Lesson for May 12, 2021
The Life of Christ
Lesson 21
Jesus Rebukes Three Cities
(Matthew 11:20-30)
After Jesus had told the Pharisees that they lacked divine wisdom, He began to rebuke (to accuse of a fault) three cities. Cities and even nations have a corporate responsibility and accountability to God (whether they acknowledge it or not), just like the individual. The reason Jesus rebuked these cities was that these cities had seen the most miracles performed by Jesus and His disciples. He compared these particular cities to some of the corrupt cities of the Old Testament.
The cities that Jesus rebuked are Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum. Jesus compared the cities of Chorazin and Bethsaida to the Old Testament cities of Tyre and Sidon. Jesus then compared the city of Capernaum to Sodom. Tyre and Sidon were sister cities that abandoned God and concerned themselves with the accumulation of wealth and power. In their arrogance, they assumed that all that they had gained was due to their own wisdom and knowledge and they rejected God as the source of their blessings. For this reason, these cities were eventually destroyed by their enemies. In like manner, Sodom was a city of corruption and decadence. They also had turned their backs on God and followed the pagan gods and engaged in human debauchery. God also destroyed the city of Sodom. In the same manner, the three cities in our passage would be judged for their rejection of Jesus Christ as the Messiah. (Ezekiel 26,27,28; Isaiah 23; Genesis 18,19)
What happens when believers within a city or a nation turn their backs on God? How does the decline begin? When the rate of forgetting Bible doctrine exceeds the rate of learning it (or never begins at all), the believer is at risk of perpetual carnality, which is a slide into reversionism. Carnality is a theological term that describes the condition of a believer who is out of fellowship with God. The word carnal means fleshly, which is tantamount to being controlled by the sin nature. Reversionism is the condition of an out-of-fellowship believer who is negative toward Bible doctrine for a prolonged period and as a result has stopped growing spiritually or never began the learning process at all. Reversionism is failure to follow God’s plan of executing the Christian Way of Life. The reversionists are believers in perpetual carnality, out of fellowship with God and controlled by their sin nature. A believer who is not advancing toward spiritual maturity is retreating into reversionism. To guard against this happening, the rate of learning Bible doctrine must exceed the rate of forgetting it.
Jesus Dines with Simon the Pharisee
(Luke 7:36-50)
Sometime after Jesus had told the Pharisees that they lacked divine wisdom and after He had rebuked the three cities of Galilee He was invited to dine with Simon, a Pharisee. Apparently before the meal began, a certain woman entered the house and began to anoint the feet of Jesus with oil.
Luke describes this woman as a sinner, but not just “any sinner.” We know this because of the Greek word that Luke used for sinful. The Greek word for sinful is “hamartolos” and was often used to describe a person who was a desecrator of tombs (an especially hideous practice). The point is that this woman was a well-known violator of the Mosaic Law and obviously had a reputation as such. Luke stops short of naming her specific sin, but we know she was notorious for it. We see this in a description of her in verse thirty-eight by Simon the Pharisee.
Notice in this passage how deliberate this woman was in planning and executing the plan to see Jesus and honor Him. First, she made sure of His location. Remember that large crowds attempted to follow Jesus everywhere He went. Therefore, when He entered any town or place there was much talk about where He would be. This woman wanted to make sure she saw Him. Her second act was to purchase a flask of alabaster oil. She obviously had a plan. Alabaster oil was a perfume used in Biblical times for three purposes: 1) Medicinal – because of the dry climate of the ancient near east, these oils were used to keep skin and hair from becoming too dry. 2) Cosmetic – these oils were used as deodorants to mask body odors, in the preparation for burial, as a fragrant aroma and were often applied to clothes or furniture. 3) Religious – as anointing oils and for burning incense, both part of religious practices of the time. The next part of her plan was to get next to Jesus, which she did successfully.
Filled with emotion, the woman began to cry. Luke used the Greek word “klaio” for cry, which describes her crying as with grief or emotion, but not to the point of uncontrollable wailing. We can only speculate on the reason for her emotional response. Perhaps this woman was overcome with emotion at the fact that her sins were forgiven or perhaps it was because she was in the presence of her Savior. Perhaps it was both. We know from later verses in this passage that when she came to Simon’s house that she was already a believer. It seemed that her goal was to honor Jesus by an act that was very common in ancient Biblical times. We also learn that anointing the feet was a common practice from what Jesus said to Simon in Luke 7:44. The emotion with which this woman expressed her gratitude is analogous to the emotion that will be displayed for the Lord Jesus Christ during His millennial reign on earth. Without Satan and his world system to distort emotional responses, believers will be free to express emotion in the form of verbal, ecstatic behavior that is not to be engaged in during the Church Age.
The humility that this woman showed is a testimony to us all. Remember that Jesus washed the feet of His own disciples as an object lesson of humility. This woman recognized the authority of Jesus Christ and willingly submitted to His authority. She was not trying to work for her salvation, nor was she trying to gain the approval of God by her act.
on the other hand had been trying all his life to gain the approval of God for salvation by his good deeds. He apparently invited Jesus to dinner to test Him in order to see if He was really “a prophet” by examining Him, observing Him and questioning Him. The response of Christ to this “sinful” woman answered the question in the mind of this Pharisee – He cannot be a prophet if He condones the behavior of this sinful woman. Of course, the Pharisee was wrong – Jesus was “The Prophet.” Simon’s thinking would have been: “Those of us who are righteous do not associate with sinners.” Of course, we know that the Pharisees were not righteous. They were power-hungry, greedy, corrupt religious leaders who preyed on their congregation.
Because Jesus was talking with a self-righteous Pharisee, He used a parable to set the record straight and to show him the error of his way. The parable was a simple one and the response from Simon was the correct response – the one that Jesus was looking for from him. Simplified, the parable asked the question, “Who will most appreciate his debt being forgiven, the one who owed the most or the one who owed the less?” The correct answer was the one who owed the most, because he was forgiven the most. From verse forty-nine we see that this parable meant nothing to Simon and the others (most likely other Pharisees) who were attending the dinner. They refused to recognize Jesus as the Messiah or even to respect Him as a prophet. Simon had reduced Jesus to the role of teacher and the others reduced Him to a blasphemer, since He claimed to be able to forgive sin.
The story ends with Christ’s statement to the woman. He simply told her that her faith had saved her and to go in peace. Notice that he did not address the Pharisees in the same manner, which is an indication that they were all unbelievers. This is a story of the great love expressed by this new believer and the magnitude of the forgiveness that she received as a result of her faith in Jesus Christ as Savior.