Meals with Jesus: Supper at Simon’s – Luke 7:36-50

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Good morning.

Let's just pray first, shall we? Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that it speaks to us today. You'll pray, Lord, you'll open our hearts and our minds and that we use my words that we might hear what you have to say to us. Amen.

Right. So we're going to carry on with our series of meals with Jesus. But first of all, I've got a question for the children. Anybody tell me what this picture, what book this picture comes from?

Overwhelming silence. Okay. Yes.

Bang on. Perfect. Guess how much I love you. Now this is a story, not surprisingly, about love. Little nut brown hair shows how much he loves big nut brown hair, who we assume are father and son.

And the story continues to use larger and larger measures to say just how much they love each other. Now, can you remember how the story ends? No. As he's falling asleep, little nut brown hare whispers, I love you to the moon. At which point he then falls asleep but doesn't hear big nut brown hair say, I love you to the moon and back.

Even bigger. Now, our story today is a story about love, but it's so much more. It's about forgiveness, acceptance, restoration and salvation. Now, some of those are really quite big words. We're going to come back to them at the end, so I'll just run through them again because I want to see if you can remember them.

Love. That's a small word. Forgiveness, acceptance, restoration and salvation. But those words are at the heart of our christian faith. So let's take another look at the story that we've had read to us today.

Jesus was invited to the home of a man named Simon. Now the first picture. Thank you. He was a pharisee, which meant he was a good church or synagogue going attendant who was well respected. In fact, Ben talked about the Pharisees last week.

If you remember, he invited Jesus to have a meal with him and some other guests. Why do you think that was? Anybody think of any reasons why he might have invited him? Well, it could be that he had heard of this Jesus. He may have even actually heard him speak and wanted to find out more.

It's more likely he wanted to catch Jesus out. Or it could have been that Jesus also being a rabbi, was someone with whom he wanted to argue the scriptures, which was what men did a lot those days. They spent all their time arguing the scriptures. An invitation to dinner was usually implied respect for this new teacher and healer. We'll come back to what Neil was talking about earlier, about the lack of respect that was shown to Jesus.

Now, in those days they would eat lying down. Next picture, please.

Okay, so they would have a low table, right? They'd all lie around it. They'd prop themselves up on one elbow and eat with the other one. Now, I actually think that sounds very uncomfortable and probably end up with half the dinner down the front. But that is how they did it.

They had their heads supported, their feet, their sandals removed would be splayed out behind them with some space behind it for the people to walk around and serve the food. That's also the arrangement. Like the arrangement for the last Supper when Jesus ate the night before he died. Now, at this meal, don't you notice that woman was already there. She had turned up, she hadn't been invited.

She basically invited herself. So how would we feel if you were hosting a dinner party and some people turned up? How would you feel, Sam, if it was your birthday party and people turned up who you hadn't invited? You'd feel a bit miffed, wouldn't you? Yeah, I think mum and dad would as well.

But what we think of as a private life was very different in Jesus day. Most of their furnitures were open because it was really hot. There were several stories in the gospels about people just turning up. But the important things are she wanted to see Jesus and nothing was going to stop her. And two, she knew that she was forgiven.

She probably already heard him speaking and already responded, which certainly makes sense when you read the rest of the story. So she came to him at the table and knelt down near his feet. Now she was weeping. Her tears fell on Jesus feet. Now I'd always wondered how she's managed to do that because I kind of thought, well, if you sat at a table, how's she going to get his tears on his feet?

I thought she must have been a bit of contortionist. But actually if she's lying on a bench on a couch, it makes a lot more sense. And then she wipes away those tears with her hair. She broke her bottle of very expensive perfume, poured it all over his feet. And we've heard that now.

It was surprising. It was also a bit embarrassing for Simon and his friends. In fact, it was downright shocking. To start with, this woman had a bad reputation. She was a sinner, everybody knew it.

Now we're not told why she was a sinner. The assumption was that she didn't have very good morals. But lots of people are called sinners in the Bible. If you remember last week, Levi was called a sinner in the eyes of the Pharisees. Anybody who broke any of the laws was also a sinner.

But then she did something that was really, really unacceptable, as we have heard. She untied her hair and used it to dry his feet. Now, it's hard in our western world to understand just what a taboo this was. It was never, ever done. Even to this day, in the Middle east, women are still expected to cover their hair.

In orthodox jewism, women still cover their hair, sometimes with a scarf, and sometimes, would you believe, with a wig, so that the hair that they've seen is not actually their hair, but they cover their hair. Even to this day. In Jesus time, if a married woman uncovered her hair in front of anybody but her husband, she could be divorced. Simple as that. And as for actually touching a man who wasn't your husband, well, and this was in front of the Pharisees and the other townspeople.

My goodness. No wonder Simon was not happy. He felt that his standing had been besmirched. You know, he was a pharisee. He was really important.

And he thought if Jesus knew what this room was like, he would tell her to go away. In other words, if you really are a prophet, Jesus, you would say something, you would do something. It's interesting, though, it's Simon's house, and he doesn't ask her to leave. But the point is, Jesus did know what this woman was like. He knew everything about her, including every bad thing she had ever done.

Jesus knows every bad thing we've ever done. And he didn't push her away. He didn't tell her to leave. He doesn't push us away. He welcomed her because he knew what was really happening.

In her heart. Jesus knew that this woman massively loved him. It wasn't mushy, it wasn't hearts and flowers. It was a thankful love. She knew Jesus loved her and welcomed her, even though she'd done some awful things.

She knew she was a sinner. She understood that. And she knew she needed a saviour. She knew she needed Jesus. Do we.

Do we know we need Jesus now? In response to Simon's criticism, Jesus did what he often did. He told a story, a parable. Now, it's a story about two men who had borrowed money from a moneylender. One person owed a lot, one person owed a little, but the moneylender forgave them both when he couldn't pay the money back.

And Jesus asked Simon which of them will love him more. That's pretty obvious, really, isn't it, Simon? I think, grudgingly responded. Now, when we had the reading, it was, I suppose, the one who had the greater debt. I think he probably said it like, well, I suppose, the one who had the greater debt because he didn't like to face up to it.

I'm sure Simon and the others around the table were feeling a little uncomfortable at this point. Jesus was obviously making it clear that they were just as much in need of forgiveness as this woman.

Now, Neil mentioned earlier about the fact that Jesus had not been shown the response that any visitor to a house would have been expected. And it runs through it in the reading, his feet weren't washed. He wasn't offered a kiss, he wasn't anointed with oil. Why do you think, children, why do you think that having your feet washed was so important?

Anybody know? Well, it was normal in middle eastern culture to have a servant or a slave wash your feet. In fact, most homes had a bowl of water as you came in. So. Thanks, Helen.

Well, in those days they wore sandals, right? Now, lots of people wear sandals. I've got sandals on today. That's not too bad, is it? The roads were unpaved and very dusty and dirty.

Again, that's not too bad. But the roads were also where dung and animal mess were. You couldn't really avoid it.

And don't forget, whilst the Romans had a service system and the big cities did have some form of drainage, most places didn't. I'll leave it to your imagination what happens to some of that waste. Okay, so that was why it was so important to wash your feet when you came into someone's home. You know, as well as being courteous, it was actually hygienic.

Simon had committed a huge social faux pas or he was being deliberately rude and offensive.

Whatever the reason, Jesus points it out to him. Now, if you've been invited to one of these meals that Neil was talking about and you've been treated as Neil explained, would you then turn to your host and say, well, I didn't think you treated me very well. I've come to this meal and I thought you were really horrible. In our english culture, we just don't do that, do we? We bite our tongue, we get on with it, we go out the front door, get in the car and whinge all the way home.

Jesus talks to his host, right? He talks directly to him and points it out. Now, Kenneth Bailey, who is a really excellent commentator on the Middle east at the time of Jesus, points out the woman had probably gone to anoint Jesus with her oil because she knew she'd been forgiven and she wanted to show him respect and anoint him because kings were anointed. But she had seen how poorly he had been treated, in fact, how offensive it had been. And that's why she wept.

Not only because she was so grateful for what Jesus had done, but because she was so upset to see this person being treated so badly. Right, so Jesus turns and then speaks to the woman directly. Another uh oh. You don't do that. In that culture, there was a huge taboo.

A rabbi was warned not to speak to any woman in a public place, not even his wife. So to speak to somebody like her who was really immoral, well, that was going beyond the bounds of acceptability in a big way. But Jesus is about breaking taboos, things that society say are not acceptable. Jesus cared and cares more for people than any religious laws or ways that we do, church or anything else. He cares about individuals.

He cares about you and you and you and who you are.

Jesus not only validated this sinner by speaking to her, but by his action. He also validated the position of women.

It was huge. He reaches out this costly love to this unknown woman.

As I've said, most commentators feel she'd already been forgiven. And that's why she demonstrated her extreme gratitude. She was unable to hold it back. Her complete trust in Jesus meant that she had been willing to face rejection, humiliation, insults and hostility when she turned up at Simon's house. It's what she'd previously known.

Why would anybody treat her any differently?

But just to make sure that she realises the truth of her new reality, Jesus turns to her and says again, your sins are forgiven. You see, some things are just too good to be true, sometimes too difficult to believe. And so Jesus repeats it and then ends with the astonishing words, your face has saved you. Go in peace. We sang about peace this morning.

It's the peace of knowing who we are in Jesus. But only God can forgive. And only God can save. The message here to everybody listening was unmistakable. Jesus was claiming that he was God.

Jesus had made it clear that both the lawbreakers and the sinners. Sorry, law keepers and lawbreakers are sinners and equally in need of forgiveness. A forgiveness that he freely offers to everyone. The woman accepted. We don't actually know what Simon's end response was, but the big question for us today is, what is our response?

How do we respond to this costly love?

Now at the start of the talk today, I said the passage was about five things. Now, can anybody actually remember what those five things are? Yep. Okay, the first of them. That's the, that's the easy word.

Come on. What was the first one? Love. Thank you. Right.

Okay. The next one was forgiveness. Well done. Acceptance. Oh, Roger's on a roll here.

Restoration, salvation. So I'm going to briefly, because I don't want. I know the children will be starting a bit restless. They briefly look at each of those. So love Jesus.

Love is unconditional. Yeah, he loves you. Response of the woman is overwhelming, with overwhelming love and thanks. But love costs. It could have cost her everything.

It did cost Jesus everything.

This is how the love of God is revealed to us. God has sent his only son into the world so that we can live through him. This is love. Not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as a sacrifice that death that deals with our sins. The second one, forgiveness.

Forgiveness was outrageous. This woman was beyond the pale. You know, she was completely not accepted in her society.

It's absolute, you know, your forgiveness by God is absolutely. And as we can see from the woman, it's life transforming. It transforms who we are.

Jesus asks us to bear with each other and forgive one another. If any of you has a grievance against someone, forgive as the Lord forgives you.

Acceptance.

This woman was loved and accepted in spite of everything she was and everything she had done. It's eternal. It's not provisional or temporary. And I've written this down. But my favourite passage in the Bible is from Zephaniah 317, where it says that God delights over you with singing.

He loves us. Jesus received women's care in spite of the societal norms. And it makes me question, do we accept people or do we put up barriers, accept one another, just as Christ accepted you in order to bring praise to God. Two to go. Restoration.

This woman was restored not only in the eyes of society, but in the eyes of God. It changes the perspective of her own worth and it restored the relationship between her and God. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come. And finally, salvation.

Rescue. Saved from sin and its consequences. It's by grace, through the work of Jesus. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath, but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us, that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.

There's a lot in that little passage. I'm going to finish with a question for everybody, young and old, thinking about the story we have just heard. How would loving Jesus, because of his forgiveness change your head? How you think your heart, how you feel and your hands, how you act. I'm going to give you two or three minutes together to talk amongst yourselves.

Then I'll end with a prayer. So, how would loving Jesus, because of his forgiveness, change your head? How you think, your heart, how you feel. And your hands, I. E.

Your actions. Two to three minutes.

I was going to try and have a conversation across the way. I hope I'm turned off. I'll put it on the mic and then everybody will hear you.

It has to change it. Well, if it doesn't change.

Okay.

I hope that's given you some food for thought.

Knowing Jesus changed this woman, knowing jesus changes us.

Am I on? Am I on?

Hello? Am I on? I'm on. Right. Okay.

Let's bring it to a close then, just for the prayer.

Father, we thank you for Jesus and his great love. We thank you for your forgiveness. We thank you that it changes us in so many ways. And we ask, Lord, that we will walk with you, knowing that we are saved by you. Amen.

Are we all right? Brilliant. Thank you very much. Claire, I wonder what you said. I'm not going to ask you, but what I would like us to do now, we're going to sing a song.

And the song is thank you for saving me. And I'd like you to sing it as if you were saying it as a prayer, as.