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Luke 7:36-50
! Introduction
A Sunday School teacher had been teaching one of the parables from Luke 18 to a class of boys.
The parable tells about two men who went to the temple to pray.
One was a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
The Pharisee prayed, “I thank you that I am not like other men - robbers, evildoers, adulterers - or even like this tax collector.”
She had done a good piece of teaching, explaining the hard heart of the Pharisee.
She said, “What a thing for a man to say: “I thank thee, that I am not as other men are!”
At the close of the lesson she had the youngsters lead in short prayers, and one boy, without any apparent beating on his own chest, prayed: “We thank thee, God, that we are not like that Pharisee!”
Last Sunday, we examined the extravagant love demonstrated by the woman in Luke 7.
She washed Jesus feet with her tears, dried them with her hair, kissed them and anointed them with perfume.
What love she had for him!
As we listen to this story, we identify with her and are sure that if we had been in the crowd watching, we would have affirmed what she was doing.
We can identify with the prayer of the Sunday School boy that we are thankful that we are not like Simon the Pharisee…or are we?
Today, we will look at the other character in this story.
Who was Simon?
Why was he critical of the woman?
Why did he love little?
Are we like the woman, or are we more like Simon?
!
I. Simon Was A Good Man
!! A. The Story of Simon
It is likely that Jesus had been teaching and doing miracles in the town in which these folks lived for some time.
Luke 7:11 contains the last geographical reference and indicates that Jesus was in the town called Nain.
This story may or may not have happened there.
Simon was probably the religious leader of the community and so as Jesus was doing a lot of things that had to do with religion, he may have thought it was time to check this Jesus out and so invited him to dinner.
Jesus accepted the invitation.
Even though he often seemed to have more interest in the despised of society, he was also interested in the more respected members of society.
They also needed the gospel.
Although the Pharisee was doing what he knew was right, it seems he wasn’t totally comfortable having Jesus come to his house.
He knew he had to invite him as the religious leader of the town, but he didn’t want to give the impression that he somehow supported or endorsed what Jesus was doing.
That may explain the less than warm welcome Jesus received from Simon.
It was not unusual to bring water for a person to wash their feet, to greet them with a kiss and sometimes, with an especially honoured guest, to anoint them with oil, but Simon did none of these things.
He was not being rude, but he was being very guarded.
His welcome was not warm and accepting, it was cautious and probably being done as a political move.
As the banquet began, things were probably going along just fine.
People were enjoying a good meal and good conversation…until this woman came in.
Suddenly Simon was very uncomfortable.
He had worked hard to make sure that his house, table, food and he himself was purified and acceptable to God.
He assumed his guests were clean as well, but when this woman came and fell at Jesus’ feet, it repulsed him in every sense of the word.
His careful preparations of purification were spoiled.
He looked with disdain at the woman and wondered seriously about Jesus.
In his mind he had been evaluating Jesus, wondering who he was.
His initial thought was that he might be a prophet, but not everything fit together for him.
Now as he saw Jesus being touched by this woman he was quite sure that Jesus was not a prophet, otherwise he would know what kind of a woman this was.
But isn’t the irony wonderful?
The Pharisee was merely thinking these things and Jesus answered the thoughts of the Pharisee.
He was a prophet, because he knew what Simon was thinking.
In order to address Simon’s concerns, Jesus told him the story of the two debtors.
Jesus told this story because he knew what kind of a woman this was and he knew that there were some serious problems in the thinking of his host.
When Jesus ended the parable and asked Simon, “who will love him more?”
Simon answered guardedly.
He doesn’t say, “Well obviously the one who had been forgiven more.”
He said rather, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt cancelled.”
He was guarded because he had been caught in a trap and he knew it and was not comfortable with it.
Some of his most deeply held values were being examined under a powerful microscope and he felt exposed.
!! B. Who Were The Pharisees?
Who was the Pharisee and what did he believe that brought him into this clash with Jesus?
We usually see the Pharisees as bad guys through the lens of what Jesus said about them.
But why did Jesus attack them?
If we really want to see what made them tick, we need to understand who they were.
As we do, we may be a little shocked to find that they were a lot like we are.
The Pharisees were a prominent religious party in Judaism.
The origin of their name is uncertain, but likely means “separated ones.”
They came into existence some time after the Babylonian exile.
They believed that the exile happened because Israel failed to keep the law.
They were very much in tune with the writings of the prophets who had attacked the idolatry and faithlessness of Israel and warned of the coming exile.
As a result, they were very concerned that it was the duty of the nation and every individual in it to keep the law of God.
They were concerned to keep God’s word such as that given in Leviticus 11:44, “I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy.”
As a result, they kept a strict observance of laws pertaining to purity, Sabbath observance, prayer and tithing.
One source says, “They determined that it(the Torah) contained 613 commandments, 248 positive, 365 negative.
The next step was to ‘make a hedge’ about them, /i.e./ so to interpret and supplement them that there would be no possibility of breaking them by accident or ignorance.”
We also learn that “Pharisees lived simply and did not pursue luxury.”
They were also very concerned about other people who did not keep the law with strictness.
They were very afraid that if there was too much unrighteousness in the land, God would once again judge the people.
When we look at the Pharisees with that kind of understanding, we look at them in a completely different way.
“They really wanted to be good for God.”
In fact, their highest value was doing everything right so that they would please God.
They were God’s chosen people and knew that they were acceptable to God.
On the basis of having been accepted by God, they wanted to do everything possible to please God.
They were religious, they cared about pleasing God, they sought righteousness - all things that we cannot really fault.
Simon would have been shocked to think that his life did not please God.
Simon would have said he loved God.
He had groomed his life to conform to the codes and traditions.
He had mastered the smallest nuances of religious requirements.
Cringing from the response of the woman was an instinctive religious response.
He was not prepared to quickly accept someone who was unclean.
But what the woman did, what Jesus said to him and his response demonstrate the poverty of his spiritual life and may reveal the poverty of ours.
What is the problem with his type of goodness?
!
II.
The Problem With Being Good.
Remember the poem, “Little Jack Horner?”
“Little Jack Horner sat in a corner eating a Christmas pie.
He stuck in his thumb and pulled out a plum
And said what a good boy am I.”
He said he was a good boy, but you have to ask, “why was he in the corner?” and “What was he doing with a whole pie?” and “What was he doing with his fingers in it?”
Simon would have thought “what a good boy am I.” But was he really?
How much do we resemble Simon in this?
We think that we are good.
We have accepted Christ.
We don’t do really bad things.
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