satisfy their whims. And they teach others this. But there is a great deal of difference between a genie and the God of All. He has all of His other attributes as well, not just power, but wisdom, will, love, justice, holiness, and on and on.
   This explains why there are Christians every day who die of cancer, or have a heart attack, or are handicapped. The Lord isn’t a dream maker, He is a world maker. He made every deaf, blind, deformed, and disadvantaged person that has ever lived. And it is all within His power and rights to do so because He is not a genie, He is Almighty God. It is by His decree that all exists the way it exists.

   Heavenly Father, thank You so much for how You work with us. We would do things differently from how You do them. But, that is because we are limited. We cannot see all that You see. If we could we would understand it all so differently. Father, we know we can trust You. In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

Luke 7:6 “Then Jesus went with them. And when He was already not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to Him, saying to Him, “Lord, do not trouble Yourself, for I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof.”

  This particular event in the earthly ministry of Christ has always impressed me strongly. This man truly understood the nature of Christ. He had a better feel for the real significance of the Messiah than did many persons in the Jewish nation. He understood the need to approach Christ with worship. That is the only right way to approach Him. Though it may seem strange to our sentiments today, what this man did was the most worshipful thing he could think of. To say that he was unworthy to have Jesus enter his home was closely akin to John the Baptist’s words when he said that he was unworthy to even tie Jesus’ shoes.
   This man saw and understood that Jesus was to be treated with greater honor than anyone else. As the magi when Jesus was young, he saw that there was little he could offer Christ, but gave his best anyway. This action put the centurion in a position of submission to the higher authority of the Christ. And by this simple act he showed he understood the power of the Chosen One of God.

   Heavenly Father, sometimes we get so crazy with our worship. We think it has to be presented in certain ways. But yet this man was able in a matter of minutes to honor you in a way that few did during Jesus’ earthly ministry by giving great honor to Him. This is no credit to the man, but serves as a credit to Your merit, to the power of Your Christ. I can only say, Jesus Christ is Lord! In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

Luke 7:5 “for he loves our nation, and has built us a synagogue.”

   This man was a patron of the Jews. Patronage is an ancient system that anyone would do well to research. Many things in the New Testament are better understood through an understanding of patronage. This man may also have been considered a Jewish proselyte.

   Heavenly Father, thank You for being our Patron. You have made it possible for us to live. We will never stop praising You for it! In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

Luke 7:4 “And when they came to Jesus, they begged Him earnestly, saying that the one for whom He should do this was deserving,”

   We know from Jesus’ reaction to the centurion that the Jew’s impression of this man was not far off. But, how deserving is deserving? What really does one have to do to merit a supernatural intervention on one’s behalf? Is it really something we can merit, or instead only something God can choose to graciously bestow?

   Heavenly Father, You are good to us. But, we realize that is because of how You are. You are good. You are gracious. We are just receivers that illustrate it when we receive it. We are the receptacles for Your grace. In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.