Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - The Kingdom Where Everyone Matters | The Gospels | Luke 7:1–17

Episode Date: April 1, 2026

Who gets welcomed into Jesus's kingdom? Have you ever assumed there's only room for the spiritually strong, the socially acceptable, or the people with the boldest faith? What if the stories of Luke 7 show the exact opposite? In today’s episode, Luke shares how Jesus meets both a powerful outsider and a powerless widow, proving there are no outsiders in Jesus's kingdom. Read the Bible with us in 2026! This year, we’re exploring the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passage: Luke 7:1–17

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. There were four members of a church in Brooklyn who lost their lives during the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001. One of those members of the church who died was a police officer who ran into the burning buildings to save innocent civilians. And in the days that followed, the police officer's funeral was held at the church, the Brooklyn Tabernacle. Rudy Giuliani, who was the mayor at the time, came to the funeral and was asked to say a few words, and the thing he said just really sticks out to me. He says this, you know, people, I've learned something through all this. Let me see if I can express it to you. When everybody was fleeing that building and the cops and the firefighters and the EMS people were heading up into it, do you think any of them said, I wonder how many blacks are up there?

I wonder what percentage are whites up there. How many Jews are there? Let's see, are these people making $400,000 a year or $24,000? No, when you're saving lives, they're all precious. I confess I haven't always lived this way, but I'm convinced that God wants us to do it. He wants us to value every human life the way he does. Now here's the thing. I don't know what Giuliani's theology is.

I don't know what he believes in. But in that moment, grieving with a church full of people who had just lost someone they loved, Rudy Giuliani stumbled onto something that is deeply and profoundly true. that when you're saving lives, they are all precious. That is exactly how Jesus operates, not just in a crisis, and not just for the people who check the right boxes or show up with the right credentials or have their faith perfectly articulated. No, Jesus runs toward all kinds of people.

And in Luke chapter 7, we get two stories back to back that show us exactly what that looks like. In the first story, Jesus helps a Roman saturian, a powerful military officer in Rome. And in the second, he raises the dead son of a poor Jewish widow with nothing left. Now, you could not pick two more different people, and Jesus sees both of them. He moves toward both of them. He brings his kingdom to both of them. See, the point that Luke is making is hard to miss.

In Jesus' kingdom, there are no outsiders. Everyone belongs. And yes, that means you, particularly, specifically you. We pick up in Luke chapter 7 verse 1. When Jesus had finished saying all this to the people who were listening, he entered Copernum. There, a centurion's servant whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come

and heal his servant. A centurion was a Roman military officer. He commanded around a hundred soldiers, and so he had power and status and authority in a world where those things meant a lot. He was also, by Jewish standards, a Gentile, an outsider to the covenant people of God. Not the kind of person you'd expect to show up in a Jewish rabbi's story as the hero, right?

But here he is. And notice what he does. He doesn't march up to Jesus and demand anything. He sends Jewish elders to plead his case. He thinks it might help him garner Jesus' attention. And then, when Jesus is already on his way to come and heal the servant, the centurion sends friends with another message. We pick up in verse 6. He says, Lord, don't trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you

come under my roof. That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority with soldiers under me. I tell this one go and he goes and that one come and he comes. This is a man who has every reason, by the world's standards, to walk with his chest out. He's powerful, respected, wealthy enough that he apparently built the local synagogue. He's powerful, respected, and wealthy. And yet, he approaches Jesus with his face to the floor. He knows who Jesus is.

He knows who he is in comparison. And he says, I am not worthy. Don't even come to my house. Just say the word. See, this man understands authority. He lives inside a chain of command every day. And he recognizes that Jesus has a different kind of authority. Not just over soldiers, but over sickness and death itself.

Just say the word. Word, Jesus. Verse 9 says this. When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him. And turning to the crowd following him, he said, I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel than the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well. Not even in Israel. A Roman Gentile soldier has more faith than the people who grew up with the scriptures, the temple, the promises of God. Jesus isn't saying that to shame anyone. He's just amazed. He's saying it to show us something about how his kingdom works. It does not run on ethnic identity or religious pedigree. It runs on faith. And faith can show up in the most unexpected places and in the most unexpected

people. The centurion came to Jesus with bold, articulate, confident faith. He understood authority. He knew what he believed and said it out loud. And Jesus responds with healing and amazement. But then there's the second story. And this one is completely different. We pick up in verse 11. Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. As he approached the town gate, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a large crowd from the town was with her. When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her, and he said, don't cry. A widow in the ancient world had almost no social standing on her own.

Her security and future and place in the community, all of it, was tied to the men in her life. first her husband, then her son, and now her son is dead too. She has lost everything. She's completely alone and walking behind a coffin with no one left. Notice she doesn't approach Jesus. She doesn't send messengers ahead like the centurion did. She doesn't say a single word in this whole story. She's just a woman in the worst moment of her life. She doesn't even know that help is coming. Notice it says that when the Lord saw her, he's the one who notices. Jesus is the one who moves. didn't have strength to come to him, and yet Jesus moves toward her. She didn't have the words to ask, so he acted without being asked. She didn't express bold faith. She didn't express anything. And yet

Jesus walked up to that coffin, and he raises her son from the dead. Verse 14 says this. He went up and touched the beer. They were carrying him on, and the bearers stood still. He said, Young man, I say to you, get up. The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother. Jesus raises the dead. Now hold these two stories next to each other just for a second. The centurion has everything. He has power and wealth and status. And on top of all that, he has a bold, articulate faith that he can bring to Jesus. He understands exactly who Jesus is and he says so clearly. And Jesus responds. But then we also see the widow who has nothing. She is no status, no words, no faith on display. She doesn't ask for anything because she probably doesn't even know

asking is an option, and yet Jesus responds just the same. See, this is the contrast that Luke is drawing. Jesus responds to bold faith, but Jesus also responds to quiet desperation. He responds to the powerful man on his knees and the broken woman who has nothing left. Because when you are saving lives, they are all precious. That's how Jesus lives all the time. In his kingdom, there are no outsiders. See, some of us look at the centurion's faith, that clear, confident, almost the logical understanding of who Jesus is. And we think that's what real faith looks like. And mine doesn't look like that yet. Mine is shaky and inconsistent and full of holes. So maybe I'm not really in. But also some of us look at the widow. We've lost things. We're out of words. We don't even know how

to pray anymore. We're not bringing bold faith to Jesus. We're just walking behind a coffin. That's what our life feels like. Just walking behind a coffin one day after the other, putting one foot in front of the other, hoping somebody notices. And Luke puts these two stories side by side to say, yes, both of you. He sees both of you. He moves toward both of you. This story is not about a centurion. It's not about a servant. It's not about a mom or a son. It's about Jesus. What he did for that centurion and that widow, he ultimately did for all of us at the cross. He walked toward our death. He wasn't asked. He wasn't obligated. He just saw us and his heart went out to us. And he did something about it. The one who raises the dead did not stay in the grave himself. And because he didn't,

there is life on the other side of whatever you're carrying today. Remember what Giuliani said, standing in that church grieving with those people? He said, when you're saving lives, they're all precious. And then he said, I'm convinced that's what God wants us to do every day. He wants us to value every human life the way he does. See, he was more right than he probably knew, because that's not just how God wants us to treat each other. That's how God treats us. That's who Jesus is. He doesn't run past the widow to get to the centurion. He doesn't skip the broken ones to get to the bold ones, he moves toward all of them, every single person. So whatever you're carrying today, whether you've got bold faith or no words left, whether you feel like you belong or you

never quite fit in, Jesus is not checking credentials at the door. When you're saving lives, when Jesus saves lives, they are all precious. You are not an exception. You are not outside. There is room for you here. Let's pray. Father, thank you that your kingdom doesn't work the way our world does. Thank you that you don't sort people by status or background or how well their faith is articulated. Thank you that you see the centurion on his knees and the widow with nothing left and you move toward both of them. Help us believe that today that we are not the exception, that there is room for us that in your kingdom no one is an outsider. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen.