Say in a word. The centurion understood authority. As one under orders giving orders, he saw in Christ the same chain of command — only higher. The word would do it.

A model for prayer. Not elaborate language but confidence in His word. Whatever He speaks accomplishes what it intends.

A widow burying her only son. Christ's response is compassion — and a small command. Weep not before the miracle. He addresses her grief before resolving the cause of it.

The Lord's tenderness toward the broken. He intercepts the funeral procession; the dead receives a sentence; the mother receives her son. Every detail is mercy.

A double verse. John exceeds every Old Testament prophet — he saw the Messiah he announced. Yet the least in the kingdom now is greater — because the kingdom has come and the inheritance is fuller.

A measure of grace. Whatever your spiritual height, the least believer who lives this side of Pentecost has been given more than John saw. Steward the privilege.

Christ's diagnosis. Her love proves her forgiveness; the Pharisee's lack of love proves the opposite. Love is the symptom of grace received.

A piercing self-test. Cool love for Christ is the sign of a cool sense of having been forgiven. Stir the second by remembering what you owed; the first will follow.