Forgiveness.
Reading: Luke chapter 7 verses 36-50.
Ill:
• A man asked his wife what she would like for her birthday.
• She replied; “I would love to be eight again!”
• On the morning of her birthday;
• He arose and made her a great big bowl of Cocopops.
• Then he took her off to the local theme park.
• What a day it was! He put her on every ride in the park:
• The Death Slide, The Wall of Fear, The Screaming Monster Roller Coaster,
• The Octopus Whirl, The Tower of Terror and then more, much more!
• Five hours later they staggered out of the theme park;
• Her head was reeling and her stomach felt upside down.
• Right away they drove off to a McDonalds where her loving husband ordered;
• A Happy Meal with extra fries and a refreshing milk-shake.
• Then it was off to the movies to watch the latest Walt Disney blockbuster;
• Accompanied by hot dogs, pop-corn, ice-cream, sweets and all the coke she could drink!
• What a fabulous adventure;
• Finally she wobbled back home with her husband and collapsed onto the bed exhausted.
• Feeling pleased with himself,
• He leaned over to his precious wife with a big smile and lovingly asked;
• “Well dear what was it like to be eight again?”
• Her eyes slowly opened and her expression changed
• “I meant my dress size you blithering idiot!!”
• The moral of the story (came from a ladies magazine) is;
• Even when a man IS listening; he’s still gonna get it wrong!
• Mistakes of course are part of life;
• And some of us seem to make more than others!
One mistake Jesus was accused of making was to keep the wrong company!
• Quote George Washington:
• “Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation”.
• Quote Spanish novelist Miguel de Cervantes:
• “Tell me what company thou keepest, and I’ll tell thee what thou art”.
• Both these people are plainly telling us,
• “That a man is known, by the company that he keeps”.
That was the problem for the Pharisees (religious leaders) in these verses;
• At the time of Jesus there were about 6,000 Pharisees,
• The word "Pharisee" meant "separated one".
• A Pharisee was a member of a particular a sect or party among the Jews.
• They were known for a very strict and formal observance of the Jewish Law.
• Pharisees were ordinary Jews, not priests.
• Equivalent to a modem day politician.
• Alongside the religious leaders the scribes and the priests,
• They held power of all the people and no-one in their right minds argued with them!
• Pharisee’s always came from good families.
• One did not get to become a Pharisee without a lot of money;
• And without certain family connections.
• A Pharisee was expected to be refined and to exhibit a certain kind of social grace.
• The Pharisee was well connected, he knew how to act in sophisticated circles.
• He had a sense of being on top of society.
• So these Pharisees are looking at Jesus and the company he keeps;
• And there is a problem,
• They are putting 2+2 together,
• Only the answer they are coming up with is 5!
The previous verses in this chapter (i.e. verse 34);
• Show to us the criticism Jesus experienced;
• He was accused of spending time with the “tax-collectors and sinners”:
• “Tax-collectors” were considered the lowest of the low, by the Jewish people.
• E.g. They worked for the enemy (Roman oppressors) and they also cheated their own people.
• “And sinners”
• (ill: chose to live outside the law ill: work on the Sabbath).
It is true to say:
• That Jesus did not care too much for his reputation,
• And he did not care too much for the company, the circles in which he mixed.
• He mixed with the religious and the non-religious,
• The rich and the poor, the Jew and the Gentile.
Note: For Jesus accepting Simon the Pharisee’s invitation is a courageous act:
• Simon may have been indifferent regarding Jesus,
• But you could bet that many of his religious colleagues were not.
• i.e. Pharisees are mentioned 28 times in Luke’s gospel,
• Each time they are seen in hostility to Jesus.
The Pharisee in this story is a man called Simon:
• His Invitation would appear to be a sincere one,
• He did not seem to have any ulterior motive for having Jesus in his home.
• If he did, his plan backfired,
• Because he ended up learning more about himself than, perhaps, he cared to know!
Pause to say:
• Do not confuse this event with two other similar events:
• On two other occasions Jesus was anointed by women in similar ways.
• Mary of Bethany (John chapter12),
• And also Mary Magdalene (Luke chapter 8)
• This is not the same woman; this is a one off, unique incident.
• A study of the passages soon reveal that!
(1). The repentant woman (verses 36-38).
36Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, 38and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.
Ill:
• There was a cartoon in which little George Washington;
• Is standing with an axe in his hand.
• Before him lying on the ground is the famous cherry tree.
• He has already made his smug admission that he did it -- after all, he "cannot tell a lie."
• But his father is standing there exasperated saying,
• "All right, so you admit it! You always admit it!
• The question is, when are you going to stop doing it."
In these verses a repentant woman:
• A lady not only aware of her flawed failed past;
• But one who was wanting to turn her back on it!
For the wealthy and influential:
• Banquets were a major part of life,
• In fact, it was customary at the time of Jesus:
• For outsiders to hover around the houses of well-to-do people;
• Well-to-do people had houses built round an open courtyard in the shape of a hollowed square.
• In other words;
• They were built so that people could look in and see what was happening.
• It meant that you could flaunt your wealth,
• Or if you had an important guest, you could show him off to the community.
It was the custom that when a Rabbi [Teacher] was at a meal in such a house,
• All kinds of people were allowed into the courtyard,
• Mainly to watch and to listen to the pearls of wisdom which fell from the guest’s lips.
• And this explains how easily it was for this woman to enter into Simons house.
• A brave act for in that day women were not invited to banquets.
Into this refined garden party comes an uninvited intruder:
• A woman with a bad reputation, many believe she was a prostitute,
• She is regarded as unclean and in the wrong place.
• It we have been bad enough for her to enter any respectable persons house,
• But to enter a house full of Pharisee’s was sheer madness!
• Ill: Pharisees would not even talk to a respectable woman (or family) in a public place,
• Never mind a woman with such a bad reputation.
verses 37b-38:
“She brought an alabaster jar of perfume, 38and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.
In the east the guests did not sit, but reclined, at table.
• They lay on low couches, resting on the left elbow, leaving the right arm free,
• With the feet stretched out behind; and during the meal the sandals were taken off.
• Ill: Teenagers dream meal;
• Ill: Except they did not sit in front of the TV but they would talk to each other!
This woman gate crashes the party and falls down at the feet of Jesus:
• She forgets about all the other people present;
• And is caught up, taken up ONLY with the person of Jesus
• She demonstrates her love for Jesus by doing three things,
• Each one ignores the rules of decorum:
(1).
• She quietly kneels down in front of Jesus,
• She is crying so much that her tears flow onto his feet.
• A Pharisee or Religious leader would never allow a woman to act like this,
• This would not happen in private never mind in a public place full of important visitors.
• Quote: Martin Luther called these tears “Heart water”.
• They came from much deeper that her tear-ducks, they started in her very heart!
(2).
• Jewish women keep their hair up in public,
• But she again does something that was definitely taboo,
• She needs to a towel to wipe away the tear streaks on Jesus’ feet.
• So she improvises by letting down her hair and drying his feet with her hair.
• As she does this,
• She kisses his feet again and again.
(3).
• She not only kisses the feet of Jesus,
• But she has with her some perfume and she pours this on his feet.
• Ill: Like many Jewish women, round her neck she wore,
• A little alabaster jar of concentrated perfume which usually was very costly.
• This bottle of perfume may well have been the most precious thing she owned,
• But Jesus was worth giving it, she would give to him all that she had.
As the sweet fragrance of her sacrifice fills the room:
• All eyes turn to Jesus.
• How will he react?
• Notice that he’s neither embarrassed nor upset at her extravagant display of gratitude.
• He allows this woman the freedom to express her deep feelings.
• He accepts her as she is.
• Simon, on the other hand, starts doing what Pharisees do best passing judgment.
(2). The critical host (verses 39-43).
Ill:
A speaker started off his sermon by holding up a £20 note. I
• He asked the room full of people, "Who would like this £20 note?"
• Hands started going up.
• He said, "I am going to give this £20 note to one of you but first, let me do this."
• He proceeded to crumple the £20 note up.
• He then asked, "Who still wants it?"
• Still the hands were up in the air.
• "Well," he replied, "What if I do this?"
• And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe.
• He picked it up, now all crumpled and dirty. "Now who still wants it?"
• Still the hands went into the air.
• "My friends, you have all learned a very valuable lesson.
• No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it!
• You wanted it because it did not decrease in value.
• It was still worth £20”
• Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt;
• By the foolish decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way.
• We feel as though we are worthless.
• But no matter what has happened or what will happen,
• You will never lose your value in God’s eyes.
• To Him, dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to Him”.
• Jesus realised that fact;
• But not Simon the Pharisee.
(1). Simons reaction (Verse 39):
• Oftentimes, the most condemning words we hear are the ones we tell ourselves.
• And the dialogue in Simon’s head diagnoses a deadly sin - pride.
39When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he 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.”
Instantly Simon judges both Jesus and the woman.
• You can imagine his thoughts; she is a prostitute, why, the whole town knows that.
• No righteous man would go near her, he certainly would not let her touch him.
• To Simon the verdict is clear:
• Jesus can’t be a prophet or even a Rabbi if he allows this thing to happen.
• Despite what the People had been saying (verse 16) that Jesus was a great prophet,
• As far as Simon was concerned Jesus must be a fraud.
Jesus proved that He was indeed a prophet by reading Simon’s thoughts & revealing his needs.
• Simon’s real problem was blindness:
• He could not see himself, the woman, or the Lord Jesus.
• It was easy for him to say; “SHE is a sinner!”
• But impossible for him to say; “I am also a sinner!” (See Luke 18:9-14.)
To help Simon understand Jesus told a parable, a story:
• Let me read verses 41-43:
• Quote: The Message:
"Two men were in debt to a banker. One owed five hundred silver pieces, the other fifty.
Neither of them could pay up, and so the banker cancelled both debts.
Which of the two would be more grateful?"
43-47Simon answered, "I suppose the one who was forgiven the most."
• In this parable both the men were in debt:
• One owed five hundred pieces of silver, the other fifty.
• The first person was ten times worse off than the second man.
• But both were in debt and neither had the means to pay.
• Please notice the generosity of the banker (verse 42):
• “So the banker cancelled both debts.”
Note:
• The parable does not deal with the AMOUNT of sin in a person’s life,
• But with the AWARNESS of that sin in a persons life.
• Simon and the woman were both sinners.
• The woman knew that but Simon was blind to the fact.
• Simon was guilty of inward sins;
• e.g. Pride.
• The woman was guilty of outward sins;
• e.g. Adultery, immorality.
• Her sins were known,
• While Simon’s sins were hidden to everyone except God.
• And both of them were bankrupt and could not pay their debt to God.
• Simon was just as spiritually bankrupt as the woman, only he did not realize it.
• The woman was guilty of sins of commission,
• But Simon was guilty of sins of omission.
Ill:
• This parable is a bit like a bee;
• It has a sting in the tale!
• Verse 42b is the sting in the parables tale:
• Jesus said; “Which will love him more?”
Now Simon may be proud but he is not stupid.
• He very quickly figured out the meaning of this illustration.
• But he has a problem;
• The story is very simple and so he cannot plead ignorance by saying;
• "He does not know"
• But if he gives the correct answer, he will condemn himself publicly;
• Look at how he weasels out the answer;
• Verse 43: Simon replied,
• "I suppose the one who had the bigger debt cancelled."
• What do you mean; "I suppose? "
• He knows exactly what the answer is but he was not big enough to admit it!
• Quote: Alfted Plummer says of his answer:
• "He stated this with an heir of supercilious indifference"
Verse 43: Jesus simply replies: "You have judged correctly, "
• Jesus tells him: “Simon you have the right answer;
• But do you have the right understanding about what’s taken place?
• You got the theory right,
• Can you not see how it relates in practice?”
(3). The forgiving Saviour (verses 44-50).
44Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? 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. 45You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.”
48Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
49The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”
50Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
Despite the fact that Simon;
• Probably needed a bank loan to pay for his lavish party,
• Despite the fact that the food was plentiful, and perfectly prepared.
• Simon had missed the most important thing!
• In fact he had not been a good host at all to the Lord Jesus.
Ill: When a guest entered such a house three things were always done.
• (1). The host placed his hand on the guest’s shoulder and gave him the kiss of peace.
• That was a mark of respect, which was never omitted in the case of a distinguished Rabbi.
• (2). The roads were only dust tracks, and people wore sandals rather than shoes.
• So always cool water was poured over the guest’s feet to cleanse and comfort them.
• (3). Either a pinch of sweet-smelling incense was burned,
• Or a drop of aroma of roses was placed on the guest’s head.
• These three things were good manners,
• And you would expect them to be practised.
These were the basics you did for any visitor, never mind a special guest.
• Notice that everything that Simon neglected to do,
• The woman did, and she did it SO much better!
e.g.
• (1). Simon had not provided water for his guest to wash his feet;
• But the woman provided tears.
• (2). Simon had not greeted Jesus with a kiss on the cheek.
• But the woman gave many fervent kisses to his feet, symbols of humble gratitude.
• (3). Simon had not provided cheap olive oil for the head of Jesus,
• But the woman has provided expensive perfume for the feet of Jesus!
Verse 48 Key Verse: “Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.””
• Notice: that this woman, was NOT saved by her tears and her gift of perfume.
• Jesus made it dear that it was her faith alone that saved her (verse 50),
• The Bible makes it clear again and again;
• That no amount of good works can pay for salvation.
Quote: The great reformer Martin Luther
“God our Father has made all things depend on faith so that whoever has faith will have everything, and whoever does not have faith will have nothing.”
• Jesus did not reject either the woman’s tears or her precious gift of ointment:
• Because her works were the evidence of her faith.
Ill:
• John Paton, the pioneer missionary to the New Hebrides,
• He translated the Bible into the language of the people of the southern seas.
• But he had great difficulty in securing a word for faith
• For there seemed to be no equivalent in their language.
• He made it a matter of special prayer.
• One day one of his workers came in from a hard day’s work,
• And leaned back in a lounge chair and said,
• ’I am so tired I feel I must lean my whole weight on this chair’
• ’Praise God,’ said Paton, ’I’ve got my word.
• ‘Faith’ simply means; “To lean your whole weight on him”
• Pattons translation of John chapter 3 verse 16 reads:
• "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son,
• That who ever leans his whole weight on him shall not perish, but have everlasting life".
Notice: The reward of faith (verse 50 “Go in peace”):
• For the first time in her life, she had peace with God:
• It literally it reads, “Go into peace,”
• What a contrast;
• She came in guilt and shame and she left in peace & joy & forgiveness!
Ill: Earlier in this same chapter we have two other miracles
:
• (1). Jesus healed the centurion’s servant, it was a great miracle.
• (2). An even greater miracle was His raising the widow’s son from the dead.
• But in these verses we see the greatest miracle of all.
• Jesus was saving this woman from her sins and giving her a brand new start!
Quote: Warren Wiersbe:
“The miracle of salvation has to be the greatest miracle of all,
for it meets the greatest need, brings the greatest results (and they last forever),
and cost the greatest price.”
Simon was blind to the woman and blind to himself:
• He could only see her past,
• But Jesus saw her future.
In coming to Jesus:
• This woman risked ridicule and disgrace,
• But she came anyway.
• Faith is simply coming to Jesus.
• And when we do, we know He’ll accept us just as we are.
Ill:
• Charlotte Elliott had become bedridden while still a young woman in her thirties.
• Once she was active and vibrant,
• But now she felt useless in her weakened condition,
• And often endured terrible bouts of depression.
• During one of these dark periods,
• When her family was out helping her pastor brother raise funds for a Christian school,
• She lay wondering whether she could ever give anything of value to the Lord.
• In the midst of her despair,
• She realised that Jesus found value in her just as she was;
• This thought broke across her mind like a long-awaited sunrise.
• So relieved, she wrote a song, one that has helped generations of people find Christ;
• “Just As I Am.”
Just as I am, tho tossed about
With many a conflict, many a doubt,
Fighting’s and fears within, without,
O Lamb of God, I come! I come!
Just as I am, without one plea
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bidd’st me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come! I come!
Just as I am, and waiting not
To rid my soul of one dark blot,
To Thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot,
O Lamb of God, I come! I come!
Just as I am, though tossed about
With many a conflict, many a doubt,
Fighting’s and fears within, without,
O Lamb of God, I come! I come!
Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind, -
Sight, riches, healing of the mind,
Yea, all I need, in Thee to find,
O Lamb of God, I come! I come!
Just as I am, Thou wilt receive,
Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;
Because Thy promise I believe,
O Lamb of God, I come! I come!
Just as I am! Thy love unknown
Has broken every barrier down –
Now to be Thine, yea, Thine alone,
O Lamb of God, I come! I come!
Just as I am, of that free love
The breadth, length, depth, and height to prove,
Here for a season, then above,
O Lamb of God, I come! I come!
