Jump Start # 3631

Luke 7:36 “Now one of the Pharisees was requesting Him to dine with him. And He entered the Pharisee’s house, and reclined at the table.”

Our lesson could well be staged as a disastrous dinner party. Most of us have witnessed the best of plans blow up. Burnt food. No one shows up. People show up on the wrong day. So many things can go wrong when hosting others. Jesus had been to a wedding when the wine ran out. This is where He changed the water to wine, His first miracle.

But our passage takes on another kind of disaster. Jesus has been invited by Simon to come have dinner at his house. Simon is a Pharisee. Jesus had been thumping the Pharisees pretty hard, for their callous, indifferent ways. Earlier in Luke, Jesus has gone to the home of Matthew, a tax collector. We are not told Simon’s intentions. Was he a believer? Was he wanting to put Jesus on the spot and accuse Him? Jesus goes. And, things fall apart.

Three scandalous events take place.

First, Jesus is not treated like a guest. Typically, when one is invited, you’d welcome the person with a kiss on the cheek. You’d offer to wash his feet. You’d make the person feel like a guest. Simon didn’t do any of those things. No welcome. No kiss. No washing of feet. Simon invited Jesus, but he was treating the Lord like an enemy.

Second, an uninvited person shows us. An unnamed woman, who has a bad reputation. Simon says that she is a sinner. Most think she was a prostitute. She’d never be invited to such a dinner. Somehow she crashed the party. Crying, she anoints the Lord’s feet with perfume and dries His feet with her hair. Once married, Jewish women did not let their hair down in the public. This woman did. And, a woman who was known for stolen kisses, is now kissing the feet of Jesus.

Her presence and her actions has totally crashed this dinner party. All conversations would have stopped. Everyone would have their eyes on her. “What is ‘SHE’ doing here, would be whispered loud enough for her to hear. She speaks no words to the Lord. Crying and bowing at His feet, she goes about cleaning His feet. Jesus doesn’t stop her.

Third, in the course of what takes place, Jesus rebukes Simon for being a terrible host. No kiss. No welcome. Nothing from you and you are the one who invited Me. Yet, this uninvited woman, sinner as she is, has done what you should have. The Lord then praises the woman and declares her sins are forgiven. Your faith has saved you, Jesus says.

That is a declaration and right that only belongs to God. Jesus understood that. Jesus is God. He could forgive sins. He forgave the crippled lowered through the roof. He forgave the thankful Samaritan leper. He forgave the penitent thief on the cross. Here, He forgives this sinful woman. She has demonstrated faith, courage, conviction and remorse. The Lord was moved by these things.

In the midst of all of this, Jesus tells Simon a parable about forgiveness. He who is forgiven much, loves much. He who is forgiven little, loves little. And, I wonder if that thought needs to be thought out more in our hearts and minds. Could it be that many of us have been pretty good people and there was little to forgive? As a result it is hard for us to love much, because not much was forgiven. Yet, the sinful woman, is illustrated by the person who is forgiven much. Simon, likewise had much to forgive. Our sins may not have been as damaging as others. Our sins may not be on the scale of others, but they are there. Sins. Too many to count. And, when we realize this, we’ll appreciate the forgiveness found in Christ.

The woman who loved much, didn’t care what others thought or said. The woman who loved much, didn’t care that she was using perfume on the feet of the Lord. The woman who loved much, came with a broken heart and tears in her eyes. She loved much. She showed that.

And, as I read this, I must wonder how much love have I shown the Lord?

It wouldn’t surprise me if Simon’s wife told him after everyone went home, we are never inviting anyone over again. What a disaster. But, what faith demonstrated. What love expressed. What a great God who forgives.

Dinner at Simon’s.

Roger