All the people in the room thought they were better than this despised woman, but Jesus saw things very differently.
LUKE 7:36-50: HOW MUCH DO YOU LOVE JESUS?
INTRODUCTION
I will read to you what is to me one of the most beautiful stories in the gospels--and one of the strangest.
It is strange because our customs of hospitality are so different from those of Jesus’ time.
It is the story of a great sinner—and a story of great love.
It is a story that challenges my assumption that I am a pretty good Christian and that God owes me his blessing.
Read Luke 7:36-39
I. A very religious man invited Jesus to dinner.
A. His name was Simon, and he was a Pharisee.
Simon was a person who took his religion very seriously.
Simon had heard about this new teacher and he wanted to learn more.
So Simon invited some of his friends who were likewise serious about their faith to join him for a dinner with Jesus. They will ask him questions and listen to him.
They will find out whether this strange preacher has anything to offer them in their spiritual quest.
B. As background to this story I need to tell you that there were three things a gracious host would do in that day to honor a guest: give him a foot bath, a kiss, and a little ointment for his head.
The roads were dusty and people went barefoot or with sandals.
The kiss was a mark of courtesy. Do you remember that in the New Testament believers are told to greet their Christian brothers and sisters with a kiss of love.
The air was very dry and ointment felt good on their dry skin.
That Simon omitted these courtesies shows that didn’t have much regard for Jesus. Maybe he only invited him because he was curious and wanted to check him out.
II. Let’s picture the scene in our minds.
A. Jesus and the other guests are reclining on couches, as was the custom in those days, eating and talking about theology.
In those days almost everything people did was public. It would not be unusual for people who were not invited to come into a house to see what was going on, especially when there was a party of some kind.
B. Suddenly a woman bursts through the door. Simon knows this woman.
The other guests know the woman too.
She is notorious around town--she’s a prostitute. Everyone knows that.
C. As if she has forgotten that she is intruding in a place where she doesn’t belong, she barges in and falls at Jesus’ feet.
She is behind Jesus. She doesn’t look him in the face.
She is clutching her little flask of ointment.
But she doesn’t anoint his head. Instead she breaks into loud weeping.
She begins to wash Jesus’ feet with her tears and dry them with her hair.
Now, we need to remember that no decent woman would go out in public with loosened hair.
Then she begins to kiss his feet.
She breaks the little flask and pours the ointment on Jesus’s feet and continues to kiss them.
The whole scene is shocking, indecent.
I probably would have been shocked too, if I had been there.
D. Simon and the other guests are disgusted.
Here is this woman, this awful woman, weeping, fondling Jesus’s feet, kissing them. And, what is worse, here is Jesus sitting there beaming, enjoying it all!
Simon had invited Jesus into his house. She had invited him into her heart. And that pleased Jesus.
Simon says to himself, “If this may were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him--that she is a sinner.”
I don’t think Jesus needed to have any supernatural insight to read Simon’s thoughts. His disgust was written all over his face.
III. Then Jesus turned to Simon: “Simon, I have something to say to you.”
A. And he told the parable of the two debtors.
One owed five hundred denarii--as much money as a laboring man would earn in a year. The other owed only fifty.
In those days they didn’t have bankruptcy laws.
If you owed money and you couldn’t pay, you were sold into slavery and the money was given to your creditor.
If that wasn’t enough money, your children and your wife were sold.
These men were in a terrible plight--especially the one who owed so much.
But the master was a generous man and he canceled the debts for both of them.
B. Then Jesus asked, “Which of the debtors, do you think, loved the master the most?”
That was easy. Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the greater debt.”
And Jesus said to him, “You have judged rightly.”
Then he turned to the woman. “Do you see this woman? I entered your house and you gave me no water for my feet.” “You gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair.
“You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet.
“You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.”
C. Then Jesus looked down at the weeping woman and said to Simon,
“…Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven: hence she has shown great love.”
Her sins were not forgiven because she loved so much; she loved so much because her sins were forgiven.
And then he looked Simon right in the eye and added, “...but the one to whom little has been forgiven, loves little.”
Then he turned back to the woman with a look of wonderful love and said to her, “Your sins are forgiven. Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”
CONCLUSION
I told you at the beginning that this is the story of a great sinner. But it is rather the story of one who was greatly blessed.
She had learned to love Jesus. She had been forgiven, healed, saved.
Maybe she would never be respected or honored by the people of her town, but she is an example to all of us.
She was supremely blessed.
Jesus had received her as one of his lost ones. She would never be alone again. Her future was bright with the assurance of eternal life.
What did it matter what people thought? Jesus was her friend. She would be welcomed into the community of the forgiven, the friends of Jesus.
APPLICATION
This story teaches me to look at myself as God sees me.
I may think that I am a pretty good Christian.
I may think that God owes me for all the good things I have done.
I may think that I am better than some other people because I go to church and pray and read my Bible and give away money and do nice things for people.
I may think God is lucky to have me in his family.
But this story will correct all those wrong ideas.
I begin to make progress in my Christian life when I love Jesus more and more, and I love Jesus more and more when I know how much God has forgiven me.
“What language can I borrow to thank thee dearest friend,
for this thy dying sorrow, thy pity without end.
O make me thine for ever and should I fainting be
Lord, let me never, never outlive my love for thee.”
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