Jesus At A Pharisee’s House
Introduction:
I love to read the stories of the people Jesus came across. In those stories we get a glimpse into the mind of God and see what really matters. We learn how we should treat others and we learn what is most important. I am convinced that one of the reasons that Jesus was put to death was because he didn’t treat people like others treated people. He didn’t spend his time sucking up to the religious elites of his day, but actually paid attention to the sinners and those cast off by society as worthless. I believe we still have a lot to learn for how to treat others and Jesus is our perfect example in that matter.
We can rest assured that no one has ever impacted a society like Jesus did. No one has impacted the world more than Jesus did. He came into the world, he did not write anything that we know of, he was not wealthy at all, he did not travel far from his home that we know of and he turned the world upside down. He did it all by the way he interacted with others. It is this Jesus who has created a buzz in first century Palestine that can still be felt today. To this date millions upon millions of people have been impacted by the life of Jesus. John tells us that if everything that Jesus did was written down that not all the books in the entire world could contain what took place. All he did was love people in a way that was never shown before and that caused people to hate him intensely. Today, people continue to do good and show love in the name of Christ and many people in the world would rather that good not be done, many would silence the message of Jesus even today.
Just think about how Jesus treated people. He interacted with a Samaritan woman and offered her a glimmer of hope despite her trail of broken relationships. While the religious people of his day caught a woman in the act of adultery they were ready to stone her to death, but Jesus intervened and offered a glimmer of hope to a woman marked by sinful behavior. As society cast off its sick and diseased and treated them as second rate people, Jesus came to them and offered them a glimmer of hope. To the man born blind, to the man dying of the dreaded disease leprosy, to the paralytic Jesus offered a glimmer of hope. To the outcast, downtrodden, diseased, and even the demon possessed Jesus came to and loved them like crazy. Jesus’ way was quite a contrast from his contemporaries. Today that same glimmer of hope is given to each and every person alive. It is offered to the sinner who we have brushed off as hopeless, it is offered to the sick, the heartbroken, the old and the young. It is offered to those with pasts full of mistakes and it is offered to those of every tongue and tribe and nation. It is offered to Jew and Gentile, black and white, to every person on the face of the earth there is a glimmer of hope offered through Jesus.
One of my favorite stories in the gospel is the story of Jesus at the home of Simon the Pharisee. This story depicts three main characters: Jesus, Simon the Pharisee and a sinful woman who enters the scene and falls at the feet of Jesus. This story is well known, it shows us a vintage picture of our Lord, it teaches us many vital lessons, and offers us a glimmer of hope. Jesus’ encounter here seems more like a story to be wept over than commented upon. It is in the story perhaps as much as any other I can see myself. Perhaps there is a part of me I see as Simon the Pharisee. The text reveals a little of his thought process and I wonder if Jason Cole, the redeemed child of God would not have similar thoughts to the events unfolding as Simon did. However, in a much greater sense I see myself as this woman, marred by her past, a sinful person that I see in her a bit of myself. Only if we could have the love and devotion towards Jesus that she exhibited.
Text: Luke 7:36-50
I. This Woman Had Some Baggage
You can’t make a trip anywhere without baggage. It would be great if you could go to the airport and travel without baggage because checking your baggage is a pain. I have learned that the easiest way to travel is to stuff everything you have in your carryon luggage. That has several benefits. First, if you have ever traveled anywhere you know that airlines are not the best at keeping up with your luggage. I don’t know why, but sometimes they will fly your luggage on another flight than the one you are on. That creates a problem because sometimes you can arrive to your destination before your luggage arrives. I have done quite a bit of traveling and two times my luggage has been lost. One time I was on a trip to Europe. I checked my baggage in at the airport and flew out. When I arrived I stood at baggage claim waiting for my suitcase to come down the conveyer belt. After about an hour of waiting I got the hint. Finally, two days later my baggage arrived. For two days, I wore the same smelly clothes and had not brushed my teeth because everything was in my luggage. The second time my baggage got lost was on my way home from Italy. Rather than sending my baggage to my final destination of Roanoke, VA, USA. The airline sent my baggage to Rhodes, Greece. Another reason why I would love to have all my things in a carryon bag rather than in luggage you check in is because of the chaos of checking it in. Apparently the airline has developed a system of random baggage searches. I am sure they search anyone who looks suspicious. For some reason I guess I look suspicious. I have been through the rigorous process of being questioned and having your baggage searched through. If you carry a carry on rather than a check in bag the airline sees it as though you have no baggage. That may work with the airline, but it doesn’t work in real life. Ignoring my baggage doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
I don’t know exactly what this woman had done in her past, but the text tells us that she was a woman who had lived a sinful lifestyle. We cannot help but to wonder what all that wound entail. We could probably use our imaginations and then we can begin to understand the reputation this woman had. How would you like to be referred to and known in society as one who lived a life of sin? Some have suggested that she may have been involved in some level of prostitution. That may explain why Simon was so appalled that Jesus would let this woman near him. That is just the type of person that righteous people keep away from and keep at a distance, isn’t it? Apparently she not only had some baggage, but she had a bad reputation among the people of her day. This sinful lifestyle was what she was known for. I would assume that she had done some pretty awful things. She had some baggage and a lot of nerve coming to Jesus the way that she did. She was the type of woman we would keep away from our children, which we would whisper about to our friends, that we would stare at in disbelief, she is the type of person that might have made news headlines for her behavior. She was the type of person that we would apply the verse, “bad company corrupts good character.” She had tons of baggage, a vile past, and a reputation for her sinful behavior.
A. Everyone Has Baggage
We all have baggage. Everyone here has baggage. By baggage I mean hurts, mistakes, and sins we have in the past. From a very early age we gain baggage. We do our best to teach people to hide their baggage. For some reason we have taught people that when you come to church you better not have any baggage and if they do have any baggage they better keep it tucked away so no one else can see it because baggage is embarrassing and sometimes downright shameful.
We have become professionals at putting on a mask when we come to church. We have learned how to play the church game very well.
I cannot tell you how many times I have talked with someone who told me they wanted to start coming to church, but they wanted to straighten their life our first. Before they would come to church they wanted to get rid of their baggage. I wanted to tell them that they have that backwards. I wanted to tell them that everyone at church has baggage to and they are working on. I wanted to tell them that not everyone’s baggage is sorted through yet.
Now, why do you think some people feel as if they have to straighten out before they come to church? I would certainly say partly because of their misconceptions, but I also might suggest that it is partly because we come to church and act as if we have no baggage. We give them a false sense of the way it is. We need to understand that we all have baggage. The church is full of people with baggage. That baggage doesn’t necessarily dictate our future or even our present behaviors, but it certainl may well define our pasts.
I Corinthians 6:9-11
Guess what? We are sinners! If we were to look into each other’s pasts we would see some horrible things. The church ought to be a place where we can all admit that we have baggage. We are all a mess and if we do not think we are a mess what do we need with a “messiah”.
I John 1:8-10
Simon failed to understand that he too had baggage perhaps even more so than this sinful woman. He was self-righteous. He spent some much of his time worrying about the perception of righteousness that he was giving to other people that perhaps he failed to tend to his heart. Perhaps his baggage wasn’t as obvious to others because he had hid it well, but nevertheless he was a debtor. If we never admit we have the baggage, the problem then we can never begin to deal with the problem.
We need to understand that our past baggage does not define us. Our past baggage does not render us ineffective in the kingdom. Our past baggage does not cause us to be unusable. God used people all throughout the Bible with baggage, didn’t he? Abraham was a liar. Moses was a murderer. David was an adulterer. Paul was a persecutor. Those guys had some serious baggage, and so do we, but that does not mean we cannot succeed, it does not mean we are doomed to spiritual failure.
Maybe you are more like this woman and you have some baggage, and because of that past you are a little afraid to come to Jesus. Perhaps you worry about what people in the church will think of you and how they will respond when they learn that you have baggage. Perhaps you have never been able to deal with your past because all your life you have been taught or perceived that to be a Christian or involved in the church means that you must hide your baggage. Perhaps today you are a little like Simon. You are looking at everyone else and their awful pasts, but you fail to see your baggage. Perhaps you have been so concerned with hiding that past from others and looking the part that you have missed the point. Perhaps today you look righteous and you have everyone fooled, but maybe inside you know that you too should be along with this woman laying it all out at the feet of Jesus.
II. This Woman Had Some Understanding
Alan Calhoun of Bristol, Connecticut told of a garage sale he and wife had a year or so ago. They had decided to put out a mirror they’d received as a wedding gift. The reason they were selling it was that it had a gaudy aqua-colored metal frame and they just couldn’t find a room in their house where it looked good. Shortly after the sale began, a man who was looking to decorate his apartment bought the mirror for one dollar. He was all excited, and he said as he bought it: “This is a great deal - it still has the plastic on it.” Then he peeled off the aqua-colored protective covering… to reveal a beautiful gold finished frame underneath.
Lots of people go to garage sales looking for bargains just like that. Some people have a saying about garage sales: "One man’s trash is another man’s treasure," but once in a while, someone stumbles upon a treasure that the owner doesn’t know the value of.
Perhaps this was Simon’s problem. He didn’t understand fully who it was that was having dinner at his home. Perhaps he had reduced Jesus in his mind to a good moral teacher or maybe just a prophet, but Jesus was so much more than that. If you were to ask anyone around who was the one in this story with the most religious understanding, most people would have said surely it was Simon the Pharisee. He would have known the Scriptures well, but he didn’t understand everything. Perhaps the woman in this story didn’t know much Scriptures, but we can be sure there are some things she understood. She understood the value and importance of the one at Simon’s home. I don’t believe this woman was as ignorant of spiritual things as some may have suspected. What was some people’s trash of that day was her treasure. Everyone else failed to see the treasure in Jesus, but this woman understood that He was someone special.
I don’t know Simon’s exact motivation for inviting Jesus to his home. Some say it would have been in order to trap Jesus some way, others say it was because he thought he was a prophet and wanted to check him out. Regardless, it would have been the proper manner for the leading Pharisee to invite a distinguished teacher to his home. This is exactly what took place.
As the sinful woman interacted with Jesus Simon thought this woman was ridiculous, but you see the problem wasn’t her it was Simon. He thought she had some nerve to approach Jesus this way and disturb his party, but she did something he wouldn’t. It was custom in that time when a guest came to your home for that guest to met and have his feet washed and dried. Following that the master of that house would greet that guest with a kiss and would anoint his head with some sort of oil. However, Simon didn’t do any of that for Jesus when he came to his home as his guest. That sinful woman can to Jesus and poured perfume on him and kissed his feet. I can’t say I would want to kiss someone’s feet today, much less 2,000 years ago. In that time feet were considered the dirtiest part of a person’s body. People walked everywhere they went, and as they walked they would accumulate dust, mud, dirt, and dung all over their feet. Simon should have offered to wash his feet, but he didn’t. We see Simon however criticizing this woman for her actions; she was doing what he should have done.
Can you imagine what was going through Simon’s mind as all this took place? We do not know how this sinful woman got into this dinner party, but nevertheless we see her enter the picture. We know Simon had to be terribly embarrassed. Have you ever been a dinner host for someone you respected? If you have then you know how much you want everything to go right at that dinner. You want your guests to be comfortable, you want the food to be good and you want everything to work out well. Whenever Stephanie and I have had guests over for dinner we have a tradition. Before the guests arrive I get some instructions. Stephanie will proceed to tell me what things I should not do to embarrass her. Certainly, this situation taking place in Luke’s gospel would have been the disaster of all disasters. He had to be thinking to himself, “who in the world let this woman in here?” Then I can see his eyes getting bigger and bigger as he watched her approach Jesus. He had to be thinking, “What in the world is she doing? Oh no, she is pouring perfume on him, oh get up woman, don’t kiss his feet?” He sat and waited for Jesus to reveal his disgust, but he never did.
We see that as all this unfolds Simon waited for Jesus to rebuke this woman. Simon thought that he should have told this sinner to get out of his presence. In fact, Simon thought that Jesus’ lack of a rebuke proved that he wasn’t really a prophet. He thought this woman was ridiculous. We see that in this story one had a good understanding of things and the other’s understanding was distorted. I have a hint; it wasn’t Simon the learned Pharisee who had the proper understanding. This sinful woman may have had some baggage, she may have been a reject from society and she may have been uneducated and none very little Bible, but I believe she understood far more than Simon.
A. This Woman Understood Jesus Was Worthy
There was another occasion when Jesus was in Bethany that he was anointed with an expensive perfume. His disciples criticized him for allowing that expensive oil to be used upon him when it could have been sold and given to the poor. They failed to realize that Jesus was worthy.
I believe there are several reasons Simon cringed at what take place at his table, but one of those had to be the fact that this woman is wasting perfectly good perfume. I don’t know the value of what she used to anoint Jesus and that certainly is not the point, but the point is she saw that Jesus was worth it. She saw that He was greater than she was. We see in this sinful woman an attitude of humility. She comes to Jesus crying, wetting him with her tears, pouring perfume on him, kissing his feet and drying them with her tears.
Perhaps some would have looked at this event unfold and thought, what a waste! Perhaps the perfume came at a great cost and was valuable. She saw that Jesus was worthy. Perhaps coming to Jesus like she did was embarrassing. Perhaps some would have called her crazy or over-emotional. Perhaps some would have ridiculed her for acting the way she did. Perhaps some would have called her naïve. Admittedly, she did make herself vulnerable, not knowing what Jesus would say or how he would respond to her. Surely many would have expected Jesus to dismiss her from his presence and be greatly offended at her actions. I wonder how many of us fail to give praise, worship, allegiance, or the best we have to offer to the Lord for fear of what others may think of us. She wasn’t worried about what Simon would think or what her peers would think. She saw that Jesus was worthy of coming before and laying herself down at his feet.
We must understand that Jesus is worthy. He is worthy of the best we have to offer. He is worthy of us laying down our pride and coming to him. He is worthy of our lives. He is worthy of our worship. He is worthy of our service. He is worthy of our tithes and offerings. He is worthy of our allegiance.
Revelation 5:11-12
Let us never become too proud, arrogant or concerned with what others may think to come to Jesus. He is worthy of our praise. He is worthy of us falling before His feet, pouring out all we have.
B. This Woman Understood Her Sin
This woman was not in denial over her sin. She knew what her past entailed and so did Jesus. In fact the text tells us that even Simon knew what type of woman she was. We do not see her as someone coming arrogantly before him, but we see someone coming with humility, with repentance and a contrite heart. Certainly she was not proud of her sin and she knew she needed forgiveness. She understood what position her sin put her in. Before we can really come to Jesus we must understand our sin. We must understand the gravity of our sin. When we understand the full effect of our sin, it should cause us to respond in some way. We must understand that sin has consequences. This woman was not delusional; she knew she was a sinner in the presence of someone holy. I believe it was the fact that she was a sinner that brought her to Jesus. We need to understand that we are sinners who have fallen short of the glory of God. Perhaps when others view us they wonder how Jesus could allow us near him. Let us thank God that Jesus is a friend of sinners. This woman showed remorse and she came to the right place because there she found forgiveness.
C. This Woman Understood Jesus as Her Only Hope
One may wonder what caused this woman to act the way she did. My opinion is that before Jesus came to Simon’s house this woman heard Jesus preach. She would have probably heard him preach the message that Matthew records in chapter eleven where he taught, “come to me all who are weary and heavy burdened and I will give you rest, take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden in light.” I imagine she had never heard anyone preach like Jesus. It is my assumption that this woman had buried within her somewhere a desire to do what is right. Perhaps she wanted to change her lifestyle, but she was too ashamed. She would have heard the teaching of the Pharisees, which would not have provided her any hope, but would have made her feel useless. Perhaps she had seen herself as a lost cause with no other options in life, so she rebelled and lived a lifestyle of sin. Then she heard this Jesus preach, not about how miserable she was, but about the hope that was available and the forgiveness offered to her.
Maybe you are at the breaking point. Maybe you feel in over your head. Let me assure you that there is a glimmer of hope. Let me assure you that you can’t fix yourself. You can’t solve all your problems, but Jesus is your only hope. He can change your life, he can handle your greatest problems and worries, he can forgive your pasts no matter how vile they may be.
This woman may have understood far more than Simon the Pharisee did because she understood some basic facts about Jesus that he failed to see. In the end she was in the right place. Perhaps it made her vulnerable, perhaps it caused others to stare and point, but she was at the feet of Jesus, giving him all she had. What better place to be found?
III. This Woman Loved Much
As this woman approached Jesus, Luke gives us a hint at what was going on in Simon’s mind. Simon was thinking that if Jesus was really a prophet he would know what type of woman this is who touches him, that she is a sinner. Perhaps the whole dinner was set up for Simon to investigate further who this Jesus really was. It was inappropriate for a Rabbi to associate so solely with sinners, and even more than that for one to associate with women even of good character. The text does not ever say that Simon said anything out loud about what was taking place, but nevertheless Jesus responded to Simon’s thoughts. It says that Jesus answered him; meaning answered what Simon was thinking quietly in his own mind. Jesus said, “Simon I have something to tell you.” He proceeded to tell a story about two people who have debts relieved. One owed a large debt and one a much smaller debt. Then Jesus asked Simon a question, “which one will love more?” This was not the toughest question ever asked, and Simon responded, that he thought it was the one who had the bigger debt removed. Of course Simon answered correctly. Then my favorite part of the story takes place. The text tells us that Jesus turned and looked at the woman, but continued to talk to Simon the Pharisee. He proceeds to point out that she came to Jesus the right way. He says that her many sins have been forgiven so she loved much, but he who has been forgiven little loves little.
Jesus never tried to make excuses for this woman’s past. He refers to it as sinful behavior and admits that she has a lot to be forgiven of. She has some definite baggage, but it is because of that baggage and that forgiveness given to her that caused her to love much.
I don’t know if Jesus was saying that Simon had only been forgiven little, and he loved little, but the principle is true. Those that think they are good people and don’t have much to be forgiven of usually have less zeal and passion than those who have been forgiven much.
Paul was highly motivated to preach the gospel because he had been forgiven much. This woman acted the way she did because she had been forgiven of much sin.
II Corinthians 5:14
The reality is that we have all been forgiven of much, however some of us have the attitude of Simon. I wonder if some of us are so busy worrying about what others are doing and how others will make us look than we are doing what is right. This woman was not concerned with what others would think; she simple loved Jesus and wanted to show her appreciation for him the best that he knew how.
The point is that true forgiveness merits a response of love on our behalf. Simon sat and watched. He had all sorts of thoughts running through his head as all this unfolded, but the reality is he too should have been at the feet of Jesus. He should have stopped worrying about this woman and judging her actions and should have been concerned about finding his own forgiveness. I guess it is true that he who has been forgiven much loves much and he who has been forgiven little loves little. Perhaps as you gauge your life you see a life marked by mistakes and sin. Perhaps you have embarrassments, perhaps you feel you are too bad to come to Jesus, but let me assure you that forgiveness is available.
