September 9, 2026
Wednesday, September 9
Aren’t dinner parties great? Eating the host’s best recipe, swapping jokes and stories, getting to know people better…what’s not to love? There’s a reason the Bible pushes us, again and again, toward the ministry of hospitality. But the dinner party Jesus attended in Luke 7:36-50 was different. I’m sure the feast was the best meal Jesus had enjoyed in years, and the conversation was witty and stimulating, but Simon the Pharisee had an ulterior motive for this event. As a Pharisee, he was committed to ensuring that Israel abided by the Law of Moses, so that they wouldn’t lose their nation again. As such, he was responsible for evaluating any self-styled prophets and teachers of the Law. If Jesus passed his test, Simon would be a great ally in promoting His ministry. But if Simon didn’t like what he saw, he and his fellow Pharisees would warn all respectable Israelites to stay far away from Him.
Think about it: What if the woman had come to Simon instead of Jesus, asking “What can I do to be made clean?” Let’s assume the Pharisee would even hear her request for mercy. He would surely give her a list of hard tasks to perform in order to pay for her years of wickedness and prove she was a new person.
In the 1986 movie The Mission, Jeremy Irons plays a Catholic missionary, bringing the Gospel to natives in the jungles of South America, and Robert Deniro is a soldier of fortune who hunts those same natives to make them slaves. Eventually, the slave trader kills his own brother in a fit of rage, and is filled with guilt. He asks Irons if he can be forgiven. The priest puts a net filled with all of his armor and weapons around Deniro’s neck and forces him to drag that heavy bundle as they march deep into the jungle, up mountainsides and waterfalls, all the way to the Mission church.
That’s the path that religion often presents to people who, morally speaking, are seated in the economy section of life: “If you work harder, you can make up for your sins and get to first class like me.” In the most powerful scene in the movie, Irons and Deniro arrive at the Mission Church. The native Christians come out and immediately recognize Deniro as the one who has been kidnapping their family members. They see him, exhausted from dragging that heavy load, and one runs toward him, holding a long knife. It looks like the slave trader is about to get his just due. But instead of killing him, the man cuts the net from his neck, sending it crashing to the ground and setting him free. Deniro collapses into tears, overwhelmed by forgiveness. That is what Jesus has done for the “sinful woman” at the dinner party. That is why she loves Him.
And that, in the end, is why Simon rejects Jesus. He has no room in his worldview for grace. If any sin can be forgiven for free, that invalidates all his hard work. If God’s mercy is that big, what is the advantage of his meticulous effort to be good? The entire system of ritual purity and ethical rigor that Simon and his colleagues have sacrificed to uphold will collapse if such a message spreads. To be fair, Pharisees like Simon didn’t hand Jesus over to the Romans. That was the work of the High Priests and their cronies in Jerusalem. But that sentiment about Jesus and His message is what led to His crucifixion.
Christian, beware the tendency to excuse our own sins, while fixating on the sins of others. It’s one of Satan’s most effective traps.
“Lord, thank you for that warning. Please make me a man who sets others free, instead of heaping burdens on their shoulders that no one can bear. In Jesus’ name, amen.”
Senior Pastor
First Baptist Conroe
More from Pastor Jeff at his website: jeffbergerwriting.com
