Luke chapter 7, we'll be reading from verses
36 to the end of the chapter. Now, one of the
Pharisees was requesting him to dine with him,
and he entered the Pharisee's house and reclined
at the table. And there was a woman in the city
who was a sinner. And when she learned that he
was reclining at the table in the Pharisee's
house, she brought an alabaster vial of perfume
and standing behind him at his feet, weeping.
She began to wet his feet with her tears and
kept wiping them with the hair of her head and
kissing his feet and anointing them with the
perfume. Now when the Pharisee who had invited
him saw this, he said to himself, if this man
were a prophet, he would know who and what sort
of person this woman is who is touching him,
that she is a sinner. And Jesus answered him,
Simon, I have something to say to you. And he
replied, Say it, teacher. A moneylender had two
debtors. One owed 500 denarii and the other 50.
When they were unable to repay, he graciously
forgave them both. So which of them will love
him more? Simon answered and said, I suppose
the one whom he forgave more. And he said to
him, You have judged correctly. Turning toward
the woman, he said to Simon, Do you see this
woman? I entered your house. You gave me no water
for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her
tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave
me no kiss, but she, since the time I came in,
has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint
my head with oil, but she anointed my feet with
perfume. For this reason I say to you, her sins,
which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved
much, but he who is forgiven little. loves little.
Then he said to her, your sins have been forgiven.
Those who were reclining at the table with him
began to say to themselves, who is this man who
even forgives sins? And he said to the woman,
your faith has saved you. Go in peace. Let's
pray. Our gracious God and Father, as I was thinking
through this passage this morning and what I
hoped that you would accomplish in our midst
through it. The words of the Greeks who came
to Andrew in John 12 just came flooding into
my mind. Sir, we would see Jesus. That's what
we desire. We would see Jesus this morning in
His magnificent mercy and grace and compassion
for sinners. But we recognize That we cannot
see Jesus apart from the aid and power of the
Holy Spirit. And so that is precisely what we
ask for. I pray that you would open our eyes
to behold the glory of Christ manifested in His
mercy to sinners. And that beholding the glory
of Christ, we may love Him in saving faith. in
transformative repentance, and in effusive worship.
We would see Jesus. Show us Christ. We ask this
in the name of Jesus. Amen. You may be seated.
Well, I welcome you this morning in the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, and I bring you greetings
from your brothers and sisters who are gathered
right now as we speak at... the First Baptist
Church in Nixa, Missouri. And although they don't
know you and you don't know them, Kyle and I
have become friends over the past 18 months through
our work with the Christian Heritage Center.
And my earnest hope is that our churches may
become acquainted in the years to come. And as
Rick Blaine said to Louis Renault as they walked...
Through the fog at the end of Casablanca, I think
this may be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Because not only do Christians need friends,
churches need friends. And you have been such
friends to myself and my daughter Susanna who
traveled with me this weekend and all of the
speakers. We have been so blessed by your hospitality,
so blessed by the faithfulness of this church.
Pastor Ray is saying just right here in the middle
of a cornfield, this vibrant New Testament community.
And I want to thank you for that. I also am committing
to you in the sight of the Lord to fast for a
few days because I've eaten more over the last
three days than I eat in the course of a week.
You guys have been good to us. Well, I am on
a semi -sabbatical during the months of June
and July, and our elders are filling our pulpit
and getting their reps, as one of our elders
likes to say. Since January, we have been working
through the Gospel of Luke on Sunday mornings,
and this morning I would like to preach one of
my favorite passages in Luke's Gospel, the story
of Simon and the sinful woman. This is the first
of three nearly identical stories or parables
in the gospel of Luke that perhaps more than
any other story or parable in this gospel reveal
the true nature of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Interestingly, all three of these stories or
parables are found only in Luke's gospel. None
of them are recorded in Matthew or Mark or John.
These three stories slash parables are our text
for this morning, Simon and the sinful woman,
the prodigal son and the older brother in Luke
15, and Jesus' parable of the Pharisee and the
tax collector in Luke 18. All three of these
stories have a notorious sinner as the protagonist
of the story. The sinful woman in Luke 7, the
prodigal son in Luke 15, the tax collector in
Luke 18. All three have a Pharisee as the antagonist
of the story. Simon in Luke 7, the older brother
who represents the Pharisees, if you look at
the beginning of Luke 15, and then the titular
Pharisee of Jesus' parable in Luke 18. And all
three end with the notorious sinner receiving
the forgiveness of sins by grace through faith
alone, while the self -righteous Pharisee receives
nothing. From the hand of Christ for all of his
supposed righteousness. These three stories,
these three parables seem to have had a special
significance for Luke, who we will remember was
a close companion of the Apostle Paul. And this
makes sense. For Paul seems to have grasped better
than anyone the nature of... Grace and the danger
of self -righteousness. Perhaps this was because
Paul was himself a Pharisee at one time who had
imagined himself blameless in the sight of the
law. But that was before he was confronted by
the risen Christ on the road to Damascus. And
it was in the light of Christ's glory that Paul
finally, for the first time in his life, saw
himself as he truly was. And that righteousness
that he thought that he possessed, he then saw
in the light of Christ as nothing more than filthy
rags. In other words, Paul uniquely understood
both characters in all three of these stories.
He knew what it was to be the self -righteous
Pharisee, and he knew what it was to be the notorious
sinner. After his conversion, that's how he viewed
himself. He was a blasphemer of Christ, a persecutor
of the church, the chief of sinners. So it's
not difficult to imagine Paul having heard these
stories as they were retold by the other apostles,
latching on to them as descriptive of his own
experience. and then preaching them repeatedly
throughout his own gospel ministry. And then
as Luke accompanied Paul on his missionary journeys,
he would have heard these stories again and again
and again, and they would have taken on a special
significance for him. Thus, they find their way
into his gospel. And my prayer this morning is
that this story would have a special significance
for you. These are stories... For two types of
people that may find their way into a church
on any given Sunday morning. It's a story for
both the sinner and the self -righteous. So if
you find yourself this morning burdened by guilt
and shame, perhaps feeling unworthy and unclean,
unlovable and unsavable, then I have really,
really good news for you this morning. You can
be clean. You can be forgiven. You can be washed,
set free from the burden of guilt and shame.
You can be dressed, not in the filthy rags of
self -righteousness, but in the robes of Christ's
perfect righteousness and adorned with the seal
of His sonship. In other words, these stories,
this story in Luke 7, gives you every reason
this morning to take courage and to come to Christ.
He will receive you. Jesus loves to be greatly
loved. And as we will read in this text, those
who have been forgiven much loves much. Therefore,
Jesus loves to forgive much. So your sin, far
from being an impediment to your salvation, is
actually something of a necessary precursor to
your salvation. So if that's you this morning,
I want you to listen intently. This story is
for you. But it's also for the self -righteous.
And there are likely some of those in here as
well. Maybe you came this morning because that's
just what you always do. And if you were honest,
you would say that it makes you feel good to
know that you're like those people who don't
go to church, who don't believe the truth, who
don't obey God, who aren't reformed. Now, you're
in an evangelical church. You're in a Reformed
church. You've read the Bible before. We read
it this morning and confessed it in the catechism.
You know no one is saved by his own righteousness.
You know that you must believe upon Jesus for
salvation, and so that's why you did it. Believed
on Jesus. Because that's what you're supposed
to do. But if your heart were to be put underneath
the divine microscope, Would he find love for
Christ? Would he find gratitude for grace? Would
he find joy for the gift of free mercy? Or, as
I have seen happen so many times, have you turned
faith into just another work? Something in which
you can boast, particularly over those who do
not believe the gospel. At the end of the sermon,
I'm going to ask you to examine your heart by
asking you a single question. Do you love Jesus
like this woman loves Jesus? I'm not going to
ask you, do you believe in Jesus? Because that
question is not going to get us to the core of
the issue this morning. Because it is possible
to believe... facts about Jesus, and even to
have done what you're supposed to do with those
facts about Jesus, namely pray and ask Jesus
to forgive you, profess faith through baptism,
belong to a church. It's possible to do all of
those things and not love Jesus. It's not only
possible, it's prevalent. But I want you to notice
two points at the beginning, two points to which
I will return later in this sermon. Number one.
Look at verse 47. I want you to notice that Jesus
used faith and love interchangeably as though
they were the same thing. In verse 47, Jesus
says to Simon, for this reason I say to you,
her sins, which are many, have been forgiven,
for she loved much. Then in verse 50, Jesus says
to the woman, your faith has saved you. Your
love has forgiven you. Your faith has saved you.
And I suppose that nobody here would disagree
that forgiveness and salvation are being used
as synonyms in this text. But if forgiveness
and salvation, verse 47 and verse 50, are being
used as synonyms, then so must love and faith
be used synonymously. For Jesus, then, love is
of the essence of saving faith. Saving faith
is affectionate. A faith without love is just
as dead as a faith without works. It is a false
faith that cannot save. The second thing I want
you to notice here at the very beginning is the
link between love and forgiveness. Jesus says
in verse 47, For this reason I say to you, her
sins which are many have been forgiven, for she
loved much. But he who is forgiven little loves
little. And Jesus stated it this way because
he had just spoken the parable of the two debtors
in which one owed 500 denarii and the other owed
50 denarii. Let me tell you what Jesus was not
saying in that parable. He was not saying that
there are two types of people, those who have
been forgiven much and those who have been forgiven
little. That's not what he's saying. Any more
than a few chapters earlier in Luke chapter 5
when he said it's not the righteous who need
a physician but the sick. He's not saying that
there's two types of sinners in the world, two
types of people in the world. Those who are righteous
and don't need Christ's healing mercy and those
who are sinners and do need Christ's healing
mercy. That's not the point. These are figures
of speech. The biblical reality is that there
are two types of people in the world and there
are two types of people in this room. Those who
have been forgiven much and those who haven't
been forgiven at all. Therefore, there are two
types of people in the world and there are two
types of people in this room. Those who love
Jesus much and those who don't love Jesus at
all. So I ask you again, do you love Jesus like
the woman in this text? Love Jesus. Because that
question is going to get us so much closer to
the answer of whether your sins are forgiven
than if I simply were to ask you this morning,
do you believe in Jesus? Have you confessed your
sins, been baptized, and so on and so forth?
So whether you are the sinner or whether you
are the self -righteous, Whether you're the prodigal
son or whether you're the older brother, whether
you're the tax collector or whether you're the
Pharisee, this story speaks to you. And my prayer
has been and is that God would use it to ignite
within your heart a love, an extravagant love,
an effusive love for Jesus. I've divided this...
Text into six sections. So if you're a note taker
this morning, God bless you, I'm with you. There
are six sections that you'll want to write. They
all begin with the letter S because we're Baptists
here. And I will do my best to give you these
six pegs on which you can hang your thoughts
and write your notes as we go along. Then we're
going to come back and we'll conclude where we
start with a call to come to this Jesus who forgives
freely in order that we might love Him fully.
So first we'll begin with the scene, the scene
in verse 36. Now one of the Pharisees was requesting
him to dine with him and he entered the Pharisee's
house and he reclined at table. Jesus is still
in the midst of his Galilean ministry, which
demonstrates conclusively that despite the few
similarities that exist, this is not the same
anointing. as the one that is recorded in the
other three Gospels that occurs at the beginning
of the last week of Jesus' life, the anointing
by Mary of Bethany. There are some similarities
that sometimes confuse readers of the New Testament,
and that confusion leads to some misinterpretations
of this text. For instance, both of those anointings
take place at a banquet with a host named Simon.
Both of them involve an alabaster flask of perfumed
ointment or oil. Both of the anointings of Jesus
are by a woman and both are followed by a rebuke
by someone who is present at the banquet. But
the differences in these events outweigh the
similarities. You will note that the location
is different. This anointing occurs in Galilee,
not Bethany in Judea. The timing is different.
This anointing occurs in the midst of Jesus'
Galilean ministry rather than at the beginning
of that final Passover week. The host is different,
even though they're both named Simon. Simon of
Bethany was a leper. This Simon is a Pharisee.
The woman is different. In Luke's account, she
is repeatedly called a sinner. And in the other
anointing, there is no mention of Mary's sin.
The objection is different. In Luke, Simon objects
to the woman's sinfulness. And in the other anointings,
the disciples object to the extravagant cost
of the ointment or the oil. The value of the
oil in this text is nowhere mentioned. The anointing
itself differs. In Luke, the woman anoints Jesus'
feet. In the synoptics, Mary anoints Jesus' head.
And finally, the purpose is... is different.
In Luke, the anointing is an act of love and
gratitude. And in the synoptics, Mary anoints
Jesus specifically in preparation for his burial.
So these are clearly two different events. One
of the Pharisees, we find out in verse 40 that
his name is Simon, invited Jesus to a banquet
at his home. This was a formal occasion. The
formality of the occasion is demonstrated by
the posture that the guests adopted. Luke writes
that Jesus reclined at table. So in those days
at a formal banquet, there would be couches set
aside or set around a low table and they would
recline leaning on their left elbow with their
head towards the table, their right hand free
to eat and to drink with their feet extending
away from the table. The banquet would likely
have taken place in the afternoon in the courtyard
of a first century home where these dining events
were held. And one commentator notes that the
meal would have been a semi -public occasion.
It would have been more like a block party than
a private dinner. In other words, it would not
have been difficult or strange for this woman
to have gained access to the courtyard and to
gain access to Jesus. The last note that I want
to make about the scene of this story is that
first century Jewish banquets were occasions
of high honor and they were regulated by strict
social customs. People were seated in order of
importance with the seats of highest honor being
at the left and the right hand of the host. Luke
doesn't tell us where Jesus was seated on this
occasion, but it would seem strange. if Simon
seated him in the place of honor, because in
every other way he dishonored him. He did not
afford him all of the customary honors that a
host would have given to a distinguished guest.
He failed to give him water to wash his feet.
He did not anoint his head with oil. He did not
greet him with a kiss. And Jesus, for his part,
violated social protocol by publicly rebuking
his host. Kenneth Bailey, in a 2008 study of
first century Middle Eastern culture as it pertains
to the Gospels, he writes this, never in my life
in any culture anywhere in the world have I participated
in a banquet where the guest attacked the quality
of the hospitality. In other words, from beginning
to end, this banquet is fraught with social volatility
and we should feel the tension in this room.
Secondly, then we move to the sinner. We're going
to meet the two primary characters. So point
number two is the sinner. Point number three
is the self -righteous. First, let's meet the
woman whom Luke calls a woman in the city who
was a sinner. Tradition has identified this woman
as Mary Magdalene, but that is doubtful. In fact,
we know where this tradition began. A fourth
century church father named Ephraim of Syrian
mistakenly conflated This sinful woman in Luke
7 with the Mary who anointed Jesus at Bethany.
And so he said this woman's name was Mary. And
then he looked at the beginning of chapter 8
where we're introduced to Mary Magdalene from
whom seven demons were driven out. And he conflated
all of these stories together. And this sinful
woman got identified with Mary. That's probably
not the case. But what probably is the case is
that this woman, as she has traditionally been
identified, was a prostitute. The fact that Luke
emphasizes over and over her sinfulness points
in the direction of prostitution. First in verse
47, Luke identifies her as a sinner. Then in
verse 39, Simon says if Jesus were really a prophet,
he would know who and what sort of woman this
is who was touching him. And I can't think of
what other kind of woman would be referred to
in this way, whose touch would be thought to
be so defiling. Then in verse 47, Jesus says
to Simon, I tell you, her sins, which are many,
have been forgiven. So the most reasonable explanation
is that this woman was a prostitute and a notorious
one at that, for Simon recognized her as such,
whether by the way she was dressed or by reputation.
So the protagonist in this story is an unnamed
prostitute whom Luke simply identifies as the
sinner. Well, then we move to the antagonist
of this story, the self -righteous Simon, the
Pharisee. And again, Luke provides us with no
biographical details other than his religious
persuasion. Already in Luke's gospel, Pharisees
have appeared four times and they will appear
again repeatedly. And in every one of those occurrences,
Luke shows them in a negative light. In fact,
as I mentioned at the beginning, Pharisees are
the antagonists in all three of these nearly
identical stories or parables that are unique
to Luke's gospel. So who were the Pharisees?
Well, the Pharisees were a Jewish sect, which...
likely emerged out of a group known as the Hasidim.
And we're beginning to get this tinge of self
-righteousness. They were known literally in
Hebrew as the pious ones. They're the holy ones.
And they appeared in the 2nd century BC in the
aftermath of the Maccabean revolt. And they resisted,
the Pharisees resisted what they saw as cultural,
moral, and theological compromise. that had come
upon Israel as a result of their Greco -Roman
rule. And their aim was to reform Judaism and
bring it back to Torah. They were a reformed
bunch. And to bring them back to covenant faithfulness.
There's a similarity here. We need to make sure
that the similarity doesn't go too far. In Hebrew,
the word Pharisee means separated one or holy
one, which reflects their utmost concern for
ritual and ceremonial purity. They placed supreme
value upon the Torah, upon the written law of
Moses, but they also understood that the Torah
had to be interpreted and applied in every generation.
And so the Pharisees had accumulated over the
years a massive amount of oral rabbinical tradition.
that interpreted and applied the Torah, and which
the Pharisees considered to be of equal weight
and authority with the Torah itself. This is
why Jesus repeatedly condemns them for elevating
the traditions of men over the Word of God. By
the time of Jesus, the Pharisees were the dominant
religious force in Israel, and they remained
so for centuries after. The Pharisees and their
scribes were universally acknowledged as experts
in the interpretation and application of the
scriptures. So if you're thinking of the various
groups in first century Israel, if the Sadducees
and the priests ruled the temple and its sacrifices,
the Pharisees and the scribes, their domain were
the scriptures and the synagogues. And if you
want to know what Jesus thought of the Pharisees
of his day, you don't have to guess. You can
go to Matthew chapter 23. where Jesus pronounces
seven curses upon the Pharisees. He accuses them
of hypocrisy and self -righteousness. He calls
them sons of hell, blind guides. He accuses them
of being greedy and self -indulgent. He refers
to them as whitewashed tombs, which outwardly
appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead
men's bones. He calls them serpents and a brood
of vipers. And he says that they will surely
murder the prophets and the wise men that he
will send them. And nothing in this story indicates
that Simon broke that mold. So we've set the
scene. We've been introduced to the sinner. We've
been introduced to the self -righteousness. Let's
move fourthly to the scandal that gave rise to
the conflict at the center of this story. We'll
pick up again in verse 36. Now one of the Pharisees
was requesting him to dine with him. As he entered
the Pharisee's house and reclined, and he entered
the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table.
And there was a woman in the city who was a sinner.
And when she learned that he was reclining at
the table in the Pharisee's house, she brought
an alabaster vial of perfume. And standing behind
him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his
feet with her tears and kept wiping them with
the hair of her head and kissing his feet and
anointing them with the perfume. Now when the
Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said
to himself, if this man were a prophet, he would
know who and what sort of person this woman is
who is touching him, that she is a sinner. What
a scene. I want you to try and enter into it
with me. We're going to put on our sanctified
imagination for a moment. Who knows how long
this woman had been a prostitute? or why and
how she had entered upon that lifestyle. I doubt
that it was a trade freely chosen, but rather
was something that had been thrust upon her by
cruel circumstance. Because no little girl dreams
that this is how their story will go, and no
loving father would permit it to happen, so I
surmise that she didn't have one. A loving father,
that is. Whether forced into prostitution through
cruelty or falling into it through poverty, Once
in it, it seemed impossible to escape. What options
did she have? What opportunities were open to
someone such as she? Honest employment? She was
defiled in the eyes of her community. Her very
presence was defiling. No one would enter a shop
in which she worked. Marriage? Who would have
her? And after a few years of being shunned by
the clean people in her town, after a few years
of seeing people cross the street rather than
have to walk past her, after a few years of hearing
the whispered insults and the snide remarks from
the women and feeling the leering glances from
the men of her village, she had become hardened.
Forget them, she thought. And she embraced her
profession as the only means of maintaining any
shred of dignity or self -respect or self -determination.
So what if no one likes me? Men want me, and
they'll pay to have me. And in her mind, that
gave her some semblance of power in a world in
which she had none. Besides, it paid well. Better
than it should have in a religious community
like hers. But then Jesus came to town. And she'd
heard the story. She'd heard of how he had healed
the sick and cleansed the lepers and made the
blind to see and the lame to walk. How he had
raised the dead and how he had forgiven sins.
And she'd even gone to hear him teach. Perhaps
on the hill outside of town, she slunk around
the... the fringe of the crowd, or maybe when
he was teaching in the synagogue and she stood
outside and listened through an open window.
But as she listened to his words, something softened
within her that had long been hardened. Cynicism
melted into conviction and conviction gave rise
to hope and hope produced a longing and that
longing became more urgent by the hour. So when
she heard that Jesus had been invited to the
home of Simon the Pharisee, even though she was
terrified of Simon, her longing to get to Jesus
proved irresistible. And so she grabbed the alabaster
vial of perfumed oil, which was the most precious
item she owned, and she made her way to the house
of Simon. The front gate was open. And she could
hear the noise of the banquet in the courtyard
within. And as she entered the courtyard, she
was greeted by that familiar silencing of conversations
that happened whenever she entered a room. A
silencing of conversations that was soon replaced
by scorning whispers. What is she doing here?
But she didn't care. Her eyes scanned the courtyard
until she saw him. And with singular purpose
and no small amount of courage, she made her
way toward him. His back was toward her and it
took a moment for the silence and the whispers
to sweep across the courtyard like a wave finally
arriving at the table. And everything seemed
to converge in a single moment. Her arrival at
the feet of Jesus, the dawning awareness of her
presence by those at the table. And Jesus turned
and looked at her. And in his eyes was something
she had not seen in years and maybe ever. He
looked at her with love and he looked at her
with compassion. And as his eyes met her, she
broke into pieces. And years of shame and guilt
melted beneath his holy gaze. And she was dissolved
into great heaving sobs. utterly undone by the
grace of Christ. Casting off all convention,
she fell to her knees and she pressed her face
to his feet. And the sobs would not stop and
the great tears began to soak his feet and she
felt embarrassed and so she fumbled about with
her hair and tried to dry them as best as she
could. She was so overcome that she found herself
alternating between wiping his feet and kissing
them. Luke uses an imperfect tense here that
speaks to a repeated activity. Then she remembered
the alabaster vial of perfumed oil that she had
brought with her. She had intended to present
it to him as a gift. She assumed that's what
honorable people did when they were in the presence
of other honorable people. Then in that moment
of impulse, she broke the vial and she poured
the ointment upon his dry, cracked feet. And
everyone looking on was scandalized. Simon certainly
was. And he's thinking to himself, if this man
were truly a prophet, he would know who and what
sort of woman it is that is touching him, for
she is a sinner. So for Simon, the fact that
Jesus would even allow this woman to touch him
was all the evidence that he needed to prove
what he already suspected, namely that this Jesus
was not the Messiah. In fact, that he was no
prophet at all. But Jesus was not scandalized
by this extravagant display of affection. For
he had come to seek and to save that which was
lost, and this is what saving faith looks like.
This is what it looks like to be found. It looks
like extravagant, uninhibited, shameless love.
At this point, Jesus rose to the woman's defense
and he told Simon a parable. This will be our
fifth point, the story. And Jesus answered him,
Simon, I have something to say to you. And he
replied, say it, teacher. A moneylender had two
debtors. One owed 500 denarii and the other 50.
And when they were unable to repay, he graciously
forgave them both. So which of them will love
him more? And he said to him, I suppose the one
who was forgiven more. And Jesus said to him,
you have judged correctly. The amounts owed in
this parable represent two years, 500 denarii,
and two months, 50 denarii, two years and two
months wages respectively. A denarius was a day's
wage for an average laborer. The parable itself
is easy enough to understand. Even Simon understood
it, although he was somewhat begrudging in his
answer. Now again, Jesus' point is not that the
woman's sins were ten times greater than Simon's
sins. It would be impossible to justify that
interpretation based upon what Jesus thought
of the Pharisees revealed throughout the Gospels,
especially Matthew 23. Remember, this is a figure
of speech in the same way as we should understand
Jesus' words in Luke 5 .32. I have not come to
call the righteous, but the sinners. to repentance.
That doesn't imply that the Pharisees to whom
Jesus was speaking in Luke 5 were righteous and
did not need salvation like the sinners did.
The point of the parable is simply that great
forgiveness evokes great love. Jesus is not saying
that the woman's sin was great, therefore her
forgiveness was great, therefore her love was
great, while Simon's sin was little, therefore
his forgiveness was little, therefore his love
was little. Rather, Jesus' point is that this
woman loved much because she had been forgiven
much, and Simon didn't love him at all because
he was not forgiven at all. Jesus then applied
the parable to the case of Simon. And the woman
and their vastly different responses to him.
Verse 44, turning toward the woman, he said to
Simon, do you see this woman? I entered your
house. You gave me no water for my feet, but
she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped
them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but
she, since the time I came in, has not ceased
to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with
oil. but she anointed my feet with perfume. For
this reason I say to you, her sins, which are
many, have been forgiven, for she loved much.
But he who is forgiven little, loves little.
Their respective responses to Jesus could not
have been more different. Simon withheld from
Jesus every common courtesy that a host owed
to an honored guest. The implication is he didn't
honor Jesus. Simon provided Jesus with neither
water nor towel that he might wash his own feet.
This woman washed his feet with her tears and
dried them with her hair. Simon had not greeted
Jesus with the kiss of welcome upon his cheek.
This woman had not ceased to kiss the feet of
Jesus. And Simon had not anointed Jesus' head.
With oil, and the word Luke uses is common, that
is cheap olive oil. But the woman anointed Jesus'
feet with costly perfume. Could not be more different.
Therefore I tell you, her sins which are many
are forgiven, for she loved much. But he who
is forgiven little loves little. Their vastly
different responses to Jesus reveal their vastly
different relationships. Finally, this brings
us to the Savior, who for the first time in this
narrative addresses the woman directly. Verse
48, Then He said to her, Your sins have been
forgiven. Those who were reclining at table with
Him began to say to themselves, Who is this man
who even forgives sins? And He said to the woman,
Your faith has saved you. Go in peace. Jesus'
authoritative declaration, your sins are forgiven,
had two effects in that room. First, his authoritative
proclamation immediately, irrevocably, and absolutely
altered her status. Now, I'm not suggesting that
the world would recognize her new status. They
would still regard her as a whore, unclean, defiling.
an outcast. No, Jesus had immediately irrevocably
and absolutely altered her status in his kingdom.
In his kingdom, she is now forgiven, clean, new,
virginal. She is the citizen with every right
and every privilege enjoyed by every other citizen
of Jesus's kingdom with no distinction whatsoever.
In the world, this woman may still be received
with snide remarks and sidelong glances, but
in the church, she must be received as a treasured
and precious sheep of the good shepherd. She
must be permitted to go forth in the church in
peace. And there is application to the church
here, and I wonder if you see it. When Jesus
pronounces someone forgiven, regardless of who
they've been or what they've done, who are we
to object? Who are we to make distinctions where
Jesus has obliterated all such distinctions?
In the church, which is the visible kingdom of
God, the kingdom of God made visible upon the
earth, we must judge people according to the
pronouncements of the king. There are no second
-class citizens in his kingdom. There are only
those who have been forgiven much and who love
much. Second, Jesus' authoritative pronouncement
revealed his identity, at least for those who
were there with eyes to see. This is a nearly
identical reaction to that of the scribes and
the Pharisees. to Jesus' identical pronouncement
back in Luke chapter 5 when He had healed the
paralytic. Remember the men bring the paralytic
and they drop him through the roof and Jesus
sees him and He says, Son, your sins are forgiven.
And immediately the scribes and Pharisees in
the audience are asking amongst themselves, who
is this guy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?
Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? And I
would say exactly, who can forgive sins but God
alone? And yet Jesus forgave this woman's sins,
and Luke is asking us to do the math. When I
was a kid, my dad owned several cassette tapes,
and I realize I'm dating myself there. He owned
several cassette tapes of a guy named Don Francisco,
who was an ex -hippie who had gone through the
Jesus movement. shaggy hair, beard, and he was
trying to make rock and roll Christian. And I
don't know, my dad, my dad liked him. And so
this is in the late seventies, early eighties.
And Don Francisco was a singer songwriter in
the style of Jim Croce or Don McLean. My dad
didn't own a lot of cassette tapes. And so the
ones that we owned were the soundtrack of my
childhood. and road trips in our 1983 Chevrolet
Celebrity. Don Francisco's specialty was taking
biblical narratives, especially gospel narratives,
and turning them into songs. And so anytime,
it happens all the time, anytime that I am preaching
through a passage, preparing to preach a passage
from the gospels, a passage that Don Francisco
turned into a song, I can't get it out of my
head. It just rolls like a soundtrack. All week
long. And that was the case as I was writing
this sermon. He wrote a song on this particular
text. It appeared on his 1981 The Traveler album.
And so I thought I would close this morning by
reading the words from Beautiful to Me. The crowds
were in the streets that day when Jesus came
to town. All the synagogue was there and more
from miles around. So I asked him home to dinner
just to see what I could see of this famous local
prophet from here in Galilee. I don't know just
how that woman got into the room, but you couldn't
miss her gaudy clothes and her strong and sweet
perfume. She went straight to Jesus' feet and
stopped and stood right there and then cried
and wet his feet with tears and dried them with
her hair. Now of all the women in my town, none
was more well known. for the flagrant sin she'd
lived in and the wickedness she'd sown. But he
didn't move to stop her. It seemed this prophet
couldn't tell that the woman who was touching
him was the kind they buy and sell. And I had
no idea just what this Jesus planned to do when
he said, Simon, there's something I need to say
to you. So I said, teacher, if it's on your mind,
tell me what you will. But as he began to speak
to me, the room grew quickly still. He said,
take a good look at this woman now, in spite
of all her fears. She's kissed me and anointed
me and washed my feet with tears. She's honored
me while you've been only rude to me instead.
You gave no kiss of greeting, no anointing for
my head. And her sins were red as scarlet, but
now they're washed away. The love and faith she's
shown is all the price she has to pay. For the
depth of God's forgiveness is more than you can
see. And in spite of what you think of her, she's
beautiful to me. My anger flamed to hatred and
I wanted nothing more than to take this prophet
by the throat and throw him out the door to act
like God forgiving sins and then speak so to
me. This itinerant from Nazareth and backwoods
Galilee. But instead I sat and trembled, shaken
to the core. The woman still was weeping as she
knelt there on the floor. And Jesus turned to
her and said, Your chains have been released.
Your faith has saved you from your sins. Rise,
walk in peace. Your sins were red as scarlet,
but now they're washed away. The love and faith
you've shown is all the price you have to pay.
For the depth of God's forgiveness is deeper
than the sea. And no matter what the world may
think, you're beautiful to me. Are your sins
red as scarlet? They can be washed away. Are
you shackled in guilt and in bondage to shame?
Your chains can be broken. Did you come in here
this morning feeling defiled, like you didn't
belong? You can be clean. The effect of this
text is that you should take courage and you
should come to Jesus. He will receive you. He
will cleanse you. He will set you free. He will
heal you. He will forgive you. He will save you.
He will alter. Forever your status in His everlasting
kingdom. Why? Why? Why does Jesus do this? Because
Jesus loves to be loved much. And those who have
been forgiven much, love much. Therefore, Jesus
loves to forgive much. Do you have much to forgive?
Jesus has much forgiveness. So go to Him today.
Go to Him now. Call upon His name in prayer.
Cast yourself at His feet for His mercy and trust
in His grace and just love Him. And if you have
trouble identifying with the woman in this story,
then may I suggest that maybe you're the Pharisee
in this story? If that's the case, I hope that
you've been shaken to the core by Jesus' words.
He who is forgiven much, loves much. So I ask
you again the question I asked at the beginning.
Do you love Jesus like this woman loved Jesus?
If you cannot fathom this woman's effusive affections
and her extravagant actions, then you would do
well to examine whether your sins are actually
forgiven. Because this is how forgiven people
worship Jesus.