Deep Debt & Great Forgiveness

Deep Dept & Great Forgiveness - Luke 7:36-50

INTRO: I don’t know about you, but I hate being in debt. I only have debt if I absolutely can’t help it. - I have a mortgage only bc I don’t have the capital to outright buy a home. At our income level, we prefer to buy used cars with cash, and we only use credit cards because we get free cash back. (I’ve literally only paid $1 and some change in CC interest one time bc I somehow forgot about a card I rarely use, and I let it get passed its regular due date. In fact, I almost always pay our CC usage in less than a week bc we never spend a dollar we don’t have in the checking account. I say all this not to brag about our wise use of money… [silly voice & weird face] we also give 10% of our income out of the gate each month straight back to Jesus. (I know, you’re so blessed to be in my presence.)

But seriously, I’m simply trying to sell the point that I don’t like debt at all. When we were between selling and buying a house on July 10, we were homeless for two hours, but we were also blissfully unfettered by debt during that window too. I just sighed and enjoyed it.

Debt hangs over you like a thick cloud of misery… especially the debt of your sin and rebellion against God. You can go about your life acting as if it doesn’t exist, but each time you finally take the time to let your mind dwell upon it, it overwhelms you. (“the borrower is slave to the lender,” Prov 22:7b) It’s a miserable way to live, unless again, you ignore it and pretend it isn’t real. But that won’t last.

In the episode we just heard read to us from Luke’s Gospel in the Bible, this unnamed woman understands the depth of her sin debt—the weight of it. So when she believes that God blissfully offers forgiveness through Jesus, she comes running. And out of the overflow of dwelling on the depth of her debt and the greatness of God’s forgiveness, she spills over with a loving act of worship toward Jesus! - That’s what takes place here. Don’t let all the other details allow you to miss this big picture. Let the force of it wash over you and change you today.

(But as is our practice, let’s look at each part to make sure we’re understanding the whole rightly.)

First, what sets the stage for Jesus’ brief parable and explanation?

In the home of a respectable Pharisee named Simon, a sinful unnamed woman indiscriminately worships Jesus.

What does the woman’s silent worship say about her? (vv. 37-38)

She’s able to get in to this party bc there are no bouncers at the Pharisee’s home (or courtyard, as I picture it). These parties were not closed to the public. There would be invited guests, reclining at table (laying sideways on a couch of sorts, left arm on the table, feet behind them), but they also would allows others to come in or gather ‘round and hear the honored guest teach. - So that part is less weird than what happens next.

She prepares to anoint Jesus, choosing his feet instead of his head, almost certainly a sign of humility: anointing the head of and honored guest wasn’t uncommon, but to anoint his feet would be abnormal, and with an expensive oil perfume. But as she prepares to do so, she is crying so much (tears of grateful joy) that the tears drip on his dirty feet. She then uses her hair (another impropriety, for if she were a married and chaste woman in her culture, she would keep her hair up and covered in public) to clean the tears and whatever other filth was on Jesus’ feet.

She is so overcome with grateful love toward Jesus that she lavishes him with worship, unconcerned about appearances.

(Side note: Paul teaches (especially to the church at Corinth) that our regular worship should be focused and orderly rather than indulgent and irreverent, but perhaps this might teach us something about being too stifled and reserved, especially in private moments of emotional response to God!)

It’s awkward to use myself as a good example here rather than in ways I need to grow, but I have had my awkward moments of private worship. Sometimes in deep pain I have fallen on my knees and wept earnestly in the presence of God, knowing his sympathy and care. And I have had moments of rapture and joy of delighting in God where I was alone and literally jumped and shouted and sang and spun around in the isle here in praise to God. I know, you feel awkward for me too when you know about it.

That’s what it was like in this situation. Everyone else in this public place falls away, and in this abnormal instance, she worships Jesus unfettered by human propriety bc she is overcome with the joy and freedom of forgiveness, no longer chained by her sin, no longer encumbered by the weight of her debt!

(Well... )

What does Simon’s reaction say about him? (v. 39)

The Pharisee misjudges Jesus.

- “This guy can’t be prophet,” he thinks, assuming that a great prophet would know of this woman’s sinful indiscretions. And surely no great prophet would let such a sinner touch him, let alone allow her to go on and on about it! - Really, this is sooo awkward. I mean, can you imagine the stunned silence and hushed whispers going around amongst guests and others gathered to listen?!

But we will see that this self-righteous Pharisee clearly misjudges Jesus.

What do Jesus’ responses tell us about him? (vv. 36, 37-38, 40)

Jesus is compassionate toward sinners and worthy of worship.

-He accepts the Pharisee’s invitation. So he eats with tax collectors and sinners, and with Pharisees, who (from NT teaching) seem be the worst off and just don’t know it (won’t accept it).

-Jesus could have stopped this worshipful woman at any time in the process that must have taken and few minutes and would have been as uncomfortable for him as for everyone there! - Jesus is unique. He can let people worship him, knowing that his discomfort was not so major compared to the importance of a sinner having repented and found faith. And he lets her do this as a lesson to others, to those observers and for generations to come, and for you.

-He proves Simon wrong about him. He not only knows about this woman (! v. 47 “her sins, which are many”) but even knows Simon’s thoughts, as he proves by teaching a lesson in response to what Simon was saying to himself! (v. 40 says and “Jesus answering” said to Simon...) - As Jesus continues with his parable and its explanation, surely Simon (and the reader) does realize that Jesus not only knows the woman but has answered a question that Simon never stated directly to Jesus!

Speaking of the parable itself in vv. 41-42…

What’s the point of the parable?

A denarius is equivalent to a day’s wage for work. Even the first is a pretty large debt (almost a couple month’s wages), and the second really massive (nearly two year’s wages!).

The parable pictures God as the lender, sin as the debt, and someone like the sinful woman as the one with the greater debt and someone like Simon as one with the lesser (or at least that’s how Jesus knows that Simon perceives himself). (different levels of sinner, we might say)

The point?

Who is more grateful for forgiveness of the trespass, the one imprisoned for two years for tax fraud or the one on death row for murder, one week from his sentence being carried out?

The person who understands the depths of his or her debt will respond with greater love in realizing the grandeur of complete forgiveness.

Although he seems to answer somewhat grudgingly, even Simon understands this point. (v. 43)

Now…

What does Jesus use the parable to teach?

“Do you see this woman?” and the three comparisons: (vv. 44-46)

You didn’t even give me water to wash my feet; she has cleaned my feet with her own tears and hair.

You gave me no cordial kiss (hardly an abnormal practice of kind greeting to a guest); she has continually kissed my feet!

You chose not to anoint my head (to an honored guest), not even with common olive oil; she has anointed my feet with expensive perfume.

What is Jesus saying?

At once Jesus praises the woman’s faith and love while tacitly condemning his host’s self-righteousness.

But the point is certainly not to simply condemn. Jesus would rather that Simon become like her!

Now, as we turn to vv. 47-48, it’s important to understand what Jesus says to Simon and to the woman about forgiveness in connection to his statement in v. 50, that her faith has saved her, not the love that she has shown him.

Faith in Jesus results in forgiveness of sin, which produces grateful love and worship.

This woman loving much is not the cause of her faith but the result of it. - Love is her response to God’s grace.

“Her actions show her faith and bring Jesus’ declaration of forgiveness. Her works do not save her, but they give evidence of the presence of faith, which brought about her forgiveness.” (Bock, 689)

Notice that the offer of forgiveness (only due to God’s mercy and grace in Jesus) is appropriated by faith, resulting in salvation.

In dealing with the question of who Jesus is, the stakes are rising.

Who is this who has power to raise the dead (last time) and (now again) claims authority to forgive sin? - They would not yet be able to fully comprehend that this is God in the flesh, and most not yet even realize that he is truly the Messiah. But even to this audience at this time, “Either Jesus is a significant figure commissioned by God for his task or else he is extremely deluded, presumptuous, even blasphemous. There is no middle ground.” (Bock, 705)

Jesus demonstrates authority over forgiveness, a prerogative belonging to God.

(In responding to who Jesus is and what he teaches…)

Where do you fit in?

Having looked closely at this episode in Luke from the life of Jesus, what is your response to this Prophet (and more than a prophet—the Messiah, and more than Messiah—the LORD)?

Have you responded to God’s grace like this sinful woman or like self-righteous Simon? (The tender heart and grateful love of the one who knows the depth of her debt (unnamed woman)… vs. The sad case of those who think they have no debt (Simon)…)

Are you overwhelmed with the depth of your sin (your indebtedness to God)? Or have you wrongly concluding that you need little forgiveness?

The worst case scenario is that you might be the Pharisee, misguidedly thinking that essentially you owe God little to nothing, leaving you in a deep debt that you wrongly believe doesn’t exist. When God comes calling on the last day, you will have pay. And the only way to pay for sin (and continued rebellion against God’s offer of salvation through Jesus) is by eternal separation from God in a place of torment and of banishment away from the presence of God—called hell.

On the other hand, that’s why worshippers of Jesus can face the end with such hope. When God comes calling, we’ll go running into his arms, knowing that our Jesus paid our debt in full! So then even as we walk in this life, sometimes in difficult paths, we know that with Jesus we “go in peace.” (We can rest assured of our standing with God bc Jesus has made peace with God’s wrath because of our sin debt.)

Some, however, might be like this Pharisee, still going about religious activities to try to earn favor with God. But our sin’s debt is so deep that it is unreconcilable apart from the free grace of God offered to us by the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus—his perfect life sacrificed for your sin—his resurrection life offering you spiritual life, a reconciliation to God (that only he could do and you could not). That forgiveness of debt is appropriated (made your own) by faith in Jesus.

Now, unfortunately and embarrassingly, we might even be saved through faith, but then fall into the trap of having a shallow understanding of our indebtedness, hence having a shallow appreciation for forgiveness, leading to a shallow response of love!

We need to dwell on our deep debt and the greatness of God’s forgiveness! - When you get [pointing to head] what you’ve gained through faith in Jesus, nothing else matters. - Here are a couple of other short parables Jesus taught on the subject:

Matthew 13:44–46 ESV

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

Now you can’t live every moment of your life in this kind of disorderly and dramatic worship of God—although we’ve argued that there is room (and need) for it in our hearts—but certainly you can do two things: You can dwell on the gospel such that you see relationship to God as valuable beyond all other things in this life, and you can order your life in such a way that all other things are subservient to this first love!

What we are dealing with here is why right theology matters to your daily living! …Why it matters that we marinate in God’s truth, letting it soak into us and bleed out of us. The more we grasp of God’s mercy and grace to us in forgiving our debt of sin by the atoning sacrifice of our Savior, the more we love the Lord our God and long to worship and serve him.