Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro –I want to do a three part series looking at each major player of this account – the good (Simon), the bad (the woman) and the beautiful (Jesus).

Of course, things are not as they seem.

The good is really bad; the bad is really good; and in the middle is Jesus inviting both to faith in Him.

Simon is outwardly as good as it gets, but he fails to acknowledge Christ for who He really is and thus is unforgiven.

His goodness is bad.

The woman has accepted Jesus as Savior – and thus her badness has turned to good.

What a story – all revolving around what people do with Christ.

Today, let’s look at Simon.

To the world around him and to himself, Simon is a good man – a Pharisee who is striving mightily to keep the law as he understands it.

But as theologian Reinhold Niebuhr once said, “Much evil is done by good people who do not know that they are not good.”

That description was made for Simon – doing good with a rebellious heart.

Inevitably such people get Jesus wrong.

Simon invited Jesus to dinner to check Him out –to judge Him.

But -- Jesus did not come into the world to be judged; He came to be believed.

We have turned that on its ear.

C. S. Lewis says it well: “The ancient man approached God (or the gods) as the accused person approaches his judge.

For the modern man the roles are reversed.

He is the judge; God is in the dock [on trial].

He is quite a kindly judge; if God should have a reasonable defense for being the God who permits war, poverty, and disease, he is ready to listen to Him.

The trial may even end in God’s acquittal but the important thing is that man is on the bench and God is in the dock.”

But God will not be tried by us.

Heb 11:6, “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”

Jesus did not come to prove God; He came to reveal Him.

Until we get that settled, we will never know Him.

He is not on trial; we are.

And the question is what will we do with Him? Jesus told his disciples in John 14:10-11, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?

The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.

11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.”

The evidence is there through His Word and His works -- but *He didn’t come to be judged; He came to be believed.*

Those two attitudes are contrasted beautifully in this passage.

One is judging; the other believing.

One is forgiven; the other condemned.

One attitude turned good into bad; the other turned bad into good.

The woman is a believer.

Simon was too busy judging Jesus to see God when God is standing right in front of his face.

He was spiritually blind as a bat.

Consequently, he got everything wrong.

So, let’s look at Simon in detail.

*I.The Good That’s Bad (Simon) (unforgiven and spiritually blind)*

When is good, bad?

When it thinks it is good enough!

That’s Simon.

When you judge Jesus, everything is skewed.

Let’s set the stage.

Lu 7:36: “One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table.”

To the Pharisees Jesus is blasphemous.

He works on the Sabbath; He associates with lowlife, and He claims to forgive sin!

And He’s stolen their popularity.

They are obsessed with taking Him down.

Simon is subtle -- kind of a cool dude Pharisee!

Like a Hollywood celebrity who throws lots of parties, invites just the right people –whoever is getting the headlines.

So, who better to invite than Jesus – great for entertainment value, and who knows?

Maybe Simon can catch him out.

Simon is not a seeker – rude from the start – didn’t wash Jesus’ feet, didn’t greet Him with a kiss, didn’t anoint his head.

Simon’s at the top of the social and religious pile in Palestine, and Jesus is an itinerate, backwoods preacher – a supposed healer.

Simon invites Him for the novelty, but He makes sure the class distinctions remain intact.

That tells us all we need to know about Simon.

He’s totally different from another Pharisee – Nicodemus sincerely sought to know Jesus in John 3:2, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”

He’s not there to judge; he’s there to know.

Jesus eventually tells him, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

He invites Nicodemus to believe.

That’s why He came – not to be judged, but to be believed.

Nic did as we see him later in John 7 defending Jesus, and in John 19 helping bury Him.

It matters what you believe about Jesus, Beloved.

Simon got everything wrong.

*A.He Misjudged the Woman*

37 And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, 38 and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment.

39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.”

Luke uses 2 verb tenses to make a critical point.

V. 37: “And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner.”

“Was” is imperfect tense -- continuous action in the past.

Luke’s telling us this woman had a colored past.

Specifics not given.

Possibly an adulteress.

More likely a prostitute, a “woman of the city.”

She and her sin were well known.

She was not an invited guest.

Her presence is odd to us.

But at that time great gatherings were held in courtyards, and uninvited guests often slipped inside to listen to the conversation (this was in the days before TV and I-Pads!) – especially when a rabbi was present.

Still, it was bold for a woman of her reputation to come.

And when she actually began to shed tears and anoint and kiss Jesus’ feet inserting herself into the proceedings, Simon was absolutely appalled.

Now for the second verb tense.

As Simon watches Christ accept attention from a notorious sinner, he thinks to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.”

Luke says the woman was a sinner.

Simon judges she still is a sinner.

He’s judged her a sinner based on her past.

But he is dead wrong.

Blind to reality.

He could not see beyond her past to her present!

So he gives the worst interpretation to her actions!

Per v. 39 he is appalled that Jesus is allowing this sort of woman to be touching him.

In his mind, Jesus has made Himself ceremonially unclean by contact with a sinner.

But he’s wrong!

She is not a sinner!

She has passed from death to life and she is a sinner no more.

How do we know that?

Jesus tells us that – not once, but twice!

V. 47:, “47 Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven.”

Jesus reads Simon’s mind and responds: “You thought I didn’t know her past Simon?

Here’s what I know -- Her past is past!