How Do You Act When You've Been Forgiven?

Introduction

Sometimes, those we call sinners are more accepted by God than we may think. And, if we are not careful, our religious traditions will prevent us from becoming the Christians we know we should be.

Rabbi Jacob Neusner was one of the most impactful Jewish scholars of the 20th century. He was known to write on politics, comparative religion, and social matters. As a result, it has been estimated that he wrote or edited nearly 1,000 books.

One of Rabbi Neusner’s books is A Rabbi Talks with Jesus. In this book, he uses the Sermon on the Mount to critique Jesus’s teachings. The book is presented as if Rabbi Neusner is walking alongside Jesus in the first century. In this journey he is poised to listen and argue against the teachings that are shared. Rabbi Neusner’s ultimate position is that Jesus’s teachings contradict the Torah, and when such contradictions occur, Moses is right and Jesus is wrong.

To Neusner, Jesus is a moral teacher worthy of respect. However, his radical teachings, authoritative speech, and individualistic view of one’s relationship with God all counter the communal and traditional teachings of Judaism. Furthermore, Jesus’s concept of the temple and worship contradict and completely replace the traditional view of Judaism, which in turn is a significant problem.

Like the Jewish teachers in our text, Rabbi Jacob Neusner fails to accept the teachings of Jesus, because his system of religion prevents him from doing the very thing the system is intended to do.

Our text is found in the gospel of Luke. Luke’s gospel is intentionally written from a Gentile perspective for a Gentile audience. He seems to recognize the importance of providing a picture of the Messiah that is accessible by Gentiles. This can easily be seen by the type of characters that are referenced in Luke’s gospel in comparison to the others.

Luke intentionally included stories about the disreputable and outcasts to demonstrate Jesus’s willingness to reach the unreached. Mark Keown wrote,

Discovering the New Testament: An Introduction to Its Background, Theology, and Themes, Volume I: The Gospels & Acts The Disreputable

Luke includes accounts of those who were not so respectable in society, including the shepherds who are the first recipients of the message (Luke 2:8–10), the tax collectors and “sinners” whom Jesus ate with (Luke 5:30; 7:34), the sinful woman who anointed Jesus’ feet (Luke 7:37–50), the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector (Luke 18:9–14), and the conversion of Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1–10). There are also mentions in Jesus’ parables of the unrighteous, including the Pharisee and the tax collector (Luke 18:11, cf. Matt 5:45; Luke 16:10–11).

It is very clear Jesus embraced a unique ministry model to reach a unique group of people. Tim Keller wrote in his book The Prodigal God,

Jesus's teaching consistently attracted the irreligious while offending the Bible-believing, religious people of his day. However, in the main, our churches do not have this effect. The kind of outsiders Jesus attracted are not attracted to contemporary churches. Even our small groups and Bible studies tend to draw largely nice, buttoned-down, middle-class people. The licentious and liberated or the broken and marginal avoid church. That can only mean one thing. If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishioners do not have the same effect on people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did.

If we are going to preach and live the gospel, we must have an audience with the people who would generally avoid church as we know it to find the Jesus we read about in Scripture.

In our text, we find Jesus speaking to a woman no one of the time wanted in their community.

Jesus and the Immoral Woman: Luke 7:36-48

Luke 7:36–38“One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to have dinner with him, so Jesus went to his home and sat down to eat.* When a certain immoral woman from that city heard he was eating there, she brought a beautiful alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume. Then she knelt behind him at his feet, weeping. Her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them off with her hair. Then she kept kissing his feet and putting perfume on them.”

Jesus is invited into the home of a Pharisee, Simon. Such an invitation was an opportunity for Jesus to share a conversational lesson with those in attendance. However, the invitation is strange, because Jesus’s teachings generally contradicted that of the Pharisees. Here, Jesus is depicted as reclining at the table as to share an intimate meal with the Pharisee and his guests. The upmost respect should be expected here, as Jews often hosted banquets for their rabbis or famous guest teacher.

Then comes a woman who is known as a sinner or immoral in the city. Such references in antiquity often referred to a sexually promiscuous woman or prostitute. In the Jewish tradition the poor or uninvited guests to observe the discussion of the guest, as long as they remained quiet and away from the couches. However, this woman makes quite a seen by kneeling by Jesus’s feet.

Luke 7:39 “When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman is touching him. She’s a sinner!””

Simon the Pharisee takes an interesting position at the sight of this woman. While many people may have been offended by the behavior of this woman, Simon was more offended by the behavior of Jesus.

She interrupted the dinner.

She has a bad reputation.

She is kissing the feet of the supposed prophet wit her hair down.

The Rabbi, with his traditional training, is highly offended and discredits (within himself) the validity of Jesus as prophet. Jesus’s behavior leads to Simon’s skepticism.

How many of us would be offended by the ministry practices of Jesus?

What happens when you are met with a person who has a different political view, position on homosexuality, or has a less than ideal past? What happens when you meet a professing believer who has a different doctrinal position than you? What if the people online you’re engaging in a theological dispute with are actually people who need to hear the gospel?

I recall how my life was forever impacted by my first job in higher education. I’d begun my tenure at Columbia International University as the Assistant Director of our Prison Initiative. My father had served in prison ministry as a child, but I’d never visited a federal prison before. The entire experience would be new to me. I remember the first day we were granted access into the prison, the long line outside to enter those gates, and the level of security that ensured no one left and no one without authorization entered. There I was, barely 30 years old, behind the most secure gates in this country with criminals who had committed some of the worst crimes you could imagine. I didn’t know what to expect. Prior to entering the facilities I had spent months trying to find funding to support this program that would assist the citizens with the education they needed to reform their lives. Despite an incredible recidivism rate, I was faced with harsh legislation and corporate articles that scoffed at the idea of providing free education to the country’s incarcerated citizens. Then, I met my first and only cohort of students. There I was, a young administrator and professor to students old enough to be my father. The site I witnessed when I finally met my first students would put to shame the seminary students of the world’s best divinity schools. These men wrote papers that not only challenged your thinking, but captivated your soul. They demonstrated a discipline of rigorous learning that did not depend on fast google searches, but utilized the traditional form of reading through stacks of books that takes a toil on your body. These men were amazing! But, they were also forgotten.

Jesus would have ran to serve these men! He would have broke down the doors to reach them! However, I recall hosting an event to invite more churches to support this initiative, and none of the 15 or so churches found it worthy of their ministry support.

Luke 7:40–43 “Then Jesus answered his thoughts. “Simon,” he said to the Pharisee, “I have something to say to you.” “Go ahead, Teacher,” Simon replied. Then Jesus told him this story: “A man loaned money to two people—500 pieces of silver* to one and 50 pieces to the other. But neither of them could repay him, so he kindly forgave them both, canceling their debts. Who do you suppose loved him more after that?” Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the larger debt.” “That’s right,” Jesus said.”

Jesus shares a parable about two individuals who owe money to a debt collector: 2 months verse 20 months of wages. And here is where we find the premise for this entire discourse: Those who have been forgiven for much will love much.

What does love look like?

Humility (Luke 7:38 “Then she knelt behind him at his feet, weeping. Her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them off with her hair. Then she kept kissing his feet and putting perfume on them.”)

Service (Luke 7:44 “Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Look at this woman kneeling here. When I entered your home, you didn’t offer me water to wash the dust from my feet, but she has washed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair.”)

Sacrifice (Luke 7:45–46 “You didn’t greet me with a kiss, but from the time I first came in, she has not stopped kissing my feet. You neglected the courtesy of olive oil to anoint my head, but she has anointed my feet with rare perfume.”)

Main Point & Sub-point

Those who have a deep sense of God’s forgiveness will have a deep and profound expression of love.

We are forgiven because of faith, but we love because we are forgiven.

If you want to see a person who loves deeply, find a person that understands the depths of God’s forgiveness beyond the norm. And essentially, this is what we are missing in the world today—a sense of reality of how much God has forgiven us beyond what we deserve. Therefore, our world is suffering from a deficit of love.

Luke 7:47 NLT

“I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.”

Conclusion: Sinners or God’s Forgiven Children

Sometimes, who we call sinners are actually God’s forgiven children. That is the very people we think are unworthy of our attention are the ones who display the upmost Christian character in God’s eyes.

Luke 7:48 NLT

Then Jesus said to the woman, “Your sins are forgiven.”

**Poster board demonstration**