Luke 7

Read: Luke 7

As you read Luke 7, try to put yourself in the story as you hear about Jesus raising the widow’s son to life and forgiving the sinful woman.  Jesus had not yet been crucified and they did not have the New Testament and information about Jesus that we do. They knew he was a special man, but the things Jesus was doing were far greater than what the prophets did before him.  In this chapter, we see that Jesus has power over death and the authority to forgive sins. The people say, “A great prophet has risen among us,” and “God has visited his people” (v.16). They were more right than they knew… God was amongst them in the person of Jesus Christ.  

When Jesus raised the widow’s son to life, he proved he had power over death.  Who has power over death other than God? Death is one thing that we are all guaranteed to experience in life.  The percentage of people who die is 100%. We don’t like to talk about it, but that is just the way it is. We all have to accept the reality that death is imminent, it’s only a matter of when.  Jesus demonstrated power over death, and that’s huge! If Jesus can raise the young boy to life, he can also raise you and me. And he has promised to one day come back and do that!  

Later in chapter 7, he shows that he also has the power to forgive sins.  Sin is another thing we are all guaranteed to experience in life. The percentage of people who sin is 100%.  We don’t like admitting it, but we all fall short sometimes. Even though we confess and repent, sin will always be knocking at our door seeking to entice us.  Jesus has power over sin! In this chapter, we see that he has the power to forgive us when we fall short. The woman from this story was a great sinner, but Jesus was a greater forgiver.  Wherever we are and whatever we have done, Jesus is able and willing to forgive us if we go to him and ask.  

I think a lot of times, it’s easy to forget who Jesus is.  Mentally we know who he is, but practically we forget what he came to do for us.  He came to set us free from the penalty of our sins. The penalty of sin is death, and Jesus came to forgive our sins so we can have eternal life with him.  That does not mean we won’t experience the death of our bodies, but because of what Jesus did, we can have hope. When our bodies come to the end of their journeys, we will receive new bodies that will never again fall into sin or sickness.  Jesus has power over sin and death; so during this season, let’s not forget who he is and what he has done for us.