DINNER AT SIMON’S PLACE

Text: Luke 7:36-50

Introduction: Headlines in newspapers around the world reported on the “party crashers” at a recent White House dinner. The “crashers” were Tareq Salahi and his wife, and the dinner was a state dinner in honor of India’s Prime Minister.

At first reading, the story in Luke 7:36-50 seems to be another account of a party crasher. The house for the dinner is that of Simon the Pharisee, the guest is Jesus, and the “presumed” crasher is a woman with an alabaster flask of expensive perfume. But she’s not a party crasher. A closer examination of first-century Middle East customs reveals something else. “Jewish dinner parties during the first century were not like ours. While the guests were reclining at the table, needy people were permitted to come to take the leftovers as they were available. In addition, those who were curious were allowed to sit against the wall and observe proceedings. So it was no surprise when an uninvited woman entered the room. But suddenly, after the shock of recognition, came the gasp of surprise. Not just a woman, but this woman! For she was notorious throughout the town for her immoral way of life” (Gary Inrig, The Parables, p. 49).

In this passage we find a party, a parable, and a pardon.

1.    A Party. Jesus, Simon, and the woman are the focus of the party:

a.  Simon is the host. What could have prompted him to invite Jesus to one of his dinner parties? The honor of hosting the visiting rabbi? Curiosity, like that of Zacchaeus? To try and trap Jesus, as Pharisees so often tried to do? Only God knows the motive. We do know that all of the customary acts of hospitality were  missing when Jesus stepped into the door:

• No kiss of greeting
• No washing of feet
• No anointing of the head

b.  Jesus is the guest of honor. He is in an atmosphere of hostility. What would prompt Jesus to honor the invitation? Only a heartfelt concern for Simon’s soul.

c.  The woman with the perfume is the third person featured. If we are confused over Simon’s invitation to Jesus and wondering about Jesus’ willingness to accept, we are even more puzzled over the presence of the woman with a “reputation” at the Pharisee’s house. After all, she anticipated the gossip and the unkind and slanderous remarks she would face. Yet in she came with her high-end alabaster flask of perfume, which probably prompted snide remarks such as, “I know how she paid for that!” G. Campbell Morgan writes:  “She certainly trampled on her own personal feelings when she entered. . . . Something, however, irresistibly attracted her . . . . The reason for her going was that she was filled with adoring love for one Person. She entered, and that love was clearly seen in her falling tears, and expressed itself with abandonment in the kisses rained upon the feet of Jesus, and in the fragrant beauty of the ointment she poured upon His feet” (The Great Physician, p.141).

Simon is not oblivious to what is going on at his party. He is repulsed at the scene. He really doesn’t want her in the house and certainly not carrying on as she is. And Jesus, who knows our unspoken thoughts, lifts the curtain on Simon’s thoughts. “Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, ‘This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner’ ” (Luke 7:39 nkjv). And so Jesus speaks to Simon in a parable:

2.    A Parable. I really like what Morgan writes as he comments on the parable. It is something I must remember as the Simons of this generation cross my path. He writes, “He was on His way to the cross for the woman, and for Simon. He was in the world seeking to save that which was lost, and to Him Simon was as surely lost as was the woman. As we watch Him then, we see Him going after the man, attempting to reach his heart, and bring him to an understanding of God” (ibid.)
The story in Luke 7 is an account of two debtors, two bankrupt people—one who owes 50 and another who owes 500 denarii—and an amazing forgiveness. This requires careful reading. It’s not the reasoning of a big sinner and a little sinner. No, it’s a sense of the weight of sin and the burden of guilt. We are reminded of the parable in Luke 18. You remember the story: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the tax collector standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ ” (18:10-13).

In Jesus’ dinner with Simon, we are faced with the sins of the flesh and sins of the spirit. Both individuals are lost. Both need grace. But Simon could only see a woman with a past. Many writers mark the point of this woman’s conversion at Simon’s house as she gave the gift to Jesus. I agree with Morgan that this great love is a result of moral cleansing. She had met Jesus before and was already a forgiven woman. This was what prompted her to come and give to her Savior. “I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love” (Luke 7:47 NLT).

3.    A Pardon. What an extraordinary demonstration! We are tempted to ask, “Was her act simply hysterics?” No, it was regeneration. It was the new birth of faith and love, evoked and welcomed by Jesus. It was the passionate experience of a sinner’s relation to God. For the first time in her life, a man had made her feel clean instead of dirty. For the first time in her life, she could walk into a Pharisee’s home and say, “That Man has set me free from what I was!”  (Inrig, p. 59).

Like that of this redeemed woman, generosity flows from a heart that finally realizes the immensity of God’s grace and the cost of our redemption.