DINNER
WITH A PHARISEE
By
Shelby
G. Floyd
The word Pharisee means to be
separate. There is some of the Pharisee
in all of us. Jesus had more to say to
the Pharisees than any other group of people.
Why is that? There must be a good
reason for this. Christ did not want us
to make the mistakes of the Pharisees.
There were many good qualities that the Pharisees possessed. They were very devoted to God. They gave a lot of time, energy and thought
to serve God. They wanted to please God
to the very best of their ability. And
there were some Pharisees who were very remarkable like Nicodemus. But with all their good points they just didn’t
get it. They just did not understand how
man is to approach God and be redeemed from his sins. So Jesus had to deal with these people and
many of them became his enemies and had him nailed to the cross.
The Pharisees Rejected John’s Baptism
Let us notice
something about the Pharisees in Luke chapter seven in a parenthetical statement: “All
the people even the tax collectors when they heard Jesus’ words acknowledged
that God's way is right because they had been baptized by John. But the Pharisees and the experts in the law
rejected God's purpose for themselves because they had not been baptized by
John” (Luke
Now let us notice the invitation Jesus
received to have dinner at the home of a Pharisee. First, we shall point out the people who were
attending this private dinner. There was
Jesus the sinless Son of God. There was
a woman who had been devoted to a life of sin.
There was a self-righteous Pharisee named Simon. And there were many other guests that were
invited to this private dinner, most of whom were probably Pharisees.
Simon Invited Christ to Dinner
Have you had
dinner with a Pharisee lately? Jesus was
invited to have dinner with Simon the Pharisee: “Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he
went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table” (Luke
Simon the Pharisee is the host of the
dinner. He has invited Christ whom he
considers to be a rabbi or teacher of the law.
We do not know the motivation as to why he invited Jesus into his
house. Perhaps he wants to know more
about his teaching. Maybe he is
considering whether he should ignore him, reject him, or have him put to
death. We do not know what his motive
was in inviting Jesus to dinner at his house.
From what I have learned, when a great
person like Simon the Pharisee would invite a teacher of the law into their
house, they would also throw open their doors for anyone in the community who
would like to attend even if not invited.
Anyone could attend and sit around the perimeter of the room and gather
the rich jewels of teaching that would fall from the lips of the teacher.
The question then is how are we going to
treat these people in our attitudes and actions? How did Simon the Pharisee treat the guests
invited to his house?
The Sinful Woman
“When a woman who had lived a sinful life in
that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an
alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she
began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed
them and poured perfume on them” (Luke
The scripture says she was a sinful woman
and Christ said she had many sins. She
had been devoted to sin and there is hardly anything people will not do when
they are devoted to sin. She no doubt
was like the people in the days of Noah whose “thoughts were only evil
continually.” This woman had been a
devoted sinner but it seems she had repented and Christ had forgiven her
sins. The problem was that the religious
people would not forgive her and still held her past against her. They wanted to bring up her past and use it
like a hammer to beat her down and to make her feel bad.
Notice the place of this woman in the
room. Christ was reclining on his elbow
and his feet would be behind him. This
was in keeping with the customs of that day in eating meals. This woman placed herself at the feet of
Christ. This woman was full of tears and
gratitude to Christ. She shed many tears
and washed the dusty feet of Christ with her tears and wiped them dry with her
hair. It was an improper thing for a
woman to let down her hair in public.
And then she anointed his feet with her gift of costly perfume. Then she kissed the feet of Christ again and
again. This was an act of love and
humility. This woman was very emotional
in her love and gratitude to Christ.
This woman is a good example of the kind of worship in which God
delights.
Simon the Pharisee
The third person
we notice at this dinner is the host Simon the Pharisee. There are eight people in the New Testament named
Simon. It seems to have been a rather
common name.
What was going through Simon’s mind when he
saw Christ reclining at the table and this sinful woman behind him ministering
to him with tears and perfume? Can you
imagine what kind of look was on Simon’s face as all of this was
happening? “When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself,
‘If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of
woman she is—that she is a sinner’” (Luke 7:39, NIV).
When Simon who had invited Christ to his
house saw this he said to himself, “If
this man were a prophet, he would know that a very sinful woman is touching
him.” That is his major
premise. Even though the minor premise
and conclusion are not stated it is not difficult to figure out what they would
be. The argument would go something like
this: If he were a prophet he would know what kind of woman she is. And if he knew what kind of woman she is he
would not have anything to do with her.
Therefore, he is not a prophet since he does not separate himself from
her.
Simon is thinking like this because that is
the way he would have treated her if she had been ministering to him like she
did to Christ. Simon would have scorned
her, criticized her, rejected her and would have spoken harshly to her. And he thought Christ should have treated her
the same way.
Jesus not only knew all about this sinful
woman, but he also knew about all the thoughts and reasoning going through
Simon’s mind. Christ knew Simon’s heart
and he knew what Simon’s spiritual problem was. The problem of the Pharisees was the problem
of Simon the Pharisee. Indeed his
problem is the problem of many religious people today!
Christ answered Simon’s thoughts, “Simon, I have something to tell you.” While Jesus was eating dinner this woman
was at his feet. You can tell a lot
about people by their body language.
This woman was humble because she placed herself at the feet of Christ.
Simon is not at the feet of Christ, but out
in front of him and even criticizing him in his mind because he is allowing
this woman to minister to him with tears, kisses and perfume. So Jesus now looks at Simon who is in front
of him and says, “Simon I have something
to say to you.” Simon says, “Tell me teacher.”
The Parable of the Two Debtors
Jesus then related
to Simon a parable. Jesus was the master
teacher. His parables are timeless. After all these years we still remember the
lessons taught by parables. This parable
was very applicable to Simon and the sinful woman. "Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five
hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him
back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more”
(Luke
In this parable one man owed 500 denarii
and the other owed 50 denarii. Neither
one of these men had the money to pay off their debt so the creditor cancelled
the debt of both. Then Jesus asked Simon
the Pharisee, “Which of these two men
will love him more?” A denary was
equal to a day’s wages. At twenty
dollars an hour and a ten-hour workday this would amount to $200.00 per day in
our money. Therefore in our currency one
man owed $100,000.00 and the other man owed $10,000.00. A good question to ask ourselves when we are
ready to spend money and go into debt is, “How
many days did I work to earn the amount of money I am about to spend?” When we spend money we are really spending
the time it took us to earn it.
If a person is out of resources it would
not make any difference whether you owed $10,000.00 or $100,000.00. You would both be bankrupt. Both of the men in the parable were in
trouble. Neither man could pay off his
debt.
What kind of man was he to whom they owed
such large sums? Most creditors can be
very mean and nasty if you do not pay your debts on time. This creditor was a very benevolent man—he
cancelled out the debt of both men. He
wiped the slate clean for both of them.
Which One Will Love Him Most?
The question now
posed to Simon the Pharisee was, “Which
one of them will love him most?” His
answer was, “I suppose the one who was
forgiven most.” Jesus stated to
Simon that he had spoken correctly.
Generally the person forgiven of more will love more out of gratitude.
This parable is not just about being in
debt and not being able to pay it back, even though there is a lesson there for
us all. But the parable has a spiritual
application to which we must all give heed.
Christ Applies the Parable to Simon
Now observe the
body language of Jesus. He turns around
and faces the sinful woman. “Then he
turned toward the woman and said to Simon, ‘Do you see this woman? I came into
your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with
her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this
woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not
put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell
you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been
forgiven little loves little’” (Luke
All of these things Jesus said Simon did
not do were customary for a host to do for his guests. This gives us an indication of what Simon
really thought about Jesus. Yes he
invited him into his home, but he was actually rude to him. He did not even show Christ the common
courtesies customary in that time.
Either he or one of his servants should have brought some water and
washed his feet. Christ did this one
time for his disciples. It also was
customary to anoint the head of each guest with oil. He failed to do this. He failed also to salute Christ with a kiss,
which is still practiced in eastern countries to this day. Christ did not receive this symbol of
friendship and affection. Jesus reminded
Simon that this woman had done all of the things that Simon had failed to
do. This indicated that she loved Christ
more than Simon. The reason she loved
him more than Simon is because she had been forgiven more.
Lessons Learned
The main lesson we
learn from this parable is that Christ came into this world to save sinners.
Christ does not love sin but he loves sinners.
The second lesson is that Christ can forgive sinners regardless of how many
sins have been committed. In keeping
with the parable it doesn’t make any difference whether we have committed
100,000 sins or 10,000 sins, we are all out of resources and must be forgiven
of the debt. And as Augustine said,
“pride is the worst sin.” Solomon said
there are seven things God hates, but pride is an abomination to him. The worst thing is to be proud like Simon the
Pharisee and feel like we have no sin to be forgiven.
And the third lesson we have learned is
that you are not going to love God very much unless you feel that you are the
chief of sinners and that God has forgiven you of a huge debt that you in no
way could pay yourself. We must have the
spirit of Paul who said, “Christ Jesus
came into this world to save sinners of whom I am chief” (1 Timothy
Let each one of us avoid the spirit of
Simon the Pharisee and take on the humble and loving spirit of the sinful
women. You are encouraged to respond to
the gospel, by expressing your faith in Christ, repenting of your sins and by
being baptized for the remission of your sins (Acts
*Shelby G. Floyd
delivered this sermon