The Lord’s Day Evening
Luke 7:36-50
“Offended by Jesus”
The Reverend Mr. Nate Shurden
If you have your Bibles, please turn with me to Luke 7. We’re going to focus on the passage that will be very familiar to many of you, a passage that has meant much to me over the years, Luke 7. We’ll spend our time focused on verses 36 to 50. Before we read God’s word, let us go to Him in prayer. Let’s pray.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable to You, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
This is the word of the Lord:
“One of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him, and He went into the Pharisee’s house and took His place at the table. And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind Him at His feet, weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed His feet and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he said to himself, ‘If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.’ And Jesus answering said to him, ‘Simon, I have something to say to you.’ And he answered, ‘Say it, Teacher.’
“A certain money lender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?’ Simon answered, ‘The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.’ And He said to him, ‘You have judged rightly.’ Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, ‘Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave Me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss My feet. You did not anoint My head with oil, but she has anointed My feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.’ And He said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ Then those who were at the table with Him began to say among themselves, ‘Who is this, who even forgives sins?’ And He said to the woman, ‘Your faith has saved you; go in peace.’”
Thus far the reading of God’s holy, inspired, and inerrant word. May He write its eternal truths upon our hearts.
This is one of the most fascinating stories in all of the Gospels, one of the most fascinating encounters with Jesus, with two very, very different people. One, the Pharisee named Simon, and the other a woman who is actually unnamed in our passage (which may give us a clue as to who she was) is described in this passage several times by the description of ‘a sinner.’ In order to get the setting of this story and to see the impact of its message that it teaches to us, I think it’s important that we go back just a few verses and gather some information so that we can launch into this passage.
Jesus has come into the city of Nain. He’s come into the area of Judea. And when He comes into Judea, something very significant happens. You can read about it back in verse 11 of chapter 7. He comes into the city of Nain, and right as He comes into the city gates, He comes across a funeral procession. A young man has died, and he is the only son of his mother. And not only that, the woman is a widow. She’s lost her husband as well. As Jesus runs across this funeral procession, He stops and He has compassion (that’s what the Scripture tells us) on the woman; and in His compassion He lays His hand upon the young boy and He tells him to rise, and immediately he sits up and he begins to speak. Now you can imagine that this incident just as the stranger - Jesus - begins to enter into the city of Nain, into the country of Judea, causes quite a stir. It isn’t every day that we see a dead man rise. And we’re told that fear seized the people. When we look at verse 16 of Luke 7, we see that the people actually have an interpretation about who Jesus is. They say that a great prophet has arisen, and that God has visited His people. And it says the story of this tremendous miracle of Jesus begins to spread all throughout the city and all throughout the countryside. Jesus gains a reputation right as He enters the town of Nain, right as He enters into the area of Judea.
And so as we lead up to the invitation of Simon the Pharisee to have Jesus over to his house, we’re leading up to someone who has caused quite a stir in the area, someone that Simon the Pharisee would be intrigued by. But as we see the story as it begins to take shape, we see that there are two people in the story—a woman and Simon the Pharisee—and two that come to very different conclusions about who Jesus is, this exciting new prophet, this spectacle, this phenomenon. And so tonight as we focus on this passage we’re going to organize our thoughts around these two verses. We’re going to look at Simon the Pharisee. We’re going to consider what his response and what his conclusion is to Jesus, and then we’re going to look at the woman who is described as a sinner and we’re going to see what her conclusion is about Jesus. And before the night is done, we’ll pause and we’ll take a look at what Jesus thinks about both Simon the Pharisee and the woman.
Let’s begin by looking at Simon the Pharisee. He’s a rather fascinating figure. The thing that would stick out to us immediately on reading the passage is this is one of those religious leaders. This is one of those guys who holds a lot of authority and clout in the religious community of his day. He is a man who would be widely respected, a man whose name would have been somewhat of a household name in Judea. And he’s a part of that religious group that – well, as we read the New Testament we see is oftentimes not very excited about Jesus, to put it lightly. In fact they are quite antagonistic towards Him. But we see something quite different about who Simon is. Simon actually shows us right at the beginning of this passage that he’s not just any old Pharisee who’s looking for a trap in which to catch Jesus in a fit of words, and thus put Him out. He’s not one of the Pharisees who would draw the conclusion that Jesus is a kind of religious insurrectionist – He’s trying to overthrow things, He’s a rebel, a rogue. No, Simon the Pharisee is actually quite intrigued by Jesus, and we see it right there at the beginning of our passage in verse 36. We read that
“One of the Pharisees asked Him [that is, Jesus] to eat with him. And He went into the Pharisee’s house and He took His place at the table.”
As we read through this passage we speed through that as sort of introductory words, but in fact it tells us something about what’s going on in the mind and the heart of Simon the Pharisee.
To have someone over to eat with you, to have someone into your house, meant that you were identifying with them. It meant that you had acceptance of them. You remember all the way throughout the New Testament that one of the great rebukes and one of the great derogatory comments that the Pharisees bring to Jesus is that He’s one who always eats with “sinners and tax collectors.” That’s Jesus’ grave fault. And we see here a Pharisee, one who was known for rejecting Jesus and putting Him aside, we have an invitation for Jesus to eat at his house, to break bread with him. And this meant that Simon the Pharisee was in a sense moving toward Christ. We don’t have a story here of one who is seeking Christ and one who is not. We have a story about one who is curious, is moving towards Christ ever so slightly, and one who has met Him.
As we see that Simon the Pharisee invites Jesus over to eat at his house, to partake in a meal together, we realize that Simon the Pharisee is actually taking quite a risk. We must not overlook the fact that he would not have been praised among his fellow Pharisees for such a move as this. This was a bold professional risk that Simon is making, to have one such as Jesus into his household. We don’t see another Pharisee—you can thumb the pages of the New Testament—who makes such a bold move as this. The one that’s probably ringing in the back of your mind is Nicodemus, right? He comes to Jesus where Jesus is, and he comes under the cloak of darkness so that he won’t be seen, so that he won’t be exposed. Here is Simon the Pharisee openly inviting Jesus to the host’s table at a banquet that he has prepared.
But not only do we see Simon, one who is seeking Jesus; we see another seeker in this passage. We see the woman. And we see this woman is very anxious to find Jesus. She’s been walking around the city of Nain trying to figure out where He is, and finally someone tells her. And she learns that Jesus is reclining at the house of Simon the Pharisee. And immediately the woman grabs her alabaster vial of perfume, and she begins to make her way towards Simon the Pharisee’s house. She walks right into the house in the midst of the banquet that is going on, and she’s able to creep up right next to the table where Jesus is reclining with Simon the Pharisee, and it seems as if – the indication from the text is that she’s standing right behind Him. Now how is a woman able to get away with this? This is the reason that we have 911 on our speed dials in our own day and time! As we sit around the dinner table, someone bursting through our door comes under the guise of breaking and entering. And someone who’s acting and weeping and somewhat of a spectacle behind us as we eat at our dinner tables would unnerve us almost immediately.
Well, I think some appreciation for what is going on here in the banquet is in order. We must understand the culture of the time. This large banquet that the Pharisees and religious leaders would put on would include three groups of people when they met. There would be those who were the invited guests, those like Jesus, who had the opportunity to recline at the table—probably propped up on one elbow, probably their legs stretched out beside them on their right, with their right hand able to grab food and eat. It was the posture of dinnertime in the New Testament. But alongside these special invited guests we would have these servants who would be bustling around, who would be topping off the sweet tea and grabbing more napkins so that when the kids make the big spills, and grabbing dessert when it’s time for it, and brewing some coffee. The servants would be running hither and yon across the banquet hall making sure that all of the guests’ needs were taken care of.
But in our culture we don’t have this third group, and the third group is those who are in the public, those who are uninvited people but who could come into these large banquet halls, stand along the outskirts of the room, observe what was going on, listen to the intelligent conversation that the invited guests would be having, and probably in some cases be able to actually engage in conversation. So it would not be out of the question to think that there is quite a group of people who are gathered around the table where the great prophet Jesus is, and Simon the Pharisee, who is a leader among the Pharisees.
So this woman, being able to come up right behind the table, she’s probably gathered with quite a few people, and so she makes her way to be standing right behind Jesus. And it seems to me that she’s brought this perfume, this vial of perfume, and she’s going to do something with it. She’s either going to give it to Jesus as a gift or to expend its contents on Him, but she had come to give it to Him, to give a kind of sacrifice of praise. And as she goes to make her move, it seems that she becomes overwhelmed with emotion…that the tears begin to fill her eyes, and they begin streaming down her cheeks. And as she stands right over Jesus, these tears begin falling off her cheeks and falling onto Jesus’ feet. And it’s probably at this time that Jesus’ attention is immediately drawn to her (and Jesus’ attention and everyone else’s)—and noticing this she stoops down, probably undoing her hair, and begins wiping the tears off of His feet. And you can see the picture: Jesus reclining at the table and as she’s wiping the tears off of His feet, her mouth is close to His feet and she begins to kiss His feet, over and over again. And she takes the vial of perfume (probably around her neck), breaks it, and expends the contents on Jesus’ feet. It’s one of the most intimate moments in all of Scripture, isn’t it? One of the most beautiful expressions of someone who has seen who Jesus is has grasped what He’s come to do, and their only response is complete giving of themselves to Him.
As the passage outlines this beautiful expression, almost immediately Simon the Pharisee comes back into the picture. Simon begins to make all sorts of judgments about what’s going on here. We see in verse 40 some of the judgments that Simon brings to the fore. He says that if this man, this Jesus whom I’ve invited over to my house to eat, to identify with, to accept, to build a relationship with—this Jesus is clearly not who He says He is. For if He were a prophet, He would know what sort of woman is touching Him. Simon the Pharisee all of a sudden becomes quite offended at who Jesus is. He sees that if Jesus is this prophet that He says He is, He wouldn’t put up with this kind of person touching Him. That’s really what gets under His skin here…this woman who cries over Him and weeps over Him and kisses His feet, and anoints His feet with oil…if Jesus knew who she really was, Simon the Pharisee is convinced that He would disband her. And the reality is that it’s really much worse than Simon thinks. For Simon’s judgment of Jesus is— well, it’s all wrong. Jesus is not only just a prophet who certainly knows exactly who this woman is and all of her sins, and we learn in this passage that they were great; but it’s much worse than Simon thought, for Jesus knows all of her sins and He accepts her and loves her anyway.
You see, Simon the Pharisee, offended at the fact that Jesus is probably a fraud, and the social risk that he has taken by having Jesus into his house now might make him look very bad. He would be humiliated in the eyes of others. Oh, Simon! The condition is much worse, for the prophet who stands besides you, who is eating with you, who converses with you, is one who accepts sinners just as this woman.
Isn’t it interesting that Simon is interested in Jesus only until the point that he finds out who Jesus is interested in? do you see? When Jesus’ company comes around, it becomes very offensive to those with deep upper crust religious sensibilities such as Simon the Pharisee.
Jesus knew this would happen. In fact, if you look just a few verses earlier at Luke 7 you will remember the story where John the Baptist sends his messengers to Jesus. He sends a few messengers, and they’ve got a question for Jesus. They want to know, “Are You the one? Are You the long expected one, the one the prophets always talked about? The Messiah? Are You the one?” And just as those messengers of John the Baptist come, they ask Him this question, and you see exactly how Jesus responds in verses 21-22 of Luke 7. We are told that:
“In that hour Jesus healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many who were blind He bestowed sight. And He answered them [this is how He answered John’s messengers], ‘Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by Me.”
Jesus understands that the kind of kingdom which He is building in this world is the kind of kingdom where fishermen and tax collectors and prostitutes are the foundation. It’s the kind of kingdom that no one would expect. It’s the most unlikely and the most unlovable of individuals—a woman who weeps, who makes a spectacle at a very important banquet—that Jesus says understands the essence of the gospel. That’s exactly what He says.
We see that Jesus really brings to the fore the great contrast between Simon the Pharisee and this nameless, great sinner of a woman. The contrast is told in the little parable, that there’s one who has a great debt of five hundred denarii, and there’s one who has a smaller debt of fifty denarii. But neither can pay. Neither have the money to be able to pay their debt, and so the money lender comes to them both and cancels the debt. And He asks Simon, ‘Simon, which do you think loves Me more?’ And Simon, though having the right answer, is far from the kingdom of God, for he sees the one with the greatest debt is the one who expends the greatest love upon Christ. And Jesus says to him, ‘Simon, do you see the woman? Do you see who she is? Do you see what she has done? She has come and she has wet my feet with tears when you have refused to wash My feet. She has come and she has lavished me with kisses when you could not even give Me the custom of the day of a kiss on the cheek. She has come and anointed My feet with the most precious of perfume at a point at which you would not even anoint My head with oil. Oh, Simon! This woman loves much, for she understands that she has been forgiven much.’
One of the great lessons that we see in this passage is a lesson of the fact that the greater we understand the debt which Christ has paid, and the greatness of the debt that Christ has paid on our behalf, the more love we’ll have for Christ. Simon could not love the Christ who would cancel his debt, because Simon didn’t know that he had one. Do you see? The greatest of Christ’s disciples are always understanding the weight, the gravity of their sin. They’re able to see that without Christ there is no hope in this world, and they are lost. But when they, like a woman with a great sin, come and see who Christ is, He becomes so believable and so beautiful that she is willing to make a spectacle of herself, a foolish spectacle at a fine banquet, because she knows no other great way to express the deep love that she has for her Lord and Savior.
Friend, if you are here tonight and you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ, and yet you sense that you are a great sinner, whether you have been Simon the Pharisee (who apparently looks pretty good on paper, but in the heart is far from the Lord) or whether you are the woman who has no name, but is only described by her sin, sense tonight the weight of that sin and know that Christ stands before you ready to cancel that debt for all of those who would come to Him in faith.
For those of you who know the Lord tonight—there are many of you—there’s a question that this text poses to you as well. It poses it to me. It is the question that if we have been forgiven a great debt, do we love like this woman? Are we able to weep like this woman, having tears of joy stream down your cheeks because you know that there was a hopelessness that resided within you and now the hope of heaven is within you? If not, then tonight reacquaint yourself with the Christ who has saved you, and understand that in all the trappings of the beauty of this life and the uprightness of our lives, that there is a Savior who can save to the nth degree of your sin. And He is ready. He is waiting. He is willing.
As Jesus pronounces upon this woman a pronouncement that we all desire to hear from our Lord, that our sins are forgiven, and He can send her off in confidence and with blessing, and with the Spirit of God residing within her, He can say to her, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.” Tonight I pray for all of us that we would know the excellencies and peace of Christ because we have tasted the sweetness of His redemption.
Let us pray.
Our Father in heaven, this story brings to the fore the magnanimity of Your grace: that though our sin is great, we have a still greater Savior. Father, in a room such as this there are many of us who need to hear the gospel afresh. Father, it is my prayer that You would do the work of Your word, and that we would find Christ this night. We pray it in His matchless name. Amen.
Please stand.
Now may the grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, be with your spirit. Amen.