Luke 7:1-17 Gentile miracles

Luke 7:1-10 Jesus heals a Centurion's servant. The parallel passage in Matt 8:5-13 says that the Centurion himself came, but Luke records that he sent first Jewish elders, and then some friends. This centurion is identified to Jesus as being worthy of His ministry because he had built a synagogue for the Jews and loved the Jewish nation. However, Jesus was impressed by the message that the Centurion sent, recorded in verses 7-8. The Centurion understood authority and obedience because he was a soldier. He recognized that Jesus had this same kind of authority in the Spiritual realm, and that his servant would be healed by the simple command of Jesus, at His word. Jesus marveled at this because He had not found a single Jew with this much faith in Him. We might ask how many Christians have this much faith in Him? When we pray and there is not a healing, do we try to bargain with God, earn a favorable response, or doubt His love?

         The fact that this was a Roman Centurion re-underscores Jesus' ministry to both Jews and Gentiles. This was a Gentile with faith in the God of the Jews. Jesus not only healed his servant, He paid him a very high compliment - that he had more faith than anyone in Israel. This faith was not an intellectual knowledge that a soldier obeys orders. It was faith that Jesus was who He said He was, the Son of God, in other words, that He has ultimate authority in the spiritual realm.

Luke 7:11-17 Jesus raises the dead son of the widow of Nain. As He enters a city accompanied by a large crowd, He meets a funeral procession, also a sizable crowd. The dead man is apparently a young man, the only son of his mother who is a widow. There is no record that she or anyone else asked Him, He simply responded out of the compassion He felt for her. So He walked up to the coffin and told the young man to arise, and he did.

         There are several recorded cases in which Jesus raised a person from the dead. This is the first such case that Luke records. It hearkens back to the incident in which Elijah raised a widow's son (I Kings 17:17-4), although in Elijah's case, the widow petitioned Elijah to do something, and Elijah's method of prayer was a bit more involved. When people saw this miracle (quite a large crowd, both those traveling with Jesus and those in the funeral procession), they must have made this connection because they said a great prophet had arisen, and this report spread in Judea and all of the surrounding district of Galilee.

         Perhaps the parallel to Elijah was strong in peoples' memory but when Jesus was crucified, this was unlike Elijah's departure, since he was carried into heaven in a chariot of fire. (2 Kings 2:11). They believed that God could raise the dead, but in no recorded instance did a person himself arise from the dead. So even though they saw Jesus raise the dead, when He died no one initially believed that He would rise from the dead. Who would be around to pray for Him?