“Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner.”
My Notes
What Does Luke 7:39 Mean?
Jesus is reclining at a Pharisee's table when a woman — identified only as "a sinner" — enters uninvited, weeping, washing His feet with her tears, drying them with her hair, kissing them, and anointing them with ointment. And the Pharisee, watching the whole scene, reaches a conclusion about Jesus based on what he sees.
"He spake within himself" — like Esau, like David in his worst moments, the most consequential speech happens inside. Simon doesn't say this out loud. He thinks it. The judgment forms silently, privately, where it can't be challenged. The internal courtroom delivers its verdict without a defense attorney present.
"This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is" — Simon's logic is airtight within its own assumptions. Prophets know things. If Jesus were a prophet, He'd know this woman is a sinner. If He knew she was a sinner, He wouldn't let her touch Him. She's touching Him. Therefore He doesn't know. Therefore He's not a prophet.
The irony is suffocating. Jesus knows exactly who and what manner of woman this is. He also knows exactly who and what manner of man Simon is. He knows what Simon is thinking before Simon finishes thinking it. Jesus will prove He's a prophet not by recoiling from the woman but by reading Simon's mind — the very thing Simon said He couldn't do.
"For she is a sinner" — Simon says it as if it disqualifies her from contact with the holy. As if sin is contagious and holiness is fragile. As if Jesus would be contaminated by her touch. The Pharisaic framework assumed this: you protect holiness by avoiding sinners. Jesus operates on the inverse: holiness transforms sinners by approaching them. The contact Simon finds scandalous is the contact that makes healing possible.
Reflection Questions
- 1.What judgments have you spoken 'within yourself' about someone whose mess made you uncomfortable?
- 2.How does Simon's assumption — holiness is contaminated by contact with sinners — still operate in your thinking?
- 3.Who is the 'sinner' in your world whose desperate worship you find uncomfortable or inappropriate?
- 4.What does it reveal about Jesus that He both received the woman's worship and read Simon's thoughts — that He knew everything about both people and chose the sinner?
Devotional
Simon saw a sinner touching a prophet and concluded the prophet must not know what he was doing. Jesus saw the same scene and concluded the sinner understood something the Pharisee didn't: that the nearness of God is for the broken, not the impressive.
The internal speech is where the damage happens. Simon didn't confront Jesus. He didn't ask a question. He judged silently, privately, in the courtroom of his own mind where there's no cross-examination. And Jesus — who turned out to be exactly the prophet Simon said He wasn't — read the verdict and answered it. The private thought was never private. God hears what you speak within yourself.
Simon's error wasn't logical. It was theological. He assumed holiness works like a white shirt — it gets dirty when it touches dirt. Jesus showed that holiness works like fire — it doesn't get contaminated by what it touches. It transforms what it touches. The woman wasn't making Jesus unclean. Jesus was making the woman clean. The contact Simon found scandalous was the mechanism of salvation.
Who are you keeping your distance from because contact with them might contaminate you? Whose tears are you uncomfortable with because their reputation makes you nervous? Simon's sin wasn't just judgment. It was the refusal to let grace be messy. The woman's worship was loud, wet, socially inappropriate, and probably uncomfortable for everyone at the table. And Jesus received every drop of it. While Simon sat clean and dry and perfectly proper — and completely wrong.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
Simon answered and said,.... Very readily, without any hesitation, not being aware of the application of it, to the…
He spake within himself - Thought. If he were a prophet - The word “prophet” here means, not one who predicts future…
When and where this passage of story happened does not appear; this evangelist does not observe order of time in his…
This man The word in the original expresses the supercilious scorn which is discernible throughout in the bearing of the…
Cross References
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