Luke 7:26-38

"What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written, “‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’" - Luke 7:26-27

John came to prepare the way for Jesus. Malachi is quoted to back up this claim; fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. John was the forerunner of the Messiah (as prophesied by Malachi), and Jesus is the One Who John declared as the Messiah. John came in the Spirit of Elijah. When asked why the prophets foretold Elijah coming before the Messiah, Jesus is clear; Elijah had come and they did to him as they pleased. John was the prophesied forerunner.

In my Bible notes I have this next bit included in these notes. Not connected to John but I feel they are still good notes.

I have heard some say that Jesus never claimed to be God or the Messiah, and I have determined that they must have never truly read the Bible. Jesus' claims of being the Messiah and being God are undeniable.

Jesus did not leave us the option of Him being just a good teacher as some would claim. C.S. Lewis summarized it excellently. "A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” - C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

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"I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”  - Luke 7:28

As one of my study Bibles states, this was not to be read as denigrating John, but to show just how far the new kingdom surpasses the old. Those in the kingdom of grace, not law, received something so profoundly amazing that even the least would surpass the greatest of the previous. Think of the technology leap between the first computer and the computers coming out some 50 years later. The least of the newer computers far surpassed the first computer. Does that make the first computer any less important for its time or any less crucial? No. John needed to come, he prepared the way for Jesus, he set hearts to a tune that were ready to march to the beat of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

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"When all the people heard this, and the tax collectors too, they declared God just, having been baptized with the baptism of John, but the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him." - Luke 7:29-30

The religious leaders were resting on their traditions, the people were resting on God's forgiveness.

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“To what then shall I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, “‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’ For John the Baptist has come  eating no bread and  drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.” - Luke 7:31-35

As Dr. McGee put it, the generation was like spoiled kids who didn't want to play, no matter what game was given them. They couldn't be pleased. They didn't want the play wedding, they didn't want to play funeral. They found fault in the unimportant and rejected the message.

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"One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table. And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment." - Luke 7:36-38

A few things to note:

The invite likely wasn't for just a casual meal, but a way for the Pharisee to see how Jesus acted and taught. Like a scrutinizing interview.

The woman's sin was a known sin.

The woman goes above and beyond the normal courtesy.