Week of September 28, 2025 (Luke 7:36-50)
Luke 7:36-50
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The Invitation Is For Everyone
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Luke 7:36-50 〰️ The Invitation Is For Everyone 〰️
This week, we're taking a break before jumping into our next series in Titus. Ryan Motta preached from Luke 7:36-50: the story of the sinful woman forgiven.
This passage serves as a punctuation mark for our last series, The Church, on who we desire to be as a community, serving as a reminder that forgiveness is accessible to all who seek the Lord. The passage opens with Jesus being invited by a Pharisee to dine with. It's unclear whether this Pharisee sought out Jesus to entrap Him or to learn from Him, but regardless, in Jewish culture, sharing a meal with someone was an intimate, relational step, typically reserved for family or close friends. And so as Jesus reclined in the Pharisee's home, others were with Him, including "a woman...who was a sinner," which, for us to read now, is ironic. However, because of this woman's reputation, the Pharisee was taken aback, questioning Jesus's proximity to the woman as she wept, washing His feet with her tears and expensive oil. "This man," the Pharisee lectures Jesus, "if he were a prophet, would know who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him—she's a sinner!" (v39). But Jesus, having come with a different purpose, was no ordinary prophet. Our Lord came with a purpose: to reconcile the lost.
And so Jesus poses a hypothetical to Simon the Pharisee and those listening. "A creditor had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Since they could not pay it back, he graciously forgave them both. So, which of them will love him more?" (v41-42). Naturally, the Pharisee recognized that the one who was forgiven more is the one who would respond with the most gratitude. Then, in v44-47,
"Jesus drew a contrast between the Pharisee and the woman. Simon had failed to provide water to wash his feet, had given him no kiss of hospitality, and did not anoint his head with oil—all things she had done. Jesus did not mean that the Pharisee had little sin to be forgiven but that he did not think of himself as a sinner while the woman was profoundly aware of her sinfulness."¹
It's unclear in this passage if the Pharisee truly understood what Jesus was getting at, but we can see it now, with the whole Gospel in view: those who are pulled from the deepest pits of sin are most often those who respond with the most gratitude. Because of this contrast in hospitality and response ot Jesus, He boldly makes an example of the situation. "Then he said to her, 'Your sins are forgiven.'" (v48).
As we read this passage, particularly for those who have followed Jesus for some time, a question to ponder is this: are we more like the weeping woman or the Pharisee? Do we respond to Jesus's presence with tears and worship, or are we critical of how others respond, forgetting our debt that Jesus paid?
Discussion Questions
Could someone read Luke 7:36-50 for us?
What stood out to you from the passage?
Does anything in this passage remind you of another part of Scripture?
Do you have any questions?
Why did the Pharisee react the way he did to the woman?
What was the point of Jesus's example in v41-42?
In what ways do we respond like the Pharisee, judging the sincerity of others?
In v38-40, whose heart is closer to the Lord, the "sinful woman" or the religious leader?
How might it look for us to approach Jesus in the same way as the woman in this passage? Have you ever responded to Jesus in that way?
1. A. Boyd Luter, CSB Study Bible: Notes, (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 1620.