Forgiven
The Middle East is an extremely conservative, extremely religious area. For a woman to leave the house without her hair up, hair covered, and face hidden behind a veil would have been extremely shameful. Women were not valued at this time, they were not well respected or considered equal to men on any level. They could not own property, they could not vote, they could not testify in court because they were not viewed as being fully human. Now if a woman would be shamed for leaving the house with her hair down how do you think she would be treated if she was known to engage in sexual relationships outside of marriage?
Imagine a small town where everybody knows everybody, where there is no such thing as a private life: picture small town USA in the early1960’s. Where if a young woman was pregnant outside of marriage a lot of times her family would send her away so no one would know what she had done and she would not embarrass or shame them. The Middle East would make small town 1960’s look as liberal as California by comparison. A woman like this would be considered vile, dirty, wicked, and sinful. Men would treat her with disgust, she would be a social outcast. Everywhere she goes she would get dirty looks from people. Her life would be full of pain, shame, and loneliness.
In Luke 7:36 Jesus meets a woman like this. Here is what happens:
Lk 7:36 Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. Lk 7:37 When 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, Lk 7:38 and 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.
Jesus has already built a reputation for eating with sinners. Jesus eats with drunkards, perverts, liars, cheaters, thieves, and whores. He does not condone their sin but He values them as human beings. The religious people they don’t understand. They condemn Jesus for being a friend to the sinful people of the world. They ask Him why He eats with sinners. Well because Jesus doesn’t like to eat alone. The difference between the sinners and the religious people that Jesus eats with, is that the sinners are honest about the fact that they sin. The religious people aren’t. They like to think that they are righteous and good and not guilty like the dirty rotten scum that Jesus eats with.
Pharisees means trouble. They are the religious elite, they carry with them a feeling of superiority and entitlement and they are typically indifferent to the needs of the hurting people around them. Pharisees care more about making themselves look good then they do helping those in need. When we see them in Luke at least thus far it is always been a sign something is going to go badly. Think like Gilligan’s Island whenever you see Gilligan you know he going to cause trouble.
Simon the Pharisee not Peter, invites Jesus over for diner. Now we don’t know that he has nefarious intentions but the fact that he is a Pharisee should make us a bit suspicious. Now at this time they did not sit in chairs at tables three or four feet off the ground. Jews ate at tables that were only a few inches off the ground. They would sit down and sort of lay on their left side on a pillow that was essentially resting on the right side of person next to them. They would eat with one hand and the meal took time. Each person’s head would be at the table and their feet out pointing away from it. As the guest of honor Jesus was likely sitting next to Simon.
Enter the sinful woman. This lady is not named and we are not told specifically what her sin is. She is however most likely a prostitute as she was known all over town. When she comes in her hair is not up and hidden as any respectable woman at this time would have done it, but let down. A woman with her hair down at this time would be like a woman walking around in her underwear in public today.
She comes in carrying an alabaster jar of perfume. Alabaster is a translucent stone which would be hollowed out to serve as a jar for perfume. This was a very valuable item and would often be worn around a woman’s neck and tucked into her clothing. This perfume is valued at around a year’s wages. Today she would be dumping $30, 40, 50 thousand on Jesus feet.
What this gift even more valuable is when we considering this woman’s occupation. She doesn’t have a lot of time left where she can work. You don’t see a lot of old prostitutes, so as she is nearing her occupational retirement age she needs to have saved enough to live on for the rest of her life. She has used up her best years and because of her occupation it is unlikely she will ever find a husband to support her. They don’t have welfare or unemployment provided by the state, so when her money runs out she is trouble. She is pouring her life savings onto Jesus feet. This is everything has.
She falls at His feet and wets His feet with tears. This is a serious balling session her tears are actually described like rain falling. Then she wipes Jesus feet with her hair. She uses her hair, her glory to humbly wash Jesus feet. This is perhaps the most humble thing done by a person in the entire Bible. Then she pours out her life savings, her future well being, her means of taking care of herself onto the lowliest part of Jesus body.
Lk 7:39 When 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.” Lk 7:40 Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said. Lk 7:41 “Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Lk 7:42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?” Lk 7:43 Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled.” “You have judged correctly,”
Again we see that when lost and hurting people come to Jesus it is the religious people who get in the way. Here what Simon says to himself: If Jesus were a prophet He would know who this woman was, if He knew who this woman was He would not let her touch Him therefore since He let her touch Him He must not be a prophet. This is the cruelty of religion and religious behavior. This man can look at a hurting woman broken and weeping before him and all he thinks about is how dirty she is and how unholy it is that Jesus lets this dirty woman touch Him.
So Simon starts muttering under his breath and Jesus responds with a parable. A money lender who would be sort of like a bookie has two men who owe him money. Now one thing about money lenders: they are successful because they are good with money. They don’t let debts go unpaid. Moneylenders are not typically known for their generosity. It is hard to get paid when you stories about your forgiving debts begin to spread. But for some reason this moneylender forgave the debts of these two men. Now one of them owed him about two months wages the other owed almost two years. Who loves more? The obvious answer is the one who has been forgiven more.
Jesus said. Lk 7:44 Then 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. Lk 7:45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. Lk 7:46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Lk 7:47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.”
Religious people think they are righteous because of how they have lived. The truth is righteousness comes from how you treat Jesus. So let’s look at how the two people respond. The woman passionately responds to Jesus and she humbly honors Him with everything she has while the Pharisee is radically indifferent.
Simon is a successful, respectable leader. He has followed the rules. He has done the right thing probably all of his life. Simon is the kind of guy who never went through the bad boy years. He doesn’t look back on his past and have lots of regrets. He has been on the good road all his life. No real mistakes, no real problems.
I wonder if we are like Simon? If a prostitute dressed in her working clothes knocked on your door when you were having dinner with some friends and co-workers would you welcome her in? How many of us think like Simon does. I know I have mistakes, I know I have done some bad things but for the most part I am a good person. I never killed anyone, I don’t have promiscuous sex, I don’t drugs, I don’t use foul language. I know I need Jesus to save me but really I am pretty good on my own.
Simon may be good. He may be righteous by the standards of the law. But look at how he treats Jesus: Simon has servants but he doesn’t bother to make sure that they wash Jesus feet. This was a simple and yet very important act of hospitality. He is shaming Jesus by making sure Jesus feet stay dirty. Simon didn’t even bother to have one of his slaves take care of this basic area of hospitality. This woman, dirty, gross, sinful, wicked thing that she is washes Jesus feet with her hair and her tears.
Simon did not greet Jesus with a kiss. This is an act of affection. Not romantic kiss, at this time kissing on the cheek was a casual greeting gesture. Simon didn’t care enough to even greet Jesus who was his guest. This woman kisses Jesus feet. Simon did not anoint Jesus head to honor Him with common oil he would have had in excess but this woman has used more expensive, more valuable oil that was all she had to anoint Jesus feet. Simon is not better than this woman, in some ways he is worse. Simon does not know what to do with Jesus, but this dirty sinful woman, she does.
Lk 7:48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” Lk 7:49 The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” Lk 7:50 Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
Jesus looks this lowly, dirty sinful woman in the eyes and just as He did with the paralytic in chapter 5 Jesus tells this woman: your sins are forgiven. Once again this statement raises objections with the religious group at the table but unlike in chapter 5 Jesus offers no proof to validate His claim. He simply tells her: go in peace your faith has saved you. Religious people scorn this woman, but Jesus loves and forgives her.
Look at this: she didn’t say anything. Her faith is not something she claims. It is not something she says. Her faith is what she does; her lavish act of worship to Jesus that is her faith. Faith can only be measured by our actions. Faith is not what you say it is what you do. The only way to have faith is to live it. This woman is saved because she acted on what she believed about Jesus. Here is Jesus point: everyone has debt. No matter how well you lived or kept the rules we all sin and we all have a debt to pay.
Jesus is the moneylender. He comes to forgive our debts great and small Jesus comes to forgive them. He is the means by which our debts are paid. Religious people are the ones who put Jesus on the cross. Religion then tells us how to pay our own debts. We can’t. Jesus pays our debts. Jesus says: don’t worry about that I’ve got it covered.
This is the cool part: we don’t have to pay it back. Jesus paid our debt. We don’t have find good deeds to balance out all our bad ones. We just need to come to Jesus and to fall broken at His feet. We just need to have faith in who Jesus is and accept His forgiveness in our lives. Our response to that forgiveness should be love. Not just for God but for all His people. Faith is found in what you do. We are not to be known by what we say but by what we do. Jesus is seen not in our confession of Him but in how we live for Him. If you want the salvation that Jesus offers its time to stop talking about it and start doing something about it.
The religious man gets rebuked. The sinful woman gets forgiven. Which one do you want to be?
