Introduction
I want to take us on a little thought experiment.
Let us picture a person who has committed many sins in their life.
Sins such as burglary, murder, arson, kidnapping, addiction, sexual promiscuity, and many others. Basically a person who has done everything they have ever wanted for the sheer fact of doing it.
This person has committed so many evil and wicked acts throughout their life that they seem unreachable.
They seem to be in a position where no one would want them saved even if they were to hear the gospel.
Yet this person hears a message of salvation through Christ alone and that He suffered in their stead.
They learn that what they have been doing is not only wicked against other people, but the Lord Himself.
They fear for their soul for the first time in their life when they hear the message of salvation.
They believe and have the atoning work of Christ applied to their life and they realize just what He did for them.
Now, think of the man who has lived an upright life.
He was raised in church, never killed, stole, drank or had an addiction, never slept around, or did anything to raise an eyebrow.
He was a goody goody as some would say.
Yet he hears that the only way to have life everlasting and sins washed away is by believing in Christ alone.
He wonders about this because he was raised in church and his parents are Christian. He may think he is saved because of this.
But on one morning he hears that every person must believe in Christ for themselves to receive everlasting life and their salvation.
He believes and is saved.
Now, again, he was never evil or a criminal. He was straight laced and really did not lose anything when he placed his faith in Christ. His life has basically been the same. Same friends, same places of entertainment, same hangouts, same everything except now he is a believer.
But the other guy has changed almost everything. New friends, new places of entertainment, new hangouts, new everything because he is a believer.
He is no longer living in fear of jail or death because someone catches him in the act. He is forgiven and has life with Christ forever.
Which one needed Jesus more?
Was it the criminal or the straitlaced man?
The answer is it is both. They both needed Jesus just as much as the other.
Granted one was in deeper sin than the other but if neither had believed, both would be condemned because neither believed.
Today we see this in this section of Scripture.
Jesus was eating with a Pharisee when a women of sin entered and began washing His feet.
The pharisee was aghast at what was happening because of his piety and his raising in the Judaistic ways.
Yet Jesus saw what was going on and knew why the woman was there and what she was doing.
He used this time to teach an important lesson that we all need to hear time-to-time:
ARE WE PIOUS OR THANKFUL?
We see this story in Luke 7:36-50
36 One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and reclined at 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
The first thing we see is that the pharisee asked Jesus to eat with him and then a woman who is a sinner came in and began washing Jesus’ feet with tears and her hair and anointing them with an ointment.
The pharisee looks down on her and this raises the question…
How do We Look Down on Others? (36-39)
Pharisees were the religious elite Jesus’ time on earth. They were those who knew the law and what one was supposed to do. They were so religious that they even added some rules to the law.
They were strict towards others and to themselves, but they made ways for themselves to bypass some of the restrictions.
Even so, they were generally very pious and devout to the law and following it exactly.
This Pharisee is different because he invited Jesus to eat with Him. This was a change from the others because they would not do this. Jesus eating with a Pharisee in the Pharisee’s house would be like a far-left wing person inviting a conservative to eat with them or vice versa.
It was not something that one would do to put it softly. Yet, this Pharisee has invited Jesus to eat with him.
One commentator stated that this shows that he, “did in fact believe in Jesus (and yet had to grow in his love for Him and others)” (Alberto S. Valdés, “The Gospel according to Luke,” in The Grace New Testament Commentary, ed. Robert N. Wilkin (Denton, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 2010), 261.”
This makes sense because the text drives at the love the one forgiven has for Jesus. Which also demonstrated why he looked down on the woman rather than being ecstatic about her love for Jesus.
We see in the text that her act of love and compassion for Jesus upset him.
He began to question in his mind if Jesus was who he said to be.
He felt that if Jesus was this righteous and holy man of God He would know who this was that was touching him and He would have not allowed her to do so.
We do not know her sins exactly, but we do know she was a sinner and one with some sort of reputation.
Some say she was she was a prostitute but the text is not clear on that. It is clear that she was a sinner and had a known reputation (Bock, Luke, IVP Commentary). Whatever her sins were, she knew they were bad and that Jesus was her forgiveness and salvation.
The Pharisee was disgusted and felt embarrassment more than likely.
We see his inward thoughts which placed him as pious and that sinners were icky.
He had an outward expression of praise to Jesus but his inward self shown through when he saw the woman.
He was disgusted with her. I am sure we many times show the same disgust for people.
We see the broken and addicted and turn away in piety and disdain. We look down on them when we should be seeking to help.
We act like this pious Pharisee more often than not when we see the “sinners” of the world.
Yet, just like the thought experiment at the beginning, we fail to see that we are all destined to the same place no matter how pious we think we are.
That is why Jesus tells this parable coming up. He read the thoughts of the Pharisee.
Many people put much weight on this like Jesus read His mind, which is possible, but I bet the Pharisee’s face shown what he was thinking clearly enough.
Since it did Jesus then told this….
Parable of Why We Are Equal (40-43)
This parable begins with the showing that two men were in debt. One deeper than the other, but in debt nonetheless.
They each owed a debt to someone and both needed to pay.
One owed nearly two years worth of wages while the other owed nearly two months worth.
From the parable it seems that both may not have been able to pay this debt. Since Jesus said the moneylender forgave them and let them go without paying (Valdes, 261).
Now, the point here is not about the money but about the debt.
Jesus made clear that both were in debt. They were not able to pay and the lender forgave.
This again goes back to the thought experiment at the beginning. One was more thankful than the other because of what he was saved from.
This is what we see with the woman. She knew what she was and how bad off she was. She was extremely thankful for the salvation she had through Christ.
So much so that she did not care who saw her and what they thought she was going to praise the Lord and worship Jesus.
She knew what she had been forgiven. She knew Jesus was the messiah and because of that her sins were nothing anymore because He had forgiven them.
The Pharisee was the clean living righteous man who still had some self-righteousness to deal with.
His life was the straight and narrow. He was clean and pure but still needed the debt forgiven too.
He missed that part that everyone can be clean if they have the proper cleansing. Jesus clarified that for him and showed him that all people need debt forgiveness (aka. sin forgiven).
We are not much better than the Pharisee in our lives. We tend to forget that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
We think that some people are just dirty and not worthy because they are sinners.
We forget we too are sinners saved by the grace of God alone.
We tend to look down on them when they need us to look up and show them what we are looking too. We are not any better than anyone. We all need the debt forgiven because we cannot any of us pay it.
Have you ever badly overestimated your abilities in some area? Maybe you asked someone to play tennis or one-on-one basketball, only to get blown off the court. Or perhaps you volunteered to sing with a choral ensemble, and then found out the music was way beyond your abilities. It’s a very humbling and enlightening experience. Simon the Pharisee had a similar experience with Jesus. Simon badly overestimated his own righteousness. He looked at the woman who anointed Jesus’ feet with her perfume and her tears as someone of less value, morally inferior. Jesus had to show Simon his own sins—particularly the sins of ungraciousness and inhospitality—in order for him to understand his own need for forgiveness. When you see someone caught in some kind of notorious sin, how do you respond: “Thank God I’m not like that” or “Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner”? If you have understood God’s forgiveness and personally experienced it, be willing to grant forgiveness to others.
(Bruce B. Barton et al., Luke, Life Application Bible Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1997), 190.)
We are all sinners in need of a savior, and none of us are above another.
Some have sinned worse than others but we are all lost without Christ regardless how righteous we think we are.
That is what we see in the woman. She shows us…
How We Should All Love Christ (44-50)
Jesus re-centers the Pharisee’s focus on the woman.
He has him look at her and see what Jesus sees.
The Pharisee did not have someone wash Jesus’ feet, which was a custom of that day due to the grimy nature of walking everywhere in the dirt with open toed sandals on.
Yet, the woman washed his feet with her hair and tears. She kissed them the whole time too.
Jesus details all the respectful and sacrificial things she was doing to Him that the Pharisee had failed to do.
Simon the Pharisee had failed to offer any of the hospitable greetings and customs of the day to Jesus yet the woman had stooped lower than was necessary and provided them all to Jesus.
She humbled herself and lowered herself more than necessary because of her deep love for Jesus. She knew what she had been forgiven and was expressing her thanks to Jesus.
That is what Jesus says when he said, “her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.”
He is not saying that only those who have deep and dark sins in their lives that receive forgiveness will love Him deeply and those with little sins will love little.
He is not saying that you need to go and live a horrible sinful life to love Jesus more.
He is saying that those who recognize the depth of their sin and separation from Him will love like the woman did.
We also see it is her faith that saved not the work or her love to Him, but His love for her.
We love Jesus in return because He loved us enough to save us.
We need to understand that if we are ever going to love Him rightly.
Also, we need to know that regardless how bad we are, what sins we have committed, what we have done in our lives are not the divider and why we should love Jesus as this woman did.
The forgiveness of our sins that we receive is wonderful but it is the fact that we receive them at all is what is astounding.
We are separated by a great gulf and Jesus is the only bridge across.
It does not matter how holy and righteous or how wicked and evil we are, if we do not have the bridge, we do not cross.
We are all equal in this. It does not matter if you are standing at a deep and swift crossing that is as wide as the Mississippi river or on one no wider than this church is wide, if you do not have the bridge you cannot cross.
Jesus is that bridge and He is the only one who can forgive and bring you across.
None of us are better or worse than another. We were and are sinners who need the grace of Jesus.
If we ever get to thinking we are better than another and that their sins are worse than ours, we need to remember that we all need Jesus He is the only way.
The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We are all on the path of death, and Jesus is the only way off.
Remember that and you too will love Jesus as much as this woman did. When we reflect on what Jesus saved us from, eternal damnation, we will love Him deeply and love others deeply because we all are on a path of death and Jesus is the only way off.
Conclusion
During the 17th century, Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England, sentenced a soldier to be shot for his crimes. The execution was to take place at the ringing of the evening curfew bell. However, the bell did not sound. The soldier’s fiancé had climbed into the belfry and clung to the great clapper of the bell to prevent it from striking. When she was summoned by Cromwell to account for her actions, she wept as she showed him her bruised and bleeding hands. Cromwell’s heart was touched and he said, “Your lover shall live because of your sacrifice. Curfew shall not ring tonight!”
That is love that we have received from Jesus.
Let us all look at the woman and love like her.
So the question of whether we are pious or thankful can be answered by the question of Do You See This Woman?
Do you see her and do you love Jesus like she did?
Love Him and when you do you will love others and seek to reach them rather than look down upon them.
