The Freedom of Forgiveness, Luke 7:36-50
Introduction
It is told of a famous smith of medieval times that, having been taken prisoner and immured in a dungeon, he began to examine the chain that bound him with a view to discovering some flaw that might make it easier to break it. His hope was in vain, for he found from some marks upon it that it was his own workmanship. It had been his boast that none could break a chain that he had forged. Thus it is with us. Our own hands have forged the chain that binds us, a chain that no human hand can break. The glorious news is that God has offered us a way out of the chains of judgment and condemnation which have held us captive for so long.
The forgiveness of God comes to us not by way of forced receipt, but of a divine invitation toward freedom. In other words, God does not compel us to receive the gift of His grace and mercy; He merely invites us to participate in the free gift of His forgiveness. He invites us to loose our chains of bondage in favor of participating in the freedom of forgiveness. Participation in forgiveness means that we are not only able, by faith, to receive forgiveness for our sins, but also to find the freedom to forgive others and to find the freedom which comes in learning to forgive ourselves.
Forgiveness is not a one time experience through the recitation of a formula prayer. In many circles of Christianity, believers are encouraged to say the “sinner’s prayer” upon conversion to Christ. While the sinner’s prayer may have merit in encouraging a point of commitment in one’s life, forgiveness has little to do with such prayers and much more to do with a constant lifestyle of ongoing covenant relationship with God. A sinner’s prayer constitutes a lifestyle of grace no more than the saying of marriage vows constitutes a lifestyle of committed marriage. Commitment comes not only on the day the vow is made. Commitment comes in the day in day out living out of ones vows!
Just as we have been talking about grace as an experiential reality in one’s life, so too, forgiveness is a cyclic relationship of receiving and sharing in the forgiveness of God. Forgiveness is a journey of experiencing and sharing grace because grace is the foundation for all forgiveness. As we experience the grace-filled life we are enabled to forgive others just as we have been forgiven and as we live in the freedom which forgiveness brings, we are enabled even to do that which is most difficult for many of us; forgive ourselves.
The Heart of Judgment
The prevailing theme in Luke 7:36-50 is undoubtedly forgiveness of sins. Jesus had been invited to eat at the home of one of the Pharisees. While inside the house a woman who was known to be a sinful woman came inside weeping. Much to the dismay of the pious and judgmental Pharisees, she began to anoint the feet of Jesus with very costly scented oil from an alabaster box and also with her tears. This woman was known to have lived a sinful life. The so-called “keepers of the law,” the Pharisees, were appalled not only by the actions of this sinful woman, but also by Jesus evident approval of what she was doing. True to form, rather than showing compassion to this woman, the Pharisees began to judge Jesus!
It was not simply enough for the Pharisees to pass judgment on the woman, they were inclined to judge Jesus for His lack of judgment on the woman. The Pharisees were so filled with self righteousness and a judgmental spirit that they even judged others for their lack of judgment. Devoid of compassion and any real understanding of Jesus ministry, the Pharisee who had invited Jesus to his home said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is – that she is a sinner.” (Luke 7:39)
A heart that is filled with judgment cannot understand the grace and compassion of Christ. In their zeal for the law, the Pharisees had abandoned its chief aim; to bring people into covenant relationship with God. Sin alone created a separation between God and man. The law was never intended to be a wall of separation but a teacher guiding humanity into a loving and eternal relationship with its creator. How many of us have been like the woman with alabaster box of fragrant oil longing for forgiveness and acceptance? How many of us have been like the Pharisees with a heart full of judgment? If we are to ever learn to live the grace-filled life; if we are ever to experience the freedom that forgiveness brings in our lives; we must learn to let go of our Pharisaic need judge others and our compulsion to judge ourselves.
At the heart of judgment is blame and at the heart of blame is a denial of grace. The heart which is filled with judgment says, “I am not worthy of grace and neither are you!” Our ability to forgive others is closely linked to our ability to forgive ourselves because both stem from our understanding of the work of God’s grace in our lives. Judgment is a denial of grace. This denial of grace is a disease which, to varying degrees, we are born into. From the earliest days of childhood we compare ourselves with others and make judgments as to who is better or worse. We seem to be born with a bent toward judgment which is like a deeply embedded tick which is not easily loosed.
I do not like bugs. Were I to make a list of the bugs which I admire the least, I would no doubt place the tick very near the top of that list. When I was a child growing up in Northern California my family traveled extensively throughout the West Coast as a result of my step-father’s love of the game of softball. We took wonderful trips to the coastal mountains of Oregon, Lake Tahoe, and cities all over the West Coast. I remember one trip to Santa Cruz. My mother had told me and some of my weekend travel league softball kid friends that we were not to venture far from the softball field area. The park was nestled beautifully in the coastal mountains and we were not likely to listen to her instructions!
When we got a chance to sneak away, we went for a hike in the mountains for what turned into a very long time as we got lost on the trails. Eventually we made our way back to where were supposed to be and no one seemed to be the wiser of our adventure through the woods. After we arrived back near the softball field, however, I felt something on my neck that I thought must have been a leaf or small piece of mud or something to that effect. Very much to my disliking, my travel companion realized that it was a large black tick! No knowing the proper way to remove a tick and also not wanting to alert our parents, we commenced to use every means within our power to remove the tick; including, but not limited to, a picket knife, a borrowed lighter, and eventually a rather sharp stick!
A tick is not easy to remove. This is especially true when you do not have the right tools or knowledge for the job. A heart filled with judgment is just as difficult to correct when we do not have the right tools or the appropriate knowledge to affect the change which we desire. We go through our lives longing for forgiveness as we carry our alabaster box around with us, not knowing where to turn for the freedom of forgiveness which we seek. We carry our alabaster boxes around with inside of us longing for someone to accept us for who we are, longing for freedom from our addictions to judging others and judging ourselves. The woman who anointed Jesus feet and the Pharisees were not nearly as far apart as both would have assumed and both have preferred to think.
The Pharisees were just as full of sin and judgment as the woman. The difference is that while the Pharisees were full of judgment of others, the woman was full of judgment of self. Both are a denial, a misunderstanding, a distortion of God’s grace and both carry equally heavy chains of bondage to judgment and keep us from knowing the freedom of forgiveness. God has not intended us to be prisoners to guilt and shame and that is exactly what we are when we live lives full of judgment of others or self! Is the person who is constantly judging others any freer than one being judged and judging self? Both are in chains.
The Heart of Forgiveness
In this same chapter of the Gospel of Luke, Jesus gives the parable of creditors and debtors. He tells of a certain creditor who forgave the debt of two debtors. The one debtor was forgiven much and the other was forgiven a little. Jesus makes the point that the woman who anointed His feet is the one who has been forgiven much and the other debtor had only been forgiven a little. The woman, as with the debtor who had been excused of a great debt, showed a great appreciation for the forgiveness she had received. The woman went on to reciprocate the forgiveness, the grace, which she had received. She became not merely a recipient of grace, but a participant in the freedom of forgiveness.
That is what is at the very heart of learning to forgive others. The freedom of forgiveness is about receiving forgiveness from God and then pouring out that forgiveness, pouring out our alabaster box, to others as an offering to God in gratitude. How often do we see even forgiving others as some sort of religiously driven ritualistic duty? The cycle of denial grace seems almost unstoppable! Indeed the tick seems embedded so deeply into the skin of our beings that it seems impossible to loose. Can anything shake it free? Can anything free us from the bondage of judgment? Grace alone is the answer. At the heart of experiencing forgiveness is grace; the unmerited unwarranted unearned underserved favor of our Heavenly Father.
Judging others and judging ourselves are symptoms of the same disease. Judgment is alive and well in the heart of the Pharisee and the woman with the alabaster box. Both have either denied or radically misunderstood grace. Jesus was and is always ready to receive both the outcast and the member of high society. Jesus loved and loves the Pharisee and the woman who anointed His feet with an expensive and costly perfume. Grace is like a free flowing fount which is always available and never runs out. Psalms 86:5 says, “You are forgiving and good, O Lord, abounding in love to all who call to you.”
Forgiveness is something that we merely do out of obligation but something that we experience according the God’s love. We do not forgive others out of duty but out of the abundance of the forgiveness which we have received. In the last verse of this section of Scripture, Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” (Luke 7:50) Faith in Christ alone sets us free from sin, its eternal consequence, and our bondage to judgment. Just as Jesus told the woman to go in peace, He is also telling us to experience the peace of God in our lives by experiencing the freedom which forgiveness brings.
The extent to which we will find freedom from the bondage of the chains of judgment is in direct proportion to the amount of grace that we apply to our understanding of forgiveness. When we apply no grace to forgiveness we find ourselves busy trying to earn forgiveness, through sacrifice and rituals of every sort. This is the way that the Pharisees would have understood forgiveness and it is the way that many of us understand it as well. When forgiveness knows no grace, we will be always striving to be perfect so that we can earn God’s forgiveness. When we are forever working to earn God’s favor, we will expect others to do so as well. We will judge others in just the same fashion that we assume God is judging us.
Many of us have learned to apply just a little grace to forgiveness. We know cognitively that God loves us but because we have not truly experienced that love we busy ourselves with many good tasks, hoping that in our much doing we will find the forgiveness that we seek. This is the way that the woman who anointed Jesus feet would have understood forgiveness, just as it is the way that many of us do as well. We carry around our alabaster boxes, our offerings of great worth, not knowing where to find the satisfying forgiveness that our hearts seek. We judge ourselves because we feel the weight of the condemnation of the self righteous Pharisee and we feel the burden of our own mistakes and shortcomings.
Conclusion
There is an alternative to the no-grace and the some-grace way of understanding forgiveness. The alternative is as beautiful as it is freeing and it is as satisfying as it is eternal. The all-grace alternative is the answer to our compulsion to judge others and ourselves. The all-grace alternative is where we find the freedom of forgiveness. Jesus forgive the woman who anointed his feet with her very tears not because of what she had or had not done, not because of who she was or was not, but because He is merciful and full of forgiveness. Grace is just as available to the Pharisee as it is to the woman as it to us.
God has forgiven us in Christ. Let us not stay shackled in unlocked chains which have no power to keep us enslaved save for our own unwillingness to abandon their curse. We have been forgiven, let us forgive others, and if God forgives us who are we not to forgive ourselves? The freedom of forgiveness comes to us to the extent that we are willing to view ourselves as God views us; forgiven and free.
Amen.
