Greatness Belongs to the Forgiven

Scripture Reading

Luke 7:24–50 NKJV

When the messengers of John had departed, He began to speak to the multitudes concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed those who are gorgeously appareled and live in luxury are in kings’ courts. But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written: ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You.’ For I say to you, among those born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” And when all the people heard Him, even the tax collectors justified God, having been baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the will of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him. And the Lord said, “To what then shall I liken the men of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, saying: ‘We played the flute for you, And you did not dance; We mourned to you, And you did not weep.’ For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is justified by all her children.” Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat. And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil. Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, “This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.” And Jesus answered and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” So he said, “Teacher, say it.” “There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, 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 rightly judged.” Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. You gave Me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in. You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil. Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.” Then He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” And those who sat at the table with Him began to say to themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” Then He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”

How do you measure greatness? the size of your salary? the degree of business accomplishments? Your ability to do something people value? But Jesus has an astounding proposition - the most insignificant citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than the greatest prophet the world has ever known. Surely, prophets rank among the first of God’s most honorable children, and if God ranks them first, then how is it possible for all Kingdom citizens to rank higher? God’s ranking surely matters more than whatever criteria humans can come up with.

That leads to another question. If this is true, then the all-important question is, who gets to be a kingdom citizen? The answer is the next story Luke tells. The forgiven. Those who know how much they have been forgiven escape God’s wrath and are already citizens of the future Kingdom of Jesus. This is why I’ve titled my sermon “Greatness belongs to the forgiven.

To explain what I mean, we will begin with a simpler question.

I. Why did the Crowds go to see John the Baptist?

After John’s disciples left with their message, Jesus begins to talk up John the Baptist. His main point is that John is the greatest prophet of all time, and indeed, he is more than a prophet. But he begins with a simpler question - why did the crowds flock to him?

Well, they had to have some reason. They didn’t just go to see the wind blow. Did they go because of John the Baptist’s professional, polished appearance? If they wanted that, they would have gone to the king’s courts. Of course, John’s appearance was rough. He wore camel-hair robes with a simple leather belt, and he ate locusts and wild honey. Whatever else was going on, it certainly wasn’t a fashion show.

Now John’s appearance would have suggested to them the old prophets - the hairy garment and leather belt. Matt 3:4; 2 Kings 1:8; Zech 13:4

The Crowds got the point of John’s attire - John was proclaiming that he carried the same authority as the old prophets.

Because he was more than a prophet

Malachi 3:1 NKJV

“Behold, I send My messenger, And he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, Will suddenly come to His temple, Even the Messenger of the covenant, In whom you delight. Behold, He is coming,” Says the Lord of hosts.

John was the one sent by God to prepare the way for God to come. A prophet can only preach - the messenger is actually doing stuff.

Because he is the greatest prophet of all time

So, what makes someone great? That’s an easily debatable question. So let’s ask a simpler one. What makes someone great at, say sports? Its impossible to ever finally answer the question who was the greatest athlete ever. but whatever he is, it should be obvious that we are looking for the most physically capable person in that sport. He can accomplish the goal of that sport better than anyone else. Let’s keep going. What’s the greatest scholar of all time? Again, too hard to answer, but what we are looking for is obvious enough - the person who contributed intellectual ideas with the most importance for society. And we could trace similar things for other professions - the greatest of them is the one who can accomplish the point of that profession better than anyone else

But how do we measure the stature of a prophet? We don’t measure it by the number of people he influenced. Some of the greatest prophets who ever lived were largely hated and ignored in their lifetime. We don’t measure it by the greatness of their oratory, after all, the false prophets knew how to make a presentation that people liked to hear. So how to measure the greatness of a prophet? Well a prophet is anyone who speaks for God. His message is whatever God tells him to say at the time. In one sense, it’s a really simple job. Just tell people what God wants them to know. But in another sense its a really hard job, because God often wants the prophet to tell people hard and unpleasant things, things that people will hate him for saying. but if that’s the job, then how does one become a greater prophet? The purpose of God’s messages was to draw people to himself, to convict them of sin. It’s really the same purpose as a preacher, but while the preacher creates his message by following what the prophets have said, the prophet just tells people God’s message. So the greatest prophet of all time doesn’t have anything to do with skill, but with the importance of the message they are privileged to deliver.

John’s message was the most important message a prophet could ever deliver - it’s that the Messiah is almost here, so make yourself ready. that’s what made him the greatest prophet of all time.

You can be greater than John?!?

And yet, Jesus declared that the “least in the Kingdom of heaven” is greater than John the Baptist. How is this possible? the least in the Kingdom would have to be the Christian who barely made it because he wasted his entire life and confessed Jesus on his deathbed. Such a person would indeed be the least in the Kingdom of Heaven, but how on earth could such a person be greater than John the Baptist?

To start with, remember that John the Baptist will be in heaven too, and he certainly won’t be the least. So Jesus isn’t saying that you as a Christian are right now greater than John. He’s saying something else. He is saying that everyone in the Kingdom of Heaven will enjoy greater privilege than John did. John’s privilege was to proclaim that the King is almost here. Our privilege will be to actually serve the King. It’s clearly better to actually do something than to announce that the same something is almost ready. I welcome someone who tells me dinner is ready, but it’s way better to actually eat dinner. In other words, the significance of each person in the Kingdom is greater than John because they will actually have a role to play. We don’t just strum a harp all day, there’s stuff to do, important stuff. And because that “stuff” means actually having a part in doing the very thing that John announced, no matter how small your role, it’s definitely greater than being the one who announces it’s nearly here.

II. Reasonable People Believe the Message

We first get a summary of what the crowds thought - they “justified God” - that means they recognized that Jesus was right, and therefore that God was right in sending John and Jesus. They did this because they had been baptized by John. So most people, it seems, accepted Jesus’ words as true. The exception was the Pharisees and lawyers. They rejected John’s message, and therefore they rejected the will of God. This also means they rejected Jesus.

So it seems that Jesus’ ire is directed against those who were rejecting him, rather than all of the crowds. He complains it’s a bit like children, and the idea is that the kids are trying to play some kind of game. “Do you want to dance and be happy?” “No, I don’t feel like it.” “OK, how about playing a funeral?” “No I don’t feel like doing that either.” In other words, no matter what the kids came up with, the party poopers wouldn’t play.

Jesus and John had the same problem. John came with the spartan lifestyle of the old prophets, and the religious leaders complained that he must “have a demon.” Jesus, therefore did not dress like an old prophet, just like a regular guy, eating with normal people. So they accused Jesus of being gluttonous and a drunkard, and someone who liked to hang out with bad people. Clearly what’s going on is that the religious leaders simply didn’t want God’s message, so they came up with any excuse they could think of why God’s messengers weren’t good people.

So what’s the answer to these unreasonable people? Wisdom is justified in her children, meaning, true wisdom will eventually be seen for what it is, and those who have true wisdom will be seen to be wise. Jesus is saying that both himself and John are wise, and will be vindicated eventually, so you’d better get with the program.

III. Faith Leads to Understanding

The setting here is that after one Sabbath’s teaching a Pharisee asked Jesus to eat with him. Now Jesus didn’t actually hate Pharisees. He was willing to spend time with the rich and ‘righteous’ as well as the poor and the sinner. Furthermore, not all Pharisees wanted Jesus dead. This one may not have thought a great deal of Jesus, but he wouldn’t have invited Jesus over for dinner if he didn’t have at least a little respect for him.

It was common in those days to invite the visiting Rabbi over for dinner. It was also common, when a visiting rabbi was present, to permit the public to come and stand around the edges - only guests could eat, but anyone could come, so it was kind of a public affair to have a Rabbi over. That’s why this woman could get in when the Pharisee clearly wants nothing to do with her.

Now when it says they “sat down to eat” we think of people sitting in chairs at a table. Well, there was a table, but there were no chairs. The Greek reflects this, for the idiom is “recline at table.” Instead, people usually lay down on mats to eat at a low table, with their feet stretched out behind them. This is important because that’s how the woman could reach Jesus’ feet. that’s why it says she “stood at his feet behind him.”

But what we notice first is that the woman’s actions are very emotional. She is crying, she pours a flask of perfume on his feet and wipes it with her hair (eeww). It was not considered proper at the time for a woman to let down her hair - they wouldn’t have been quite as worried about dirt as we usually are, but it was still quite strange in their culture. I don’t know about you, but I’d be quite uncomfortable.

What could cause such great emotions? We are told she was a “sinner.” We know, of course, that everyone has sinned (Rom 3:23), but that’s not what it means when it calls her a sinner. Instead, the Pharisee’s reaction makes it clear that this kind of sinner is only branded upon some people. Certain professions, like tax collecting and tanning, would cause the person to be ritually unclean. however, Jesus implies that this woman’s sin was actually moral defilement, not a ritual thing. I’m not sure exactly what it was she did, but whatever it was, it branded her an outcast in society. However, though she was an outcast, she was also likely a woman of at least some means, since she could afford an expensive flask of perfume.

Now, what would make a woman react like this is obviously that she knows Jesus has forgiven her sins. What would cause such great emotions? Well, we aren’t told, so let me provide a guess. First of all, God has always offered forgiveness. The God who forgave David after his sin with Bathsheba surely has no difficulty forgiving this woman for whatever her sin happened to be.

However, like most societies, those sins branded unacceptable are usually not granted forgiveness among her friends and acquaintances. Perhaps she was a prostitute in her youth, but somehow managed to get married to a man with some wealth. However, now she is no longer pretty, and no one wants anything to do with her. She has now realized that her earlier sins have permanently ruined her life. She is shunned, alone, and everyone is disgusted by her. There’s no recourse for this, so she must deal with the shame of her earlier life without any ability to fix it. Perhaps also she thinks that if people can’t forgive her, then God wouldn’t either - that’s not true of course; God has always offered forgiveness to the repentant sinner. But people often feel that way if they have done something that gets them shunned in society.

Now Jesus comes along and offers forgiveness to anyone who asks it and promises a place for that person in his Kingdom, a place with no more shame. This woman has been hungry for forgiveness for probably a while. I don’t know if Jesus knew her already, or if she had just gone to hear him and believed his message. But either way, she desperately wants to be forgiven for her past sins, and is amazed that anyone could offer it after what she did.

Let’s turn to the Pharisee. He, on the other hand, is respected in society. Everyone thinks he is a righteous person. He doesn’t hate Jesus, but he is just offering common courtesy to a visiting rabbi. He doesn’t really think he has any sins to be forgiven, so if he did hear Jesus’ message of forgiveness that morning in Synagogue, it didn’t mean much to him. “Nice for those other people who need it,” he might have thought.

Instead he is revolted by what the woman does. He makes no less than three false assumptions. First, he assumed that Jesus would not allow a “sinner” to touch him, let the sinner defile his holiness. He doesn’t think the woman means anything except gratitude, but he knows who she is, and he finds her disgusting because of her unclean past.

Second, he assumes that Jesus must not know the woman. I’m not sure that’s true, either, since Jesus did allow some well-to-do women to support his ministry (Luke 8:2-3). Jesus may have actually known her already, but the Pharisee assumes otherwise both because of his first assumption and because rabbis tended not to allow women to learn.

Third, he assumes that Jesus must not be a prophet. That’s also wrong.

But notice that he ends up not knowing what’s going on, because of his lack of appreciation for Jesus. The woman very likely knew considerably less about the Bible in absolute terms, but because she believed Jesus’ message, she actually knew very much more in practical terms. Her faith resulted in greater understanding of the situation.

IV. You will love as much as you know you’re forgiven.

Jesus’ parable is meant to explain both the reality of forgiveness and how knowing that reality affects a person’s response to Jesus. Simon the Pharisee (not Simon Peter) assumed that this woman was unclean because she had a genuinely sinful past; he completely ignored even the possibility of forgiveness let alone how it changes a person.

Jesus’ simple parable is easy to understand, even if you don’t know how much a denarii is. One owes 50; a second owes 500. Neither could pay, so the lender graciously forgave them both. As it happens, a denarii was a fair wage for a day laborer. So the first man owed about a month and a half’s wages, the other a year and a half - in modern terms its the difference between a few thousand and a few tens of thousands. Either way, the one who was forgiven more will feel quite a lot more grateful. Simon’s response is the only one possible.

BTW, Notice that Jesus asks questions rather than accuses Simon of being unloving. That’s because asking questions is a better way of bringing conviction. It’s said that questions convict; accusations harden the will.

Jesus then applies the parable. It was normal to offer to have a traveler’s feet washed. After walking miles in sandals on dusty roads, his feet would be very dirty. It’s not that Simon was rude, but he certainly didn’t go out of his way to make Jesus feel welcome. It was also common to greet friends with a kiss - again, it’s not required per se, but it shows that Simon wasn’t making any more than the most minimal effort at welcoming Jesus. Anointing with oil would have been rather common, though certainly not expected. They didn’t have lotion, and in the dry climate of Israel, olive oil acted like a moisturizer. Simon has only done the bare minimum to make Jesus comfortable.

The woman, however, has done extravagantly more than expected, to the point of it getting awkward. She washed his feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair; she kiss his feet; she anointed them with perfume. This would have been seen as going so overboard it was strange. Wow, she really felt grateful. Why? Because she knew how much she had been forgiven. It’s actually quite a natural response. If you know how much you’ve been forgiven, you’ll love Jesus a lot too.

V. Faith Saves from Sin by the power of God

Lastly, Jesus turns to the woman and declares that her sins are forgiven. It’s pretty obvious that she already believed and was forgiven - she wasn’t forgiven at that very moment, but Jesus says what he does so everyone will know that (1) she is forgiven and (2) Jesus has the power to forgive sins.

Everyone at the table got the point - Who does this guy think he is to forgive sins? Now I can forgive sins you commit against me. But I cannot forgive sins you’ve committed against others. All sins, however, are committed against God, since it’s his laws you have broken, regardless of whoever else you may have hurt. Thus, God can forgive your sins. But only God can forgive sins. Jesus is claiming a prerogative that belongs only to God.

He then declares “your faith has saved you, go in peace.” That is, her faith is the instrument; God’s grace is the power that forgives, but it is unlocked by faith. Jesus said those same words to others (Luke 8:48; 18:42), but this is the only time where he says it about the forgiveness of sins. the other two times were about physical healing. Since God must judge sin, the danger you need to be saved from is the fair and righteous judgment of God. God promises forgiveness to those who believe, just like this woman.