Friend of the “Nones”

Luke 7

Main Idea: Jesus is the best friend the “Nones” could ever have.

1. Jesus Is a Lord Amazed by Faith (7:1-10).
2. Jesus Is a Prophet Moved by Grief (7:11-17).
3. Jesus Is a Messiah Who Answers Our Doubt (7:18-23).
4. Jesus Is a King Who Exalts the Lowly (7:24-35).
5. Jesus Is a Savior Who Forgives the Biggest Sinners (7:36-50).

Sociologists and scholars of religion are writing a lot these days about the rise of the “Nones.” No, not the Roman Catholic ladies wearing their habits and rosary beads. These “Nones” are people who check the box “none” or “not religious” when asked about their religious life. They have no religious preference and are not active religiously.

The number of Nones are on the rise in America (Lipka, “Closer Look”; see also Smith and Cooperman, “Factors”). Scholars tell us that Nones now make up about 23 percent of adults in the United States—about one in four people you meet, or thirty-six million Americans. That is a sharp increase from 16 percent in 2007. Nones appear to be growing faster than other groups, especially among millennials, who make up 36 percent of all Nones. For every person who goes from not being religious to becoming a Christian, there are four people who say they grew up in Christian homes but are not now religious.

Nones tend to be younger than most other people in the country—about thirty-six years old. Sixty-two percent say they seldom or never pray. Though 61 percent say they believe in some kind of higher power or supreme bring, about the same percentage say religion is not important to them at all. In that way they consider themselves spiritual but not religious.

But here’s the thing: Nones are not atheists. Only about 3 percent of people are atheists. Rather, Nones say they respect Jesus. They like the stories about him. They view Jesus as a champion for the poor who embraced the outcasts of society. Many Nones have friendly thoughts about Jesus; they simply do not believe in him as Lord.

What does such friendliness toward Jesus mean? Does it count for anything? If you admire Jesus but you do not follow him as Lord, what kind of person does that make you? Apparently, it makes you like a lot of other people. Thirty-six million Americans feel and think this way about Jesus. Here’s the irony: Nones may feel friendly toward Jesus, but Jesus may not yet actually be their friend.

Luke 7 covers five scenes in the Savior’s life. In these scenes we see the Lord interacting with humanity in the most profound and the most ordinary circumstances. We begin with the Lord going to the sickbed of a slave owned by a Roman centurion (7:1-10). Next we see the Lord meeting a funeral procession with a grieving widow who has lost her only son (vv. 11-17). Then the Lord receives a question from an imprisoned John the Baptist struggling with doubt (vv. 18-23; see Matt 11:2). The fourth scene features a conversation between the Lord and the crowds traveling with him (vv. 24-35). Then the chapter ends with the Lord visiting a Pharisee’s house, where a sinful woman washes his feet with her hair and her tears (vv. 36-50).

These five scenes give us five windows onto who Jesus is. With each scene we also see the people’s response to Jesus. What we will see in it all is that Jesus is the best friend the Nones could ever hope to have. He’s more than a friend—Jesus is everything we need. In the text many Nones recognize something of the kindness and friendliness of the Lord.

Jesus Is a Lord Amazed by Faith

Luke 7:1-10

In the first scene we find the Lord Jesus in his ministry headquarters in Capernaum. He’s just finished teaching the people when the elders of the local Jewish synagogue come to him. A Roman centurion had sent these elders to Jesus for help.

A Roman centurion would have been a commander of about a hundred men. The Roman army was notorious for its use of force. Roman soldiers could be brutal. But this centurion was different. This commander was a loving man.

• He loved his slave. Verse 2: “A centurion’s servant, who was highly valued by him, was sick and about to die” (emphasis added). Roman soldiers did not ordinarily value slaves—much less highly value them. But this man felt a great deal for his servant.
• He loved his subjects. Verses 4-5: “He is worthy for you to grant this, because he loves our nation and has built us a synagogue.” The leaders of Israel testified to his generosity and love for Israel.
• He loved submission. Verses 8: “For I too am a man placed under authority, having soldiers under my command. I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” Here’s a man who understood and respected authority. He was a man of authority, and he embraced submission.

There’s only one thing he did not love. He did not love himself. He was humble. Even though he was a man of authority and position, he did not let that go to his head. He remained humble. He didn’t even think he was worthy to appear before Jesus or have Jesus in his home (vv. 6-7). He had immense respect for Jesus.

The centurion recognized something about Jesus that others—including the disciples—had not yet fully grasped. According to verse 6, the centurion recognized Jesus is Lord. Now, others called Jesus “Lord” too, and I don’t think the centurion knew fully what calling Jesus “Lord” would come to mean. But using that title shows that he knew two things: He knew he was personally not worthy before the Lord, and he knew the power of Jesus’s word.

Somehow this man grasped and believed the fact that Jesus was Lord over life and that Jesus showed he was Lord by his word: “But say the word, and my servant will be healed” (v. 7). The Roman centurion—not the Jewish elders or even the disciples—understood that part of what it meant to call Jesus Lord was to admit the authority of Jesus’s word over life. If Christ would but “say the word” (v. 7), then he could do anything he willed to heal his servant.

What we need is faith. That’s what amazes Jesus about this centurion. Yes, the centurion is a wonderful guy, but what Jesus notices is his faith. Jesus “was amazed” (v. 9).

That’s a stunning statement on at least two levels. First, Jesus recognizes that the quality of this man’s faith is extraordinary.

Second, Jesus recognizes that this man’s faith surpasses the faith of all God’s chosen people. This is all the more amazing when you read what Jesus asks about his followers in Luke 18:8: “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

Faith is a wonderfully miraculous thing. The ability to believe ought not be taken for granted. It’s amazing that anyone believes. And it’s even more amazing that there are unbelievers with greater faith in Jesus than some believers. There are unbelievers who more firmly believe that Jesus is Lord of all than some believers who profess the same.

This first scene helps us get to know Jesus. While the Lord doesn’t say much in the passage, we still learn a lot about him. First, that simple sentence in verse 6, “Jesus went with them,” shows us the Lord is caring. Jesus doesn’t know the centurion. He doesn’t know the slave who’s sick and dying. The elders of the synagogue are not his followers. Yet Jesus went with them to see about this sick and dying man. The Lord cares. He is sensitive to our needs.

Second, verse 10 teaches us that the Lord heals. Here’s a God who uses his authority over life to give life. Really this miracle is a kind of brief commercial for what Jesus will do in the end: eradicate all disease, all sickness, and all pain. That’s how he uses his authority—for our healing and blessing. With all of our Lord’s authority, he is not too busy to visit the home of a sick slave. The Lord Jesus will not crush us. Instead, he uses his authority to heal. In the coming kingdom the Lord will make all things new and restore all that is broken.

Many of the so-called Nones have difficulty with the idea that there’s a Supreme Being or God who has this kind of authority. Some Nones think this authority is dangerous and oppressive. They’re troubled by the religious authority of institutions like the church. They are troubled by the idea that God should have authority over their lives. I get it. Men often abuse authority.

My friend, if you have never met Jesus, let me introduce you to him. He is the Lord of all power who compassionately heals the hurting. He is worthy of your trust and faith. The Roman centurion understood that. Do you?

Let me say a word to my fellow Christians for a moment. We have to stop looking for ways to prove that every Christian is a better person than every non-believer. We have this habit of seeing good things in the lives of people who do not profess to be Christians, and rather than commend them for it, we look to explain it away. We want to talk about why it doesn’t “count” since they’re not Christians.

That’s not what Jesus does here. The Lord recognizes what’s amazing in this man’s imperfect faith. It’s not saving faith. He is not professing repentance and faith, as we will understand by the end of the Gospel of Luke. But it is genuine trust that Jesus can heal his servant with a word. Many Christians do not trust Jesus in the same way.

Instead of trying to point out the failings in the Nones, we should invite them to an even deeper trust of Jesus as their personal Lord. People skeptical of God’s authority need to know that his Son uses his authority to express his care. They should come to know that the Lord both cares and has power to show it. That kind of faith in Jesus amazes him.

Jesus Is a Prophet Moved by Grief

Luke 7:11-17

The second thing we learn about our Lord is that Jesus is moved by grief. Verse 11 says that after the Lord heals the sick servant, he travels to a town called “Nain.” It’s a small town not often mentioned in the Bible. Verse 12 gives us the scene.

All the details in this sentence matter. The funeral already approaches “the gate of the town.” That means they’re on their way to the tomb. Since it would have been unclean to leave a dead body in the city, it’s likely that this funeral is happening the day of the son’s death. If that’s correct, then they’re in the height of a very fresh grief.

The man is “his mother’s only son.” You can imagine the grief of burying your only child. No parent should have to outlive their children. And “she was a widow.” She has already buried her husband. Perhaps the son’s tone of voice, physical appearance, and gestures were reminders of her dearly departed spouse. So now all that existed of that former life heads to the grave. And, with no husband and no son, she had no way of providing for herself in that culture and time. She’ll soon be alone. Perhaps that’s why “a large crowd from the city was also with her.” It’s like the entire community knew what grief and difficulty lay ahead.

Verse 13 shows us what Jesus is like. The woman’s grief moved the Lord. Her suffering touched him. He saw her and felt for her. He was not so smitten with popularity and adulation that he didn’t have time to mourn with a widow.

Unlike the scene with the centurion, we’re not told anything about this woman’s faith. She doesn’t request help. The woman doesn’t even seem to notice him until the Lord says, “Don’t weep.” Now, those words would be cruel and insensitive if they came from us in the middle of a funeral. “Don’t cry” isn’t really comfort if you can’t change the situation. Death is a situation that ordinary human beings can’t change. Death seems so final when it comes to our puny power.

But Jesus is not a normal human being. He is God. You can feel the eyes staring intently at the Lord as he approached and touched the casket (v. 14). Perhaps they were caught off guard or even offended that he would interrupt the funeral service. You can hear the questions exploding in heads when he says, “Get up!” But Jesus raised the dead! He spoke to a corpse, and a living man sat up! He spoke to a body wrapped in the prison of death’s silence, and a son began to speak! He gave a crying mother the only thing that could fix her grief—her son back. That’s how you stop a funeral!

We don’t have to wonder about the people’s reaction. The people are seized with fear (v. 16). You would be too. I wonder if they dropped the stretcher? I would’ve dropped it and run! This man was dead—prepared for the grave, on his way there, his mother and the whole town crying—and he sat up and started talking!

Jesus is not merely Lord over the living. He is also Lord over the dead! He has authority to reverse the power of death and to give life again. Raising this man from the dead is another commercial of what Jesus will do in the end. He himself would be raised from the dead for our justification, and in the end he will raise all men—the righteous to heaven and the wicked to hell.

The people declare that Jesus is a prophet. He is that, but he’s so much more! They declare that “God has visited his people”—by which they mean a miracle has been done. But their words were truer than they knew. God was with them. True God from true God had just come to their town. Though they’re amazed at the miracle, they’re unaware of the Savior.

It is no honor to Jesus to ascribe to him some great title but treat him as something less than he really is. My Muslim friends make this mistake all the time. They say, “We honor Jesus as a great prophet who did great miracles.” But they deny that Jesus is the Son of God. With that denial they actually dishonor the Lord. And there are many who say, “Jesus is a great moral teacher.” That’s true—yet that’s not all that he is. In omitting the remainder of things that are true of Jesus, they actually miss him. Jesus did not come to be comfortably confined to our boxes. He has come to shatter this world with his glory, to make himself known in the fullness of his person. He is the one who entered space and time and with that entrance forever changed space and time itself. With his coming came also the kingdom of God, where life never ends and where God restores everything broken in the world.

An awakening of faith is happening in this section of Luke, but it’s not quite saving faith. The people stop short and miss the whole picture. This is often the case with the Nones. They will acknowledge Jesus’s compassion, for example, but they will not recognize him as God. But who else can raise the dead? And who else would do it—not as a magic trick, but as an act of compassion for a crying widow? Only God would be so tender and walk away without a further word. If it is a joy to awaken to a prophet, how much more wonderful will it be to awaken to the Son of God who defeats death for us?

Jesus Is a Messiah Who Answers Our Doubt

Luke 7:18-23

The disciples of John the Baptist tell John about the things Jesus is doing. Matthew 11:2 tells us that John is in prison when he hears this report, and perhaps the despair of imprisonment begins to unsettle John. So in Luke 7:19 John sends two of his disciples to Jesus with a question. John wants to know if Jesus is truly the Messiah Israel has been awaiting.

John was dedicated to God from the womb. John had received prophetic visions from God. It was John who preached the coming of the kingdom of God and prepared Israel to receive their Lord. He paved the way for Jesus; he even baptized Jesus. John spent his entire life looking for this moment and the Messiah. John was a great servant of God. John had a strong spiritual resume.

Yet John had a period of intense doubt while in prison. Faith and doubt can find room in the same heart. You can be a wonderful servant of God yet still have moments and seasons of intense doubt. If you struggle with doubt, know that you’re not alone and you’re not necessarily broken or wrong. Sometimes we treat doubt as though it’s some really nasty evidence that someone does not truly trust Christ or is not a Christian. That’s not necessarily so. We Christians may have to pray, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief.”

John’s disciples deliver the question in verse 20. Jesus seems to perform the many miracles in verse 21 in order to send back concrete evidence for John’s doubt in verse 22. He says, “Go and report to John what you have seen and heard” (emphasis added). These miracles signify that Jesus is the Messiah and that the kingdom of God is coming into the world. Jesus doesn’t rebuke John for his doubt. He assures John with evidence. The Lord is tender and gentle with the weak and the doubting. Matthew 12:20 says, “He will not break a bruised reed, and he will not put out a smoldering wick.”

Then the Lord adds this word of encouragement in Luke 7:23: “And blessed is the one who isn’t offended by me.” Or, as the New Living Translation puts it, “God blesses those who do not fall away because of me.” In other words, “John, keep believing. In the end, you will be blessed, made happy, by God. Don’t fall away. Hold on to faith in me.”

Jesus blesses those who continue to believe in him even if they experience some doubt along the way. What a tender and compassionate Lord! Do you have doubts? You can safely bring them to Jesus. Do you have questions? You can raise them in the Scriptures. I really dislike that strain of “Christian” teaching that demands we never doubt or question God. The Lord is the kind of Messiah that doesn’t simply talk about being the Messiah; Jesus will prove it to you by raising the dead, giving sight to the blind, preaching the gospel to the poor, and giving evidence on which to base our faith.

Did you know that the majority of the thirty-six million Nones in the U.S. come from nominally Christian backgrounds? Only 9 percent of U.S. adults say they were raised without any kind of religious teaching. Most of the Nones are people like John, who began to doubt. The difference is, they didn’t follow or have evidence for their faith, so they stopped following and began to say they had no religion. Based on Luke 7:23, Jesus would say they’ve chosen the cursed path rather than the blessed path. They’ve chosen what would end in sorrow rather than what would end in joy. Blessed is the one who is not offended by Jesus.

The way to happiness is not to give in to your doubt. The way to happiness is to answer your doubts with the evidence we have in Christ. Never treat your doubts with certainty. Always doubt your doubts. Never let your doubts have the last word. If they are truly doubts, then seek answers on which to stand. Find evidence. Follow the evidence to the truth and then build certainty with the truth. That’s the life that Jesus blesses.

Doubt makes us short-sighted. Faith gives us the long view. The Lord gives John evidence to answer his doubt, and he gives John a promise of joy to strengthen his faith. Jesus is a Messiah who answers our doubt.

Jesus Is a King Who Exalts the Lowly

Luke 7:24-35

Verses 18-23 occur in the presence of a crowd. No doubt a lot of people overheard John’s question and became aware of John’s doubts. Some people were probably prepared to question the authenticity of John’s faith. That’s what many people do whenever they learn someone experiences doubt.

So it seems as if Jesus wants to prevent the crowd from reaching the wrong conclusions about John. The Lord anticipates our tendency to evaluate and criticize the faith of others.

The Lord asks a series of questions designed to help the crowd remember what they were seeking when they went to hear John preach. They weren’t looking for some weak man. John was a powerful and fearless preacher who stood up to kings. They weren’t looking for some fancy Dan “dressed in soft clothes” (v. 25). John was not a prosperity preacher in tailored six-button suits and crocodile loafers, living in a luxury mansion. He was rough and lived a simple life.

They went to see a true prophet of God, and that’s what they found. Jesus reminds them in verse 27 that John was unique among the prophets because John was the promised messenger whom Malachi 3:1 prophesied would prepare the way for the Messiah. The crowd needed to know they had seen the prophet whom Israel awaited before receiving the Messiah that God promised.

Jesus commends John in verse 28: “I tell you, among those born of women no one is greater than John.” You can’t get higher praise than that. This man, imprisoned and doubting, was the greatest man alive. The crowd needed to know and respect that.

Then Jesus says something surprising and pleasing to ordinary people. As great as John was among men, “the least” of men can be greater than John if they make it into the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is a place where the lowly are exalted above the so-called great people of this world.

That’s why “the people” and “the tax collectors” (v. 29) rejoiced when they heard this. The “average Joes” declared God just. They celebrated because God’s kingdom does not work like man’s kingdoms. The things that men think make you great—power, position, money, etc.—don’t count for anything in God’s kingdom. In God’s kingdom the first will be last and the last will be first.

While the “regular people” rejoice, the religious and cultural elites have the opposite response. God does not oppose people with position and power in this world. However, the elites of this world are often so proud they live as if they don’t need God. That’s the meaning of verse 30. The religious rulers didn’t think they needed John’s message of repentance and preparation for the kingdom. They assumed they were just fine the way they were. In the process they “rejected the plan of God for themselves” (v. 30).

Can you think of a more devastating statement than that? God had a plan for them, but they chose their own plans and purposes. Many people make that same tragic mistake every day. They become the kind of people Jesus describes in verses 31-34. It doesn’t matter whether an evangelist comes in a happy, kind way with the message of the gospel or if a preacher comes in a stern, direct way. Either way they reject the message, just as these Pharisees did with John and Jesus. They become the kind of people who commit themselves to unbelief and doubt.

“Yet wisdom is vindicated by all her children” (v. 35). You can tell a wise decision by its results. The little people in this life who believe will be the great people in the kingdom of God. The big people in this life who disbelieve will not even enter the kingdom of God. Which, then, is wiser: unbelief or faith in Jesus Christ?

Unbelief Is Not a Virtue

Many people make doubt a virtue. They think doubt somehow proves they have an open mind or that they’re humble because religious certainty, they think, is a kind of pride. Some people are principally committed to uncertainty.

Clinging to doubt actually proves the opposite. Clinging to doubt closes the mind to actual evidence. Evidence is what Jesus gives John. The Lord gives John evidence not so John could remain doubtful or unbelieving but so that John would become certain. It’s as G. K. Chesterton put it: “The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid” (Autobiography, 217). John is to close his mind onto the solid fact that Jesus Christ is the chosen Savior of God. That’s where the evidence leads. That’s what John is to believe. That’s why Luke has written this account of Jesus’s life: so that we may have certainty that what we have been taught is true (1:1-4).

This crowd all saw the same evidence and heard Jesus make the same promise. They were all required to believe as much as John. But they were a spiritual generation just like ours—skeptical, doubting, unbelieving—and willfully so, contrary to all the evidence.

Jesus is a King who exalts the lowly in his kingdom.

Jesus Is a Savior Who Forgives the Biggest Sinners

Luke 7:36-50

Verses 36-38 describe our final scene. Put yourself in the place of the Pharisee. He’s a religious man. He’s serious about sin and holiness, morality and immorality. He doesn’t have just anyone at his table. He’s taking a risk having Jesus at his table because Jesus isn’t like the Pharisees. But he’s showing some level of hospitality. Then into his house—right up to his table—walks this woman known all around town as “a sinner” (v. 37).

Now put yourself in the place of the woman. She lives in that city, and she knows what Pharisees are like. Religious men. Often self-­righteous. They make a big distinction between themselves and “sinners.” They always reject “sinners” as unworthy. But Jesus is in the Pharisee’s home, in her city, where she can reach him. What courage must it have taken for her to enter this Pharisee’s home? What hope must have been in her heart when she gathered her most expensive possession, an alabaster flask of ointment? What brokenness must have rushed up in her heart and mind as she stood behind Jesus “weeping” (v. 38)? She knew she was a sinner better than anyone else did. There behind the Lord, at his feet, she knelt in a pool of her own tears.

Maybe she had planned to anoint his feet with the oil all along. Then she saw that the host had not washed the Savior’s feet when he entered the home. Maybe she picked up on the minor insult, as washing a guest’s feet was a common courtesy whenever anyone came to your home. Maybe she had been to homes and had not been given this common courtesy and knew the insult, or maybe she just loved Jesus. So she cried—so much that she could wipe the Savior’s feet with her tears—and she took the tresses of her hair and wiped his feet. Then she kissed his feet in love and worship, and she anointed him with her oil.

It’s a moving scene. In that dramatic moment we are not told what motivated this woman to behave this way, but we do receive a window into Simon’s heart (v. 39). In the Pharisee’s mind, holy men don’t allow themselves to be touched by a sinner. And prophets can tell “what kind” of people they meet. She was that kind. Jesus must not be a prophet.

But Jesus knows what’s in the Pharisee’s mind. He knows what’s in all of our minds. In verse 40 the Lord confronts the Pharisee about his thoughts. He tells the parable in verses 41-42. The punch line of the parable is the question, Who loves more—the one forgiven little or the one forgiven much? Simon answers correctly in verse 43—the one who has his larger debt cancelled.

See the scene in verse 44. Imagine the Lord’s body language. “Turning to the woman” but speaking to Simon, Jesus said in verses 44-48,

“Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she, with her tears, has washed my feet and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but she hasn’t stopped kissing my feet since I came in. You didn’t anoint my head with olive oil, but she has anointed my feet with perfume. Therefore I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; that’s why she loved much. But the one who is forgiven little, loves little.” Then he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

This is when we realize the woman’s motivation for coming. She came to the house fully aware of her sin. She had a reputation in the town, but the town didn’t know her failures as well as she did. She probably forgot more sins than they would ever be aware of. She knew the deep pain and brokenness of life apart from the mercy of God. She knew her debt before God—a debt she could not repay.

But she sensed something about Jesus. Jesus is a Savior who forgives the biggest sinners. She understood that Jesus could remove her guilt and shame, grant her a new heart, and give her a future. The more she remembers her sin, the greater Jesus appears. The more she weeps over her sin, the more she delights in the Savior. She knows she can rise up from that spot a new creature because Jesus makes things new. The biggest sinners who see and weep over their sin can come confidently to Jesus for forgiveness. The “little sinner” can come too. Both may be forgiven. But the big sinner has hope because Jesus is that kind of Savior.

To be a big sinner is not the worst thing; to not ask forgiveness through faith in Jesus is. You can recover from a very sinful past—the church is full of people who have—but there is no recovery from God’s judgment against sin.

You can’t sin yourself out of the possibility of forgiveness. There’s more grace and forgiveness in Jesus’s little finger than there is sin in the vilest sinner.

I once shared the gospel with a woman who cut me off by saying, “Honey, God gave up on me a long time ago.”

I said to her, “Honey, you don’t know Jesus.” There are many who believe like that woman: that God has given up on them. But if you would believe like this sinful woman—that Jesus is worthy of your love and that he will forgive your sins—then you may, like this woman, go away from Jesus forgiven and full of peace. Jesus is a Savior who forgives the biggest sinners.

He can do that because he’s the Savior who takes the punishment for all of our sins—big and small, past and future, known and unknown. He did that when he was crucified on the cross. On the cross God the Father punished all of our sin by punishing Jesus Christ, who took our place. When God raised his Son from the grave three days later, he proved that Jesus’s sacrifice was acceptable and we—even if we are the biggest sinners—can be righteous in God’s sight by faith in God’s Son.

Faith not only amazes Jesus, faith brings forgiveness from Jesus. Some like Simon the Pharisee miss out. Others like the sinner woman find it. Which are you? Will you believe and be forgiven? Or will you continue to check the box labeled “none” and have none of God’s love and forgiveness? You must decide. Wisdom is justified by all her children.

Reflect and Discuss

1. What do you think most people mean when they say, “Jesus was a good moral teacher?” What do you think would be the effect if people took that statement seriously?
2. Think about the culture where you live. What cultural values do you think people in your area cherish the most? How would you compare those values to the priorities and values of the kingdom of God?
3. Why do you think the centurion’s faith amazed Jesus? Does faith amaze you?
4. Do you think Jesus is moved by your grief and pain? What passages of Scripture help you to believe or remember this?
5. What is doubt? Have you ever struggled with doubt? How have you handled it?
6. The woman who washed Jesus’s feet with her tears was known as a sinner. Her reputation preceded her. How can a bad reputation keep us from seeking Jesus? What does Jesus do about the reputations and sins of the worst sinners? How might that affect how we view our sins?