Our Old Testament reading is from Psalm 51. That quintessential prayer and psalm of repentance. Psalm 51, and we will read verses one through 10. Listen to this. This is the very Word of God. To the choir master, a psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone into Bathsheba.
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love. According to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth and the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. And then turning to the New Testament, we go to the gospel according to Luke. And chapter 7, where our reading will begin in verse 36 and go to the end of the chapter. Luke 7, 36 through 50.
One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table. And behold, a woman of the city who was a sinner. When she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, He said to himself, if this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.
And Jesus, answering him, said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you. And he answered, say it, teacher. A certain money lender had two debtors. One owed 500 denarii and the other 50. When they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more? Simon answered, the one, I suppose, for whom he canceled the larger debt? And he said to him, you have judged rightly. Then 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 from the time I came in, she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.
Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven. For she loved much. But he who is forgiven little loves little. And he said to her, your sins are forgiven. Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, who is this who even forgives sins? And he said to the woman, your faith has saved you.
Go in peace. That’s the reading of God’s word. Let’s ask him to bless it to us now. Lord our God, we thank you for the Lord Jesus and how he’s put on display for us in this passage as we continue through Luke’s gospel. And as we consider this passage, Lord, may you grant us the ministry of your spirit to give us understanding, to enlighten the eyes of our hearts, to give us faith to see things that are unseen to the eyes of flesh. And Lord, get glory for yourself and for your son, Jesus, for it’s in his name that we pray, amen.
This woman in the passages is called a sinner. And if you know your Bibles, you know that we’re all sinners. But she’s identified particularly as a sinner and, and for her sins with her sins. And she, she was apparently a very notorious sinner. We don’t know anything about the particulars. But as I think of All of us being sinners, and then there being really bad sinners. I think of a man that I knew many years ago, a friend at a church where I used to worship. And he said something very poignant to me one time about normal sinners and then really bad sinners. Because this man, he was formerly with the mob, he was part of the mafia. He had repented, and he’d come to Christ, and he turned his back on that life.
His name was Tony. Of course, it was Tony, right? But no, Tony told me one time, he said, Steve, he said, there are normal sinners, there are normal, upstanding, everyday sinners, and then there are really bad sinners. He said, Steve, I was one of those really bad sinners.
But he found grace from Jesus Christ. Because Jesus is the friend of sinners. That’s what he’d been called by people earlier, and they didn’t mean it in a good way. But to us now, isn’t that one of the sweetest titles of the Lord Jesus, that he’s a friend to sinners? There’s a similar event in which Jesus was anointed with oil by a woman that we read in Mark 14.
And that brings up the fact that there are three different accounts in the Gospels of something like this happening. And I think we can fall into an error of trying to conflate or to kind of combine them all into one that they’re just different perspectives on one and the same event. I really don’t think that can possibly be true. It may be a stretch to say there are three different events. But this event is certainly different than the one that took place in the last week of Jesus’ life, when he is dining with Mary and Lazarus and Martha. But similar things have happened.
And part of the point to that is that to expand this costly ointment, on the Lord Jesus was an extreme act of devotion. Anointing him with expensive perfume or ointment is a special act of deep devotion. It was an act of conveying highest honor upon him and, and really, as we see in the text, fervent love. That’s what this woman was expressing to the Lord Jesus is love. love to him for his saving grace.
And the lesson of this passage is that the objects of God’s saving grace receive forgiveness of sins, and they respond in love for Christ. The objects of God’s saving grace receive forgiveness of sins and respond in love for Christ. Here are the three points we’ll consider this morning as we look at this passage.
First of all, Christ forgives the worst of sinners. Christ forgives the worst of sinners. Secondly, forgiveness of sins is a gift of God’s grace. And third, love is the redeemed hearts response to forgiveness. So first of all, Christ forgives the worst of sinners, like my friend Tony.
The reason some people don’t come to Christ is because they think their sins are too bad. They think their sins are too many. Either they’ve committed great sins and they think, I know Jesus forgives sinners, but he can’t possibly forgive me for that thing that I did. Or maybe they’re later in life, and they think, I know Jesus forgives sins, but I’ve been living in rebellion against Him for this many years. How could He possibly forgive me that I waited until this point in my life to come to Him? So people sometimes don’t come to Christ for that reason. They think their sins are too bad, or they think their sins are too great, or too numerous.
And this woman that we look at in this passage shows us that no one’s sins are too great. There’s no such thing as a sin that’s too great to be cleansed by the blood of Christ. Jesus receives sinners. He even receives the worst of sinners. We sing a hymn, the words of which include, the vilest offender who truly believes that moment from Jesus a pardon receives.
But think, turn with me to Matthew 12. Keep your place in Luke, but turn to Matthew 12, and look at verse 31. These are Jesus’ words. He says, Therefore, I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people. Now, those of you who know what comes right after that, you might be wondering about that. We don’t have time to go into that, but did you hear that? Blasphemy can be forgiven through the blood of Christ. Every sin, he said. Verse 37 indicates to us that this woman was among the vilest of offenders. Borrow the words of that hymn again. It says she was a woman of the city who was a sinner.
Some people have speculated or assumed even that she was a prostitute. That’s possible, but not necessarily the case. All we need know is that she was clearly a woman of bad reputation. You think of the woman that Jesus met at the well in Samaria. She wasn’t a prostitute, but she was a woman of low moral standing, a woman of bad reputation. Or you think of the woman that we read about in John’s gospel, the one who was caught in the very act of adultery. This woman that we encounter here in this passage from Luke had a bad reputation.
And Jesus knew that she was a sinner. The Pharisee knew that she was a sinner. The woman herself knew it. And Jesus acknowledges it. before everyone. He doesn’t deny it, doesn’t sweep it under the rug. He acknowledged it before them all. He says, her sins, which are many. But what we should notice about the woman, as she comes to Jesus while he’s dining in the home of Simon the Pharisee, is that she was brokenhearted over her sins.
She was crying The way the Greek words that are used there, if you take into account the range of meaning and the usage, you get the idea that she was raining tears upon the feet of Jesus. Maybe you’ve wondered, could a person really cry enough tears to wash someone’s feet? Well, If you’ve cried long enough, cried hard enough, you might not struggle with that question so much. I remember our younger son, Branch, when he was a little boy, if he was very upset and he cried, he had what I used to call projectile tears. The tears would just go down his face, they’d shoot out of his eyes.
And this woman, sweeping, crying, shedding tears, wetting Jesus’ feet with her tears. And she, her broken heartedness over her sins are expressed in these extreme acts of devotion to her Savior. She expended this ointment, which no doubt was very costly. It was ointment or probably an oil-based perfume, and she poured it out upon him. She wiped his feet with her hair. And if you’ve ever read up on this, you’re probably aware that it was not customary, it wasn’t considered proper or polite for a woman to publicly unloose her hair. But she was so distraught and in such an emotional state that She obviously didn’t have any regard, didn’t care what other people thought at the moment. She dried Jesus’ feet with what she had available, and that was her hair.
She was, or maybe more accurately, we should say she had been a vile sinner, but she had received forgiveness. She had received forgiveness from Jesus. Look at verse 47 again. At the beginning of that verse, Jesus says, therefore, I tell you her sins, which are many, are forgiven. Forgiven. And then in the next verse, Jesus says directly to her, that first verse 47, he’s telling Simon, he’s telling the other people present, her sins were forgiven. Then he looks right to her, says directly to her, your sins are forgiven.
And then he pronounces what we could think of as a benediction upon her in verse 50. Your faith has saved you. Go in peace. Go in peace. This woman had been considered one of society’s worst. Unclean, immoral, despised, but she had been forgiven. she was changed.
Christ made the decree, and it’s as if he’s telling everyone who’s reclining at the table there with him, don’t regard her as a sinner anymore. And he does the same thing for everyone who comes to him in faith. Christ forgives even the worst of sinners. He’s the friend of sinners. Well, secondly, forgiveness of sins is a gift of God’s grace. It’s a gift from God, and it’s of His grace. That’s the message of the parable.
Jesus tells the parable of these two debtors. They couldn’t pay, but the moneylender forgave them both. One, 500 denarii, the other 50, what’s a denarii, what’s a denarius? A denarius was a day’s wage for normal laborer. So to put it in modern terms, one owed $100,000, $100,000, the other 10,000, and the man forgave both debts.
And it reminds us of an important theological concept, that sinners are in many respects like debtors, which is why Jesus taught us when he taught us how to pray, forgive us our debts, because sin makes us debtors to God’s justice. And saved sinners have their debts canceled. just like the debtors in the parables did. That’s what Jesus does for us in the gospel. He cancels the debt of our sin.
Again, verse 47, I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven. And that verse can be wrongly interpreted, because what does he go on to say? Her sins are forgiven, for she loved much. And there is a wrong way of reading that and understanding it. And that is to assume or to teach that she was forgiven because of her great love.
That’s not the case. How do we know? Well, because we always compare Scripture with Scripture. And we know there’s no way anyone could ever love Jesus enough to warrant or to earn or to merit forgiveness. But there’s actually proof right in the context for us, and it’s the parable itself.
The parable teaches that the forgiven ones love because they’ve been forgiven. It doesn’t say, I’ll forgive you 50 denarii because you’ve loved me a little. I’ll forgive you 100 denarii or 500 denarii because you’ve loved much. That’s not how it worked. The money lender forgave. and the forgiven debtors loved.
And that’s the gospel, my friends. God’s forgiveness precedes our love for him. Grace precedes faith. Blessing precedes obedience, and forgiveness precedes our love. Interestingly, Some of you are more familiar, perhaps, with the language and the wording of the New International Version. I know some of you grew up on that. The NIV really captures it at this point, because here’s how it reads. In Jesus’ declaration, it says, So you see, the love that she showed for Jesus was the evidence of her forgiveness, not the cause of it or the motivation for it.
Luke’s narrative doesn’t tell us anything about the woman, her background, her sins in particular. It doesn’t give us any background either about her conversion. By the time we see her in this passage, she’s already a born-again woman. We’re not told how that happened.
She may have had a previous encounter with Jesus. in a small group, or even individually, one-on-one at some point that isn’t recorded for us in the Bible. It’s possible she was among the crowds. We know that multitudes flocked to Jesus to hear Him teach, and He called upon people to repent of their sins. He proclaimed peace and pardon to those who repent, and so it’s possible she had heard His teaching along with crowds. But here’s the bottom line. She had heard the gospel, and she had repented, and she had believed.
And again, to dispel any notion that she was forgiven because of her love, verse 50 plainly says, she was saved by grace through faith, not a result of works. Because brothers and sisters, no one can ever do enough for Christ to earn forgiveness. No one can ever be sorry enough for their sins to warrant God’s pardon. No one can ever cry enough tears to deserve salvation. Forgiveness of sins is a gift of God’s grace.
And this passage illustrates that for us. Now going back to the end of verse 47, the little addendum to Jesus’ comment is, but he who is forgiven little loves little. Now that’s not suggesting to us that Simon was forgiven too, that he was forgiven, he just didn’t have as many sins to be forgiven of, that’s not the point. The point is that Simon Simon had very little sense of his need. Simon probably thought pretty highly of Simon and felt like he’s a pretty good guy. He kept the law. He was a Jew. He was a Hebrew of Hebrews. He was a Pharisee. And he didn’t need forgiveness the way this woman did. He didn’t have a sense of his need. He didn’t have any sense of conviction over his sins.
And that’s another reason why many people don’t come to Christ. You know, some will come because they know they’re sinners, and they just think that their sins are too much, and that Jesus won’t accept them. But then there are others who think, I’m all right. Why do I need Jesus? I’m a pretty good person. Why wouldn’t God accept me on my own terms? Some people think their sins are so great that Christ wouldn’t accept them. Others think their sins aren’t really so bad. All the fitness he requires is to feel your need of him. And some people just don’t feel that need.
So a person who’s forgiven little loves little. But God commands not that we love him a little. but that we love Him with all of our heart, with all of our soul, all of our minds, with all of our strength. That’s the love that God requires. That’s the love He commands of us.
And that’s why it’s good, good to have a strong sense of our sins. It’s good to be convicted. You know, people criticize us in the Reformed tradition, they criticize Presbyterians, because, oh, you guys, oh, you talk about sin all the time. Always thinking about sin, sin this, sin that. Well, guess what?
The greater and deeper sense we have of our sins, the more we will love Jesus. You want to grow in your love for Jesus? We all do, I think, all those who know Him. We want to love Jesus more. We know we need to. Well, look to this woman. Why did she love Jesus so much? Because she knew her sins. She knew how much she had been forgiven.
And the greater sense that we have of that, the more we’ll love him also. The more clearly we perceive how very much we have been forgiven, the more love we will have for the Lord our God. Well, and finally, point number three, love is the redeemed heart’s response to forgiveness. flows directly from that. Love is the redeemed heart’s response to forgiveness.
This woman’s tears were of remorse. They were of contrition, but they were also tears of joy. All that mixed together. Sorrow over her sin, but joy and gratitude to Jesus. Because no doubt, she was right there in the room as Jesus was speaking. She heard the parable and she knew herself to be that 500 denarii sinner. That 500 denarii debtor. And this lavish gift that she conveyed upon Jesus, her deep contrition, her profound humility, wiping his feet with her hair. These were all expressions of a heart full of love, a heart full of gratitude to him. And having received a full pardon, she responded with great love.
And so then Jesus tells this parable, when he got done with this parable, he challenges Simon. Because even Simon isn’t beyond hope, is he? Simon, Jesus hadn’t given up on Simon, I don’t think. And so he says to Simon, Simon, do you see this woman? It’s as if to say, look at her. Don’t ignore her. Don’t look away. Don’t pretend she’s not there or be aloof. Do you see this woman? Do you understand what she has done to me?” He makes a series of three contrasts all along the lines of, Simon, you did not, but she, you see that? You didn’t provide any water for my feet, Simon.
And depending on who you read and what authors or commentators you consult, there are some who will say it was expected and it was normal for someone to wash the feet of a guest or to provide water for them to wash their feet when they come in from the dirty streets and recline in your home.
It was not culturally required to do that. It wasn’t a requirement, but it was an act of hospitality. And apparently, Simon did not extend that to Jesus. And it’s the same with the other gestures. When Simon didn’t greet Jesus with a kiss, when he didn’t anoint his head with oil, he may not have been violating social norms. But it’s also very clear, even if you have no knowledge of ancient culture, it’s very clear that he was not showing love. That’s the point. He didn’t show any love for Jesus. He didn’t express any affections.
Might I even deign to borrow that frightening word? He was lukewarm. It would have been very predictable for Simon to take great offense at the things that Jesus said to him. Because there Christ was in Simon’s own home, and he was contrasting Simon, his host, in an unfavorable way with a woman who was a sinner.
But lack of love for Christ shows that no forgiveness has been received. Let me say that again. Lack of love for Christ shows that no forgiveness has been received. On the other hand, the woman’s sins were forgiven, as can be seen by the fact that she loved much. Love is the redeemed heart’s response to forgiveness.
Now, before Jesus gave his instruction, Simon had drawn a conclusion. about Jesus, Simon wrongly concluded that Jesus was no prophet. If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman this is who’s touching him. So whether or not Simon ever really seriously entertained the possibility that Jesus was a prophet, that he was from God, the fact that this woman showed up, did what she did, and Jesus didn’t seem to be phased by it, made Simon conclude he’s not a prophet. But in response, Jesus demonstrated that he was a prophet. In fact, his response demonstrated that he was more than a prophet.
He knew both the past and the present state of this woman. He knew Simon’s inner thoughts. Did you catch that? says that Simon said to himself, this is inwardly, he’s thinking, if this man were a prophet, and then Jesus answered him. Jesus answered his thoughts. He knew what was in his heart.
So he’s a prophet, but he’s more than that. And to top it all off, Jesus has the authority to forgive sins. And he pronounces that forgiveness and thereby he proves to be the very Son of God, the divine Savior of sinners. And when the Lord Jesus Christ said to the woman, your sins are forgiven, he was doing more than simply pronouncing words of pardon and comfort. It’s my joy and my privilege. to read and to pronounce over you, Lord’s Day after Lord’s Day, words of pardon, words of comfort. But Jesus is doing more than that.
He’s assuming to Himself the divine prerogative of forgiveness. And He’s declaring it in His own authority. And we know that because of the reaction that the other guests had. Who is this? Who does He think He is forgiving sins? Well, we know who he is, don’t we? He’s the Prince of Peace.
And he sent this precious sister away with the words, your faith has saved you, go in peace. And those words are for all of you who have come to Jesus for refuge. Jesus was maligned as a friend of sinners. Praise God that he is. Praise God that he is the friend of sinners. He’s not just a friend of sinners. He’s the friend of sinners, the only real friend sinners have. And the only one we need.
Let’s pray. Thank you, Lord God. Thank you, Lord Jesus. for being a friend to us, for pitying us when we were enemies, for calling us by your grace. Just as you did this woman, thank you that our sins, though they are many, are forgiven through your shed blood. We praise you and give you thanks. In your own name we pray, amen.