The chapter
Simply A Roman officer asks for help without ever coming in person, and his servant is healed. At the gate of a town called Nain a widow's only son is being carried out for burial, and Jesus stops the procession. John, in prison, sends to ask whether he is the one. And at a Pharisee's dinner a woman with a bad reputation washes Jesus' feet with her tears, which starts an argument about who is entitled to be shocked.
Context Two of the four scenes here are in no other Gospel. Nain is named at verse 11 and the name appears nowhere else in the New Testament in this app, in Matthew, Mark, John or Acts. The dinner at verse 36 has relatives elsewhere but is not the same scene, and the section on it below says exactly how. The chapter also has a shape: an outsider with more faith than Israel, a woman with no standing at all, and in between them a prophet in prison asking whether he was right. Everyone in the chapter who is certain is wrong, and everyone who asks gets an answer.
Verses 1-10
Simply A centurion's servant is dying. The officer does not go himself: he sends Jewish elders, who argue that he deserves the help because he loves their nation and paid for their synagogue. Jesus goes with them, and before he arrives the officer sends friends to say he is not worthy to have him under his roof, and that a word will be enough, because he himself gives orders and they are obeyed. Jesus says he has not found faith like this in Israel, and the servant is found well.
Context In Matthew 8:5 to 8, which can be opened here, the centurion comes to Jesus and speaks to him directly. In this account he never appears at all: he sends elders at verse 3 and friends at verse 6, and the whole exchange is carried by other people. That changes who is in the room for the sentence at verse 9. The praise is spoken to the crowd about a man who is not there, and the two sets of messengers have just told Jesus two different things about him, that he is worthy because of what he built and that he is not worthy at all.
Verses 11-17
Simply Outside the gate of a town called Nain, a dead man is being carried out. He was his mother's only son and she is a widow, so she has now lost both the people who supported her. Jesus sees her, tells her not to cry, touches the bier, and the bearers stop. He tells the young man to get up. He sits up and starts talking, and Jesus gives him back to his mother. The crowd is frightened and says a great prophet has appeared and that God has visited his people.
Context Nobody asks for this one. In every other healing so far somebody has asked, or been carried, or reached out; here the only thing the mother does is walk behind a bier, and verse 13 says he saw her and had compassion, and that is the whole cause. Verse 15 is also careful about who the miracle is for. The young man sits up and speaks, and the sentence does not end there: he is GIVEN BACK TO HIS MOTHER, which is the loss the chapter actually described. The crowd's words at verse 16 pick up a verb from the songs at the start of the book: God has VISITED and redeemed his people at 1:68, and the dawn from on high will VISIT us at 1:78.
Verses 18-35
Simply John sends two disciples from prison to ask straight out: are you the one who is coming, or should we wait for someone else? Jesus does not answer yes. He heals people in front of the messengers and tells them to report what they saw: blind people seeing, lame people walking, poor people hearing good news. Then he tells the crowd that John was more than a prophet, and that this generation is like children in a market who complain that nobody will play with them, since John fasted and was called possessed and he eats and is called a drunk.
Context The question at verse 19 is asked by the man who at 3:16 said someone mightier was coming, so the book lets its own witness doubt his own testimony, in prison, and does not tidy it away. The answer at verse 22 is a list of things happening rather than a title, and it is close to the sentences quoted from Isaiah at 4:18. What it leaves out is as interesting as what it says: 4:19 had stopped short of the day of vengeance, and this list has no judgement in it either. Verse 28 then says two things that sit oddly together, that nobody born of women is greater than John and that the least in the Kingdom is greater than he is, and the file lets both stand as written.
Verses 36-50
Simply A Pharisee invites Jesus to dinner. A woman known in the town as a sinner comes in with a jar of ointment, stands behind him crying, wets his feet with her tears, dries them with her hair and anoints them. The host thinks to himself that a real prophet would know what she is. Jesus tells him a small story about two debtors, one owing ten times the other, both let off, and asks which will love the lender more. Simon answers correctly. Then Jesus lists what the host did not do and she did, tells her that her sins are forgiven, and says her faith has saved her.
Context There are four scenes in the four Gospels where a woman pours ointment on Jesus, and all four are in this app, so they can be read next to each other instead of blended. Mark 14:3 and Matthew 26:6 put it at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, days before the arrest, and the ointment goes on his HEAD. John 12:3 puts it at Bethany six days before Passover, names the woman as Mary, and it is the FEET, wiped with her hair. This one is in Galilee, early, at the table of a Pharisee who is also called Simon at verse 40, and it is the feet, the hair and tears. This file sets the four side by side and does not decide whether they are one event told four ways; that is a historical question the text does not answer, and the woman here is not named in any of them. The argument the chapter itself leaves open is smaller and sharper. The story at verses 41 to 43 says forgiveness comes first and love follows, and verse 47 as it stands reads as though the loving came first. Verse 50 then rests it on neither: your FAITH has saved you.