Luke #18: The Aroma of Forgiveness (7:36-50)

If you’re visiting with us today, thanks for being here today. We’d really like to be able to connect with you to thank you personally for joining us for worship. If you could take a second during my message and fill out a communication card, which you’ll find in the back of the pew in front of you, we would really appreciate it. You can return that to us one of two ways: First, you can bring it down to me at the end of the service, because I’d like to meet you and give you a small gift as a token of our gratitude for your visit today. If you don’t have time for that this morning, you can drop the Welcome card in the boxes by the doors as you leave after the service ends. If you’re online, or if you’d rather fill out something online, you can head to ehbc.org or download our church app (EHBC Albuquerque) and fill out the contact form at the bottom of the “I’m New” link.

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Opening

Through the miraculous work of Jesus during His earthly ministry, the world experienced the arrival of the Kingdom of God, and thus the Gospel is the Story of the King. Last week, we saw that Jesus proved His identity as Messiah, the Savior of the world, through these displays of His power, through His authority over death, and through the wisdom that comes from Him, even if we may struggle with doubts from time-to-time because of our frailty as human beings.

But one of most incredible things about Jesus’s ministry wasn’t the fact that He could heal a centurion’s servant from a distance with just a word. It wasn’t that He raised a widow’s son from the dead while the young man was being carried to his tomb. I would say that the two most astounding things about Jesus’s ministry were that by His mercy we can be forgiven, and by His power we can have eternal life.

In our focal passage this morning, we get to experience the beautiful aroma of forgiveness as we read about a sinful woman and her response to Jesus. So as you are able, would you please open your Bibles or Bible apps to Luke 7:36-50, and stand as I read our focal passage this morning.

Luke 7:36–50 CSB

36 Then one of the Pharisees invited him to eat with him. He entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37 And a woman in the town who was a sinner found out that Jesus was reclining at the table in the Pharisee’s house. She brought an alabaster jar of perfume 38 and stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to wash his feet with her tears. She wiped his feet with her hair, kissing them and anointing them with the perfume. 39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “This man, if he were a prophet, would know who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him—she’s a sinner!” 40 Jesus replied to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” He said, “Say it, teacher.” 41 “A creditor had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 Since they could not pay it back, he graciously forgave them both. So, which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon answered, “I suppose the one he forgave more.” “You have judged correctly,” he told him. 44 Turning to 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, with her tears, has washed my feet and wiped them with her hair. 45 You gave me no kiss, but she hasn’t stopped kissing my feet since I came in. 46 You didn’t anoint my head with olive oil, but she has anointed my feet with perfume. 47 Therefore I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; that’s why she loved much. But the one who is forgiven little, loves little.” 48 Then he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” 49 Those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this man who even forgives sins?” 50 And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”

PRAYER

“I forgive you.”

Such powerful words. There have been many times in my life when I needed to hear these words, and did hear them. It’s so relieving to hear them! It’s like a weight is lifted off of your shoulders as the discomfort and awkwardness of the relationship you have with the person who forgives you vanishes.

I’ll give you an example of when I’ve needed forgiveness and received it: This story does NOT paint me in a good light. Your church staff is a pretty close group. Obviously, we work together a lot and spend a lot of time with each other. We can all be a bit silly, and occasionally we even give each other a hard time. But like all picking that can go on like that, there’s a line. And sometimes, we don’t just cross the line… we leap over it like a long-jumper trying to set a world record.

One time, years ago, I very sarcastically teased Joe. Now, Joe and I are great friends, and we pick on each other all the time, and ordinarily have fun in doing so. But this time was different. I, like, mocked him. In a really over-the-top manner. In front of other church members. It was just wrong. He was justifiably wounded by my insensitivity and lack of respect, and the sad part is that I was so foolish that I was completely oblivious.

Once my failure was revealed to me I repented to the Lord, but when it came to Joe, I had exactly ONE right choice: to go to him in humility, confess my sin, and ask for his forgiveness—To admit that I was wrong and own the fact that I had hurt him. So that’s what I did. I went down to his office, and closed the door, and told him that I needed to apologize to him for my actions, confessed what those actions were, and asked if he would forgive me.

And Joe said those very words: “I forgive you.” We hugged it out, and it was done. We’ve never brought it up again. Forgiveness is so freeing!

In our passage this morning, we catch a glimpse of what forgiveness is like on an even grander scale, and through the perfumed sacrifice of this woman, we can almost smell the aroma of forgiveness.

1: The aroma of forgiveness

To set up our focal passage, we need to step back for a moment and remember a couple of things that we’ve learned as we’ve gone through the Gospel of Luke. First, remember that back in chapter 4, Jesus preached from Isaiah 61, saying that He had come to “preach good news to the poor,” and “proclaim release to the captives and...set free the oppressed.” (Luke 4:18) Second, remember that the Pharisees did not like Jesus. At this point, they’ve already argued with Him about who He hung out with, about prayer and fasting, and had even tried trapping Him by assuming He would perform a miracle of healing on the Sabbath (the scandal!). However, we can see in our passage today that not all of the Pharisees felt quite so hostile toward Jesus. One named Simon (v 40) was at least curious about Jesus, and decided to invite Him into his home for a banquet:

Luke 7:36–38 CSB

First, let’s address a biblical question. In each of the four Gospels, there is a record of a woman anointing Jesus with perfume while He ate a meal. These appear in Matthew 26, Mark 14, and John 12 (as well as here in Luke 7). However, the Matthew, Mark, and John records are all essentially in agreement on several distinct differences from what we see here in Luke. Did Luke get this wrong? No. He didn’t. He told about a different event altogether.

In Matthew, Mark, and John, the event in question took place in Bethany, which is near Jerusalem, within a week of Jesus’ crucifixion, which is MUCH later than in Luke. In each of those accounts, there is no mention at all of Pharisees, no reference to the woman being “a sinner,” and no tears. In each case, the discussion that ensues afterwards isn’t about the woman, but about the presumed “waste” of the expensive perfume and that it could have been sold and the funds used to feed the poor. Jesus speaks to His disciples about His burial in Matthew, Mark, and John, not about forgiveness as He does with the Pharisee in Luke.

We mentally want to make these into the same event because of the similarities we find: that each is about Jesus being anointed with perfume by a woman while He is at a dinner. To be fair, this isn’t surprising because of John’s record: In John, the woman does wipe Jesus’s feet with her hair, and the event takes place in a house of man named “Simon.” However, in John she’s wiping off oil, not tears, and Simon is known as “Simon the Leper...” HIGHLY doubtful that he could have been a Pharisee. We might call on the fact that the name is the same: Simon. But according to historical records, over 15% of Jewish males in first century Judea were named either Joseph or Simon. 15%! And Simon (the Greek version of “Simeon”) was the more popular of the two, so we could say that if you met 10 men in New Testament Israel, it was almost certain that one of them would have been named Simon.

Therefore, I believe that Luke’s narrative is a reporting of a completely different incident in Jesus’s life. Let’s move on to looking at the text itself.

It seems really weird to us that this woman would come into Simon’s house unbidden. Do any of us generally have strangers just walk in while we’re giving a dinner party? But as odd as it seems to us, in the first century if you gave a banquet for an honored guest, it was common to allow others from town to come and listen in on the conversation, as long as they stayed against the walls. Also, it was considered good form to allow those people to eat the “leftovers” after the meal was completed, because there wasn’t really any way to preserve the food. This woman being in the Pharisee’s house would not have been outlandish. But her choices most certainly were.

This woman, known in town as a “sinner,” comes in and stands behind Jesus weeping. We can’t be certain of how she was sinful, but it is a reasonable guess to think she was a prostitute. Her tears fall upon Jesus’s feet, dampening them, and she falls to her knees behind Him, washing His feet with her hair, kissing His feet, and pouring perfume on them. This is a scene of incredible humility and adoration.

For we who sit at tables to eat, it seems impossible that standing behind Jesus and crying would get His feet wet. But notice in verse 36 that Jesus “reclined at the table.” In first century Israel, meals were taken laying down, propped up with your left arm, so you could eat with your right hand. So Jesus’s feet would have been away from the table, and easily accessible.

When this woman began pouring out this perfume on Jesus’s feet, the smell would have permeated the room. Given the cost of perfume, it is possible that this alabaster jar was the most expensive thing she owned. Why would she make this lavish, extravagant gesture?

We’ll see it in the passage in a moment: She does this because she’s been forgiven of her sins. The aroma in the room would have been, by extension, the sweet aroma of forgiveness, as she responded in love to her Savior. We didn’t see her interaction with Jesus in Luke, but I believe from the language of this passage that some time before this dinner at Simon’s house (I’ll explain in a bit), they had met, and Jesus had forgiven her of her many sins.

Have you experienced this freedom? Have you had your sins forgiven, washed away by the blood of Jesus? The Bible tells us that complete forgiveness of sins can only come from God, because God is the primary party affected by our sins:

Psalm 51:2–4 CSB

2 Completely wash away my guilt and cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I am conscious of my rebellion, and my sin is always before me. 4 Against you—you alone—I have sinned and done this evil in your sight. So you are right when you pass sentence; you are blameless when you judge.

And only God can remove our sins from us completely:

Psalm 103:12 CSB

12 As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

In fact, the Bible tells us that because of His compassion on us, He will bury our sins (metaphorically) at the bottom of the ocean:

Micah 7:19 CSB

19 He will again have compassion on us; he will vanquish our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.

This is freedom! And because Jesus is God in the flesh, He has the authority to forgive sins, as we saw back in chapter 5, and as we will see later in this very passage. But ultimately, His death on the cross would provide our release from the debt that we owe according to Scripture:

Colossians 1:14 CSB

14 In him we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

This formerly sinful woman had experienced the freedom that only comes from Jesus. She had been the recipient of Jesus’s mercy and grace—she was one of the poor who heard the good news, one of the captives who had been released, one of the oppressed who had been set wonderfully free. In response to that forgiveness, she came and worshipped Jesus in the only way she could come up with, pouring herself out in adoration to Jesus.

It doesn’t matter where you’ve been, or what you’ve done. You can receive forgiveness. Take a second. Think about your most terrible, heinous, grossly awful sins. There is not one that you can think of that Jesus didn’t die for, not one that is somehow worse than His blood is good, not one that He will not graciously forgive if you surrender to Him in repentance and faith.

Acts 10:43 CSB

43 All the prophets testify about him that through his name everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins.”

Now, as the fragrance of the perfume would have filled the room with its scent, so the aroma of the forgiveness of Christ should fill the lives of those who have experienced it. Unfortunately, we get to see into Simon the Pharisee’s heart, and we see the lack of forgiveness that Jesus found there.

2: The lack of forgiveness

Can I ask everyone something? Isn’t forgiveness really hard sometimes? Someone hurts us, or offends us, or posts something we don’t like on social media. Someone disagrees with us, or dismisses us, or has some kind of moral failing, or even just agrees with someone we disagree with, and we are tempted to write them off as “less than.” We don’t want to forgive them, because they do not deserve our forgiveness. In the moments that we feel this way, we are acting the part of the Pharisee.

Luke 7:39–40 CSB

39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “This man, if he were a prophet, would know who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him—she’s a sinner!” 40 Jesus replied to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” He said, “Say it, teacher.”

Jesus again reveals the fact that He knows what is going on inside the minds and hearts of the people around Him by knowing what Simon the Pharisee is saying to himself. Now, this isn’t a fleeting thought that comes into his head for just a moment, and it’s not even an indictment against the woman, exactly. He’s probably not wrong about her, given her response to Jesus. But there’s no grace, no mercy, no forgiveness in Simon’s heart. But what Simon is thinking isn’t primarily about the woman: it’s what he’s thinking about Jesus because of his issue with the woman that’s the problem.

He invited Jesus into his home likely because he was curious, or perhaps because Jesus was a very popular rabbi with the people at that particular time. But he was, internally at least, evaluating Jesus in that moment. Since this woman is considered to be a sinner, no self-respecting Pharisee would have allowed her to touch them, because they would have believed that her doing so would render them unclean.

Simon looks at Jesus’s lack of stopping or rebuking this woman, and assumes that Jesus simply has no idea what kind of woman this is. The easiest way to see this is to rearrange the sentence. “This Man would know who and what kind of woman this is who is touching Him,” he thinks, “if He were a prophet.” In other words, He doesn’t know, so He must not be a prophet. His dismissal of the woman becomes a dismissal of Jesus by association.

But Jesus knows. So He confronts Simon, leading with “Simon, I have something to say to you.” Several commentators suggest that this was a common method of beginning a rebuke of someone, and so Simon would have known that was what was coming when he responded, “Say it, teacher.” He at least acknowledges that Jesus is a teacher, a title which we will see several more times in Luke.

Jesus launches into a masterfully-crafted parable of a creditor and two debtors:

Luke 7:41–43 CSB

41 “A creditor had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 Since they could not pay it back, he graciously forgave them both. So, which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon answered, “I suppose the one he forgave more.” “You have judged correctly,” he told him.

The two debtors had two things in common: First, they both owed money to the same man—One owed 50 denarii and the other, 500 denarii. Second, neither of them was able to repay their debt.

So the creditor does the unthinkable: He forgives them both. They owe him nothing.

The question that Jesus asks is interesting: “Which of them will love the creditor more?” Simon’s answer seems to be reluctant: “I suppose the one he forgave more.” (Strangely enough, I hear this in a snooty English accent… I don’t know why). Jesus affirms the answer as correct. Let’s pause for a moment and consider this.

This doesn’t seem all that shocking to us, because we tend to see “denarii” (the plural of denarius) and hear “dollars.” And one guy owed $50 and the other owed $500. While for many of us either amount might feel like a lot, it doesn’t seem all that brutal: a moderately-priced dinner out for two people will cost about $50, and a set of four more economical tires will cost about $500. But that’s not a good comparison.

A denarius was a minted silver coin in ancient Rome, and was the standard wage for a hired worker for one full day of labor. If you make say $75,000 annually, working 250 days a year (basically weekends off), your “denarius” is worth $300. The one who owed less still comparative owed $15,000, but the other owed $150,000. Neither is a sum to sneeze at. If you were to borrow $15,000, it would take you a couple of years to pay back. If you were to borrow $150,000, it would take you a couple of decades to pay back.

So the one who owed the greater sum had received an incredible amount of forgiveness. And that was Jesus’s point: that man would have been much more appreciative and loving, because he had been set free from a debt that would have felt nearly impossible to service. The forgiveness that he received was life-changing! His gratitude would have been immense, and so his love would have been as well.

Jesus then turns his attention back to the woman, and explains the parable’s meaning by comparing Simon and the woman:

Luke 7:44–46 CSB

44 Turning to 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, with her tears, has washed my feet and wiped them with her hair. 45 You gave me no kiss, but she hasn’t stopped kissing my feet since I came in. 46 You didn’t anoint my head with olive oil, but she has anointed my feet with perfume.

Jesus’s first question: “Do you see this woman?” Implies that Simon, while seeing her with his eyes, didn’t see her accurately in his heart. This is a woman who was a sinner, but who had been forgiven, and was proving it through her loving response to Jesus.

The social conventions that Jesus pointed to here: water for feet, a kiss of greeting, and anointing with oil, were not necessarily “expected” things that a host was required to do. However, to offer such things to a person who was coming to visit your home was considered to be going the extra mile for a guest, and would have shown them that they were honored, and their visit appreciated. Simon didn’t go out of his way to show Jesus hospitality. He did the bare minimum.

The woman, on the other hand, had not merely provided water to wash Jesus’s feet: She had wet them with her very tears, and wiped them off with her hair. She hadn’t greeted Him with a single kiss, but with many kisses, and on His feet. And she hadn’t just provided a little olive oil for Jesus to rub into His desert-dry skin—she had provided a fragrant perfume oil and rubbed it into His feet herself.

The logical ending of the explanation of the parable comes in verse 47:

Luke 7:47 CSB

47 Therefore I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; that’s why she loved much. But the one who is forgiven little, loves little.”

This verse is the primary reason I believe she had met Jesus before, and had already received forgiveness of her sins from Him. Jesus essentially says, “So I can say that she loved much because she has experienced forgiveness of her many sins.” He’s not saying that her loving actions have earned her forgiveness of her sins. Her love is not the basis of her forgiveness. It’s the other way around: the loving forgiveness she had received is the basis for her love. We love because He first loved us, as it says in 1 John 4:19:

1 John 4:19 CSB

19 We love because he first loved us.

She knew her debt before God—one that she knew she could never have hoped to repay. And being forgiven of that debt caused a torrent of love to flow out of her.

Simon, on the other had, ultimately didn’t think that he really needed forgiveness, at least not when he compared himself to the woman. For Jesus, it was exactly the opposite: she was already forgiven, and Simon was not. And as a result, Simon didn’t love well, because he hadn’t experienced the freedom to love with liberality that comes from Christ’s forgiveness, and the darkness in his heart was exposed.

There was no mercy, no grace, no love in his heart—not for this woman, and not for Jesus, because he viewed himself as self-righteous.

Here’s the application for the church: How well we love others is an indicator of how deeply we have experienced and understood the forgiveness of God. This is why we want to be people helping people live out the unexpected love of Jesus every day—because we have experienced His love through faith in Christ, having been forgiven of our sins and been guaranteed eternal life.

And brothers and sisters, just as we have been forgiven, so we are also to forgive, according to Scripture:

Matthew 6:12 CSB

12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

Ephesians 4:32 CSB

32 And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ.

So out of love for God because of the forgiveness that we ourselves have received in Christ, we are to forgive others. Jesus gave us a great example of this on the day of His crucifixion, calling for the forgiveness of those who were putting Him to death:

Luke 23:34 CSB

34 Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided his clothes and cast lots.

Everything that we have done to Jesus through putting Him on the cross is worse than anything that anyone has done to us, and He chooses to forgive us out of love. So out of love for Him, we can choose to forgive others.

3: The results of forgiveness

So this woman’s life has produced the fruit of love because she had been forgiven. And Jesus’s address to her after finishing His explanation of the parable shows that not only could He declare her forgiven, but saved.

Luke 7:48–50 CSB

48 Then he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” 49 Those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this man who even forgives sins?” 50 And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”

Both of the verbs that Jesus said to the woman: “are forgiven,” (v 48) and “has saved,” (v 50) are in the perfect tense, which means that her forgiveness and her salvation were states of being. God had forgiven her, even if Simon the Pharisee could not or would not, and whose sins were not forgiven, because he did not have faith.

This woman had been forgiven by the only One who could forgive her many sins. This almost seems scandalous to the world. Those in the world, who haven’t experienced the forgiveness of Christ might ask a similar question: How could God forgive HIM? How could SHE be saved?

The reality is that none of us deserve it. But that’s part of the point: grace that we deserve isn’t really grace.

Romans 3:23–24 CSB

23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 24 they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

We are forgiven not because we deserve it, and not because we earn it. We’re all equal at the foot of the cross—every last one of us comes in need, beggars. Believing in Jesus is laying ourselves before Him in desperate humility, knowing this fact. It’s throwing ourselves on His mercy, because that’s the only place where mercy may be found.

Closing

The woman experienced the incredible love of Jesus through having her sins forgiven through faith. Our having received that forgiveness is what enables us to forgive as God forgives us. Are you forgiven today? Have you received the love and forgiveness of Christ?

The Bible tells us that only in Christ can we be saved:

Acts 4:12 CSB

12 There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.”

Turn from your sins and trust in Christ. Jesus died so we could experience the freedom that comes from His forgiveness, and He rose from the grave so that we can experience eternal life with Him. Surrender to Him as your Savior and Lord, as this woman did, and find your life forever changed. Literally forever.

Salvation

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Prayer

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PRAYER

Closing Remarks

Our mission

Juanita Gipson’s memorial: Saturday May 10, 10:30 am here

Bible reading (Zeph 2-3, Ps 117)

Pastor’s Study tonight

Prayer Meeting (Nehemiah #5)

Israel Trip

Instructions for guests

Benediction

Hebrews 12:12–15 CSB

12 Therefore, strengthen your tired hands and weakened knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated but healed instead. 14 Pursue peace with everyone, and holiness—without it no one will see the Lord. 15 Make sure that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no root of bitterness springs up, causing trouble and defiling many.

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