Luke 7:11-43

¹¹Jesus and his followers went to a town called Nain. A big mob of other people went with him.

¹²Just before that, a young man in that town died. He was the only son of his mother, and her husband was already dead, so she had nobody left to look after her. That mother, and a big mob of people, were taking him out of the town on a stretcher, to bury him. And at that same time, Jesus was going into the town on the same road.

¹³Jesus saw the mother, and he felt very sorry for her. He told her, “Don’t cry.”

¹⁴Then he walked over to the stretcher and touched it, and the men that were carrying it stopped. Jesus said, “Young man, listen to me. Get up.”

¹⁵Then the dead boy sat up and started to talk. And Jesus told him to go back to his mother.

¹⁶Everyone that saw this was frightened. They said, “God is really great and powerful. One of his men has come to us to tell us his word and show us his power. God has come to help his people.”

¹⁷Then went and told lots of other people what they saw, so people everywhere in Judea country heard that story.

³⁶One of the Jewish law men asked Jesus to eat dinner with him. He belonged to the mob called Pharisees. Jesus went to his house and sat down at the table.

³⁷There was a woman in that town that used to do bad things. She heard that Jesus was eating dinner with that man, so she got a pretty jar of special oil and went to his house. That oil had a really good smell, and it cost a lot of money.

³⁸Then she went inside and stood behind Jesus. She was crying and her tears fell on his feet. Then she dried his feet with her hair, and she kissed them, then she poured all that special oil on to his feet.

³⁹The Jewish law man saw her do that and he said to himself, “I knew it. This man is not one of God’s men. He is letting a bad woman touch him. I reckon he doesn’t know she did a lot of bad things, so I reckon he doesn’t have God’s power.”

⁴⁰Jesus said to him, “Simon, I want to tell you something.” Simon said, “All right, Teacher, tell me.”

⁴¹Then Jesus told him a picture story, he said, “There was a rich man that used to lend money to people. He lent one man $500, and he lent another man $50.

⁴²But both of those men had bad luck and lost all their money. They couldn’t pay that money back to the rich man. But the rich man was good to both of them and told them, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll let it go. You don’t have to pay me that money.’ Well, Simon, what do you reckon? Which one of those men will love that rich man the most?”

⁴³Simon said, “I reckon it is the man that owed him the most money, and didn’t have to pay it back.” Jesus said, “You are right.”