Sermon Transcript
I really appreciate that. Call out to dry bones, come alive. That’s a great prayer for all of us, um, daily, for our own hearts, for our hearts to come alive again every day. A debtor, that’s who I am. We’re going to be in Luke 7 this morning.
If you want to go ahead and kind of put your thumb there, it’ll take us a while before we read anything out of there, but you can go ahead and find it. Jesus was invited to the house of a Pharisee named Simon. Now, if you weren’t here a couple weeks ago when Steve talked about another Pharisee, or if you don’t already know, Pharisees are people who believe they are better than you because they follow all the rules. People who think God likes them more than God likes you because they follow all the rules. People who believe God will bless them more than God will bless you because they follow all the rules.
People who believe they have a higher standing with God than you do, again, because they follow all the rules. Pharisees did not like Jesus. They would be the group of religious leaders who would eventually conspire to kill Jesus. And Jesus usually had pretty stern, harsh words for the Pharisees, probably because he knew they really weren’t better than anybody else. He told them things like— imagine if Jesus would say this to you.
He really said this. He said, you snakes, you brood of vipers, how will you escape being condemned to hell? And, and for some reason, they didn’t like him very much. So we may be a little bit surprised when we read Luke 7:36 one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him. Now, if you don’t like someone, and that someone is always saying pretty harsh things to you, why would you invite that person to dinner?
Now, perhaps it’s because you’re having a change of heart. That could be the case, right? Maybe Simon was starting to warm up to Jesus’ message. Maybe he was beginning to think, Maybe I’m not actually better than other people. Maybe he was starting to think, you know, maybe my standing in favor with God is based on grace alone and not on any rule keeping that I’ve done.
Maybe that could have been his motivation. That would have been a possibility. But we quickly learned that was not his motivation. We read Simon didn’t give Jesus the customary cultural welcome package where when he arrived to the party. He didn’t give Jesus water to wash his feet, oil for his head, or a kiss when he walked in the door.
And that may not seem like a very major deal to you, right? Like, who cares? But it was a significant snub in those days. Imagine you are walking into a party and there’s kind of a line of guests in front of you, and everybody in the line in front of you, when they get up to the host, they get one of those kind of side-to-side kisses, you know, like Like a Greek family. It’s like, Opa!
And then you walk in and the party kind of stops. The host does not give you the— what you get is kind of an eye roll and a, oh, you’re here. And the host just walks away. It’s a clear sign of disrespect. Water, oil, kisses— these were normal social expectations.
If you didn’t get them, you were being snubbed. You were invited, apparently, but you were invited so— who knows— maybe people could laugh at you, or maybe so they could question you, or perhaps so the host could show that he has power over you. Like, hey, I got this guy to my party, but I don’t have to show him any respect because I’m a bigger deal than he is. What’s clear is that Simon did not want to get to know Jesus. He did not revere Jesus.
He did not honor Jesus. That’s what we know for sure. But there was someone there who did honor Jesus. A woman. A woman who the text tells us had led a sinful life.
When she learned Jesus was going to be at Simon’s house, she hustled on over there and brought a jar of perfume with her, which she cracked open and poured over Jesus’ feet, wiping those feet with her hair and her tears as she kissed his feet. So Simon, the morally upright, respected party host, has not given Jesus even a kiss of greeting or oil for his head or water for his feet, and the moral scumbag of a woman honors Jesus so much that she elevates it beyond oil or water and puts it up to perfume for his feet, an ointment for his feet, and goes beyond a kiss of greeting to actually kissing his feet. Think about whose feet you would kiss.
What would you be saying to the person if you were willing to do that? It’s something along the lines of, I worship the ground you walk on. You are everything to me. I’m desperate for more of you, so I’m going to kiss your feet. Simon was disgusted by this.
Jesus was not. Simon was not disgusted by what she was doing like we might be. She was disgusted by who she is.
Simon says smugly and self-righteously, kind of to himself, if Jesus knew what kind of woman this was, if he knew where she had been, if he knew what she had done, how she lived her life, if he knew that, he wouldn’t have anything to do with her. While Simon is either thinking this or saying this, Jesus just answers him. It’s where we pick up our scripture, Luke 7, starting in verse 40. Jesus answering said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you. And he, Simon, answered, he said, say it, teacher.
And Jesus continued, a certain moneylender had 2 debtors. One owed 50 denarii, the other 500. When he could not pay, the moneylender canceled the debt with them both. Now which one of them will love him more? And Simon answered, ah, the one, I suppose, who he canceled the bigger debt.
And Jesus answered him, you have judged rightly. Then turning to the woman, he said to Simon, do you see this woman? I entered your house, and you gave me no water for my feet. But she has wet my feet with her hair and wiped them. 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 Jesus said to her, your sins are forgiven. Then those who were at the table with him began to say amongst themselves, who is this? Who is this who even forgives sins? And he said to the woman, your faith has saved you. Go in peace.
So in Jesus’ response to Simon, we’re going to see 3 surprises. 1, who Jesus honors. 2, what separates us from Jesus. And 3, who is able to forgive. 1, who Jesus honors.
2, what separates us from Jesus. And 3, who is able to forgive. So 1, who Jesus honors. At the beginning of the party, the most admired, the most distinguished person there probably would have been Simon. He’s the one throwing the party, so for the most part, people would have shown up at the party because they wanted to be at Simon’s party.
He was a Pharisee, a teacher of the law. Not all little Jewish boys got to grow up to be a teacher of the law or a Pharisee, even though many of them wanted to be. He would have embodied moral uprightness. He’s probably the type of guy who is so good at being good You feel bad about yourself when you’re around him. It’s like you pray sometimes, he prays all the time.
You give away some money, he gives away a lot of money. When you drop something on your foot, you say, ow!
When he drops something on his foot, he says, thank God my body is working properly. That I can feel this pain. What a blessing! Let’s take a moment and praise Him together. Except in those days, you wouldn’t have said, what an idiot.
You would have said, wow, I wish I could be that holy. And at that time in history, the religious leaders had partnered with the corrupt political powers, so Simon would have been highly influential in the city. If he wanted someone arrested, he probably could have gotten someone arrested. If he wanted a merchant put out of business, he probably could have pulled the strings to make that happen. At the beginning of the party, he is respected in everyone’s eyes except Jesus.
The woman, on the other hand, was the least respected person at the beginning of the party. It’s a bit of a mystery how she even got in the door. Simon would not have invited her. So did she sneak in? Did one of the powerful men at the party have a relationship with her and invite her in?
We really don’t know. But we do know the people at the party either knew who she was already or could tell what kind of woman she was, maybe by what she was wearing, because Simon murmurs to himself, if Jesus knew what kind of woman this was. He wouldn’t have anything to do with her. She was the type of woman you wouldn’t want to be seen with because you wouldn’t want anyone to get the wrong idea. You wouldn’t talk with her at the party because people undoubtedly would say afterwards, I saw you chatting with her.
Anything going on between you two? Being associated with her, or even if people perceived that you had an association with her, it would have been social suicide. If she started talking with you, you’d have done your best to just ignore her. You’d put as much distance in between her and you as you possibly could. So into this situation, Jesus tells his parable, and he completely flips the admiration of these 2 people in everyone’s eyes.
This is verse 41 when he tells it again. Jesus says, 2 debtors owed money to a man. One owed a little, one owed a lot. The man canceled the debt with both of them. Now who is going to love the moneylender more?
Simon answers, I guess the one who was forgiven a lot. That’s right, Jesus says. This woman whose sins are many— did you catch that Jesus said that? Did you catch He knows exactly who she is, where she’s been, what she’s done? He knows.
He knows way more than Simon ever will. Her many sins, verse 47, have been forgiven, and she loves much. You though, Simon, because you have been forgiven little, you love little. And now everyone at the party is looking up to the woman. Suddenly the least respected person at the party is elevated to the top, and the most respected person at the party is diminished.
Every Jewish person there would have known they were supposed to love the Lord their God with all their heart, with all their soul, with all their strength. They all would have known it. It was the first and greatest commandment. It was part of the Shema, they called it. It’s Deuteronomy 6.
It’s what God instructed the people to tie it around your heads, write it on your doorposts, remind it to your children, talk about it when you sleep and when you rise and when you’re walking down the road. All the time, think about Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. And Jesus says, Simon, this woman is doing it better than you. Simon, you think you’re so great at following the law. Let’s just talk about the first one, the one with the most priority.
Love the Lord your God. You aren’t there yet, Simon. But she is. Because don’t miss this, why is she there? Why does she love Jesus?
Not because she sat down and said, oh, I’m supposed to love. Oh, let me really try to love. That’s not why. She loves only because she has been forgiven much.
So who does Jesus honor? Is it the good one? Is it the morally upright one? Is it the one who has forgiven little?
No. Jesus honors the repentant one, the repentant person. He honors the one who asks for much forgiveness. He honors the one who isn’t trying to achieve anything. But is just begging for forgiveness.
If that’s who Jesus honors, who do you honor? Who do you look up to? What, what do you primarily try to develop within yourself? What do you try to develop in your kids mostly?
What do you think God admires about you?
What’s a bigger priority for you? Is it your morality or your repentance? Do you more often think, ah, I need to be good, if only I could be better at being good, if only I could be holier, or do you more often think, I really need to be more repentant? I need to ask for more forgiveness.
You think being good will get you a better status or acknowledgement from God?
It won’t.
See, there’s a little Pharisee in all of us, isn’t there?
You think teaching your kids to be good is what will make them right with God?
That’s every religion in the world, but that’s not Christianity.
When Beth was pregnant, uh, for the first time, we, we started praying, um, and we’ve really never stopped. We started praying before Beth was pregnant. We’ve been praying for a long time. We started praying something new when Beth was pregnant for the first time, um, and we don’t know if God’s going to answer this prayer or not yet, if he’s going to say yes, if he’s going to grant us this or not. So we’d just love for you to join in with us praying this, but we started praying, Lord, let our kids love you.
We want— Lord, we want our kids to be in love with you. There’s, there’s really nothing else that I want for my children. That’s it. And according to this text, if that’s going to happen, if my kids are going to love Jesus, that means that they will need to be forgiven much. They won’t love God by being good.
They will love God by asking for forgiveness. And the more they can ask for forgiveness, the more that they will love God. The Christian God honors those who can admit they are wrong, who know they have need, the repentant ones, the ones who have asked for forgiveness, know they are a moral train wreck and cry out for mercy. That’s who is esteemed by the Christian God, not the ones who act like they have it all together. That nonsense gets you nowhere with Jesus.
And newsflash, you don’t have it all together. I don’t either. Simon didn’t either, and Jesus is showing him that. If you want to model Christianity for someone, for your coworkers, for a friend, for your kids, for someone in your family, model repentance. Admit you’re a mess.
Ask for their forgiveness. Tell them you need God’s forgiveness, and Jesus, for some crazy reason, is willing to give it to you. That’s our faith.
I know many of us would agree, hey, we probably need to repent and ask for forgiveness, and that’s essential to faith in Christ, like we would sign that belief statement, I get it, but let’s just ask ourselves, which one do we portray more? What kinds of things do we say more? What kind of faith statements do we make? Do we say, hmm, no, they ought not do that.
You ought not do that. I ought not do that. They need to be better. Our culture’s going down the toilet. Do we say those kind of things more?
Or do we say things like, I really need forgiveness. How was your week? I’m just so glad that God will forgive me.
The core of Christianity is not be good or wish others were better. The core of Christianity is Jesus forgives us for being bad. Through his death and resurrection. There’s a reason people on the street, if you would ask them— and occasionally somebody will do one of these surveys— if you ask them, hey, what’s Christianity all about? They’ll answer, they’ll always overwhelmingly answer, Christianity is about being a good person.
It’s about doing the right thing. It’s about trying to live a good life. And you almost never hear anyone say Christianity is about being rescued by God through Christ. There’s a reason they never say that, and it’s because we don’t talk about it. You know why we hesitate to admit we are wrong?
You know why we hesitate to confess sin, to let other people know what a mess we are? You know why we don’t do that? Because we value put-togetherness.
And admitting our shortcomings would tarnish our put-togetherness. So we must protect that image at all costs because it’s what we value. If we valued what Jesus valued, we’d confess and repent all the time.
How comfortable are we talking about our sin? Not in like a generic vague sense like, oh, I know I’m not perfect.
But in a down-and-dirty, give people the details of what we’ve been up to, or maybe what we’d like to be up to if we could get away with it, how comfortable are we talking about that? Not very. And it’s because unlike Jesus, opposite from Jesus, we value put-togetherness. More than we value neediness.
So surprise number 2: what separates us from Jesus? We’re always tempted to think our moral failures keep us from Jesus. We think there’s distance between us and Jesus because of something we’ve done or because of something that we failed to do. And we have all kinda cute ways to word it. We say things like, well, God didn’t move, but I did, so now I’m far away from him.
One way or another, we think we need to get cleaned up to be presentable to Jesus. But in this interchange, we see it’s not the obvious sins that keep someone from Jesus. It’s the hidden one. It’s self-righteousness. Between the sinful woman and Simon, it is Simon who is far from Jesus, and it’s his self-righteousness that’s keeping him there.
Self-righteousness is what separates us from Jesus. He thinks, I’m a pretty good person. I don’t really need forgiveness, or that much forgiveness. So he has no connection to or love for Jesus at all. The sinful woman, on the other hand, who by the way is so sinful— you gotta love this— everyone can tell she’s a moral dumpster fire just by looking at her.
And she is together with Jesus. Obviously, her failures aren’t keeping her from him because she’s the hero in his parable even while she’s still a terrible mess. Why? How could she be the hero? Because she doesn’t have a shred of self-righteousness in her at all.
She knows she needs him. And that’s what Jesus is looking for, that knowing that we need him thing. That’s the critical piece, and that can be missing whether we’re really religious or whether we’re really sinful. Neither the righteous person or the terrible sinner will necessarily look to Jesus and say, I know I don’t deserve this at all, but will you forgive me? I’ve messed up on purpose.
I was wrong. Forgive me, Jesus. If you can’t say that, if you don’t believe your only hope is grace and mercy from Jesus, you will never love Him. I’ll bet even if you’ve been a Christian a long time, if you aren’t currently desperately in love with and wanting more of Jesus all the time. If you can’t currently see yourself kissing his feet, for example, if Jesus isn’t sweet to you, if you can’t say, he’s my everything, if your affections aren’t stirred when you just hear his name, I’ll bet it’s because you either think, one, you aren’t really a sinful mess and therefore you don’t need to be forgiven very much, Or 2, you think you’re such a sinful mess that you can’t be forgiven.
But if we flip that around and we thought both— 1, I’m a sinful mess, 2, Jesus forgives me— if both of those were up and running in our head and our hearts all the time, we’d love Jesus, or we’d love him more. And honestly, this is kind of paradoxical, but the more of a sinful mess that we think we are, and simultaneously— because we need both, remember, you can’t just have that— simultaneously think the more forgiven we are, the deeper we go into both of those beliefs, the more that we will love Jesus. 1, I’m a sinful person. 2, Jesus forgives me. Maybe we should say that together.
If it’s awkward for you to say things in a group of people, feel free to just opt yourself out. That’s totally fine. But I’ll remind you once again. 1, I’m a sinful mess. 2, Jesus forgives me.
So you gotta You need to be reminded once more? I’ll remind you once more. 1, I’m a sinful mess. 2, Jesus forgives me. Are we ready to say it together yet?
All right. 1, I’m a sinful mess. 2, Jesus forgives me. Oh, that was nice. Thank you.
That was some group therapy. We’re just all in this together. It’s so easy for those of us who are Christians to think, oh, I asked for forgiveness once upon a time.
But now I’m a pretty good person, right? Just like that, we switch to Simon in this story. We think, I don’t really need all that much forgiveness anymore.
Listen, if you’re sitting there right now, if you’ve been wondering this morning, do I really need a bunch of forgiveness?
And if I do, what is it that I really need to be forgiven for?
If that’s you, you are Simon in this story. We overlook our own sin or excuse it as not a very big deal, and then we are not as enthralled with Jesus. Those who are forgiven little love little.
Or a different group, we think we’ve done something so heinous or so frequently that God couldn’t possibly forgive us. We have the I’m a sinful mess part down. We aced that part of the test. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, I’m a sinful mess, check. But we miss the Jesus really forgives me part.
And if that’s you, you also won’t feel very much love for Jesus. You might feel neglected by him, or oppressed by God, or ashamed, but you won’t feel love for him. So listen to me. If that’s you, Jesus forgives you.
Just ask him. Or this woman didn’t even really say any words. She was just clinging to him in hopes that he would receive her, and he did. He even made her the hero in his parable. Listen, however big your mess is— hers was bigger because everyone could tell just by looking at her that she was like a Category 5 hurricane— there’s nowhere that you’ve been There’s nothing that you’ve done, there’s no number of times that you’ve done it, that he doesn’t forgive you.
Your most shameful moment does not need to separate you from Jesus. Quite the opposite, it can be the very thing God uses for you to understand just how much he loves you.
Because if you can think about your big debt, your big sin, your big cover-up, and hear Jesus say, I know about it, and I forgive you, not only will you love him, but you’ll understand how much he loves you. The power of the gospel is it can take your worst mess and turn it into the thing that helps you love God the most. The Gospel can take your biggest regret and turn it into your biggest asset.
Certainly not saying sin is good. Of course not, right? It’s terrible. You’ll hurt yourself, you’ll hurt others, consequences are real. They might be lifelong depending on what it was.
But listen, if in your shame you can hear God say, I forgive you, and that helps you to understand how much He loves you, and then that in turn makes you love Him, it’s an asset.
He took a terrible thing and made it a beautiful thing. That’s what He does.
Third surprise, uh, who is able to forgive? The other partygoers asked this question among themselves. Verse 49, who is this who even forgives sins? Completely fair question, because the Old Testament was really clear about who could forgive sins. God forgave sins.
Isaiah 43:25, God says, I, even I, am he who blots out transgressions and remembers your sins no more. Psalm 103:12, as far as the east is from the west, so far has God removed our transgressions from us. So yes, Jesus is claiming to be God by saying her sins are forgiven. Of course, he’s kind of already alluded to that when he was giving Simon a hard time for not loving God when Simon didn’t give Jesus water and oil. Simon could have said Huh?
I’m not ignoring God. I’m ignoring you, Jesus. I wasn’t snubbing God when I was snubbing you. Unless, Jesus, are you saying that you are God? Now, none of this happened, right?
I’m just imagining. And I imagine Jesus would have been like— So Jesus is kind of already inferred to be God before directly telling this woman in verse 48, your sins are forgiven. But there’s another element in the who is able to forgive sins question. Forgive literally means to cancel the debt, to release the debtor from the responsibility to pay what is owed. Now, with any kind of debt, there’s really kind of 2 parties that can release the debtor from responsibility to pay.
So one of those people is the person who is owed. The creditor could forgive the debt. If you owe Visa money, And Visa calls you up and says, you know what, forget about it, uh, we forgive your debt. They can do that. They wouldn’t do that, but they could do that because they are the ones who are owed.
They have a right to cancel it. The other party who can forgive your debt is the one who paid for it for you, the one who flipped the bill. So if you owe Visa money and your mom pays it off, she has now released you from responsibility to pay, and she could tell you, you don’t have to pay that bill anymore. Of course, the one you owe could also be the one who pays it for you, and that would actually be the case if Visa canceled your debt on your Visa bill, because that— what that means is that Visa paid for it. You purchased some product or service on your card, and If you don’t give Visa the money to replace the money that they have paid to the proprietor of that product or service, if you don’t replace that money, what that means is now Visa has just paid out money and not been reimbursed, so really Visa has paid your bill.
And since they have paid for it, they can look at you and say, we have released you of your responsibility to pay. Jesus can forgive our sins because he paid for them. He’s the one who paid our debt for us on the cross. The punishment that we deserve, the eternal hell that should be ours, was poured out on Jesus instead of us. And then he rose to life again in victory over sin and death.
The way I picture it is he absorbed all the punishment and wrath that we deserve into himself, and then he burst forth alive out of it, thus conquering it and putting it away forever so that it is completely over and done with.
Listen, if you have placed your trust in Jesus like this sinful woman did, Your sins are forgiven. You may actually use words. You might say something like, Jesus, thank you for paying for my sins on the cross. You may just kind of psychologically cling to Jesus for mercy like this sinful woman did. And if you’re there, Jesus forgives you.
Listen to his words for you in verse 48. These are his words for you.
Your sins are forgiven.
What you’ve been covering up at work, your sins are forgiven.
What you hope no one finds out, your sins are forgiven.
What you’ve been looking at on the internet, Your sins are forgiven.
When you burst out at your kids in anger, your sins are forgiven.
When you worked more than you should have and neglected other important things, your sins are forgiven.
When you were a coward, and didn’t stand up to the threat, your sins are forgiven.
When you hold a grudge and you can’t move on, your sins are forgiven.
The text message trail you’re trying to delete, your sins are forgiven.
What you privately fantasize about.
Your sins are forgiven.
Jesus says you don’t need to cover that up.
It’s been paid for. You don’t need to hide it or try to explain it. It’s been paid for. You can stop trying to act like you are all put together.
Because he paid the debt you owe for not being all put together.
Verse 50, your faith has saved you, Jesus says.
Go in peace.
Let’s pray together. Father, thank you for forgiveness. Thank you for sending Jesus to provide a way to forgiveness, Lord. Thank you for paying our debt that we owe for us.
Lord, we pray that we would view ourselves as people who need much forgiveness, Lord. Help us be beggars for forgiveness every day, forever.
We pray those things in Jesus’ name, amen.
