Greentree Community Church

In Luke 7.36-50 we see two people encounter Jesus at a meal.  One is a prostitute, a "woman of the city," who we wouldn't expect to recognize the Messiah if He hit her in the face.  Nevertheless, she is the one who falls at His feet and lovingly pours herself out in costly devotion.  The other is a Pharisee named Simon, a religious, moral, upstanding man, knowledgeable in the Scriptures who we would expect to immediately recognize and worship Jesus.  Yet, he is the one who is so lost in his world of religiousity that he snubs and dishonors Jesus, leading Jesus to welcome the prostitute and confront the Pharisee. 

Some of you, like this woman, have been the victims of religious hypocrisy before, you have seen the judgmentalism, arrogance, and pride in a church or in a Christian make you think, ‘if that’s Christianity, I want no part of it.’  What Jesus shows you here is that long before your experience and long before the criticisms of Karl Marx, Bertrand Russell, Frederic Neitchze, and Richard Dawkins, Jesus was condemning religious hypocrisy in much stronger terms.  Jesus says that religious people have no claim on Him, so if you’re a critic of religious hypocrisy then Jesus is with you.

Of course, now we see the real problem with Jesus.  It isn’t that Simon doesn’t have enough proof to believe, it isn’t the intellectual arguments against Jesus, it isn’t the issue of suffering and injustice, it’s the fact that Jesus is willing and daring enough to stand in the face of a righteous, self-sufficient, independent, highly knowledgeable Pharisee and say, You are no better than this prostitute and in fact worse, and you need Me.  Jesus is an affront to Simon's pride.  It is the same today, the biggest problem with Jesus isn’t the proof (there’s plenty of proof), it isn’t the scientific arguments, it isn’t the intellectual arguments, it isn’t the issue of suffering and injustice (none of those keep the woman from coming), it is that Jesus Christ is willing and daring enough to stare 21^st century Americans like us who are good, respected, money-donating, religious, moral,

independent, self-sufficient people and say, ‘You need Me.’  The real problem with Jesus is that He addresses me and says, Jeremy, I have something to say to you.  The real problem with Jesus is that He is unrelentingly offensive, He never stops confronting us; He never stops exposing our slavery to self-righteousness.  The real problem with Jesus is that He says I will come in and affect every area of your life, just as He did for the prostitute.  See, Simon’s self-righteousness was a way to keep Jesus at bay, a line in the sand for Jesus.  But the prostitute saw that Jesus will rub out your line in the sand and step right over it; she saw that He was coming to affect her finances, her sexuality, her lifestyle, her career, her recreation, everything.  The real problem with Jesus is that He requires us to admit we are on the same level with that sinful woman; the real problem with Jesus is that He says you can’t do it, I must do it for you.  The real problem with Jesus is that He doesn’t operate on quid pro quo basis.  He gives you everything for nothing, and you fall at His feet and worship.  Dan Allender said this, “The cost for the recipient of God’s grace is nothing—and no price could be higher for arrogant people to pay.” 

Let me try to illustrate this with what I believe is a Biblical illustration b/c Jesus uses it in other places.  Imagine Simon’s life is an apple tree and what he really wants to do is to give off really nice, delicious apples for everyone to see.  The problem is that some of the apples are good and some are bad.  What he thinks he needs is for the apple farmer to come by every week or two and take off the few bad apples here and there.  But the problem is there’s a sickness in the roots of his tree, and no matter how many bad apples the farmer takes off, more bad apples will grow back.  Simon’s solution to the problem is to ignore the sickness in his roots, hide his bad apples, and only show people the good apples; then everyone will think he’s a good apple tree.  That’s how Simon is and I think it’s how we often are; like Simon, we’re happy to have Jesus come around for a meal or two, help us knock off a few bad behaviors, as long as he leaves the rest alone.  But the sinful woman knows differently.  She only cares about what the farmer thinks of her apples.  She admits that the problem is not just her bad fruit but her bad roots, so instead of asking the farmer to come and knock off a few bad apples, she asks him to come and uproot her from the ground and replant her completely new.

What happens to Simon?  It doesn’t tell us.  What we know is that when the self-righteous man invited Him, Jesus went.  When Simon insulted Him, Jesus staid.  When Simon refused to apologize, Jesus taught.  When Simon hardened his heart, Jesus flung open the invitation to paradise, saying to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace,” to say to Simon how about you? Will you go in peace?  Will you have your sins forgiven by me or will the price be too high?  How about you?  Is the price too high?  Is it too hard to say, it’s not just the fruit it’s the root?  God flings open the door of His grace and mercy and says, I am sufficient to save the righteous and the unrighteous, the moral and the immoral, the religious and the irreligious, the sinner and the saint.  And how he would have you walk through.  If the Gospel is true, you don’t have to pretend anymore, if the Gospel is true, you no longer have to be strong, if the Gospel is true you no longer have to be enslaved to what everyone else thinks, if the Gospel is true you no longer have to have all the answers and pretend there’s no bad fruit, if the Gospel is true you no longer have to hide that skeleton in the closet, if the Gospel is true you can come now like the sinful woman, undignified, unabashed, uncaring about status and reputation, and fall at the feet of Jesus.