Self-Righteousness Blocks Compassion -- Luke 7:36-50 • Paul Deschamps

My name is Paul Deschamps and I serve in our student ministry here at CTK and it is a real joy for me today to get to preach to you from God's word. So please turn with me in your bibles or follow along to Luke 7. We're gonna look at verses 36 through 50.

One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. 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. 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.

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.

And Jesus answered him, Simon, I have something to say to you. And he answered, say it teacher. A certain money lender had two debtors. One owed 500 denarii and the other 50. When they could not pay he canceled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more? Simon answered, the one I suppose for whom he canceled the larger debt. And he said to him, you have judged rightly.

Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, do you see this woman? I entered your house. You gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in, she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little loves little.

And he said to her, your sins are forgiven. Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, who is this who even forgives sins? And he said to the woman, your faith has saved you. Go in peace. — Luke 7:36-50

This is God's word. Let me pray for us.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for these words. We wish to see Jesus. We wish to see his grace. We wish to see his mercy. And we wish to see his forgiveness. We pray this in your name, amen.

I have had exactly one haircut since February. It was pretty bad looking in June, I'll tell you. This is much better than it was, but when my hair starts to get longer, it gets a little unruly. My kids, they love to make fun of my morning hair. They draw pictures of it. It gets all piled up and then they're like, here's a picture of daddy and there's his morning hair. It's a mess. Then I grab my first cup of coffee, pop a hat on my head, problem solved. One cup of coffee, two cups of coffee, three cups of coffee. Not to mention the all too late arrival of a toothbrush and that leads to my next morning problem: morning breath, the silent killer.

This beautiful picture of my morning hot mess actually has a point. Paul Miller writes that the problem with a bad hair day is that everyone can see it, even you. But the problem with bad breath is that it is only smelled by others. You can't smell your own bad breath.

Over the last few weeks, we've been looking at stories that are vintage Jesus stories, so classic to his character that we've been drawn into who he is and how he changes us. We've been looking at how he interacts with people and through this we are learning what compassion really looks like. And as we dive in today, I actually want to step back two verses from where we started reading and take a look at Luke 7:34.

The Son of Man has come eating and drinking and you say, look at him, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. — Luke 7:34

I bring this up to you today because as we enter into this story, we see that Jesus already has a reputation. And the story that we're looking at does very little to change that reputation.

In this story Jesus interacts with two people primarily. And they couldn't be more different from one another. One is a Pharisee—he is the religious and cultural elite of that day, a leader. The other is this woman known publicly for her problems, a woman who is an outcast of society. And the big shocking conclusion of this story is that both the Pharisee and the woman are identified as sinners.

The woman knows that she is a sinner and she moves closer to Jesus. But the Pharisee, he doesn't know it because he's attached himself to his own self-righteousness. And as we talk about compassion and we learn to love like Jesus, we learn that self-righteousness is the spiritual halitosis that Jesus alone can expose.

But Jesus welcomes and he woos all kinds of sinners. And he promises them that they can have a new and a different kind of life. Jesus welcomes sinners who know that they need help.

If you had been reading through the Gospel of Luke from the beginning, you would start to notice a trend. Everywhere that Jesus goes, a crowd seems to follow him. A crowd seems to form, and it's full of people—all different kinds of people. There are people who believe in him, people who are skeptics, people who doubt him, people who just want to see some cool stuff happen. There are people that are hurting, people that are hopeless and helpless.

As the stories of his grace, his healing, his teaching, his forgiveness spread, more and more people get drawn into the intrigue of Jesus. Many of these people are outsiders, they're outcasts, they're sinners who have been put outside the community. But now they've heard about a man being brought back to life in this town called Nain—we looked at that a couple weeks ago. Or they hear about this centurion who has a servant who's super ill and all of a sudden he becomes healed because of the centurion's faith in Jesus. It's only natural to ask: What about me? Could Jesus help me too?

The Pharisee's Invitation

It's not just the broken people who are curious about Jesus. The Pharisees too, they want to know who he is. Jesus again and again, as we encounter stories of him in the gospels, he keeps coming up against the Pharisees. And he seems to always be challenging the status quo of their religious hegemony.

Jesus, being a well-known rabbi, would likely have traveled from town to town and visited various synagogues and been asked to teach and lead. As he's doing this, he's coming through this town and this Pharisee—we find out his name is Simon. We see this in verse 36. He says, "Jesus, come to my home for a meal." And Jesus says yes. But he's not invited as a friend. Simon doesn't invite Jesus as a friend. Jesus has been invited to be evaluated.

Towards the end of this passage that we just read, we see this when Jesus calls out Simon for his lack of hospitality. He's not a good host. It would have been customary to greet your guests with a kiss on the cheek as a sign of welcome, as a sign of peace between you. As they walked around town to town traveling dirty roads full of filth and waste, imagine the things that would be clinging to their feet as they just wore thin leather sandals. So it would be a common gesture, a common nicety, to offer to wash someone's feet before they came into your home. Or at least have a servant do it. Or at the very least, here's a bowl of water that you can wash your feet because your feet are gross.

And then it would have been a common custom to put a little oil on someone's head or their hair, maybe a little incense. There's not daily showers. Things are trapped in there, and it smells. You're gonna be leaning in, you're gonna be close. A little dab of oil can go a long way. It's very helpful.

Simon does none of this. He treats Jesus incredibly rude. But Jesus still attends the meal. He still sticks in.

The Setting of the Meal

To set this scene a little bit more, this meal would have been served not around a nice dining room table like we have with chairs, all formal. They would have been laying by a low table, leaning in probably on their left elbow so that their right hand could be free to reach forward and grab their meal. Their feet would be stretched out behind them as they spent a leisurely time taking food together, breaking bread together.

It would have been customary after the meal to engage in some sort of discourse—a conversation, a debate, a discussion, maybe be challenged. These could go on for some time. And as we see the story, this dinner party doesn't really play out the way it customarily would. There's the lack of hospitality. But then, right there in verse 37, something shocking happens.

The Woman with the Ointment

And behold, a woman of the city who was a sinner, when she learned that he—that's Jesus—was reclining at the table in the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster flask of ointment. 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 ointment. — Luke 7:37-38

That is a shocking dinner party. This woman, we never find out what her name is. She's only identified as a woman of the city and a sinner.

Now there's a fair amount of debate about what the nature of her sin was and what exactly these terms mean. Most scholars believe that her sin was probably either adultery or she was a prostitute. We don't really know. And it really doesn't matter what her sin was except that the fact that her sin was known. Her sin was public. Her sin was attached to her. When you went to the store and she was there, you moved to a different section. You whispered about her to your friend. You said, let's get away from her. You made jokes about her. You sent texts about her. You gossiped about her. She was the end of all of your jokes. This is a woman whose shame is on public display. She'd been rejected by every thread of the fabric of society. And the fact that her sin was known publicly means that she was in all likelihood condemned for sinful behavior by the very same religious leaders of whose house she had just walked in on. She's got a reputation that she has earned. We'll be clear about that, but it's not going anywhere.

But as she enters the story, as she encounters Jesus, she becomes overcome with these emotions and she begins to cry. And her tears well up in her eyes and her crying turns to weeping and it turns to sobbing. And there are so many tears. She is crying so hard that the tears are running off her cheeks and dripping down onto the feet of Jesus. These tears so much that onto the feet of Jesus, she's able to wash his feet. And she lets down her hair. Something that was a really intimate act would have only been done in the presence of her husband. And she takes her hair to dry the feet of Jesus. And she takes this perfume, this treasure that either she purchased with money that she earned or was something that she had inherited. And she pours it on the feet of Jesus. Knowing that that this is for him.

I mean, can you feel this? Can you feel the tension in this room? I mean here's a woman who is so overcome by her shame that she offers up her tears as all that she has left for Jesus.

Now if we encountered something like this today, it would be really awkward. If you were to, you know, if you were like one of the guests sitting at the table, reclining at the table, one of Simon's other guests, I mean if it was me I'd be like awkward. This needs to stop. Oh my, let's watch Jesus. What's he gonna do?

Jesus Accepts Her Offering

I mean, that's me. He's got to address this but he doesn't. He doesn't address it. And maybe, I mean just maybe the thing that is the most shocking, it's not her actions at all, but it's the actions of Jesus right here. I mean he just sits there and he lets her do this. He doesn't jump up and say thanks, but you know, no thanks. You know, let's keep the hair up. You know, I understand what you're doing, but you know, this isn't the right time or the right place. No. He sits there and he accepts it. Why? Because Jesus cares about her heart.

I mean this is vintage Jesus.

It's not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. — Luke 5:31

Jesus is not afraid of her. He's not afraid of her story. In fact, he came for her. He came to redeem her from her story. See Jesus is happy to link his identity to hers, and he's happy to link his identity to yours and to mine. Jesus is not embarrassed by you. He doesn't recoil when you come in contact with him. He is not embarrassed by me. You know, in fact he includes stories like this one right here in this book to tell the whole world about how scandalous his grace is.

But he didn't come only to rescue those who know that they're broken. Jesus also comes for those who don't think that they need to be rescued. And we see this in his interactions with Simon in the remaining parts of the story. Jesus woos sinners who don't think that they need him.

Now I think to be fair, our response is probably a lot more like Simon's response in verse 39. And he says to himself, if this man were really a prophet he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman this is. Judgment, shame, self righteousness. I am better than both of them. If we saw something like this play out today, we'd be far more tempted to snap a picture with our phones and tweet it than we would be moved by how tender Jesus is to this person who has suffered so much hurt.

See a dinner party like this would have been a really big deal. This would have been news in the town. The religious leaders of the day are having this kind of maybe a little radical of a teacher come over. He says some things that are a little different. News of this meeting would have traveled all over town. It was expected that many people of the lower class would probably show up. They'd be hovering around the doors. They may even come in to the setting, but they would be expected to stay along the walls. They would not be allowed near the table. This table was considered for people that were holy.

And allowing one of these people who was a known sinner to show up at the table could have tarnished the holiness of the guests. Simon sits back, and as this woman comes up to Jesus' feet, he just watches the scene unfold. He watches what happens and he never tries to protect his other guests from the impurity of what's happening. He never tries to send her away. He never puts her in her place. You can feel his eyes are trained on Jesus and they're just wanting to watch him fail. And when Jesus welcomes this woman and is gracious to her, he scoffs to himself. "I knew it. I knew he was a phony. I knew he wasn't a prophet. What a loser."

Simon isn't vexed because of the presence of the sinful woman. He probably expected that she would be there. He's vexed because Jesus doesn't know her and judge her the way that she ought to be treated. And it's at this point that Jesus turns his attention to Simon and look right there in verse 40 it says,

And Jesus answered him saying...

Wait, time out. Simon didn't say those things. He thought those things. That was Simon's internal monologue. Jesus knows his thoughts. Who can do that but a prophet? Who can do that but God himself? And he turns his attention to Simon and he shows compassion to his host and he answers his thoughts with this parable. You know two workers, they both owe some money. They both owe a not small debt. Now a denarii was like a small coin. It was worth about one day's wages. So one man owes 50, the other owes 500. One man owes about $5,000 the other man owes about $50,000. It's not a small amount of money for either man. But it is the difference between owning a used Honda Civic and a Tesla. If both get their debts forgiven, who's more grateful? I mean, Simon nails this one. "Me, hand up. I know the answer. The man with the bigger debt."

Unlike some of Jesus' other teachings that are difficult to understand, this one is designed to be really clear. If you've screwed up really bad and someone forgives you, your response is going to love the person that forgives you. And you're probably going to love them even more than someone that had a small debt. This is a pretty clear concept and Jesus is like, "Okay, you got this one Simon. Let's go a little deeper."

Jesus Calls Simon to See

And after teaching this parable he turns his body and he looks at the woman. And while he's sitting there looking at her he asks Simon to look at her too. Why? There's something about the eyes. There's something that when they come to rest on an object, other people are going to look there too. If I'm having a conversation with Anderson and it feels natural for me to look at Anderson. But if as we're talking I change my gaze and I start to look at Danny, then Anderson is going to start to look at Danny too. So not only does Jesus change his gaze while he's talking, but he instructs Simon, "Hey man, look at her. Do you see her?"

Do you remember what we've been saying over these last two weeks? Compassion begins with seeing. Jesus wants Simon to stop judging and to start seeing. Simon only knows her past, but Jesus is seeing her right now. Simon can only see a problem, but Jesus is seeing a person. Simon can only see a category, but Jesus sees a heart that is changing.

Simon's self-righteousness is preventing him from seeing that here is a woman who is heartbroken by her sin, by her huge amount of debt. And Simon would never do what she has done. He's better than her. He's better than Jesus. And he doesn't need anything. He's just fine on his own. But this parable begins to sow a seed of doubt into his heart. It's as if Jesus is saying, "Simon, I read your thoughts. Are you sure there's not some sin in there somewhere? Are you absolutely sure that there's not even just a little bit of sin? You still have a vertical problem with God. You may act all nice, you may act all religious, but you've got a problem. Wait, you still can't see it? Look at her. Look at her again. Look at this woman that you judged and look at how she loved me."

"I came into your house, you didn't give me a kiss of peace and welcome, but she has kissed my dirty feet. You didn't bring me any water so that I could even wash my own feet, but she has cried so hard that she's washed my dirty feet and dried it with her own hair. You didn't give me any oil to help cover my smell. She has poured expensive perfume out on me. You let me stink. She has showed me love."

See, Simon's pride, Simon's arrogance towards Jesus and this woman is now on full display. And his pride at this point looks even uglier than her shame. And Jesus' rebuke of Simon is a rebuke of us. Self-righteousness' sole function is to look at others so that we can feel good about ourselves. Self-righteous people need sinners to remind us that we are okay. When you come to Jesus, you come like this woman with only repentance to offer.

And when you do, this passage shows us that Jesus welcomes us into his loving arms. And the story concludes by Jesus forgiving this woman and sending her out in peace. I mean, this is mind blowing. This is life changing.

If you think about how life and religion played out then, and even how it plays out today—how much our faith is tied up in our goodness, in our right theology, in the way we worship, in the songs we sing, in the tithes we give, in the clothes we wear, in the people that we hang out with. This woman comes into the story and blows this up. Everything about her is wrong. She doesn't belong here.

If you go back and you read this passage three times, it calls her a sinner. That's a lot. Three times, like we get it. She's a sinner. But three times, Jesus is called a forgiver. There is no amount of sin in your life that Jesus is not able to forgive.

So what is our response to this? Sinners get to welcome Jesus. As we read through this story, as we look at the relationships that form between Jesus and the woman, and Jesus and Simon, Jesus is continuing to show us what compassion looks like. By being compassionate, he's compassionate to both the woman and he's compassionate to Simon. See Jesus sees her need and he gives her grace. But Jesus sees his blindness to his own sinful heart.

So when we said self righteousness blocks compassion, it does so by blocking our ability to see our own hearts. How much we need Jesus. In this story, there's only one person who's holy.

Responding to Our Sinfulness

When we read something like this, a common question we might ask is, where do you see yourself in this story? Are you like the woman? Are you more like Simon? And what do we do when we come face to face with our sins? Do we respond in faith by repenting of our sinfulness and lean on Jesus as our only hope and salvation? Or do we say things like, at least I'm not like fill in the blank. They do this and I do that.

We're given a different story. And the story is we're all a mess. And admitting that you are a mess is a huge relief. Striving to be perfect is exhausting.

The temptation in a passage like this is to say, you need to go out and really beat yourself up. Turn over every place where sin hides and go repent more. Go try harder and repent like this woman. Really see your brokenness. It's a little dangerous because when we do that, all we see is our sinfulness but we never see hope. We only see hope when we see Jesus.

The Pharisees had a problem because they had no solution to sin. Jesus is our solution to sin. This woman has been living in a shame spiral. She was the object of public derision and she probably hated herself. And when she walks into the room where Jesus is, she's overcome with emotion and there is hope that she might be forgiven.

Her faith has saved her. — Luke 7:50

Her repentance was a sign, an expression of worship that she knew that her only hope in this life or the next was Jesus Christ. People who understand their need of forgiveness welcome Jesus into their mess. Because he is the only one who can clean it up.

You know, we're never really told what happens to Simon. And actually many times in the gospel accounts Jesus gives teachings on self righteousness that are left kind of open ended. We see this in Luke 15 with the parable of the two sons. The younger rebellious brother comes home. But we never know whether the older bitter self righteous brother comes into the party. We look at Luke 18 and the Pharisee prays and thanks God that he is not like the sinful tax collector. And yet it's the tax collector who is saved because he begs for mercy.

Jesus Invites Us to His Party

Simon's problem is like so many of ours. We want Jesus to come along with us and for him to bless our agenda. We want Jesus to come to our party. He seems like a good guy for me to have around. He could be useful for me. But that's not how it works. Instead, Jesus invites us to his party.

His party looks a lot more like the Fantasy Feast scene in the movie Hook. Do you guys remember the movie Hook? I love the movie Hook. I watch that movie all the time. When Robin Williams is the grown up Peter Pan, he's forgotten what it's like to be a kid, and he is taken back to Neverland, and it's a miserable experience. He spends all of his time acting like a grown up, like a lawyer. He's arguing. He's pointing blame. He's being annoyed by the Lost Boys who are acting like, well, kids. I mean he's lost all the qualities of Peter Pan. He can't fly. He can't fight. He can't crow. He can't pretend or have fun or play games.

And at one point, he's sitting at the table with all the Lost Boys and they're all going to town on this meal. I mean, they got the ribs and they're like, oh, they're licking their fingers. And he can't see anything. All he can see are empty bowls, wooden plates, spoons, dry cups. And he's starving and he's longing to be full.

And no matter how hard he tries, he can't make the food appear until one day he sits there and he takes his spoon and he scrapes the inside of the wooden bowl and he holds it back and he lets it fly at the boy across the table from him. And to his delight and surprise, food—imaginary food—becomes visible and flies and smacks the kid in the face. And everyone's surprised. They're like, "You're doing it, Peter, you're remembering." And he realized, all I had to do was believe. The whole table is set, not just his bowl, but this amazing feast, this amazing meal. His friends see the change and they have this massive food fight. I always wanted to do that.

But Peter Pan, he didn't need to practice his way into remembering his identity. It didn't work when he trained and tried and tried and failed. And it left him frustrated and alienated. And all he needed to do was believe that he was really still just a lost boy.

And I think so many of us are still sitting at a set table and finding that our bowls are empty. And we're trying to fill them with our own goodness, our own self-importance, and we're trying to worship ourselves. Instead of practicing our goodness, we need to own our lostness. I'm really good at being good. I am not really good at admitting that I need help.

But Jesus invites us to be like the lost boys—lost in that freeing, joyful, reckless, messy, hopeful love of Jesus Christ. And when we are people who practice repentance, we become less self-righteous and we become more like Jesus. And when we see our own hearts and our own need for salvation and we are given new hearts that love what he loves, we remove the block that we have to compassion with one another. And we can support and we can love one another. We can love each other to be better because we have known what it means to be loved.

Brené Brown in her TED Talk that went viral on vulnerability says that the most powerful words in empathy are the words, "me too." Fellow sinners can practice compassion when we will admit that we are a mess too and we need help.

The grace of Jesus is that through his work on the cross, he has paid for our sins with his own life. And he offers us forgiveness by faith that he is enough. When we think back to the beginning, we think back to that question about who is this Jesus, we can see that he has come eating and drinking and he offers us a space at his table. His table which will be filled with recovering sinners because that's all of us. Our great fellowship with one another is a fellowship of grace. For if you take your seat at the Lord's table, it's because you know his love.

Let me pray for us. Father, may your grace fill our hearts to see our need, to see our neighbors, to love them well, and to love you more. We pray this in your name. Amen.