Luke 7:17-40

¹⁷This news about Jesus spread throughout the whole of Judea and all the neighboring regions.

¹⁸John's disciples told him about all these things.

¹⁹Then John called two of his disciples and sent them to the Lord to say, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?”

²⁰When they had come near to Jesus, the men said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you to say, 'Are you the one who is coming, or should we look for another?'”

²¹In that hour he healed many people from sicknesses and afflictions and from evil spirits, and to many blind people he gave sight.

²²Jesus answered and said to them, “After you have gone on your way, report to John what you have seen and heard. Blind people are receiving sight, lame people are walking, lepers are being cleansed, deaf people are hearing, people who have died are being raised back to life, and needy people are being told the good news.

²³The person who does not stop believing in me because of my actions is blessed.”

²⁴After John's messengers had gone away, Jesus began to say to the crowds about John, “What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed shaken by the wind?

²⁵But what did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothes? Look, those who wear expensive clothing and who live in luxury are in kings' palaces.

²⁶But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet.

²⁷This is he of whom it is written, 'See, I am sending my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.'

²⁸I say to 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 is.”

²⁹(When all the people heard this, including the tax collectors, they declared that God is righteous, because they had been baptized with the baptism of John.

³⁰But the Pharisees and the experts in Jewish law rejected God's purpose for themselves, because they had not been baptized by John.)

³¹“To what, then, can I compare the people of this generation? What are they like?

³²They are like children playing in the marketplace, who sit and call to one another and say, 'We played a flute for you, and you did not dance. We sang a funeral song, and you did not cry.'

³³For John the Baptist came eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, 'He has a demon.'

³⁴The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, 'Look, he is a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!'

³⁵But wisdom is justified by all her children.”

³⁶Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to eat with him. So after Jesus entered into the Pharisee's house, he reclined at the table to eat.

³⁷Behold, there was a woman in the city who was a sinner. When she found out that he was reclining at the table in the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfumed oil.

³⁸As she stood behind him near his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and she wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with perfumed oil.

³⁹When the Pharisee who had invited Jesus saw this, he thought to himself, saying, “If this man were a prophet, then he would know who and what type of woman is touching him, that she is a sinner.”

⁴⁰Jesus responded and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” He said, “Say it, Teacher!”