Sermon Tone Analysis

The Proud and Contrite

Luke 7:36-50

This was serious business.

The game was tied 7-7 with two outs and it was the bottom of the ninth and for the championship of our neighborhood baseball game.

I was up at the plate and we had a man on third and here came the pitch.

I swung and hit it back to the pitcher, and ran as fast as I could.

He bobbled the ball, but then through it to first base.

And you know what happened, I got to the base the same time the first baseman caught the ball.

Our team started yelling we won, their team said I was out.

We yelled back and forth for a few minutes, and then we decided we would just have a do over.

(The next time I made sure I got a base hit so we would win the game).

Don’t you wish sometimes you could have a “do over” in life.

Sadly, with many things that happen, we can never and go back and have a second chance.

But, it is possible to have a new beginning with God.

The encounters we see today are a comparison of how Jesus dealt with the message of forgiveness with two types of people - we can learn a lot today about sharing this message of a new beginning from this passage.

I.

The Proud Man

The setting of the passage:

The Pharisees were Jewish people who were very religious – they obeyed all the laws and in fact added to the law and created man-made commandments.

For example, when the Bible said, do not work on the Sabbath – they would not be allowed to carry a burden – which was defined as anything over two fig leaves.

Or on the Sabbath you could only walk ¾ of a mile or you would break it.

They judge their goodness based upon how many rules they could follow and would gather together with Jesus so they could trap him.

In , we see that Jesus “worked” on the Sabbath according to their customs and even healed someone and they were mad.

(read luke 6:11)

And so we see they were at Simon’s house, a Pharisee, and that is was likely they had met to trap Jesus in some way.

According to the customs of that time, when you would have guest over you would wash his feet for they were dusty, greet each other with a holy kiss, and then a kind gesture was to anoint the head with olive oil.

Yet, Simon did not honor Jesus in this way.

A. He did not recognize his sin, but the sin of others

B. He gave, but not His best

C.

He doubted Lord

Is he a prophet?

D. He did not serve the Lord

E. He did not worship the Lord

He had self righteousness - he did not recognize God in His presence

II.

The Contrite Woman

Then a woman who had a bad reputation came into the meeting.

Now when they ate back then, they did not have tables and chairs like we do, so Jesus was most likely laying down.

The woman came and was in tears – why she was in tears the Bible does not say, but we realize this woman is broken because of her sin.

She comes to Jesus and with a flask of alabaster perfume – in another passage we see the cost of this perfume is 300 denari (300 days wages) and washes his feet with her tears and this expensive oil and then dries his feet with her hair.

She then kisses his feet.

A. She recognized her sin

B.

She gave her best to the Lord

C.

She wept before the Lord

D.

She served the Lord

E.

She worshipped the Lord

III.

The Lesson on Forgiveness

A. He did not recognize his sin, but the sin of others

B. He gave, but not His best

C.

He did not weep, but doubted the Lord

Is he a prophet?

D. He did not serve the Lord, but sought to be served

E.

He did not worship the Lord, but himself

He had self righteousness - he did not recognize God in His presence

III.

The Lesson on Forgiveness

A. We all need forgiveness

B. Forgiveness is available to all

C. Jesus is the only one who can forgive sins

D. Offer forgiveness to the contrite

E. Offer reflection to the proud

F. Faith in Christ is the way of forgiveness

G. Love and forgiveness are directly related

E. Offer forgiveness to the contrite

F. Offer reflection to the proud

G. Love and forgiveness are directly related