Do You Love Jesus Much? - Luke 7:32-50

Luke chapter 7, we'll be reading from verses

Luke 7 · chapter mention

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

Luke 5 · chapter mention

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

Matthew 23 · chapter mention

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

Luke 5 · chapter mention

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.