When Jesus had finished saying all these things in the hearing of the people, he went into Capernaum. 2 There was an army officer there whose slave, a man he valued highly, was sick and about to die.[1] 3 When the officer heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, asking him to come and heal his slave. 4 They came to Jesus and pleaded earnestly with him. “This man deserves to have you do this,” they said, 5 “because he loves our nation and he built our synagogue for us.”
6 So Jesus went with them. He was not far from the house when the officer sent friends to him with this message: “Lord, don’t trouble yourself. I’m not worthy to have you come under my roof. 7 That’s why I didn’t even consider myself worthy to come to you. Just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 8 For I too am a man placed under authority, with soldiers under me. 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 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him. He turned to the crowd following him and said, “I tell you, I haven’t found faith like this — not even in Israel.” 10 And when the men who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave completely well.
11 Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain. His disciples and a large crowd went with him. 12 As he came near the town gate, a dead man was being carried out — the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. A large crowd from the town was with her. 13 When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her. “Don’t cry,” he said.
14 He went up and touched the stretcher, and the men carrying it stopped. He said, “Young man, I tell you — get up.”[2] 15 The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.
16 Fear gripped everyone there. They praised God and said, “A great prophet has risen among us,” and, “God has come to help his people.” 17 This news about Jesus spread through all Judea and the whole surrounding region.
18 John’s disciples told him about all these things. John called two of his disciples to him 19 and sent them to the Lord to ask, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”
20 When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?’”
21 At that very hour, Jesus healed many people of diseases, afflictions, and evil spirits, and he gave sight to many who were blind. 22 He answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news preached to them. 23 And fortunate is anyone who does not stumble over me.”
24 After John’s messengers left, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John. “What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed swaying in the wind? 25 What did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? Look, those who wear splendid clothes and live in luxury are in palaces. 26 What did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you — and more than a prophet. 27 This is the one about whom it is written:
‘Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’
28 I tell you, among those born of women, no one is greater than John. Yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”
29 (All the people who heard this, even the tax collectors, acknowledged God’s justice, because they had been baptized with John’s baptism. 30 But the Pharisees and the legal experts rejected God’s purpose for themselves, because they had not been baptized by him.)
31 “What then shall I compare the people of this generation to? What are they like? 32 They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other:
‘We played the flute for you, and you didn’t dance; we sang a funeral song, and you didn’t cry.’
33 John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ 34 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look — a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ 35 But wisdom is proved right by all her children.”
36 One of the Pharisees invited Jesus to eat with him. So he went into the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37 A woman in that town who was known as a sinner learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house. She brought an alabaster jar of perfume,[3] 38 and she stood behind him at his feet, crying. She began to wet his feet with her tears and wipe them with her hair. She kissed his feet and poured perfume on them.
39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is — that she is a sinner.”
40 Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”
“Teacher,” he said, “tell me.”
41 “Two men owed money to a certain lender. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.[4] 42 Neither of them could pay him back, so he forgave both debts. Now, which of them will love him more?”
43 Simon answered, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”
“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.
44 Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into 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.[5] 45 You gave me no kiss, but this woman, from the moment I came in, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47 So I tell you, her many sins are forgiven — that’s why she loved much. But the one who is forgiven little, loves little.”
48 Then he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
49 The others at the table began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”
50 Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”
Notes
Note 1. The Greek word means “commander of a hundred” — an officer over a unit of roughly eighty to a hundred soldiers. Luke never calls him Roman, and Capernaum lay in Galilee, ruled by Herod Antipas, so he may well have belonged to Antipas’s forces rather than the Roman legions. Either way he was a Gentile. Mark uses the Latin loanword instead — kenturiōn. Luke calls the sick man a doulos (slave) here but a pais (boy/servant) in verse 7 — the same man, named two ways. ↩
Note 2. The “stretcher” (soros) is the open bier on which the body was carried. In Jewish law, contact with a corpse — directly or through the bier — brought ritual impurity, requiring days of purification. ↩
Note 3. An “alabastron” was a small flask, originally carved from soft alabaster stone, used to hold costly scented oil. At the anointing in Bethany (Mark 14) the contents of such a jar are valued at three hundred denarii — close to a year’s wages for a laborer. ↩
Note 4. A denarius was about a day’s pay for a common laborer. So the larger debt of five hundred denarii amounts to well over a year and a half of wages, the smaller to nearly two months’ — both real burdens, but one many times the other. ↩
Note 5. Basic hospitality obliged a host to offer an arriving guest water for the feet, a greeting kiss, and oil for the head. ↩