About this sermon
A sinful woman came to Simon the Pharisee’s house, wept at Jesus’ feet, and anointed them, and Simon judged both her and Jesus. Jesus answered with a parable of two debtors and declared that her many sins were forgiven, for she loved much, while the one who is forgiven little loves little. Those who see the depth of their sin, enough to require the Son of God to die for it, receive great forgiveness and respond with great love.
Sermon transcript
Well, good evening. I send greetings from fellow believers in Hopewell at New Life Presbyterian Church. We are going to be opening up God’s Word this evening to hear from Luke chapter 7. We’re going to be in the latter part of that chapter starting in verse 36. But first, I wanted to set up the text before we before we read it. I wonder if you have ever had the occasion of going to a block party before or if they have that in Western Pennsylvania. I’m originally from Illinois, and they had that sometimes within your block.
You would invite anybody over from who happened to live nearby you to have a cookout. And as we’re going to read this passage, it’s a very similar sort of situation here in which there may be a few people that you particularly invited over, but it was it was open for all. And so it’s a good time just to to grab some food and go over and get some free burgers. Right. Here in this text, there’s an open invitation because of Christ, because of Jesus who is going around and is a traveling rabbi of sorts. And so there’s an open invitation to meet him. It’s kind of an open house for him.
But you know how if you ever have a open invitation, sometimes that one person shows up that you would rather not have had shown up. And this text is, in fact, that person that probably the host of the party would rather not have had shown up shows up. Yet in reading this text, I want for at the end of this for you to have somebody to emulate, and it’s not the respectable host. but the unexpected visitor. This person that comes will have an awkwardness that sets in because of the scene, but it’s more because of the wrongdoing of the host than it is the person that showed up. So let’s look at the story of this uninvited guest or unintended guest here in Luke chapter seven.
But first let’s go to the Lord in prayer. Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father, As we go to open your word and read from it, Lord, we confess that the Holy Spirit is the ultimate author of this text recorded by human hands. And so we pray that the same Holy Spirit that inspired this text to be written would be present as it is read and expounded this evening, that there might be understanding from this text, that we also might understand it from the author, from the Holy Spirit. We pray that this would be done in the name of the one who sent the Spirit, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen. Luke chapter 7, starting in verse 36 to the end of the chapter, verse 50. Hear now the word of the Lord.
One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the table. 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, 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. 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.
And Jesus answering said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you. And he answered, say it, teacher. A certain money lender had two debtors, One owed 500 denarii, the other 50. When they both could not pay, he canceled the debt of both. Now, which of them will love him more? Simon answered, the one, I suppose, for whom he canceled the larger debt. And he said to him, you have judged rightly. Then turning towards 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. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in, she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.
Therefore, I tell you her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much, but he who is forgiven little loves little. And he said to her, your sins are forgiven. Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, who is this? Who even forgives sins? And he said to the woman, your faith has saved you. Go in peace. The grass withers and the flower fades, but this the word of our Lord endures forever.
Simon in this story, the Pharisee who is throwing this party, likely had a large estate, likely some sort of an open courtyard that was indicating to people that they should come in. I don’t know if he had special lighting for this, but there was an indication that all were invited in for this. It was an open house for people to come in.
And the reason for the party, was Jesus, this traveling rabbi who had been going around teaching these things that he was getting some publicity and popularity for. And in fact, people were starting to say perhaps he was more than just a rabbi, a teacher. Perhaps he was the prophet, even the prophet that Moses had spoken of in Deuteronomy. Perhaps he was more than that, even the anointed one that had been spoken of in the prophets.
And so Simon invites Jesus over for this get to know you session with the community, even invites Jesus to be at the head table to talk with him. But Simon was skeptical about Jesus, even perhaps suspecting him of not being the one that people were talking about him being. Do you know you can tell that in the text?
You can tell that because Simon doesn’t extend the usual courtesies of an honored guest to him. At a party like this, it would be traditional for a servant to be at the door when people are coming in to make sure that the sandals were taken off and the feet were cleaned and washed their feet. Imagine going to somebody’s block party and you go and you say, thank you for inviting me and you’re greeted with a grunt. Or you’re greeted just with a, yeah, your seat’s over there. That’s kind of the greeting that he was given, not the traditional greeting that you would expect. One that seems to appear that Simon is in fact preparing to perhaps embarrass Jesus or wanting to expose him as a fraud.
And in the midst of all this happening at that table, A woman comes in. It doesn’t look like she got a specific invite. She had heard that he was going to be there. She saw the open gate, perhaps heard that Jesus was going to be there, and then comes in. And she comes in and finds Jesus who was reclined at table.
Now, the situation for what happens next, you probably have to know what reclined at table means. They did not have a table set up with different chairs that were seated around it. You had a table that was closer to the floor. And to be reclined at table meant that you were sitting on one of your hips, so that you probably had an elbow on the table, your hip was on the ground, and your feet were sprawled behind you. Jewish mothers at that point were not telling their kids not to put their elbows on the table. That’s just what you had to do. You had to put your elbow on the table and lean in and then you’d have that conversation that is going on there with your feet outstretched behind you.
And that’s when she comes in and the narrative seems to present it as she sees Jesus and then It just says the tears basically are present in the text, and they’re falling on his feet. You can almost imagine her seeing Christ, seeing the one that she came to see, and the tears start falling, and she sees that they’re falling on his feet. And what does she do? She takes down her hair, which would have been up or hidden in that culture, and starts to wipe his feet, which is a big no-no in Middle Eastern culture then, just as it is now.
But Simon, by reputation, knows who this is and what’s happening here. This was, as we would say delicately, a lady of the night. Somebody of a dishonorable profession that is there. And this is when Simon thinks, aha. This is the proof, this is what I’ve been waiting for, that Jesus is not a prophet, because if he was, he would know who she is. He would know who it is that is touching him at that point.
Now, as we are reading this, if you’ve been reading Luke up to this point, this is the first time that you encounter this woman, but this is probably not the first meeting between this woman and Jesus. some hints in the verbiage in which he’s using that he has met her before, that this is in fact a follow-up meeting, that she had seen him and knew who he was and was coming to him to have more of a second encounter or to meet him again. In fact, there’s not a lot of the original greetings that are usually there for when Jesus meets somebody for a first time. None of that dialogue is present there. And so most commentators think that Jesus has probably met her before. This was a second meeting in which she’s coming and finding this woman, which would mean that Jesus, in fact, knew this woman. And Simon, the host of the party who thought that he knew this woman, really didn’t in reality.
We’ll see how that is the case. Here’s what I mean. By this parable that Jesus is going to tell when he says, listen to me, I have something to say to you. And Simon says, say it, teacher. He tells this parable. And this parable is of these workers who were in debt to a moneylender.
Now, this also was a no-no in that culture. You typically didn’t just go to the bank and get a loan from somebody. People who were doing this were usually disreputably billed. Don’t think of walking into PNC. Think about a loan shark or a mobster type. This would be something that was under the table. And if you didn’t repay a debt in those days, you didn’t go through the court system, usually you just had somebody rough you up, or something would happen to you in which they would take things from you. This was usually outside of the legal system here.
And he has this analogy, this story, and he says, there’s these two people who owe a debt. And one of these people owe what’s probably the equivalent of about two months’ pay. And the other one has nearly two years’ pay that they owe. And then neither can pay.
And what do you expect? At that moment, you expect that the heat is going to be put on, threats are going to be had, perhaps some roughing up is going to happen. But in the story, he has an act of grace, an act of forgiveness. the money lender then forgives this debt one forgiven about two months pay the other forgiven about two years pay and he asks Simon so which of these would have loved him more which would have been more appreciative of this act and Simon in his answer betrays that he’s a little insulted by this sort of a question. This is almost like getting the question, so what is two plus two? And they wait for you to answer, as if they’re not quite sure if you’re going to answer correctly. Simon says, the one I suppose, you typically would say that if you were saying, I’m a little insulted by this. This is elementary, this is basic stuff. I suppose the one that was forgiven more. they would have the greater affection. And then I love that next verse that comes in.
If you see, if you still have your Bibles open, in verse 44, it says, then, him turning towards the woman, he says to Simon, he’s directing attention towards her, and he’s saying to Simon, do you see this woman? Have you noticed her? Do you know who this is? As if to say, you obviously don’t know who this woman is.
He’s, in a sense, turning the tables on Simon’s assumptions there because Simon only knew who she was and by reputation, but Jesus knew who she was at that moment and what her future state would be. She is forgiven presently. if there’s this encounter that happened earlier, that most think she had been forgiven, she was coming to show her gratitude. And in fact, Jesus identifies that in her tears, as the fact that she is loving because of the forgiveness that she has found. She loves now because she’s already been forgiven. And Jesus explains this by way of her actions.
Simon didn’t do that traditional greeting. But she is doing something that is beyond that traditional greeting. This woman is in a sense going overboard. Simon didn’t have the foot washing when you come in, which was traditional. He didn’t have the oil waiting for him.
But she is using her tears and an ointment. Now, to us, oil, ointment, they sound pretty similar, but just to put an exclamation point on this, there is a difference between oil and ointment in the words that are used here in verse 46. The way that these words are typically used in the Bible is basically the difference between an oily salve and things like myrrh. James says, use oil when you’re anointing somebody for a prayer for healing. It was associated with healing there.
The Good Samaritan, when he finds a man who’s been beat up alongside of the road, do you remember? He applies oil to his wounds. That’s the same sort of word that’s used there. And you can imagine somebody coming in with cracked feet, tired from the journey over to the house. Oil would be put on their feet.
This was something that was usually associated with a good feeling or with healing. On the other hand, ointment was something a little different. Jewish women often would have some sort of a small vial filled with an ointment, some sort of small alabaster jar that would be filled with an oil mixed with myrrh.
Small enough to carry around, in fact, It’s legendary, of course, the Pharisees had all of these rules for what you could not do on the Sabbath. One thing that they allowed was actually for women to carry this around because they wouldn’t want to leave it at home.
There was too much of a fear of it getting stolen because it was worth a lot of money. It could be used even in an emergency situation for emergency money. And so the woman isn’t carrying ordinary oil, but ointment. likely mixed with myrrh, expensive oil, and she’s wasting it. This is the emergency reserve. This was something that should have been precious. Many months, if not years worth of wages, and she’s wasting it. She’s not moderate with her use here. Now, here’s the strange thing in the ministry of Christ. This keeps happening to him. There’s at least one other instance in which we see this in Matthew chapter 26 and John 12. That is the Monday before Christ’s crucifixion. Remember, Mary anoints Jesus with myrrh and Bethany as well.
That’s the story in which Judas is upset, remember, because he said, we could have used this money for the poor, but really he was taking some of the money for himself, so he wanted it to enrich himself. And he was upset about it. But what does Jesus say?
He says, this was a good thing that she did. because she was preparing me for burial. That’s what you used myrrh for. You would put that on a body that had died waiting for burial. So this woman in Luke 7 and Mary and what is coming up before the crucifixion, they seem to know something, don’t they?
They seem to know something that Simon doesn’t pick up on. They seem to know something even that the disciples were missing at that point. Remember Peter, when he’s asked for a confession of who Christ is, he will follow it up. When Jesus says that he must go and be crucified and rise three days later, Peter says, no, that’s not part of your ministry. That’s not part of what you are all about. And here these women are preparing Jesus for burial. They know. They know that they need Christ’s death as part of his ministry. They know that he came to die.
And Peter, the disciple, Simon, the Pharisee, they were sinful too, but they just never seemed to be able to admit it, that their sin was that bad. that what they needed was the death of Christ. They needed His blood in order to cover up those sins. They seem to not be able to confess, not only am I a sinner, a little sinner, not only do I make mistakes, do I mess up, but my sin is so bad, it requires the second person of the Trinity to come down, take on my nature, and be sacrificed for my sins. That’s how bad it is. They don’t seem to be able to confess that, where these women, by their actions, are confessing that.
Now, who are we in this story? Are we Simon at the head, at the table, speaking with Christ face-to-face on equal footing? Or are we like the woman here anointing his feet with oil? Now, I know the obvious answer to that. Simon is a Pharisee. Pharisees are bad. Therefore, I shouldn’t be like Simon, right?
But think about it. What is your attitude towards Jesus? Is he a prophet, a teller of good things for us to learn from? Is he someone perhaps we would want to invite to the table and have a conversation, exchange ideas on equal footing, mind to mind with him? Here’s another test.
When you speak with God, when you’re in prayer, when you go to God and you talk through Christ, through his mediation, do you go to God as an equal exchanging ideas? Do you go to God to focus? When you focus on sin, is it mostly the sins of other people? Remember, that’s the Pharisee’s prayer, right?
When he goes to the temple, I thank you that I’m not like other people. When you go to God, you just talk to God as a victim. Look at what everybody has done to me. Woe is me. You know, that’s Cain’s prayer in Genesis 4. He just focuses on the fact that he’s a victim and I can’t bear this. Or do you go to God in prayer as a sinner, humble, needing mercy? In other words, do your prayers have the fragrance of myrrh mixed in them?
Are they prayers laced with burial ointment, knowing that in order for us to have this conversation, in order for the mediation of Christ to bring my prayers to God, he had to die to be that mediator and that intercessor? In order for me to be forgiven of these sins, Christ had to die. His blood had to cover my sins, to save me from my sins. That was the price that had to be paid. Do you come to Christ sometimes amazed that the Lord of the universe, the agent of creation, would even give you the time of day, let alone bring your prayers to the Father?
Do our prayers have the fragrance of myrrh mixed with them? Have there ever been tears that have been associated with your prayers? This woman has tears in her eyes as she’s going to Christ in gratitude. And I wonder how often we have had tears about our sin in prayer. If we’ve never had any kind of emotional reaction about our sins, you have to wonder, do I truly understand them? Have you ever been overwhelmed by your unloving attitude in a situation, of a critical spirit, a complaining spirit, a judging of others unjustly, of your rebellion and disobedience against God, the Lord of the universe, the author of love, a rebellion against him, has that ever overwhelmed you to the point of sorrow? Have you ever wept in prayer? If not, we should wonder, do we have the true sorrow over our sins?
Now that might sound a little bit overboard to some. I know a lot of people are not those that cry all the time. I am not a frequent crier myself. I probably would be more of the stereotypical male that keeps it in and cries just a few times a year, usually about sports or something like that. I remember listening to the study that was done in which they had tried the same technique with teenage boys and teenage girls in which they were going through a hard time and they would just ask them, talk about your feelings. And most of the women after this study would say that it helped them feel better. But one of the quotes from the teen boys that they shared was when he was asked if it made him feel better to discuss his emotions, he said, no, and it’s weird.
But men do cry. We’re just kind of a little embarrassed about it, right? I know in 2014 and 2015, there were many tears across Pittsburgh when the Pirates lost the wild card game, right? Now, we’re among friends. I know it might be a hard subject for you even today. But to think that tears have been cried over the loss of a sports team, which isn’t necessarily bad, but how much more should we have sorrow over offending a holy God than just what some sports team did? Men cry. They do. But do they cry over appropriate things? Do they cry over something that is that weighty? Over something that warrants tears?
That is far more important. Even tears of joy are not weird, are not strange. The joy of realizing that such a debt has been forgiven. I wonder if those men in the story, if Jesus was describing something that actually happened, had tears over being forgiven two years wages. to know that that had been lifted off of them, to know ourselves, that Christ has forgiven us, that He would suffer in order for us to be forgiven of that, that He would even rather suffer hell than to leave us unforgiven of our sins.
He would suffer that hell on the cross. Tears over that only seem weird or strange to the Simons of the world that don’t understand forgiveness, don’t understand who Jesus is. What this woman did with tears was not inappropriate, it was appropriate. What Simon did was inappropriate. He didn’t honor the one in his presence that was able to forgive all of his sins, sins of all who have faith. But Simon had no love because Simon didn’t come to Christ as one who needed his debts forgiven.
He came to Christ as an equal, to talk in conversation, just to have an intellectual discourse with. Why did this woman love Christ so much? Why was her reaction so different? It was gratitude that she had great sins, but a greater Savior. And you know, and some of us look at the scene in Scripture and we’re unmoved by it. But that’s not a problem with the text. That may be a problem within our own hearts. Why are we cold sometimes in our affections toward God? Why are we cold in our prayers? Why is there an absence of the love for God and neighbor in our lives? Where does that come from? It comes from a lack of knowledge of who we are, and it comes from a lack of knowledge of who Christ is.
Those who love much are those that understand that they are great sinners. Those who love much are those that understand that Christ is a great Savior. And you might say, sure, I sin, I mess up. I confess that I’m a sinner, but I have this little problem with sin. Well, if you have a little problem with sin, you have a little Savior. If you have a moderate problem with sin, if you confess that you just have a moderate problem with sin, well then maybe you have a moderate Savior.
Who are we? Are we those that have a little Savior? Are we those that have a great Savior? Do we believe, in fact, that we don’t owe to God two weeks’ wages, two years’ wages, but our entire life, do we believe the verse that says, the wages of sin is death? Do we owe our entire life to Christ? Do we believe that? for ourselves, we can confess, my sins deserve that. We say, like with Peter, I am the chief of sinners because we, if you think about yourself, you are the greatest sinner that you know because you know more of your sins than the sins your neighbor has chosen to present to you. Have you ever confessed your sins to God in that way? We sang earlier that great hymn, right?
Amazing Grace. Many of you may know at the end of John Newton’s life, he suffered from a loss of sight and he was probably suffering the onset of Alzheimer’s. He was forgetting a lot of things. And in one conversation, they were asking him what he remembers. And John Newton replied, this author of Amazing Grace, he says, I only really remember two things, that I am a great sinner, but that Jesus is a greater savior.
So in the story, where are you? Are you at the table, just having a conversation with Christ? Are you at His feet, overwhelmed with the sins that He has forgiven by His work, by His life, by His death, by His resurrection? Do we have a small, little Savior, or do we have a great Savior? That depends on how we see our own sins and what the wages of our sins are. Let’s conclude with this thought, and that is that Simon actually didn’t know this woman. He just knew her past. He just knew her reputation. She did not know who she is and will be. Jesus knew this woman.
This was a woman who was transformed, forgiven, regenerated, born again, pure and holy that he had made and he had redeemed. She was the object of his grace, the object of his mercy, and the object of his forgiveness. Your status, in fact, after you meet Christ, after you have been forgiven, your status is no longer sinner. You have sin that still indwells, but that is no longer your status. Your status is forgiven, saint, holy, reconciled, adopted one, sanctified one, son or daughter of God, brother or sister to Christ, temple of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus knew who this woman was. And if you’ve confessed that you are a great sinner and that Christ is a great Savior, then Jesus knows who you are too. You are his. And it doesn’t matter what the Simons of the world think, or if the world doesn’t know who you are, they just know who you were. It only matters that our great Savior, Jesus Christ, knows us. He knows who is at his feet.
Let us pray. Heavenly Father, as we approach you, we confess the sin of approaching you as an equal. Lord, may we always approach you on our knees, in our hearts. May we always approach you as those that know that you are a great savior and know our great sin. Lord, may we approach you in worship with a humble attitude. Lord, we thank you for the doctrines of your scriptures, the depth of them, but that they speak of the depth of our need of you and the depth of the salvation that has been won for us by the work of Jesus Christ, applied by the Holy Spirit. Lord, may we approach you in that way, as our Savior, as one who is a great Savior through Jesus Christ, and as one that has remade us through your Holy Spirit. May we approach you in worship, and Lord, may we do so even now. And we pray this all in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. you would take out your hymnals. I believe it’s 432. We are going to be singing together 432. That is Jesus, What a Friend for Sinners. And you can stand as we sing this as our hymn of response. ♪ Jesus, one of grateful sinners ♪ ♪ Jesus, Father of my soul ♪ ♪ Friends may fail me ♪ He, my Savior, makes me whole.
Alleluia! What a Savior! Alleluia! What a friend! Savior, help me keep Him. Alleluia! Jesus Christ, Lord at Thy birth. O’er the giant stones I’m standing, Be my strength, my victory win! Alleluia! Saving, helping, keeping, loving, it is with me to the end. She’s not one, Alleluia. Saving, helping, healing, loving, He is with me till the end. Jesus, what a guide and healer, What a tender Savior, ♪ For it’s around me that your takes me ♪ ♪ In my quiet years I cry ♪ ♪ Alleluia one, alleluia two ♪ Saving, helping, keeping, loving, He is with me to the end.
Jesus, I do now receive. He hath granted me forgiveness, I am his, and he is mine. Help me, help me, keep me, love me, He is with me today. Our benediction tonight will be taken from a few verses in 1 Timothy after, in a section that Paul said was a trustworthy and deserving saying of full acceptance. He said this, and this will be our benediction.
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the chief. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the chief of sinners, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the king of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. yeah yeah yeah
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