The Forgiven Woman

Luke 7:36-50

A Pharisee named Simon had invited Jesus to his house for dinner. The passage really doesn’t give us any other information about who Simon was, but as a Pharisee, we can assume that he was a highly religious and moral person and likely a well respected member of the Jewish community. We don’t even know what Simon’s reason or motive was for having Jesus as his guest, but as our story unfolds, we learn that it wasn’t because he thought Jesus was God’s Son, or even a true prophet…

As they were reclining at the dinner table, a woman entered who had a reputation quite the opposite of Simon’s. Again, the text tells us very little about her, except that she had lived a sinful life. She very brazenly not only approaches Jesus, which itself would have broken the societal rules for women, but she wept at His feet, wetting them with her tears. She then dries His feet with her hair, kissing them, and pouring perfume on them.

When Simon saw this woman’s brash display of affection, he thought to himself, “If this man were really a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is – that she is a sinner.”

Jesus, knowing exactly what the critical Pharisee was thinking, told him a simple but profound parable to challenge his self-righteous attitude: One man was forgiven a debt of five hundred denarii, and another fifty. “Which of them will love the money-lender more?” Jesus asked Simon. Answering correctly, Simon surmised that it must be the man who was forgiven the bigger debt.

Then Jesus turned toward the woman, and began to compare her demonstration of love and gratitude with that of Simon’s. “I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she had poured perfume on my feet.” And then Jesus made the application of His parable abundantly clear: “Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven – as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”

Turning to the woman once again, He declared to her that her sins were forgiven. This made quite a stir among Simon’s other dinner guests who began to ask one another who this Jesus thought He was, that He had the power or position to even forgive sins. But our story ends with Jesus assuring the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

The differences between Simon the Pharisee and the sinful woman seem fairly obvious. One was known as righteous, the other as a notorious sinner. One offered proper hospitality, the other acted scandalously. One treated Jesus with casual respect, while the other treated Him with deep gratitude and reverence. One received a piercing confrontation from Jesus, while the other received abundant grace and forgiveness.

But what’s much more noteworthy, is not what these two characters did differently, but what they had in common: they were both sinners in need of God’s forgiveness. The real truth underlying Jesus’ parable, is that we have all sinned much. The real difference between the woman and Simon was that one understood their desperate plight and need for salvation and forgiveness, while the other was blind to it.

Most of us tend to feel like we’re pretty good people. As the average Christian, we go to church services, we have Bible studies, we attend prayer meetings. We give money to the church and to charities. We volunteer and serve. We try to be polite neighbors, and upstanding citizens. We have our Christian checklists that make us feel good about ourselves.

But the reality is, that we are all sinners who fall short of the glory of God on a daily basis. We envy, we covet, we gossip, we harbor bitterness and resentment. We are impatient and easily angered. We are selfish and greedy. We are abundantly prideful. We may think we at least do well with avoiding some of the “harsher” sins like murder or adultery, but remember that Jesus said that in God’s sight to lust is to commit adultery, and to harbor hatred or even to slander someone is to commit murder in our hearts. And while we probably haven’t robbed a bank and may not have stolen anything from others physically, how often have we been a thief of someone else’s dignity or self-esteem, or perhaps robbed them of an opportunity or blessing, or even just of their joy? How often have we hurt another through our carelessly self-centered words or deeds? Every impure thought and every unkind word is a violation of God’s holiness.

And if that were not enough to make us guilty of sin before a pure, holy and righteous God, there are also what theologians call “sins of omission.” This refers to the all the good and just things that we fail to do. James 4:17 says, “If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.” Jesus said that all of the Law and the Prophets are summed up in the two Greatest Commandments: to love God with all of our hearts and souls, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. To perfectly obey these commands would mean that every thought, word and deed, of every day of our entire lives were completely dedicated to loving, adoring, worshiping and magnifying God, and to self-sacrificially giving our all to loving and treating others the way we want to be treated. None of us do those things even close to perfectly. Which is why “falling short” is a great descriptor for our sins of omission. We fail to live up to God’s perfect standards.

Why have I spent so much time talking about our sin? I promise you, it’s not to make you feel guilty. Rather, it’s to hopefully show you that you ARE guilty. We are all deeply guilty of sin, and deserve the punishment of our good and righteous Judge. And yet, if we are in Christ, we have been declared guiltless! The amazing news of the Gospel, is that even though we have violated God’s perfect laws in every way, Jesus suffered the full extent of God’s wrath against us in our place, so that we can receive complete forgiveness and pardon. Jesus endured the Father’s perfect justice so that we can receive His perfect mercy. But it’s only once we’ve understood “the bad news” of the Gospel, that we can fully appreciate and rejoice in this incomprehensibly wonderful news. It’s only when we know we’ve sinned much, that we can know we’ve been forgiven much, and only when we know we’re forgiven much, that we will in turn love much.

If there’s any way I feel that I’ve grown spiritually in the past year, it’s that I’ve grown in awareness of my sin. Which often doesn’t feel like growth at all, because I tend to feel guilty for my sin, rather than focusing on the fact that my sins are forgiven. But the more I learn to lean into God’s unconditional love and amazing grace, the more I am filled with gratitude and praise rather than guilt and shame. The woman in this story showed such a bold expression of worship and gratitude, because she had experienced a grace and forgiveness that overcame all feelings of guilt or shame.

Perhaps, like Simon the Pharisee, you’ve invited Jesus in. Maybe you are content to sit and dine with Him, and even listen to His teachings. But have you fallen down at His feet in humility, repentance, thanksgiving and worship like the sinful woman? Have you truly grasped the depth of your sin and the depth of His grace? If not, it’s time to take your faith, your worship, and your gratitude, and your relationship with God to a deeper level.

So how can we change our hearts to be less like the Pharisee, and more like the woman in this story? The answer is through truly knowing, believing, and embracing the Gospel. When we come to the cross of Calvary, and realize that we fully deserve the torture and humiliation that Christ suffered, but that He willingly bore the full cup of God’s holy wrath against our sin, and that He took our place and received our punishment so that we can be forgiven, we should be nothing short of overwhelmed by His love and mercy. And when we let the amazing grace and unconditional love He freely offers us fill us, not just when we first receive salvation, but on a daily basis, we will have hearts overflowing with love with which we can love Him back.

You have sinned much. But you have also been forgiven much. The question is, will you embrace that forgiveness so that you can love much?