Introduction
Read Luke 7.36-50. Pray.
So bad people need big forgiveness; as a result, when they meet Jesus, they love him much. Better people need less forgiveness, and so love little.
The woman was bad, “a woman of the city,” “a sinner.” To state it crassly, a streetwalker or prostitute. She needed big forgiveness, which she finds in Jesus; so she loves him greatly. Simon, on the other hand, was religious, an upstanding and respectable citizen, moral, a Bible student and theological expert, a elder in the Old Testament church. He has walked far on the road to godliness. With less sins to forgive, he is (understandably) less enamored with Jesus.
The parable of the two debtors seems to teach that. In the parable, Jesus is the moneylender; the woman owes five hundred denarii, Simon only fifty. When the debt of both is cancelled, the woman’s larger debt creates within in heart greater love, which explains her strange behavior.
Simon (on the other hand) is a Pharisee, and while we may feel negative connotations about members of that sect of Judaism, Pharisees were respected and honored in their towns. Simon’s invitation to dinner was a gift, a sign of admiration that Jesus rarely received. Like the mayor of Cincinnati inviting you to dinner, Simon says, “I am interested in what this rabbi teaches,” and everyone in town knew of it.
So Jesus enters Simon’s house and takes “his place at the table.” The implication, I think, is that this is a public, or at least semi-public event: one of the town leaders receives an itinerant rabbi. I would guess, though it is not said, that other dignitaries attend (like Turkey trip). Jesus takes his place, the one assigned, the place which all the other guests can see and easily point their questions toward.
They did not eat at chairs, but long couches, reclining, probably with one or both elbows resting on a pillow. Here is an artist’s picture of what it may have looked like:
Suddenly a woman enters the room. That in itself did not shock anyone; all of life was more public then than now. Additionally, Simon intentionally opened this dinner to visitors, since he was hosting a type of discussion forum with Jesus as the main attraction.
Nor does the scandal come from the woman’s seeking attention. She wanted to remain hidden from the crowd while she offered her most valuable possession to Jesus. She heard him preach earlier; she recognized in him God’s mercy and love, and she found forgiveness in his message of grace. She (earlier) accepted Jesus’ salvation; now she comes to give thanks for the freedom she found from the things she left behind.
The picture shows how she could “stand behind him at his feet.” Overcome with joy for forgiveness, she begins to cry. Unintentionally, her tears fall on the feet of Jesus. Without a towel, she instinctively pulls her hair around to wipe up the mess her tears made as they cut little rivulets in the dust clinging to his feet. Now overcome with emotion and touching the Lord to intimately, she kisses the feet she had just so tenderly bathed. Then in a rash act of devotion, she opens the alabaster flask and begins to rub Jesus’ cracked and worn feet with scented oil.
Jesus and Simon see in this woman two different things. Jesus sees her love and devotion, the overflow of a heart that has accepted the gospel. He sees her conversion, her confession of faith, and her present condition. Simon, on the other hand, sees only her past behavior and outward sins. Simon judges her based on what she was, not what God is doing.
But Simon judges more than the woman; he also judge Jesus. He thinks to himself, “We held this dinner to consider the claims of this man. Now we know; he is not the prophet his followers say. If he were a prophet, he would realize that she is a known prostitute.” Simon, the judge, has seen and heard the evidence, and he has ruled: both the woman and Jesus are rejected; she for her immorality, and he for his false claims.
As these thoughts solidify, Jesus speaks: “Simon, I have something to say to you.” Assuming he is safe, he responds: “Say it, teacher.”
Two people owe a moneylender: one owes fifty, the other five hundred. Both debts are cancelled. Which loves him more?
Simon again is cast in the role of the judge, and he answers (with some caution), “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” Jesus then congratulates Simon for judging rightly.
So we are back where we started. Bad people need big forgiveness; as a result, when they meet Jesus, they love him much. Better people need less forgiveness, and so love little. With her big sins, the woman needed big forgiveness. This explains her behavior. It also explains Simon’s behavior: a fine, moral, upstanding religious leader has few and small sins to be forgiven. Naturally, then, he does not act like a fool in the presence of the God’s Messiah.
But that is not how Jesus applies the parable. Consider again the two people in this story. One is rich and religious, spiritually curious, liberally educated, interested in truth. The other, poor and immoral, uneducated and disrespected, more concerned with survival than ultimate truth. In the end, however, Simon is condemned and confused; she is comforted and changed. Jesus praises the woman; he criticizes the Pharisee.
The difference between the two is the difference between real Christianity and mere outward religion. Observe with me, please, the symptoms. The first symptom is that one is intellectually detached; the other fully committed.
Notice how Jesus describes Simon’s reception: “You gave me no water for my feet; you gave me no kiss; you did not anoint my head with oil.” Do not mistake Jesus’ comments as criticism of Simon’s skills as a host. He is not saying that Simon was rude. Simon behaves in a socially correct way; but only so. By hosting this dinner, Simon declares: “I am interested in your position. I will consider your presentation. I want to know God and to accept those prophets who come in his name. I invited you into my house; I’m giving you a chance.” In other words, Simon offers a careful, disinterested, intellectual analysis.
But what does Jesus want? “This woman wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair; this woman kissed my feet; this woman anointed my feet with ointment.”
It takes little imagination to hear Simon’s thoughts: “What does he expect from me? Surely he doesn’t want me to weep and worship? Does he think a man in my position should engage in such dramatics: hugging and kissing and falling at his feet?”
Jesus answers: “Yes, Simon, I do.”
Simon’s interest is cold, detached, and formal. The woman, though, is passionate and whole; she is moved to the depths of her being, fully committed to Christ. She risks everything on her trust in Jesus; Simon risks nothing. Simon interviews Jesus. He considers the theological claims of the Christ. He holds his heart and emotions close to his chest.
Here is the second symptom of his spiritual disease: Simon controls the process; he hosts the party, sets the tone, and determines the standard which must be met. The woman loses control, she abandons herself and self-respect. She places herself in Jesus’ hands, and submits her life to his standard.
This is important: we never really know God until we abandon ourselves into his care. While we wait to see what his help will look like and whether it is what we want, we cannot see who he really is. God cannot be known apart from whole life commitment. The woman knew Jesus; Simon did not.
Let me point out two essential parts of this story.
First, notice in the parable, verse 42: “When they could not pay.” Jesus never says that Simon’s sins are as flagrant, or as obvious, or as immoral as the woman’s. Her behavior is “worse”; but neither can pay. Five hundred denarii was about two year’s wages for a simple laborer; no one in that culture and situation could pay back such a debt! The other owed only fifty, a mere two month’s salary, but there is no practical difference; neither can pay. Both will be sold to debtors’ prison. Both will die working off their debt. Like two soldiers killed in battle. One may be stabbed cleanly through the back by the knife of a trained assassin and the other blown up by a landmine, but both are dead.
Jesus insists that Simon confront this terrible fact. When Simon compares himself to other sinners, he looks good. His faults are not as socially scandalous. He owes less. But Jesus says, “You cannot pay.”
The woman, by contrast, owed much. So when Jesus forgives her, her sins, though many, are cancelled. As a result, “she is righteous, not because she pleased God, but because her sins were forgiven.” She also could not pay, but Jesus paid it all. Sin had left a crimson stain; he washed it white as snow. The key to the parable is this: neither could pay.
Notice, also, the gift she presents: “she brought an alabaster flask of ointment” (Luke 7.37). Many sermons focus on the cost of this gift, and that is rightly so. But today consider how this is the symbol of the life she lived and now leaves behind. Women of the city carried costly perfume around their necks, both as a sign of their profession and as a promise of the pleasures they offered. It was costly; more than that, it was a tool of the trade. This she brings to Jesus. Having received from him forgiveness she now gives him her whole life.
What a contrast with Simon. He treats Jesus like a guest, but stays in control. Simon is the host; Simon is in charge; Simon’s gift to Jesus is a bit of respectability in the town, which he gives without losing anything himself. She gives everything to Jesus.
Here is the difference between true Christianity and mere religion. Religion uses God to help you get other things you want. Christianity realizes that God is all you want. Religious people feel angry or hurt or disappointed when God refuses our desires. Religion sees other things as valuable, and trusts that if God loves me he will help me to those. Christianity sees Jesus as more valuable than anything, so that he is not a means to an end or another person to be manipulated. He gives himself, and that is enough.
1. First Application: We Must Believe the Gospel
Simon’s faith differs from the woman’s. Both believe in God; both know they are sinners; both admit they need forgiveness. The difference is not discipline or seriousness, because Simon would win out in that case. He is clearly more religious, more determined, more faithful. But Simon does not believe what Jesus says about the depth of his sin or the cost of salvation. The woman believes both.
First, she sees her sins in all their terrible greatness and shame. That is why she brings Jesus the flask of ointment – she knows that forgiveness includes freedom, and she is glad to give up the sins that enslaved her. She knows her condition apart from God’s grace; but she also believes in the forgiveness Jesus promises. Thus her joy cannot be held back in his presence. She must show her love for God.
Simon sees neither. He knows he is not perfect, but he cannot imagine that he cannot pay. Here is the genius of the parable: Jesus acknowledges that Simon’s life is vastly more moral than the woman’s; and he says, “You still cannot pay. You are just as liable to judgment, just as condemned.” Simon believes his sins are minor in God’s sight, so he does not need a gospel of grace.
What do you believe?
2. Second Application: We Must Have Our Debt Paid
While Simon would admit that he has sinned, he does not believe that the debt must somehow be paid. In this he is very modern.
At my other job last week, lady ended phone conversation and said, “Glenn, you will be proud of me. I’m one step closer to heaven. That man just told me so. He was so pleased with what I have done for his dad that he said I have earned my way closer to heaven.”
So I said, “Wow, what a great opportunity for you to help him see the truth. I guess you told him how wrong he is and that the Bible teaches something completely different. You did not miss that chance to straighten out his theology, did you?”
“What do you mean?”
“The Bible says that your good deeds do not help a bit; in fact, the more you try to do, the further into hell you are driven.”
“How do you get to heaven then?”
“No time today.”
The next day she came back at me: “We figured out why that is not the right answer. Everyone goes to heaven, without doing any good works.”
I said, “No, that is not true, but I am preaching on that this Sunday.”
The people I work with are really wonderful. And they would admit that they are not perfect. Just like Simon, however, they do not believe that someone must pay the debt. We see this every day in our country. Medical bills in the millions, government borrowing in the billions, mortgage defaults in the hundreds of thousands. We suppose that debt does not matter.
But someone pays for every debt.
This is much more true in spiritual things. You have probably heard the saying, “Jesus paid a debt he did not owe because we owe a debt we cannot pay.”
Who will pay your debt?
3. Third Application: We Must Understand Sin
Simon sees sin as a lack of conformity to some rules. That is why he cannot imagine needing Jesus to pay the debt. Yes, he knows he broke a few rules. But he is getting better at keeping them and soon he will follow them all.
But the woman realizes that sin is the desire to live independent of God. That is why you can follow all the rules and be lost in your sin. You can be morally straight, and theologically correct, and a member of the church, and refuse to bring the flask of self-righteousness to the feet of Jesus.
Sin is not ,ultimately, breaking the rules. Yes, disobedience reveals the sin in our hearts, but the sin is there even without the law. Sin is the desire to earn our way to heaven. Sin is the insistence that we be judged on our own merit. Sin is what makes us want to remain in control in the presence of Jesus.
Do you owe a debt you cannot pay?
4. Conclusion
Christianity Today reported last month on the new book by Bobby Jindal, Leadership and Crisis. Jindal chronicles his conversion from Hinduism to Christianity and explains that a friend invited him to church when he was a teenager. They saw a movie about the life of Christ and Jindal was overwhelmed by the crucifixion. He said, “When I saw the actor playing Jesus being crucified, it hit me that he was on the cross because of Bobby Jindal, my sins. How arrogant for me to do anything but get on my knees and worship him. The most important moment in my life was when I found Jesus Christ” (51).
What is in the flask around your neck that you need to bring to the feet of Jesus this morning?
You think about that.
