Seeking Forgiveness And Freedom Series

April 6, 2022

Hope Lutheran Church

Rev. Mary Erickson

Luke 7:36-50

Seeking Forgiveness and Freedom

Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Tonight we conclude our Lenten series called “Seekers.” Each week we’ve reflected on stories of people in the gospels who sought out Jesus and their reasons for doing so. People still seek after Jesus for the same reasons: seeking truth, seeking direction, seeking help. Tonight we consider one more reason: seeking forgiveness and freedom. It may be our final reflection, but it’s certainly not the least!

We hear a story tonight of two individuals. In so many ways, they’re complete opposites. One is a woman, the other is a man. The woman is of low degree while the man is held in high esteem. We know the man’s name, Simon, but the woman remains nameless. Simon is a Pharisee. All we know about the woman without a name is that she is a sinner. Simon is the godly figure; the woman’s sin removes her far from God.

Simon invites Jesus to join him for dinner at his house. During the dinner, the sinful woman interrupts their fellowship. She causes quite the scene! She approaches Jesus. Now, in that day, they didn’t sit at a table like we do, with our feet under the table. They reclined on pillows on the floor. The food was placed before them on a low, stable surface. They propped themselves on one elbow while they ate with the other hand. So the feet of the people dining were stretched out behind them.

This woman comes up behind Jesus, by his feet. And there she begins to cry over his feet. Tears of regret, tears of grief, but ultimately, tears of gratitude. What we witness in her tears is confession and absolution all wrapped into one.

She has heard Jesus teach, she’s heard his proclamation of God’s tremendous love and mercy. She’s heard him tell parables like the loving father and his prodigal son. And she’s taken to heart this message of God’s ever fresh creation, how our human failures can be restored and made new.

These were exactly the words she most needed to hear. Here was a woman disregarded by everyone in her community, and probably by herself, too. Could it be that this message of forgiveness and new life was meant for her, too?

Jesus’ loving message had entered to the very center of her parched soul. The seed long buried there drank in this word of love and mercy. Her parched soul drank it in, and the seed in her soul sprouted with hope. It was the first time in longer than she could remember when she could see a way out. There was a new day, a fresh start, even for her!

This woman has come to Jesus, and there she finds forgiveness and freedom from her past sins.

What is forgiveness? Forgiveness isn’t something we work out for ourselves. We don’t atone for our errors and sins. It’s not a debt we repay. If we could repay this debt, then we would have earned our right place. But forgiveness is a GIFT. It’s given to us free and undeserved. Forgiveness comes TO us, it comes when we are unable to make a situation right by our own efforts.

That’s what makes it so liberating. This infraction is a burden we can’t shake on our own. We carry it with us wherever we go. It weighs us down, it tethers us to that error we regret.

The gift of forgiveness frees us from this burden on our soul. It frees us for a new day, a fresh beginning under the expansive canopy of God’s redeeming and reconciling grace.

The nameless woman in this touching story hears the words from Jesus’ mouth she most yearned to hear: “Your sins are forgiven.” She came for forgiveness, and she left in freedom and peace.

But Pharisee Simon did not share in this peace. In his own perceived rightness, he was unable to see the debt he himself owed. Jesus tells him the story of two debtors. One debtor owed considerably more than the other. Simon was able to rightly determine that the man who was forgiven a greater debt would be filled with a greater amount of love.

Jesus ends the parable with a cutting statement of judgment: “the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.”

The effect of knowing that you’ve been forgiven leaves the soul soaring with gratitude. Forgiveness bathes the soul with mercy and heals its wounds. And all of it is a gift. It comes free and undeserved. Our forgiven hearts reflect the mercy we’ve received. We respond with the fruits of love and kindness.