Luke 7:36 Commentary and Bible Study

(Synoptics: Luke 7:36-50)Here is a quite remarkable account of how the Lord Jesus Christ dealt with these two people, so very different from each other – a leading Pharisee and this poor woman – and there are many vital things for us to learn from it. This event in all likelihood took place in the town of Capernaum, and followed a sermon preached by the Lord Jesus which isn't recorded here in Luke's Gospel, but is found in Matthew 11. It is that sermon in which he concluded with the famous words, ‘Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’ He was speaking of course of those who longed and laboured for forgiveness and wanted to know the Lord God, and who hungered for peace with God. The Lord Jesus had invited all who longed for a new life to come to him, and this woman, who had been a notorious sinner in the town, was one of those who longed for forgiveness and who wanted to be changed and made new, and she came to him and she was received by him. Here it is that ‘And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee's house, and sat down to meat.’ There is an invitation, and the situation here is very similar to that of ‘The parable of the pharisee and the tax collector’, only this actually happened. Here you have two people Simon, a leading Pharisee, and this woman.The first thing that we need to ask is, why did Simon the Pharisee ever invite Christ to his home at all? What was in the back of his mind? What was his motive? Well probably – and we cannot be sure completely sure – it was expected of him. In each town the most senior Pharisee, the most senior member of the Pharisaical party, would naturally have invited any eminent visitor to the town, who was attracting attention, to his home, and he would have checked him over. That was normally the job of the most senior Pharisee. And this may indicate that Simon was just that: the most prominent and senior Pharisee in Capernaum at that time. There is a little bit of guesswork there, but it's very likely. But also Simon was probably curious anyway on his own account. It is evident that he knows that the Lord Jesus Christ is being heralded everywhere. Some said that he was a prophet; some he was perhaps the Messiah; others said he definitely is the Messiah because of the amazing things which he has the power to do. So Simon wants to examine him, and to look at him. He is very curious, and yet he is full of prejudice, because he is ready to criticize. Simon thinks, ‘People say he is at least a prophet, so I am going to bring into my house, but I doubt that he is.’ You can see the way he jumps on the first possible piece of evidence he gets that the Lord may not be anybody special. He seizes on that immediately. The interesting thing about Simon is that, whatever his motives for inviting the Lord Jesus Christ were, they were pretty poor. Really he was rather hostile, so that when the Lord Jesus Christ came, he didn't want to be publicly associated with him. He even left out, the account tells us, some of the courtesies of the day. When you had a guest, you offered them water to wash their feet in that hot dusty climate, and then you went through the motions of the cultural kiss, rather like the French do it, but he didn't do any of those things to the Lord Jesus Christ. He wasn’t openly wishing to show hostility, but the trouble with Simon there was so much prejudice in his heart. These things would be done on entrance to the house, and perhaps people were watching and he didn't want to be that closely associated with Christ, so he invites him, and yet from the outset there is a barrier there. The amazing thing was that Christ went, even under those circumstances, knowing that the man was prejudiced knowing he was hostile he nevertheless responded to Simon’s invitation.