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study follows Jesus’ difficult encounter with John the Baptist’s
two disciples and His explanation to the crowd about the identity and
ministry of John the Baptist. Two of John’s disciples had been
sent to Jesus to discover if He was in fact the promised one, the Messiah
(Matt. 11:2). John had some doubts. After Jesus had authenticated His
claim to be the Messiah by performing miracles, the two disciples returned
to John. Then Jesus explained to the crowd and His own disciples that
John was both the promised forerunner of the Messiah (Mal. 3:1) and Elijah
who was to come before the Day of the Lord (Mal. 4:5). Jesus had explained
that the criticism of John and Himself was malicious and fickle. The
Jewish leaders had accused John of having a demon. They also accused
Jesus of being a glutton and a friend of tax-gatherers and sinners because
He had gone to Matthew’s party and met his friends (Matt. 9:9-13;
Mark 2:13-17; Luke 5:27-32). Both John and Jesus had been predicting
that the Kingdom of Heaven was coming and both had been calling people
to repent. Both had been very popular with the people but not with the
Jewish religious leaders whom they had been calling to repent (Matt.
3:7-11). When we come to this study, we are stunned to learn that one
of these religious leaders has invited Jesus to dinner. Why? We also
discover that a woman who was called a sinner by the religious leaders
had joined the party too!The Situation. So far the religious leaders
have been bold and authoritative, challenging Jesus when He forgave sins
(Luke 5:12-26), performed miracles (Luke 6:6-11; John 5:1-17) or taught
truths that they did not like (Luke 6:1-5; John 5:18-47). They did not
approve of Jesus’ standard of holiness and consequently rebuked
Him. The jealousy and the conflict had been growing (John 3:25-30). Just
recently in our studies we discovered that they now planned to kill Him
(John 5:18).
Why was Jesus invited to a religious leader’s dinner
party? Were they curious about Jesus? If we look ahead to John 7:45-52,
we can listen to a conversation between some of the religious leaders
and temple officers or guards. The passage implies that some of the temple
officers had been directed to bring Jesus to the leaders. When they returned
without Jesus, they were asked why they did not bring Him. Here is their
reply,
The officers answered, “Never has a man spoken the way this man speaks.” (NASB) John 7:46
Then one of the Pharisees stated, “No one of the rulers or Pharisees
has believed in Him has he?” It is obvious that this Pharisee did
not believe. Then Nicodemus, the Pharisee who visited Jesus in John 3,
encouraged them to not quickly judge Jesus. Here is the response he
received.
They answered him, “You are not also from Galilee, are you? Search, and see that no prophet arises out of Galilee.” (NASB) John 7:52 This reveals that the Pharisees
were not in agreement with one another.
So the invitation could have been given by some curious
religious leaders. Or, was the invitation simply to a formal dinner to
discuss religious business issues with Jesus? The answers to these questions
will be found in this study.
The Dinner Party. It was the custom of
the day for the leader of the group to invite the guest to dinner.
Now one of the Pharisees was requesting Him to dine with him, and He entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. (NASB) Luke 7:36 Later in Luke 7:40 and 44 we will discover that his name was Simon.
Verse 49 also reveals that there were other religious leaders present
too! It was Jesus and a group of Jewish religious leaders. It might have
included both Pharisees and Sadducees.
It was customary in Jesus’ day 1) to greet the guests
with a kiss on the cheek, 2) to offer guests some water so that they
could wash their feet, and 3) to anoint their heads with some oil. Guests
were typically seated near the one who had invited them to dinner. Since
they reclined on a low couch or sofa that was near the floor during dinner,
their feet were positioned outward away from the table of food.
It is amazing what the gospel writers have left out of
the account of this dinner party. The writings of most ancient secular
writers focused on the delicious, rare and exotic foods of the wealthy
and privileged. Elaborate descriptions of the food were common, but nothing
like that occurs here. Once again we discover that the gospel writers
are only interested in the facts - what happened. They are not interested
in exaggeration or hyperbole. They recorded the essential facts. They
did not need to invent or hype the story. The facts were enough!
A woman - “a sinner” - also came to the party
with an alabaster vial of perfume.
And there was a woman in the city who was a sinner; and when she learned that He was reclining at the table in the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster vial of perfume, and standing behind Him at His feet, weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears, and kept wiping them with the hair of her head, and kissing His feet and anointing them with the perfume. (NASB) Luke 7:37-38
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| Life & Heart of Jesus | ||||||
