Jesus: Creator, Savior, Lord and King #32 Jesus, the Prostitute, the Pharisee and the Parable - Luke 7:36-50

 

Jesus: Creator, Savior, Lord and King
#32 Jesus, the Prostitute, the Pharisee and the Parable
Luke 7:36-50

 

Introduction:

 This morning our sermon is about a feast or a party in Luke chapter 7. It is hosted by Simon the Pharisee probably in Capernaum. As I was doing my research and thinking through the sermon, I was reminded of a story about another party that took place in East Texas. So let me tell you about Bubba and the Alligators.

Lets get some context for today’s sermon from Matthew’s Gospel account. When I’m studying for these sermons on Jesus as Creator, Savior, Lord and King during his earthly ministry I use an Harmony of the Gospels, which places the four Gospels side by side and in chronological order so you can see a fuller picture of the life of Christ on earth. The most trusted of these is Robertson’s Harmony of the Gospels it is a classic and also contain side notes that give further insight. If you want a full view of Jesus life from all the angles of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John then you should pick one up. They have been around since 1922, are available online at Project Gutenberg and a good used book store will probably have a copy or two. It is invaluable when it comes to studying the life of Christ.

If you were to use A Harmony of the Gospels you would find that Matthew 11 immediately proceeds out text today, so turn to it and lets read, Matthew 11:25-30 25 At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. 26 Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight. 27 All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. 28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Following that prayer and invitation, Jesus is invited to the house of Simon the Pharisee for a meal, which is more than just a meal. I want to present the sermon today in 5 chapters, let me qualify that statement, 5 short chapters. The chapters are The Party,

The Party

Luke 7:36-50 36 And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee's house, and sat down to meat.

Jesus Unhonored

When we speak of context in studying scripture it is important that the context includes the culture and times of the setting. A party or feast in Jesus’ time is not the same as one in our time. Take for instance this meal. First, when it says they sat down to meat, we need to remember they weren’t sitting as we do around a waist high table. The custom among the Romans, Persians, Egyptians and Jews during this time was a low table with couches arranged around it and those at the meal reclined on their left side, feet away from the table and ate with their right hand. (Sorry Leonardo Da Vinci, you got it wrong when you painted the Last Supper.)

Also, the word meat in the KJV just means food. So, no, they weren’t on the carnivore diet. Though they only ate two meals a day so they might have been Keto or interment fasting back before those were a thing. Today if Da Vinci painted us eating a meal, it in recliners and eating off TV trays. Kind of sad, when you think about it. 

At one of these meals or parties, you treated your guest differently. First then they entered your home or sometime these were held out in a enclose courtyard or patio, when a guest arrived the host greet them with a welcome kiss upon the cheeks or neck according to one of my sources. He then would also point them to a basin of water so that they could take off their sandals and wash their feet, soiled from the days walking in dusty roads and streets. Often this task was performed by a household servant. If you were an honored guest, then you would also be anointed with a sweet, fragrant ointment.

It is notable, that at this party none of these things were done for Jesus. Even though Simon had invited Him, he did not want to honor Jesus because he had not decided if Jesus was really a prophet, or the Messiah of Israel. Perhaps the purpose of inviting Jesus was to put Him to the test and then decide who Jesus really was.

Jesus loved to eat with People. Another thing about context or in this case comparing scripture with scripture is that we can see throughout the Gospels, in fact throughout the Bible that Jesus loved to be and especially to eat a meal with other people. Over and over we read of Jesus dining with Matthew, with Simon the leper, with Mary and Martha, with Lazarus, with Zacchaeus.  He even invites himself to Zacchaeus house. "Come down for I'm going to your house today and I hope you have something to eat." In the Old Testament, Jesus and two angels stop while travelling to eat with Abraham and in the book of  Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

Later in the book we read Revelation 19:9 And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God. John is so overwhelmed by this invitation to the wedding supper of the Lamb and His bride, the true church, that he falls at the feet of the angel who gives the invitation.

Why are suppers, feasts, meals with others so important to the Lord? Why is it that most of us would always rather eat with someone rather than eat alone? Perhaps it’s because, when you think about it, eating with others makes you a part of them. You share more than food at a communal meal you also share yourself. You tell stories, you listen as others tell stories and when you leave a part of you is left and a part of your fellow diners is taking with you. Maybe that's why we call in a party. No, probably not. But it is probably why the Pharisees so harshly criticized Jesus calling Him a drunk and a friend of sinners, for sharing a meal with sinners and publicans. 

The Profligate Sinner

Luke 7 37 And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, 38 And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.

Jesus Honored By the Harlot

 Now this passage does not tell us that this woman’s sin was harlotry, we arrive at that because it says she was the wording here means mean she was well known in the city as a sinner. This was a very public sin and the most public of sins is that sin. Let me add that that was her former profession, for when we meet her at the meal she has been changed by the grace, mercy and forgiveness of the Messiah. She may have heard his invitation that day or the day before, “Come unto me and find rest to your soul.” Whether she heard that or not, that invitation is literally being acted out by his now saved woman at Simon Pharisees party.

She comes as an uninvited guest to the house, which if Simon knew she was there he would have thrown her out, but of course without touching here and being made unclean by the contact, as if sin were spread by outward contact instead of inward corruption. How did she get in? There are two ways this probably happened and it may have to do with both. First, these feasts were often held in courtyards outside of the house, especially in the hot times of the year in a desert area which Capernaum was.

Secondly, it was common to allow uninvited guests into the feast to view the notable guests or to allow beggars to come in and at the end of the meal be given the leftovers from the table of the famous and more blessed. In either case these uninvited guests would sit or stand at the outside of the feast, away from the meal itself and just admire the people and the food.

This forgiven woman is not Mary Magdalene, nor is she Mary of Bethany. There are two anointing of Jesus at two homes of people named Simon, Simon the leper here in Capernaum or Nain and at Simon the Leper’s home near or in Bethany. There are two cleansing of the Temple, two feeding with loaves and fishes and two anointings of Jesus at a meal.

This unnamed woman comes to this feast to find Jesus and she brings with her a jar full of costly ointment, a heart full of joy and eyes full of tears. She moves forward from the dark outward wall and kneels at Jesus feet which were pointing away from the table. She is so overcome with emotion, with the joy of being forgiven that before she can open her alabaster jar, she begins to weep profusely. The tears falling so fast and so great that they wash the feet of Jesus. She has no towel and so he undoes the tresses of her long hair and in tenderness and perhaps in preparation for the next anointing, she dries His feet with her hair. In the culture the letting down of a woman’s hair in public would have also been seen as shameful. But it is not shameful for this woman at this place and at this time and with this One.

Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians that in their culture 1 Corinthians 11:15 a woman’s long hair, her glory and in a real example of devotion she is laying her glory at the feet of Jesus. That is anything but shameful.

Then, so intense is her love for her Savior, after she dries his feet she kisses them. The word here in Greek means to kiss them over and over. She is not embarrassed nor is Jesus. Kissing in this culture was not romantic as it is in ours but was a sign of friendship and affection. Her kisses show that her feelings for Jesus were far more than just affection, this was loving  devotion and giving of deep felt thanks.

Perhaps she was aware of this verse in Psalms 2:12 “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.” Aware or not this is what she did, she kissed the son of God, and she was blessed for she had put her trust in Him.

After his feet are dried and covered with her kisses, she then picks up an alabaster jar, a flask or cruse filled with a sweet, costly oil. Alabaster, is a carbonate of lime it is a white or yellow stone, named after the town in Egypt, where it was mainly found. According to writers of this time period, Alabaster was used to protect precious ointments, inscriptions and papyri. It had the same protective qualities of glass that we would use today, but glass was very rare in Roman times. The stone was shaped into a decorative cylindrical form and at the top it was usually closed with the shape of a rosebud (Pliny).

This forgiven woman breaks the alabaster and pours out the sweet, fragrant, costly ointment on the feet of the One who gave her rest for her soul, the forgiveness of her sin. The alabaster and the ointment probably purchased with the money earned in her former life but now that money, that ointment, that life was poured as an offering at the feet of her loving Savior, Jesus.

What a picture of love.

Let’s move to the next chapter, …

The Pharisee

Luke 7 39 Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner.

Jesus Judged by the Pharisee

The pharisee is named Simon, we learn when Jesus calls his name in a moment, but right now Luke wants us to focus not on his name but his character, he is the Pharisee

The Pharisee perhaps smelling the fragrance of the ointment, now notices this woman, this well-known sinner of his town. In his mind he now can judge Jesus he says, “if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him.”

The pharisee was ashamed to find this woman in his home but Jesus was even allowing her to touch him. If He were the prophet foretold by Moses, if He were the Messiah, He would know, he would sense the foulness of this woman coming up to Him and he would reject her. This is the judgment of the Pharisee and in his judgment, Jesus was a false prophet and Messiah.

Now in the next chapter Jesus does exactly what the Pharisee said Jesus could not do, He reads hearts and he reads not only the woman’s heart but more importantly he hears Simon’s thoughts and reads his self-righteous heart and then with the omniscience that can only be God’s he tells a parable.

The Parable

Luke 7 40 And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith, Master, say on. 41 There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. 42 And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most? 43 Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged.

Jesus Tells A Parable.

We need not get too deep into the details of this parable as you should not do with any parable, instead you look for the one big idea. Here the story is about a lender who has made two loans on for 500 denarii and one for 10x less only 50 denarii, which was a days labor for an unskilled worker. When they can’t pay he forgave them both the debt they both owed.

Jesus then asks Simon, which one do you think will love him the most. The word for love is agape, self-giving, self-sacrificing, devoted love.

Simon probably sensing this is not just about a story, as all parables were never about just the story but always had another meaning, a lesson behind the telling. So Simon says, “I suppose the one who was forgiven the most.” Hedging his commitment just as he had hedged on his opinion of Jesus.

Jesus says, You have judged that correctly, before telling Simon how terribly he had judged this woman and worse still how terribly he had judged Jesus, who truly was the prophet, the Messiah and the Son of God.

So here comes Jesus’ point and it is sharp as a spear aimed at Simon’s judgmental heart.  

The Point

 Luke 7 44 And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. 45 Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. 46 My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. 47 Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.

Jesus Makes His Point

Jesus calls Simons attention to the woman and says Simon look at this woman, as though Simon didn’t already know she was there. Jesus says take a good look Simon and see what you can’t see, but what I did see.

Compare yourself to her. See this woman in comparison to yourself, I came into your home, but you didn’t wash my feet as you should have, but she washed my feet with her tears. You didn’t greet me with a kiss of affection but she did not stop kissing my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil as an honored guest by she poured out oil on my feet.

Simon, here is what you can’t see, but what I always will see, Her sins which yes are many are forgiven and because of that forgiveness she has loved me greatly, but to those who don’t think they need forgiveness they love very little.

What Jesus leave unsaid but is clearly understood is the sinful woman sought and fought forgiveness, because she knew her sins were multiplied over and over again, but you Simon, the Pharisee, did not seek forgiveness because you can’t see that you are just as sinful.

It was just as incredible that Jesus the Son of God entered Simon’s house as it was that He let this woman touch Him, but Simon could not, did not, would not see that point and so he sought no forgiveness and he gave no love to the One who could forgive and save him.

To make sure Simon sees what has happened Jesus gives us the last chapter…

The Pardon - Luke 7:48

 48 And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven. 49 And they that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins also? 50 And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.

Jesus Forgives the Penitent Sinner

Jesus looks into eyes of this woman and simply confirms what she already had known and felt in her heart, “Thy sins are forgiven.”

Those at the dinner probably other Pharisees or at least friends of Simon, react to this by thinking or whispering to each other, “Who is this that gives forgiveness of sins?” The understanding of all of them is that only God can forgive sins, just as those who were there when Jesus healed the man let down through the roof of probably Peter’s house, early in the first year of Jesus’ ministry.

Jesus proved he had the power to forgive then by saying, Mark 2:8-11 8 “And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts? 9 Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk? 10 But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,) 11 I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house.”

Both groups were right to wonder at Jesus’ words of forgiveness and both groups were correct in understanding that only God can forgive sins. What the needed to be right about next was the Jesus is God and was fully within His authority and power to heal and to forgive. He still is today.

Finally, Jesus tells her, Luke 7:50 “Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.” She was saved not by her works, nor her tears or even by her love but Jesus clearly says, “Your faith has saved you.”

The Same Jesus, the same truth. Jesus then and Jesus now are the same. In Hebrews it is boldly declared, Hebrews 13:8 8 “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.”

He is the same, His forgiveness is the same, His love is the same and His truth is the same. He has not changed nor has His truth. He told the woman “Your faith has saved you.”

“Your trust and faith in me as Savior, the one who can forgive your sin, that faith has saved your soul and made an eternal home in heaven for you.” True from the lips of Jesus, true then, true now, true for her, true for you, true for me.

Conclusion

A Woman unnamed and a man named Charlie

This past week a man name Charlie Kirk was assassinated by a hate filled, demon influenced, lost in every way you can imagine, young man. I don’t want to forget Charlie Kirks name and I don’t want to remember the name of the assassin.

What can an unnamed prostitute in Luke 7 and a famous in our time debater and defender of morality, truth and the Bible have in common?

Very little in fact, different times, different cultures, different backgrounds, but we do find these things they shared. They both found forgiveness through their Savior, Jesus Christ and they both gave a costly gift to the one who forgave them. The woman in her act of worship and devotion poured out her tears, her kisses and a costly ointment, breaking an expensive alabaster jar. She poured it all out, holding nothing back for her Saviour.

Charlie Kirk found forgiveness as a young boy and after his salvation, he determined he give his life to try and turn the country he loved back to the truth and the Saviour he loved.

The forgiven woman was scorned and abhorred when she dared to come to the feast where she was not welcomed. Charlie Kirk was scorned and then murdered because he dared to tell the truth in places he was not welcome, the colleges and universities across America and the world.

Both were welling to pay the price to honor the One who forgave than. The woman heard Jesus say Thy sins are forgiven, Thy faith hath saved you. Go in peace." Charlie Kirk as a young boy also those words and when he died, I believe the Lord in glory welcomed him and said, Matthew 25:21 Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord."

Today we have all heard the Lord’s invitation, “Come unto me rest.” Have you answered that call? You must, you truly must. If you have answered that call by coming in faith to Jesus as your Savior, then you should also be willing to pour out at Jesus feet your life, your future, your self as a costly offering, the only sacrifice worthy of the One who died as a sacrifice for you.