Jesus Friend of
Sinners
Luke 7:36-50
It is so good to be back here in the
pulpit, I’ve missed preaching the word of God for my church family. Thank God for some of the other men we have
as part of our extended church family like Bauer and Aron who have preached for
us recently and thank God for our own Jeff Haavisto who did an excellent job
last week of teaching us from Luke chapter 5 on the paralytic.
I trust you are being blessed and
built up in this series from the gospel of Luke. This morning we are going to
take a look at another story of redemption from the gospel of Luke, that of the
Sinful Woman.
You know the saying, “a picture
paints a thousand words.” Well, these
stories of redemption from the book of Luke are pictures that paint a thousand
words about our Savior and his kingdom.
These pictures are composed themselves of words but words that tell a
story. I believe it is God’s intent that
we enter into these stories and experience what the eyewitnesses themselves
would have experienced.
And I believe these stories teach us
much about God, about ourselves, about life.
Sometimes we learn truth better through story. For instance, I still remember the fable
about the man pulling the thorn from the lion, Androcles and the Lion. Do you remember that one? The young man, an
escaped slave, wandered in to a cave and found an injured lion with a large
thorn stuck through its paw. Instead of
running away or trying to finish off the lion he pulled the thorn out. Some time later Andocles is captured and sent
to the arena to be eaten by lions. When
the time came for the Lion to be released and devour Androcles, instead of
devouring the young man the hungry lion acts like the man’s pet. It turns out that lion is the same one he had
rescued earlier. This story is a lasting
picture of the rewards of kindness.
Well, even more significantly God has
given us true stories of our Savior so that the truths of God might linger in
our hearts and bring change to our lives.
With that in mind, let’s pray as we prepare to hear the word of God.
36 One of the Pharisees asked him to eat
with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the
table. 37 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, 38 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. 39 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.” 40 And Jesus answering said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he
answered, “Say it, Teacher.” 41 “A certain moneylender had two
debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them
will love him more?” 43 Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for
whom he cancelled the larger debt.” And he said to him, “You have judged rightly.” 44 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. 45 You gave me no kiss, but from
the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. 46 You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with
ointment. 47 Therefore I tell you, her
sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven
little, loves little.” 48 And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” 49 Then
those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this,
who even forgives sins?” 50 And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” Luke 7:36-50 (ESV)
Let’s walk through this story and
spend some time observing what is going on and listening to our Savior’s
words. After this we will seek to draw
some lessons from this passage, discern God’s word for us today via this story
and make some wise applications. So I
invite you into the living room of Simon the Pharisee.
If you were there you would already
know that eating and feasting together was a very important aspect of your
culture. Who you ate with said a lot
about who you were. You would not eat
with some types of undesireable people and you would be expected to invite to
your home worthy guests and valued friends.
Simon has invited Jesus into his home, probably for a special Sabbath
meal. These were different from normal
meals in that the guests would lounge around a low table in the middle of the
room, versus sitting upright, like they would at other meals. The honored guests would gather around the
table each leaning on his elbow facing the table and with his feet sticking out
away from the table. The host would
allow other folks to be in the room and though not seated at the table, they
would be welcome to sit up against the walls and take in the dinner
conversation and be served some of the food.
The poor might even wander in to beg for some food. So the room would have been fairly full on
this occasion. Simon is probably a
fairly well-off respected man in town.
He was a Pharisee, that is, a member of a an association of mostly lay
religious leaders devoted to strict conservative observance of the Old
Testament as understood and interpreted by notable Pharisaical teachers and
authorities. Think of them as a kinda the
Knights of Columbus minus Keno plus the republican party all rolled together
with a strong religious element. Jesus,
as a itinerant rabbi of note is appropriately invited to dine with this
prominent man of the city. The place to
be on this night is Simon’s house and you are there, seated up against the
wall, quietly taking in all that’s going on.
The text says next, behold, a woman
of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that Jesus is reclining at the
table (as the guest of honor that is) shows up with an alabaster flask of
ointment. So the dinner proceedings are
going on and all of a sudden a very interesting character shows up – this
woman, identified as a sinner. And she
is obviously holding something in her hands, an alabaster flask of oil.
Now these flasks were used to store
expensive perfumes and oils. Perhaps
this was the most precious thing this woman owned. These flasks could represent the life savings
of a woman. And this woman has shown up
at Simon’s house carrying this expensive perfumed oil in an alabaster jar, a
porcelain-like flask. Not only that, but
she makes her way to Jesus and stands at his feet. Before she can to anything with the jar or
whatever, she starts crying. And not
just a little, she cries so much that she starts wetting Jesus’ feet with her
tears. The word in the original language
for wetting is the same word used for a rain shower. She is weeping profusely and her tears are
falling on the feet of Jesus soaking his feet like a rain storm. It is beginning to by quite a scene. For probably everyone in the room knows
exactly who this woman is. She is that
woman. She is that woman that any good
man in town would avoid. She is that
woman that every upright woman would ignore.
She is that woman who always seems to be in trouble and ever causing
trouble – perhaps a prostitute or an adulteress or some sort of hopeless
outcast. She is simply called a sinner in this passage. This is the term reserved for those Jews who
had given up any semblance of obeying God’s law and living any sort of life of
devotion. They were considered alienated
from God, without hope, and alienated from community, without compassion. And
she is standing here bawling her eyes out over the distinguished Rabbi’s feet. Not only that but now she has let down her
hair, in public no less, and is using her hair to wipe Jesus’ feet. This is outrageous – she the sinner, making a
scene and now uncovering her head and letting her hair down, something in that
culture reserved only for the privacy of the bedroom. And even more, she is now kissing his
feet. This is embarrassing and very
dramatic and very inappropriate – especially for a rabbi who seems to think
himself a prophet. She is wetting, and
wiping with her hair and kissing his feet continually and now pouring that alabaster
jar of perfume on his feet and wiping the perfumed oil on his feet.
Every eye in the place is fixed on
this woman as she performs this outrageous act.
And every eye is flitting between the woman at Jesus’ feet and Jesus’
face. He is silently taking it in, not
moving his feet, not stopping her, but receiving her outrageous adoration in
silence while the whole room is silent in shocked stares.
Now, switch your eyes to Simon, the
man of the house and the respected Pharisee as he watches the scene. The look on his face is a mixture of shock,
confusion and concern. We know his
thoughts, even as Jesus did. He is
thinking, “what sort of man have I allowed in my house. He has let that woman in and he has let that
woman make a scene and he has allowed that woman to contaminate him with her
sinful tears and sinful hair and sinful kisses – how horrid. If this man were a
prophet he would surely know who this woman is – any body with any street sense
would know who she is, and any good rabbi at least would have the sense to
refuse her inappropriate advances. Who
is this fool who calls himself a prophet – doesn’t he know anything about sin
and holiness?”
And now the silence is broken. “Simon, I have something to say to you.” O
boy, here we go. After all this awkward
silence the honored guest speaks to the man of the house. When the Son of God initiates a question you
know you are in for it. Simon answers –
“Say it, teacher.” And I’m sure at that
moment Simon and everyone in that room was wondering what on earth Jesus was
going to say. All the while, we still
have the sinful woman weeping, and kissing all over Jesus feet.
Jesus tells a story himself, in the
midst of our story. He often told
stories. And this should tell us something about how to communicate truth to
people – our friends, our family and , if you have children, our children. If we want our kids to capture the essence of
what it is to know and love Christ and to walk with him in life, tell stories. Tell them at the dinner table, tell them at
bedtime, tell them around the fire or the living room couch – tell stories to
illustrate truth – just like our Savior does.
His story is simple and direct. There are two men who owe money to the local
banker. One owes $10,000 dollars, the
other $100,000, one a manageable amount, the other an impossible amount. When they defaulted on their loan the banker
cancelled both their debts. Pretty good
bank, at least from the borrower’s perspective!
Anyway, Jesus asks Simon to answer which of the two would love the
banker more. Simon knows he is in
trouble but he is cordial enough to answer, “I suppose the one who had the
larger debt cancelled.”
You are there and you can tell that
Jesus is after something. What he is
after is now going to become completely clear.
He says, “Simon, you didn’t wash my feet when I came in.” This was a common courtesy for all sorts of
house guests, especially a guest of honor.
One of the household servants of Simon would have been used to offering
this service to honored guests on these special Sabbath meals. Sandaled feet got dirty walking about the
neighborhood and a footwashing was a necessary and appropriate thing for
guests. Jesus said, “Simon, you didn’t
wash my feet, she has wet my feet with her tears and dried them with her
hair.” “You gave me no kiss.” A good friend would always greet friends and
honored guests with a kiss to the cheek – this sign of affection and respect
was common and appropriate. Yet Simon
did not honor Jesus this way. Jesus
says, “but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet.” “You gave me no oil for my head” – again a
common sign of honor and blessing for guests yet withheld from Jesus. Jesus
says “but she has anointed my feet with ointment.” Simon’s lack of care for his honored guest is
a stark contrast to the appropriate honor the woman gives him and which, as the
true Son of God, he gladly receives.
Now Jesus begins to explain why she
did this and why Simon’s lack is inappropriate.
Right in front of everybody he pronounces this woman’s sins forgiven,
already. He says “I tell you, her sins,
which are many, are forgiven.” Jesus
reveals that he knows exactly what type of woman she is and exactly what going
on the whole time. He is indeed a
prophet far greater than Simon imagined.
He is The Prophet of prophets, God in the flesh before him. And as such he knows this woman is a woman of
many sins. And all these many sins are
now forgiven. For her great love shown
in her extravagant devotion and gratefulness to Jesus is the result of having
been forgiven much.
Now we don’t know what had already
gone on with this woman. Jesus had
traveled throughout that region and healed many already. He already had a reputation as a friend of
tax collectors and sinners. He had
already called Matthew the tax collector to follow him and Matthew had invited
him to a party in his honor at his house that was full of other sinners and
outcasts. Maybe she had been there and
had met Jesus and beheld his goodness and sensed his holiness. Maybe she had heard his teaching of the
gospel and the call to repent and believe for the
Now if you were there you would know
that this is only gonna get Jesus in more trouble. For he doesn’t say, God has forgiven your
sins, or God will forgive your sins, He says, “Your sins are forgiven.” He himself, a mere man, had pronounced her
sins against God forgiven. The only one
who can forgive sins against God himself is God. What audacity and heresy for this radical
rabbi to pronounce her sins forgiven.
And he persists by saying out loud directly to the woman, as only God
can say, “Your faith has saved you, go in peace.”
And that is the end of this
story. Do you wonder what happened
next? I think that part is purposely
left off because God wants the next part of the story not to be Simon’s
reaction or the woman’s reaction but yours and my reaction. And that is what we are going to talk about
next.
You see, we have here a very
uncomfortable ending and some challenging questions posed by this story. The Jesus in this story is not just witty and
good with stories. He claims to be a
forgiver of sins. That is, he claims to
be God himself. Make no mistake, that is
the claim of this text. Jesus has
authority to forgive sins because he is God himself. Forget all this nonsense that Jesus is just a
good man and a good teacher. Good men
and good teachers don’t go around pretending to be God. They teach the truth and do the right
thing. Jesus doesn’t leave that
option. Simon knew that. His outrageous claims left no other
conclusion. The religious leaders would
have been happy to regard Jesus as a mere good man or a mere good teacher but
he didn’t leave them that option. He
offered himself to them on the condition that they receive him as God himself
in the flesh. They eventually refused
that offer and thus rejected him and condemned him.
In this story we have two very
different reactions to Jesus. We have
Simon and we have the woman. One is
self-sufficient, self-righteous and self-assured of his religion. The other is a sinner. One sees Jesus as a charlatan or a quack, the
other as the very Son of God and the forgiver of her sins. This story asks the question of us, “which of
the two do you most resemble?”
If you are here today and have yet to
believe in Jesus as God you are very welcome.
But this story is making a pressing claim on you. Perhaps you have heard of Jesus and studied
him. Perhaps you see him as a moral
teacher and one of the great prophets of history. Jesus will have none of that. He asks, through this story, that you realize
that he claims to be God himself and your only salvation and your rightful
Lord. He says later, I am the way and
the truth and the life, no once comes to the Father but through me. His call to you and me is like that to the
sinful woman, repent and believe the good news for the
This passage also has a lot to say to
those who already have turned from self and sin and trusted Christ as Savior
and Lord. You know, I think this passage
answers a central question for most Christians.
“How can I love God more?” Do you
guys ever ask that question? Do you ever
long to somehow change your life for the better and do a better job at
following Jesus and loving him? I’m sure
you do, for that is the heart cry of every one who is born again.
This passage gives us a truth that
can really help us. For our Savior’s
teaches the fundamental difference between someone like Simon and someone like
the sinful woman. He says it in verse
47. Take a look there with me. It says, “Her sins, which are many, are
forgiven, for she loved much. But he who
is forgiven little, loves little.” Now
the Lord was being gracious to Simon, for it appears there is no repentance on
his part, no awareness of his sin, no faith in the Savior, so it appears there
is no forgiveness actually and therefore no love. But, the principle still holds. The principle
is this, he who has been forgiven little loves little and he who has been
forgiven much loves much. Its
application to us is this: if we want to love Jesus much than we must be
forgiven much. Do you want to love Jesus
much? Than you must be forgiven much.
“How does that work?”, you ask. “I thought we all are forgiven for our sins
when we trust in Christ’s death in our place on the cross- regardless if they
are many or little.” “Does this mean
that we all are destined to love Jesus according to the amount of sins
forgiven?” And my answer is yes. But the reality is that no matter how good we
appear to be we still fall far short of the glory of God. As a matter of fact, sin, no matter how
seemingly trivial and minute, is rejection and rebellion against an infinitely
good heavenly Father and is necessarily an infinite offense. So no matter how much sin you have or don’t
have, you have enough to be infinitely grateful and to shower infinite love on
the Savior. It isn’t that Simon sinned
little and the woman sinned much and that was the root of the problem. It was that Simon thought he had sinned
little. And the reason for your lack of
love for Jesus and my lack of love for Jesus is that we think we have sinned
little and therefore we are forgiven little.
That is why we love little.
So what are we to do? Well, we must realize just how fantastic our
forgiveness is. It is way more than
$10,000 worth or $10,000,000 worth. Here
is a way to discover how much it is worth. First, consider just how good God
is. Regularly meditating on God’s
goodness shown in creation, in circumstances, and ultimately in his love in
dying on the cross for your sins and then telling him how thankful you are will
go a long way to convince you just how incredibly good God is. Make an effort
to regularly and extensively thank God.
Thankfulness is a powerful cure for so many things. Through thankfulness, set the goodness of God
as the context for seeing your sins for what they are.
Second, consider just how sinful sin
is. Think deeply about your sinful
habits and dispositions and how selfish, twisted and dark they are. Think about what an insult they are to this
perfectly good and trustworthy God. See
your doubt, for instance, as a slap in the face of your very best friend. See your idolatry as a ultimate betrayal of
all that is truly good and worthy, see
it as the denial of the glory and goodness and patience of the only true
satisfaction – the living God, your Creator, Redeemer and friend. Make every
effort to see the sinfulness of sin. Let
the horror of your sin, that dwells within and is largely hidden from sight,
let this sin drive you to weep, wail and mourn.
James 4:8-10 (ESV) says, “8 Draw
near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and
purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your
laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble
yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”
You know, we
value joy because this is to be the regular experience of the believer
according to scripture. But, this joy is to come to us after we have recognized
that though our sins are many they are forgiven. First there are seasons and moments where God
shows us our sin and the horror of it. It is essential that we do not move on
to quickly before the gravity of our sin and all its consequences hits us. There is indeed a time to weep, mourn and
wail. Jonathan Edwards says of the
experience of many during the Great Awakening “Great numbers under this influence have been
brought to a deep sense of their own sinfulness and vileness; the sinfulness of
their lives, the heinousness of their disregard of the authority of the great
God, and of their living in contempt of a Saviour. They have lamented their
former negligence of their souls, and their neglecting and losing precious
time. The sins of their life have been extraordinarily set before them; and
they have had a great sense of their hardness of heart, their enmity against that
which is good, and proneness to all evil; and also of the worthlessness of
their own religious performances, how unworthy of God’s regard were their
prayers, praises, and all that they did in religion. It has been a common
thing, that persons have had such a sense
of their own sinfulness, that they have thought themselves to be the
worst of all, and that none ever was so vile as they.”[1]
Some of us may need more seasons of weeping, mourning
and wailing if we are then to see how much our sins have been forgiven and in
turn, love much. So, first, consider
God’s goodness, second, consider your sin, and finally consider this.
Though your sins
be as scarlet, though they be as dark as can be, though they be as ugly and
treacherous and destructive as imaginable, Jesus Christ has shed his holy blood
to pay for all your sins and through faith in him you are clean because God
himself has declared it to be so by the resurrection of his Son. Though your sins are indeed many, they are
forgiven – now go and love much!
“How do we love
much?” you ask. Give him what she gave
him. Give him your heart, your tears, give him your most precious worldly
assets, kiss his feet, worship him, love him and follow him. Don’t worry about
the crowd, don’t worry about what is culturally acceptable. Give him your all in all in sincere gratitude
and love. And walk in the peace that
comes from knowing that though your sins are many, they are forgiven and now
you are his, forever. He who is forgiven
much loves much. Let’s pray.
[1] Jonathan Edwards, “SOME THOUGHTS CONCERNING THE PRESENT REVIVAL OF RELIGION
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