Reel Luke

Jesus Meets a Soldier and a Widow

Luke 7:1–17

Intro to Reel Luke
Reel Luke Leader's Guide
More Reel Questions

Helpful Stuff to Know

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  • Rome was the occupying power in Jesus’ day. They’d been ruling over all Palestine (including Galilee, Samaria, and Judea, the areas where Jesus lived and taught) for over 60 years. Many Jewish people viewed Roman soldiers and rulers as oppressors and enemies.
  • Jewish laws and traditions said it wasn’t OK to touch a dead person.
  • It would have taken one or two days to walk from Capernaum to Nain.

Be Sure Not to Miss

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  • The Roman soldier had built good relationships with Jewish elders, which said something about his character.
  • Jesus usually healed people in person, face-to-face. Healing the Roman soldier’s servant from afar showed how powerful he really was.
  • These two stories have many details that are parallel but different that Luke wanted readers to notice and learn from, like:
  1. Roman soldier vs. a Jewish widow
  2. a sick servant vs. a dead son
  3. healed from a distance vs. raised to life in person
  • The Jewish woman's husband was dead, and now her only son was dead too. She'd lost all the people who would have watched out for her.
  • There were two different crowds in the beginning of the widow’s story. At the end, there was just one crowd.

Be Careful About

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  • These two stories do not promise that Jesus will fix all our problems with supernatural miracles. Instead, they show us the heart and character of God, including his love, compassion, kindness, power, and might. Don't turn these stories into, "God will heal and fix everything that is wrong in your life."

1. Read Luke 7:1–17

Here's a few different ways you can read and recap the story with your group.

  • Read it through one time with people just listening to you. Then read it through a second time with people following along in their own Bibles.
  • Ask a few people to act out the story while you read it.
  • Ask one or two people to retell the story after hearing it.
  • Ask two people to retell the story in the first person, as though they were actually there. One person can do the play-by-play (tell the details of what happened), and the other can offer color commentary (add details about how they felt, what surprised them, what confused them, etc.). First-person retelling can make the story feel more real. It's also a blast.

2. Reel Questions (set the scene)

  • Where did this story happen? What do you think it looked like? Smelled like? Sounded like?
  • Make a list of all the people in the story (including "crowd" if there is one), and give a one-word description of each e.g. impatient, desperate, funny, selfish, awkward, etc.
  • List everything that Jesus said in the story. What was your favorite statement?

3. Story-Specific Questions

  • Why do you think it's helpful to read these stories together?
  • Why do you think Jesus healed the Roman soldier’s servant from a distance instead of going to his house?
  • Why do you think Jesus helped the widow even though she didn’t ask him to?
  • Verse 16 says the crowd felt great fear and praised God. How can both of those things both be true?

4. Wrap-Up Question

  • Why do you think this story is included in the Bible? What do you think God wants us to learn from it?

5. Pray