Sermon Notes

Two people are judged at the same dinner table in Luke 7, and they walk away with completely different conclusions about Jesus. A woman the whole town had already labeled crashes a Pharisee's party, weeps at Jesus' feet and pours out expensive perfume. The host watches it happen and decides that any real prophet would have pushed her away. Josh Fortney unpacks the moment Jesus answers a thought Simon never said out loud, and shows why the woman with the worst reputation in the room is the one who sees most clearly.

Key Takeaways

Jesus already knows the worst about you. The scandal in that room was never that Jesus failed to see what kind of woman she was, it was that He saw her completely and pulled out a chair anyway.
Love runs downstream from forgiveness. In the parable the debt gets cancelled first and the love comes pouring back afterward, which means her tears were evidence of grace and not payment for it.
There is no such thing as a small debt. Simon's debt was not smaller than hers, he simply could not see it, and Jesus said plainly that whoever thinks he has been forgiven little will love little.
Blindness to your own sin becomes blindness to the Savior. Simon had God in the flesh reclining at his own table and missed Him entirely because he was too busy sorting somebody else.
Her faith saved her, not her display. Jesus told her clearly that it was faith that saved her, then sent her out with peace and a place at the table she did not have when she walked in.
Discussion Questions

Reading this story honestly, which person are you more like this week, the woman or Simon?
When was the last time you were genuinely aware of how much you have been forgiven?
What labels do you tend to hang on people before you have actually met them?
Where does being respectable make it easy for you to skip past your own pride, impatience, or quiet judgment?
If the size of our love tells the truth about the size of the debt we know was cancelled, what does your love say about what you believe?
What would have to change for our group to be a table that welcomes the person everyone else has written off?

This Week's Challenge

Name one sin you tend to gloss over because it looks respectable, and confess it to God and to one other person this week.

Transcript

Who Is This Man?

By the time we get to verse 36, Luke 7 has been building one question. Jesus has healed a Roman officer's servant and raised a widow's son, and the crowds are saying a great prophet has arisen among them. Word about this man is spreading like wildfire.

So a Pharisee named Simon, a man whose whole job was teaching the nation what is holy and what is not, sets a place at his table. He wants a closer look.

Here is what is wild about this passage. Two people get judged at that table. One is written off by nearly everyone in the room, and she is the one who sees most clearly. The other has all the authority and influence in the house, and he has the worst vision of anybody there. The difference comes down to that one question. Who is this man?

Luke Writes for the Outsider

Before we jump in, a little context helps, and not just for this passage. Luke tells us in chapter 1 that he is writing to a man named Theophilus. We do not know much about him. What we do know is that he was a Gentile, an outsider to a movement that started out very Jewish.

Read through Luke and you will notice him answering a question nobody in the story ever says out loud. Do I belong here? Is this Jesus thing really for someone like me?

Luke's answer, again and again, is to take the person you would expect to be on the outside and move them to the center. He traces Jesus' family tree back to Adam, not just Abraham. Simeon holds the newborn Jesus and calls Him a light for revelation to the Gentiles.

The Party Crasher (Luke 7:36-38)

A meal like this at a prominent man's home was not a private, invitation-only deal. Doors were open, and folks from town could wander in and listen along the walls, especially when somebody interesting was at the table. Extra bodies around the edges were normal.

The table was not like ours either. It was a triclinium, low and U-shaped, and guests reclined on their sides with their heads toward the food and their feet pointing out behind them. Hold on to that detail.

Then Luke points his camera at a woman of the city who was a sinner. She walks in already carrying an alabaster flask, which tells us something happened before this scene ever started. She weeps hard enough to wet His feet, lets her hair down in a room full of men, kisses His feet and pours out the perfume. Can we just sit with how exposed that is?

The Pharisee's Prejudice (Luke 7:39)

Simon watches the same scene and lands somewhere completely different. If this man were a prophet, he says to himself, He would know who and what sort of woman this is.

Catch that he said it to himself. The verdict never left his head. And follow the logic, because inside his system it is actually pretty sound. A real man of God would know what she is. If He knew, He would never let her touch Him. He is letting her touch Him. So He cannot be a prophet.

The flaw sits in the second step. Simon's whole world runs on the idea that closeness to a sinner contaminates you, so the godly back out of the room. He has two categories. Know her and reject her, or be fooled and tolerate her. What he cannot compute is a holiness that knows everything and moves toward her anyway.

The Probing Parable (Luke 7:40-43)

And Jesus answering said to him, Simon. Two things just happened in that one word.

First, Jesus answers a thought that never left Simon's mouth. Simon had just decided Jesus could not be a prophet because a prophet would perceive the hidden thing. The proof he demanded is exactly what he gets. Second, Jesus calls him by his name. Not Pharisee. Not hypocrite. Simon looked at a weeping woman and saw a category, and Jesus refuses to do that back to him.

Then comes the story. A moneylender has two debtors, one owing about two years of wages and one owing about two months. The hinge is four words. When they could not pay. Different sizes, same bankruptcy. So he cancels both. Which one will love him more? Simon answers correctly, and in doing so he describes the two people at his own table.

The Poor Perception (Luke 7:44-47)

Jesus turns toward the woman but keeps talking to Simon. Do you see this woman?

Obviously Simon sees her. He has been watching her the entire time. But watching and seeing are not the same thing. So Jesus replays the evening. No water for dusty feet, and she washed them with her tears. No kiss of greeting, and she has not stopped kissing His feet. No oil for the head, and she poured out expensive ointment. Simon skipped the bare minimum. She blew past the maximum.

Then Jesus tells him why. Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. Read that fast and it sounds backwards, like her love bought the forgiveness. But look at the parable He just told. The debt got cancelled first, and love came pouring back as the response.

The Pardoned Person (Luke 7:48-50)

All night people have been talking about her like she is not even in the room. Now Jesus turns and speaks directly to her. Your sins are forgiven.

Why say it out loud? She already knew. She walked in carrying perfume because she had run into grace somewhere before this dinner ever started. The Greek tells us her sins have been and remain forgiven, and that God is the one who did it. She did not need the words. The room did. He is not informing her, He is defending her.

And the room finally asks the right question. Who is this, who even forgives sins? Jesus lets it sit and turns back to her instead. Your faith has saved you, go in peace. Not your love. Your faith. She walked in as a label and walks out a daughter with a place at the table.

Which One Are You?

Luke never tells us what Simon did. The camera just cuts away. Did he soften? Did he finally see his own debt? Luke does not say, and I think that is on purpose, because Jesus' words to Simon were not a harsh verdict. They were an invitation, and the same invitation is sitting in front of us.

So here is the question. Of the two people at this table, which one are you? Not which one do you want to be. Which one are you right now?

Some of us are the woman, standing against the back wall, sure that if the room really knew, folks would slowly back away. Some of us are Simon, respectable and rule-keeping, so comfortable that we never get our arms around how much we have been forgiven. Jesus knows the worst about both, and He is still pulling out a chair.

A Table for the Broken and Proud