An Exemplary Sinner (Luke 7:36–50) | The Gospel of Luke (Part 55)

Transcript

JRNT 106
04-19-26
The Gospel of Luke: An Exemplary Sinner
Luke 7:36-50
Jesse Randolph


“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest. I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die—ever. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. I am the way and the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but through Me.”

Each of those words came from the lips of Jesus and each testifies to the staggering simplicity of the message He came to earth to proclaim. He came to earth with a message about how to have one's sins forgiven, and how to have the hope of eternal life secured, and how forgiveness and eternal life come only through the single solution God offered to this world, namely Him, Jesus.

Jesus also delivered a number of other exceedingly simple statements and commands which he delivered with such simplicity and clarity that no one would have been able to question what He meant. “It is more blessed to give than to receive. Love your enemies. In all things, whatever you want people to do for you, do so for them. With God all things are possible. Follow Me.”

Jesus communicated a message like that in terms like those. He delivered a simple message, not a complicated one. He didn't say “follow Me” in the hopes that one day intense 10-week discipleship programs would be created by ambitious authors who claim to have the secret sauce on what it means to follow Him. No. He said, “Follow Me” so that those to whom those words were addressed would begin following Him. He didn't say “love your enemies” to fuel ethical or philosophical debates over the limitations of His command, or to shape how modern-day governments would develop their economic policy, or to trigger the modern-day social gospel movement. No. He said, “Love your enemies” so that His followers would go out of their way in response to the grace they've been shown by God to love their enemies no matter how high the admittedly steep cost. Jesus didn't say from the cross “it is finished” so that generations of seminarians would fight over the meaning of the perfect passive verb form with which He spoke that statement, or so that thousands of dissertations would be written later exploring the theological outworkings or significance of that statement. No. He said, “It is finished” as He breathed His last to communicate that His mission to seek and to save that which was lost was accomplished. His blood had been shed to pay for the sin of the world. The job was done.

See, sadly, in the nearly 2000 years that have passed since Jesus ascended to heaven and sent His Spirit and began His church, there has been this alarming tendency to drift away from the simplicity and the purity of the message He came to proclaim, and the message He did, in fact, proclaim. And the message He entrusted to His apostles, and the message which those apostles and other Spirit-directed authors like Luke delivered to us in His perfect and holy Word. For instance, do you really think that as He ministered to the sick and the blind and the diseased and the leprous and the lost of His day, that Jesus was concerned with His future followers constructing these massive theological frameworks with terminology that only the super learned would ever understand? Surely what Jesus wanted was to have us spending our days as we look to glory debating compatibilism and determinism and supralapsarianism and traducianism and dispensationalism. Right? Do you really think that Jesus, as He called out the religious hypocrites of His day was concerned with His future followers only going to those churches which had an evening service, or which had an organ, or which had a full orchestra or a choir, or which wore gray robes or white robes or blue robes in the baptismal, or only used the Legacy Standard Bible translation? Okay, the New American Standard Translation. Do you really think Jesus, as He said to His disciples “love your enemies,” was thinking how great it would be to have thousands of commentaries written from a LGBTQ perspective on what it means to love one's enemies, or an African American perspective, or a feminist perspective, or a conservative perspective, or a liberal perspective?

In doing some reading this past week in preparation for this morning's sermon I came across these words, and they stopped me dead in my tracks. It said, “We've taken the carpenter from Nazareth and buried Him under a thousand layers of commentary and somewhere along the way we lost the plot.” Listen, I'm the guy who took a five-week study leave not too long ago. I'm the guy who wrote an academic thesis for five weeks. I'm the guy that's going to graduate with a Master of Theology Degree in a few short weeks. I'm the guy who sits in the office all week lined with thousands of books that are written about various doctrinal and theological matters. I'm the guy in a month and a half who will be taking our church in the evening service through a ten-week study of systematic theology, so I can be as guilty as anybody of losing the plot. But here we are this morning facing a text which forces us to grapple with a very simple truth, a matter, you could say, of first importance which is that, as Paul said in the Scripture reading for this morning, “Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners.”

Turn with me in your Bibles, please, to Luke 7 where we're going to come in contact with the very simple faith of one exemplary sinner. Luke 7:36, we're going to cover the entirety of this passage, all the way to the end of the chapter, if the Lord allows, to verse 50. God's Word reads, “Now one of the Pharisees was asking Him to eat with him, and He entered the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. And behold, there was a woman in the city who was a sinner. And when she learned that He was reclining at the table at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume. And standing behind Him at His feet, crying, she began to wet His feet with her tears. And she 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, saying, ‘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 and said to him, ‘Simon, I have something to say to you.’ And he replied, ‘Say it, Teacher.’ ‘A moneylender had two debtors: one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 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 graciously forgave more.’ And He said to him, ‘You have judged correctly.’ And 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.’ And 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.’”

I can just about guarantee you that the woman that we are about to encounter in this account did not have a massive theological library. And I can just about guarantee you that this woman did not have in her mind to debate the methods and modes of water baptism. And I can just about guarantee you that this woman had no idea, the faintest clue or worry, about the identity of the Antichrist. But what she did have was faith, simple faith, saving faith, in Jesus. Look at verse 50 again, “And He said to the woman, Your faith has saved you.” And in the end, friends, that's ultimately all that really matters. Heaven is going to be filled with men and women like this, men and women who hadn't the occasion to solve every theological puzzle and hadn't the occasion to look under every doctrinal rock, and hadn't the occasion to listen to 60-minute expository sermons each and every Sunday morning and evening, but who had faith, simple faith in Jesus.

Let's get into our text which begins not with this woman but instead with a Pharisee. Verse 36 says, “Now one of the Pharisees was asking Him to eat with him, and He entered the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table.” Now up to this point in Luke's gospel, there hasn't even been a trace of any sort of warm welcome being extended to Jesus by any Pharisee. Right? Rather, what we've seen so far were these Pharisees who were blinded by their self-righteousness, displaying some combination of being offended by Jesus or suspicious toward Jesus, and in some cases angered toward Jesus. But here in this text we have a Pharisee who is extending an invite to Jesus. Now no one thinks that the Pharisee here is trying to befriend Jesus, or that the Pharisee is suddenly going to surrender his life to Jesus, but this is a different dynamic than what we've seen so far between a Pharisee and Jesus. He extends this invite to the Lord to eat a meal with him. And Jesus accepted the invitation after reporting that one of the Pharisees was asking Him to eat with him. Luke says, verse 36, that “He entered the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table.” Now I'll get into what that means in just a moment, but before I do so, something to mention is that we actually know the name of this Pharisee. Look down the page at verse 40. It says, “And Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Simon, I have something to say to you.” Now for you Bible students, you might have that first instinct to think that Simon must be Peter, this must be a first interaction with a Pharisee and then He is going to turn to Simon Peter. Right? The fisherman that we encountered back in Luke 5, the one who, after Jesus miraculously caused that haul of fish to land in Peter's boat, fell down at Jesus's feet in Luke 5 and said, “Go away from me, Lord. I'm a sinful man.” But that's not the Simon that we are dealing with in this text. This isn't Simon the fisherman in Luke 7. The reality is Simon was a highly popular name during these times. There was Simon Peter, the fisherman turned apostle. There was Simon the Zealot, we met him in Luke 6. There was Simon, the father of Judas Iscariot, he's mentioned over in John 6. There is Simon of Cyrene who, having come in from the country, was called on to carry Jesus's cross in Luke 23. There is Simon the Tanner who is mentioned in Acts 9-10, he is the one who hosted Peter in his house in Joppa. There is Simon the leper whose house Jesus visited in Mark 14. Well here in Luke 7 we have yet another Simon, Simon the Pharisee. And the account that we are going to be going through this morning involves Jesus's dealing with this woman, this exemplary sinner who we are going to meet momentarily, and Simon the Pharisee.

Back to verse 36, where we're told that Jesus entered the home of this man, Simon the Pharisee, and reclined at the table. Now we saw last week in verse 34 that Jesus has been accused of associating with the unholy. Look at verse 34. This is Jesus saying, “The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say,” he's saying this to the Pharisees, “Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!” So He was tagged and charged with associating with the unholy. But now, and this connects last week's text to this week, Jesus is associating with the holy, the religious elites, the set apart ones. He's going to a Pharisee’s house. Now why had this Pharisee invited Jesus to join him in the first place? We're not told. It could have been to examine Him. It could have been to confirm suspicions about Him. It could have been to satisfy curiosities this Pharisee had about Jesus. It could have been to evaluate His prophetic credentials. It could have been to keep an eye on Him. In fact, in a later episode in Luke's Gospel, in Luke 14, we do learn of this other incident where a Pharisee invites Jesus into his home specifically for the purpose of keeping an eye on Him, and watching Him, and inspecting Him. This is Luke 14:1 where we're told that “He went into the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, and they were watching Him closely,” it says. And that could be what's happening here in verse 36 of our passage where Jesus, as He entered the house of this Pharisee and reclined at his table, was there to be inspected, there to be watched closely.

Now we can't overlook the fact that Jesus showed no hesitation in accepting the invitation of Simon the Pharisee. With one breath Luke tells us that this Pharisee asked Him to eat a meal with him, and then in the very next breath Luke says that “Jesus went in and reclined at the table.” And that really fits so well with what's going on up to this point in Luke's Gospel, and also really in all four Gospels, and you can even expand that out to the entirety of the New Testament, which is testifying comprehensively and repeatedly that Jesus came as the Savior of all. He came as the Savior of tax collectors, and He came as the Savior of sinners, and He came as the Savior of religious zealots alike. He came for all. In fact, Jesus would say in Mark 2:17, “Those who are healthy do not have need for a physician, but only those who are sick.” And then He says, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” And though they didn't see it, the Pharisees were just as sick, spiritually sick, as anyone else. Jesus came for them all and so He accepted the invitation of this Pharisee, Simon, and He entered his house.

Now to get our bearings and to paint what I hope is a helpful picture of this scene, that language, “reclined at the table,” suggests that this was a banquet of some sort. You know, when you and I think of having someone over for a meal, we have a very modern conception of this concept. Right? We think of a dining room table with plates and placemats and table settings, and maybe plastic forks or knives, maybe some actual silverware, depending on who is coming over. We are used to instructing our children ahead of time to be on their best behavior, their top behavior before so-and-so comes to visit. We're used to small talk and conversation, and then that old Midwest lap slap to give our guests a hint that it is eventually time for them to go home. Right? That's how we think of an encounter, a meal, having somebody over.

That's not what we have here. Rather, the setup here would have been a u-shaped table, a horseshoe-shaped table, where guests were lying on mats, these very thin couches, likely on their left sides because most people are right hand dominant. So, they would be lying on their left shoulder with their head near the table and their feet extended outward. And before they even got to the table, before they even entered the house, they would have removed their sandals and left them by the door. So, as they are lying around this table their exposed feet would be stretched out away from the table, leaning on their left elbow, leaning toward their left shoulder, and they would reach over with their right hand and partake of whatever was laid out on the table. Right? Bread and oil and wine and buffalo wings. Whatever the case may be. Right? Probably not buffalo wings. But keep that image in your mind, that these guests at this Pharisee's house, Simon's house, were scattered around this u-shaped table in that way. On their left elbow, shoulder near the table, feet extended outward and shoes or sandals off.

Now the houses during this time, in this part of the world, weren't like the houses that you and I live in. A whole different layout. There were no ring cameras, there were no “No Solicitors” signs out front. Homeowners during this time didn't pull into their driveways and immediately bring down the garage door, and then draw the blackout curtains and tune out their neighbors and the world. In fact, even in larger homes owned by those who had more means, and this Pharisee likely had more means, even in larger homes there weren't windows as we think of them. There were no dual paned, soundproofed, privacy protecting sheets of glass which kept the world out from what was going on in your home. Meaning, anyone who happened to have seen Jesus enter the house of this Pharisee, Simon the Pharisee, could have walked right up to his house and poked in his head to see whatever might be happening behind the walls. They could have watched whatever was happening inside. In fact, going to another level, it wasn't even all that uncommon for those who were watching from the outside to eventually sort of make their way inside to somebody's house, and even line the walls on the inside of the house to see how, in this case, the other half lived. It wasn't that abnormal. They didn't have trespassing laws the way that we think of trespassing laws today. Culturally people were invited to come in and sort of check out what was going on.

And that's what was happening here in verse 36. And now into verse 37. Verse 37 says, “And behold, 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 jar of perfume.” Now right away look at how Luke describes this woman. He leaves out her name, he keeps her anonymous. Luke, meticulous historian Luke, doesn't mention her name. Instead, he refers to her simply as a sinner, a sinner who certainly wasn't on the invite list for this banquet hosted by this Pharisee, but a sinner who came anyway. A sinner who, Romans 3:23, must have recognized that she had sinned and “fallen short of the glory of God.” A sinner who, Titus 3:3, must have recognized that she had been “foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending her life in malice and envy, indeed despicable.” So, who was this woman, this sinner? Who was this unclean individual whose very presence threatened the purity of this party? Many have assumed this was Mary Magdalene because we have that account in John 12 which records an event that is much later in Jesus's ministry. This is on the eve, in John 12, of Jesus's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, closer in time to His arrest and crucifixion where Mary Magdalene did indeed anoint the Lord's feet with perfume. And that's the episode, you might remember, where Judas is back there complaining about the cost of the perfume that is being expended on the Lord's feet and he is saying and feigning how this perfume could have been sold and the proceeds could have been used for the poor.

Well, here in Luke's Gospel it's an entirely different scene, one which happened much earlier in Jesus's ministry and one where, again, this woman is not mentioned by name. She isn't identified as Mary Magdalene here. In fact, just down the page in Luke 8:2, Mary Magdalene there is mentioned by name just a few verses later, which is support of the idea that the woman in our text in Luke 7 was some other woman, some anonymous woman, yet one who is identified here as a sinner. And what was this woman's sin? What was the nature of her sin? What type of sinner was she? We're not told explicitly, though it's been commonly held, and I wouldn't have strong reason to disagree with this at all, that she most likely was a prostitute, albeit a repentant one. There are a couple of reasons for that - one is Luke's protection of her identity. That's one major reason we think this could be a prostitute, that he has not named her name so as to avoid the shame of what she used to do. And then there is also the fact that she is associated quite clearly here with this city. Note the language of verse 37, “And behold, there was woman in the city who was a sinner.” That language as you study the history of this time and you study the Greek usage of that word “city,” suggests that this woman made her living before this incident, before the Lord got ahold of her, by participating in the world's oldest trade, as it is called. She had been a woman of the streets and a moral seductress, one who had been joined to countless men who were not her husband and for pay. But no longer. That's who she used to be, but that's no longer who she was. Her former life had been showing that she was of the devil. I John 3:8 says, “The one who does sin is of the devil.” But here, as she was visiting Jesus at Simon the Pharisee's house, she was no longer a child of the devil. Rather, she was a child of God, marked not by a life of sin any longer but instead marked by a life of turning from sin. I just quoted I John 3:8, but now here is I John 3:9, “Everyone who has been born of God does not sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.”

Picking it up in the middle of verse 37 it says, “And when she learned that He was reclining at the table in the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume.” Alabaster is a very soft stone, white in color, it's like fine-grained gypsum from which flasks and vases were made in these days, and specifically to hold perfume. And the perfume, the fragrant oil that this woman brought, was specifically for the purpose of anointing. Meaning, this woman came to Simon the Pharisee's house knowing that Jesus was there, knowing that He was reclining at the table. And she came to this house with this premeditated idea that she was going to pour out the contents of this jar on Jesus. But why? And for what purpose? Was she there to perform some sort of lurid ritual, something she had done for her clients in the past, as some have suggested? No, not at all. She came there as one who was devoted already. She came there as one who was full of gratitude and thanksgiving. She came as one who was there to demonstrate her humble reverence. This was a woman who had already been changed from the inside out. This was a woman who once had been lost but now had been found. This was a woman who, as she came to Simon the Pharisee's house, had already placed her faith in Jesus. How do we know that? How do we know that this woman was already a devoted follower of the Lord? Well, the text tells us. Drop down to verse 47, we'll get there momentarily. Luke 7:47, where Jesus says this of this woman. He says, “Her sins, which are many, have been forgiven.” And then verse 48 He says this directly to the woman, “Your sins have been forgiven.” Then in verse 50 He says, “Your faith has saved you.” As I'll mention in a few moments when we get to that part of the text, the verb tenses there—have been forgiven, has saved—what they tell us is that this woman already had faith. She already was saved before she even arrived to the Pharisee's house with her alabaster jar. When she made her way to Simon's house, she was this already saved woman who had faith in Jesus, and she came to Simon's house to express her appreciation of Jesus, her worship of Jesus for what He had already done for her.

Well, as we continue to work through this text chronologically, we see that this woman not only came to Simon the Pharisee's house, she actually entered the house to draw near to Jesus. Verse 38, “And standing behind Him at His feet, crying, she began to wet His feet with her tears.” So this woman is now at this point not only near the Pharisee's house, or even outside the Pharisee's house, no, she is now standing inside his house. And remember Jesus would have been in this position at this point in the narrative where He is lying on the floor on that mat, on that couch, left shoulder, left elbow toward the table, His feet extended outward exposing them, sandals off to whatever the woman was going to do to those feet. And Luke tells us, verse 38, that this woman was indeed “standing behind Him at His feet.” In other words, with Jesus lying on His side and His head near the table the woman walks up behind Him and she is standing over Him, she is standing specifically over His feet.

And then look at what the text tells us happens next, she was crying. “And she began to wet His feet with her tears.” Why was she crying? Well because she was contrite, because she was repentant, because she was grateful, reflecting on the type of life she had lived before, and understanding whose presence she was now in, the One who had transformed her life. Right? Reflecting on the crushing weight of her sin and the light and easy yoke Jesus had now placed over her, it caused her to weep. It brought her to tears; it made her emotional. She was like David in Psalm 51:17 where he says, “A broken and contrite heart, oh God, You will not despise.' Her heart was overflowing with love and reverence toward the One who had already opened her eyes spiritually, and that caused these tears of repentance to start flowing - what Martin Luther called heart water. Heart water was flowing from her eyes and now falling on the feet of Jesus.

Still in verse 38 this woman is now portrayed as moving from a standing posture, as her tears were falling on the Lord's feet, to a kneeling posture, as we're told by Luke that “she kept wiping them with the hair of her head and kissing His feet and anointing them with the perfume.” Perhaps because she was embarrassed about the fact that she had shed tears on the Lord's feet, perhaps for the very practical reason that she hadn't come with a towel or a rag of some sort to remedy the situation and to dry off His feet, this woman loosens, it says, and lets down her hair, which was a no-no during these days. That was a shameful act for a woman to unbind her hair in the presence of men. It didn't matter to her. Casting what was normal and proper aside, she used her hair to wipe her own tears from the Lord's feet. And then overwhelmed by being in her Master's presence, and this humble demonstration of thanks and praise, she began to kiss those same feet, feet which at some point had delivered the good news, good news which had at some point reached her ears. And here she was now, this repentant, humbled sinner. And then we're told she anointed His feet with that very perfume from that very alabaster jar.

Does it sound strange to you? Does it sound a little extreme? To our 21st century ears and eyeballs, of course. I mean, who does this today? Right? It sounds strange, removed by all this time and distance and on a whole different cultural level, removed from the raw emotion and beauty of this scene, of course it sounds a little different than what we are used to encountering in our day-to-day lives. But what this woman was expressing here was love in its purest and most unvarnished form, love toward the One who had washed her and redeemed her, love toward the One who had made her white as snow, love toward the One who had saved her. She wasn't kissing and anointing the feet of a mere man, she wasn't engaging in some forbidden act of intimacy like from her prior life. Not at all. Rather, not caring how this might look to others, or how others might perceive her in light of what was going on here, she was humbly demonstrating her love for and loyalty toward her Messiah and Lord.

Well, that's not how others in the room perceived this woman, known to be a prostitute, letting her hair down and now kissing and anointing this man's feet for all to see. Let's just say it didn't look good. Right? To those who were watching this scene unfold, they weren't thinking as a first reaction in terms of love and reverence and worship. Instead, they were thinking that this was part of this woman's normal seductive routine, this is just what she did, this is part of her call as a prostitute. I mean, Simon the Pharisee had thoughts like these, thoughts which not only questioned the character of this woman but questioned Jesus who was allowing all of this to happen. Look at verse 39, it says, “Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he said to himself saying, “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.” Note what Luke is recording here. He is actually describing, Luke is, Simon's inner monologue. This is the conversation that Simon the Pharisee is having with himself. For Simon, what he is witnessing there in his own home isn't computing, it's not adding up. And it wasn't merely this woman's presence in his home, remember all sorts of people passed through various homes at this time. Rather, Simon's sights at this point are set on Jesus who is refusing to judge or condemn this woman. And Simon's sights are set on what this says about Jesus's own status as a prophet. Look at the language again, verse 39, he says, “If this man were a prophet,” that's apparently the extent of how Simon conceived of Jesus, as a mere man, a prophet, the latest in a long line of mouthpieces for God in Israel. Simon hadn't caught onto the truth we've seen unfold throughout Luke's Gospel, that Jesus was associating with sinners so that they might be saved out of their sin.

Well now, with this limited perspective on Jesus now being colored by what he had just seen what this woman did for Jesus, Simon is now calling into question Jesus's own prophetic credentials saying, “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.” In other words, if Jesus really were a prophet He would have been able to pick up on the fact that this woman was a sinner. He would have recoiled from this shameful wretch, He would have pushed her away, got her out of His presence. Prophets were pious, prophets were separatists, prophets had nothing to do with sinners. That's the perspective that this Pharisee has. And because Jesus refused to separate Himself from this woman and He allowed her to anoint His feet, Simon was convinced that proved that Jesus wasn't truly a prophet. Now again, Simon didn't say any of this out loud, these are all his internal thoughts at that point.

And then Jesus, being not merely a prophet but God in human form, God in flesh, the God who knows all, the God who can gauge and discern the thoughts and intentions of every single heart, He knew what Simon was thinking here and so He answered him in verse 40. “And Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Simon, I have something to say to you.’ And he replied, ‘Say it, teacher.’” And then Jesus proceeded to lay out this parable about these two debtors, verses 41-42. It says, “A moneylender had two debtors: one owed five hundred denarii and the other fifty. When they were unable to repay, he graciously forgave them both. So, which of them will love him more?” Now sometimes we'll encounter a parable, even one of Jesus's parables, and it will tie us in knots before we ultimately figure out through the process of elimination, the Spirit's work and prayer what is actually being said in that parable. Right? You've had that experience. That shouldn't happen here because this parable is really straightforward, especially when we consider the context in which the parable was delivered. Jesus here with those two verses, this very simple parable, is essentially defending Himself. And He's explaining to His host, the Pharisee, about why it was He didn't condemn this woman, this sinner, for kissing His feet and anointing His feet with that perfume. And Jesus gives the explanation by painting this picture of this hypothetical moneylender, and this moneylender who has these two people who owe him money, one of them owes a small sum and one of them owes a larger sum, about ten times as much as the first one. Now in the case of both, instead of cracking down on them and having them thrown into debtor's prison, the moneylender graciously decides to forgive them both. So, for the one who owed 50 denarii, that would be about two weeks' worth of wages, his debt is cleared, it's wiped out. For the one who owes 500 denarii, about two years' worth of wages, his debt is also cleared, also wiped out. And then Jesus delivers the punch line to the parable at the end of verse 42, “Which of them will love him more?”

So the implied principle of the parable, the central point of the parable, is simple. A debtor who has been forgiven a debt by his creditor is going to love his creditor for that forgiveness. And the larger the debt forgiven the greater the love that will be felt and the greater the love that will be shown. That's the principle of the parable in a nutshell. Let's think about this very practically in modern day terms for our day. Let's say you got a call from a Citibank customer service agent today that said your $500 credit card balance has been forgiven, there is no need to pay it off. You'd probably say, “that's generous, thanks so much.” Click. And that would be the end of the call. Right? You probably wouldn't chase the person down to express profuse thanks for what they've done. Now let's say you buy a new car today and after service you are feeling chippy and you go over to, I don't know, Sid Dillon, I've seen a lot of Sid Dillon plates. And you go buy a $30,000 vehicle of some sort. And as you are getting ready to leave the place and you've signed off on all the paperwork, the guy who did the deal with you says, “Do you know what? I'm feeling generous today. Forget about it, take the car, take the truck, the $30,000, don't worry about it, it's all yours.” Now you will probably track that guy down, assuming he still has a job, and give him a gift card of some sort. Right? And probably not a gift card to like Chipotle, but a gift card to like Venue or Casa Bovina or something like that. Here's another one. Let's say the bank which owns the home that you recently purchased calls you one day to say, “You know what? It's your lucky day and the mortgage you've taken out has been completely wiped out; the bank is just going to eat it. You now own your home free and clear.” You're probably going to say more than thank you, you're probably going to give them more than a Chipotle gift card, probably more than a Casa Bovina gift card. You might send the person who gave you that news on a Caribbean cruise. Right? That's the principle underlying the parable here. The one who has been forgiven much loves much.

And Simon the Pharisee understood this principle; he understood the concept. In answer to Jesus's question when He says, “Which of them will love him more?” (Verse 42) Simon answered, verse 43, “Simon answered and said, I suppose the one whom he graciously forgave more.” So Simon got the point of the parable, he caught on, he was a smart cookie, a good student. Well now he's locked in with that answer. Look at the end of verse 43 where Jesus answered Simon. It says, “And He said to him, ‘You have judged correctly.’” And then Jesus really landed the point by turning to this woman who may have still been at His feet as He says this.

Look at verse 44 now. “And 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.” Now each of the items Jesus mentioned there in those three verses was a recognized and common way to show courtesy to a visitor during these days. Offering water to wash a guest's feet, that goes all the way back to Genesis 18 and Abraham meeting those three visitors who were on their way to Sodom and Gomorrah. He offers to wash their feet. A kiss, Genesis 29, Laban receives Jacob with a kiss. Genesis 45, Joseph welcomes his long-estranged brothers with a kiss. Exodus 18, Moses welcomes his father-in-law, Jethro, with a kiss. So, washing one's feet and a kiss, anointing a head with oil, think of Psalm 23:5, “You prepare a table for me, you have anointed my head with oil.” Simon the Pharisee offered none of those to Jesus, but the opposite was true of this woman. Jesus had received the exact opposite treatment from this woman, this sinner, who instead of washing His feet with water had rinsed them with her tears. Instead of offering Him kisses on the cheek she had applied her lips humbly to His feet. Instead of anointing Him with oil, olive oil would have been the standard oil at that time, she used this vial of expensive perfume from this alabaster jar and poured it all over His feet.

So Jesus here was bringing to light the contrast between the warm treatment He received from this woman, and the comparatively cold treatment He received from the Pharisee. And what He was really doing here in this checkmate moment between Him and Simon was highlighting the distinction between the two and tying it back to that parable. Right? Simon had just admitted when a debtor has been forgiven a large amount, that debtor will feel an immense sort of gratitude and love toward the creditor who had just forgiven them. Well, what was this woman, this sinner, if not a debtor? And a great debtor at that? And what had this woman, the debtor in this parable, done for Jesus in this account here in Luke's Gospel? Well, we've just worked through it in verses 44-46. Jesus says, “She has wet My feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair, . . . she has not ceased to kiss My feet, . . . she anointed My feet with perfume.” And what Jesus was really communicating to Simon the Pharisee here is He is saying, You didn't do any of these things, Simon, but she did. And since you just admitted that the person who has been forgiven a large debt is going to feel immense gratitude and immense love toward the one who forgave them, what do you think this says about this woman? What do you think that says about this woman that you have been dismissing up to this point as a mere sinner? Indeed, she has piled up this enormous debt of sin but now she is showing through her actions this demonstration of extreme gratitude and love toward Me. So, using the answer to the parable I just gave to you, Simon, what do you think this might be saying about what's been going on inside this woman? What do you think this says about her heart condition? What do you think this says about her soul?

Well Jesus went on to explain what was going on in her heart and what was going on in her soul in verse 47. He says, “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.” Now this is a verse like James 2 and others which has long been butchered by works-based religious systems such as the Roman Catholic Church, and others who teach that there are some elements of works that contribute to one's salvation. And the way that this verse has been butchered is by taking Jesus's words here to mean that this woman, this sinner, was forgiven because she loved much. In other words, it was her love, her deeds, her acts, her tears, her anointing which brought about the forgiveness the Lord pronounced upon her here. According to this view this woman did enough, she loved enough, she worked enough, so that the Lord eventually saw fit in this verse at this moment to forgive her. But that's most definitely not what's happening here, and we know that for at least a few different reasons. First, that's not at all the context of the parable in which this truth was delivered. Remember the parable of the two debtors where it's not the debtors' love that is the cause of their debt being forgiven, instead it's that their debt is forgiven and that is what spurs them on to love. Or even look at the last sentence of verse 47, it makes clear what comes first. Forgiveness. It says, “But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” And the inverse principle is also true, “He who is forgiven much, loves much.” But the point is forgiveness precedes; it comes before love. Forgiveness is what breeds love; forgiveness comes first. Or third, jumping ahead to verse 50, we see Jesus saying this directly to this woman. He says, “Your faith has saved you.” Not, your love has saved you, your works have saved you, your good deeds have saved you, all that you have done has saved you. No, it's your faith which has saved you. You had faith, you were forgiven and now you love. And then there is this, there is just the reality of the internal consistency of Scripture and the fact that Scripture doesn't contradict Scripture. Scripture doesn't speak against itself. And the reality is that throughout the New Testament it's the consistent testimony of God's Word that love, loving obedience, is the fruit of our having received forgiveness. It's not the other way around. We don't love to be forgiven; we love because we are forgiven. Broadening that out a bit, we do, we work, not to earn forgiveness from the God who saved us, rather we do, we work because of what has already been done for us through Christ. I mean, that's Ephesians 2:8-10 in a nutshell where in Ephesians 2:8-9 it says, “You have been saved by grace through faith and this is not of yourselves, it's the gift of God that no one may boast.” And then in verse 10 it gets into “and we have been created by God for good works.” The one comes after the other.

That's what's happening here. And this woman was demonstrating her love toward Jesus. She was doing good works, if you want to say it that way, not to be forgiven but because she was forgiven. She anointed the feet of Jesus with her tears, she wiped those tears with her hair, she anointed His feet with perfume because of who she already was. That's the meaning of these words in verse 47, “For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much.” She had already been forgiven much when she was saved through her faith in Christ and so naturally, she was loving much through her actions toward Jesus right there in Simon's house.

And that ties in with verse 48 where the scene continues as follows. “Then He said to her, ‘Your sins have been forgiven.’” Again, those words have been forgiven, it's in what's known as the perfect tense, which means that Jesus here is confirming what has already taken place, meaning this woman, this sinner, as she is called, was indeed a sinner as we all are, but she was also a forgiven sinner. She had already been graciously pardoned by God. And so Jesus here in verse 48 is giving her present day assurance of what she already knows, meaning her past tense and enduring position as a child of God through Him, her sins had been forgiven.

Now to the other guests there at Simon the Pharisee's house, this announcement from Jesus which they overheard, that came as a major surprise to them. Verse 49, “And those who were reclining at the table with Him began to say to themselves, ‘Who is this man who even forgives sins?’” Now we've seen language like that already in our study of Luke, specifically in that account of the healing of the paralytic back in Luke 5, that scene where the sinner on the stretcher is lowered through the roof of the house, and after that all goes down in Luke 5:20. Jesus says to the man on the stretcher, the paralytic, “Friend, your sins are forgiven you.” And then the scribes and the Pharisees are off in a corner in verse 21 saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?” Similar situation here in Luke 7. For those who had gathered at Simon's house, they didn't quite understand that Jesus was not merely a man, not merely a prophet but God in flesh, Emanuel, God with us.

So His statement that “your sins have been forgiven”, a statement of deity, a statement of Godness, it perplexed them. And though Jesus knew that they were asking themselves that question, that that was what they were debating among themselves internally, just as He read the mind of Simon the Pharisee back in verse 39, He could do so here. He didn't bother to address it. He didn't bother to give some long-winded theological explanation in this scene of His deity. Instead, knowing the thoughts that they were thinking about Him, He doubled down and He expressed, yet again, His power as God to forgive sin and His power as God to save. Verse 50, “And He said to the woman, ‘Your faith has saved you; go in peace.’” Again, Jesus was sharing with this woman in this episode something she already knew, which is that because of Him she had been forgiven of her sins. And because of Him she had new life. Because of Him she had eternal life. She didn't become a new creation on this day there in Simon the Pharisee's house; she already was a new creation. And it was her newness of life which had prompted her to come to Simon the Pharisee's house in the first place. It was her newness of life which had prompted her to approach Jesus to show Him that humble devotion and reverence, which He is due. Simon didn't get it, his dinner guests clearly didn't get it, but she did.

Question I'll put before you all as we wind down here is this: Do you, do you get it? Do you understand what it means to be saved as she was? Do you understand what it means to have your sins forgiven as hers were? Do you understand what profound love for sinners He not only had, as He did here, but has this very day? Do you understand that it doesn't matter if you spent your life chasing after the wicked pleasures of the world as she did, or if you spent your entire life parked in a church pew, your need of salvation is just the same? If you do understand those things, if you believe those things, that's wonderful. What you should be taking away from this message, by way of reminder, through this woman as you consider her response of grateful, humble devotion, what you should be thinking about right now is that same God who saved her, has saved me. Am I showing Him the very same humble grateful devotion that she showed Jesus in this scene? Now Jesus isn't here in the flesh today so we can't do one-to-one application here. It's not like you can go get an alabaster vial and go anoint Jesus's feet anytime soon. Right? But what you can heed are the words of Romans 12:1, that you are called to “present your bodies as a sacrifice, living, holy and pleasing to God which is your spiritual service of worship.” Are you doing so? Is that the testimony of your life?

Now, if you haven't yet tasted of the sweet and sufficient mercy of God through Jesus Christ, if you haven't yet received the forgiveness that is found only through Him, know that you are like the parable that we looked at earlier in verses 41-42, know that you are in a position where you have a debt to pay and that debt is on account of your sin. You are like I am, a sinner, and you have, like I have, racked up a sin debt in the eyes of a holy God. And you are facing that God, you will face that God one day, a God who has formed you and created you and has been patient toward you and has been oh so good to you. And the reality is you can't pay that debt on your own. No amount of good deeds or loving others or giving to charity or going to church or anything else is going to get you out of that debt problem that you've created. Instead, you need someone to pay that debt for you. And here is the great news, that debt has already been paid. Jesus has already paid that sin debt on your behalf. He paid the price for your sin just as He has paid the price for mine. And all that you need to do to lay claim to what He has done for you is to believe in Him, to put your faith in Him, to believe that He died for you, and to believe that He rose for you. And when you do that you'll have the confidence of knowing that when you die, and you will, death has a 100% success rate, when you die you will know exactly where you will go and you will also have eternal life right now, meaning you will have purpose and meaning for the life that you have yet to live on this earth. You'll be like the woman that we encountered this morning, this exemplary sinner whose life, whose actions demonstrated the faith she already had. If you haven't put your faith in Jesus Christ, if you haven't given your life to Him and called on Him to be your Savior and your Lord, what in the world are you waiting for to have the debt paid in full simply by trusting in what He has done? It's the greatest deal that has ever been offered. It's the only deal that comes with a 100% guarantee because God's very Word says in Romans 10:9, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Not that you might be saved or could be saved or hope to be saved or do enough sacraments or holy walks to Mecca and you might be saved. You will be saved. Friend, if you have not put your faith in Jesus Christ, I beg of you, turn to Him, run to Him, flee to Him today and have your sin debt paid for. Have the hope of eternal life secured and know exactly where you'll go when those eyes close in death.

God, thank You for this time this morning to work through an important part of Scripture that takes us back to the very basics, the very beginning of our problem, which is that we are sinners, all of us, just like this woman was a sinner. Some of us have lived outward lives of sin and rebellion where we lived in the gutter, as it were. Some of us, our lives of sin were dressed up in a suit and a bow and a dress in the church we attended. God, I pray that You would break the hearts of sinners this morning who are in a state of unrepentance, that You break the hearts of those who are continually running from You, in rebellion to You, fleeing from You. God, I pray that You would draw them to Yourself as they bow the knee to Jesus Christ and trust in His finished work on the Cross and His victorious resurrection as the means of salvation. And God, for those of us who have believed, who do, like this woman in this account, have eternal life, I pray that we would be humbled by this account, that we remember the sweetness of our salvation and that would fuel us and motivate us to live faithful, godly lives in Christ Jesus. We praise You for who You are. We praise You for what You've done for us through Christ. May He be honored in our lives this day and every day. In Jesus name, amen.