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December 6/7, 2014
Jason Meyer | Luke 7:36-50
One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.” And Jesus answering said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he answered, “Say it, Teacher.”
“A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?” Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” And he said to him, “You have judged rightly.” Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”—Luke 7:36–50
Introduction
The Four Candles of Advent
What do the four candles of advent represent? Sometimes people give them different meanings. Some would say one stands for peace and one for joy, etc. I want to say this year in this sermon series that they stand for changed lives. The first candle represents the paralytic of Luke 5. The second candle represents the sinful woman of Luke 7. The third candle represents the woman with the flow of blood from Luke 8. The fourth candle represents “the chief of sinners” as the apostle Paul called himself (1 Timothy 1:15). Why can the candles represent them? Jesus is the light of the world (John 8:12). Philippians 2:15 says Christians are “lights in the world.” Do you see the symmetry of those two statements? The Light of the world comes to create lights in the world. These changed lives are children of light that shine for him. You might ask what all of that has to do with Christmas. Doesn’t advent had to narrowly focus on Jesus’ birth and the Old Testament promises of his coming? Luke 5, 7, 8 and 1 Timothy 1 are not traditional Christmas texts. You many have thought that Christmas texts were “for unto us a Son is given” kind of stuff. I am glad you asked. Let’s read the beginning of that text:
The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
on them has light shone.
You have multiplied the nation;
you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you
as with joy at the harvest,
as they are glad when they divide the spoil.—Isaiah 9:2-3
Why will there be such light and such joy? The answer comes three verses later:
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and of peace
there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.—Isaiah 9:6-7
The coming of this Son, this Mighty God, this Prince of Peace is described as a great light that brings great joy.
And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.—Luke 2:10-11
Good news of great joy because a Savior is born—the Messiah, the Lord. It does not get any more “Christmas” than that.
This year during advent, we are taking all of the concepts in these verses and asking “So what?” What difference does all that stuff make for a real person in 2014 with real problems, walking in a world filled with so much pain? So what?
Watch what happens when people see the light. They are forever changed as children of light that shine for him. Last week, we saw Jesus meet the forever need of forgiveness for a paralytic. This week, we see what an encounter with Jesus looks like for a woman with a shameful past. We will discover a stunning truth and see a shocking twist in this story.
The stunning truth is that worship flows from forgiveness. Those who are forgiven much will make much of Jesus. To be forgiven is to become a worshipper.
The shocking twist is that Jesus completely turns the tables on social standards and sides with the “lawbreaker” over the “law keeper.”
One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment.
This woman is called a sinner. You may say, “I thought everyone was a sinner. No one is perfect, right?” Just try to imagine this scenario with me for a second. The Jews had tabulated about 613 rules that they were supposed to keep. Those who kept more of them (law keepers) were thought to be closer to God and to salvation than those who broke more of them (lawbreakers). People who were lawbreakers were the outcasts of society. They were only fit to be classified as a social slur: “sinners.” They had no hope of salvation. They were hopelessly behind at the end of the line.
Yet here this woman is intensely pouring love and affection on Jesus. In terms of the standards of that society, this would be incredibly inappropriate and scandalous. Jesus should reject her and shame her, not receive affection from her. Simon the Pharisee shares this perspective when he says that this is an indecent act of defilement and that they are both unclean now.
Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.”
The Pharisee views this woman as societal scum. He is shocked that Jesus would even be associated with her. He renders his judgment on the matter quickly and decisively. The Pharisee assumes that the fact that Jesus would allow this to happen proves that he is not a prophet. Jesus should know better than to hang around with the likes of her. She is touching him and making him unclean. You could call these spiritual germs. When I was a schoolboy, it was popular on the playground to pretend that girls had cooties—“Don’t let them touch you.” I look back and think it was a chauvinist version of tag. The Pharisee’s behavior is equivalent to that on a spiritual level. Simon the Pharisee thought that sinners like this woman would give a holy person like him spiritual cooties.
Simon said this to himself, but like we saw last week, Jesus knows his heart. He knows what Simon is saying to himself, so he answers Simon just as if he were responding to a spoken accusation. Watch how Jesus reverses this judgment.
And Jesus answering said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he answered, “Say it, Teacher.”
”A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?” Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” And he said to him, “You have judged rightly.”
Jesus first tells a story that draws Simon in so that he can turn Simon’s judicial sentiment against him. A moneylender cancels the debts of two men, one who owed 500 denarii and one who owed 50 denarii. Jesus asked which one would love the moneylender more. Simon saw that the one who had been forgiven more would love more. Jesus tells him that he judged the story rightly, but now Jesus turns the tables on him by showing his judgment is way off in real life. Now Jesus lowers the boom by asking a penetrating question about what Simon sees.
Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.—Luke 7:44-46
It turns out that this man did not see anything clearly in this situation. He didn’t see the woman rightly, himself rightly, or Jesus rightly. Simon’s relative indifference to Jesus is contrasted with the woman’s extravagant worship and love. Then Jesus comes to his judgment.
Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.—Luke 7:47
Jesus forces us to see the link between forgiveness and love. He says that love flows from forgiveness. If people feel forgiven of little, like Simon, then they will show very little love, like Simon. But if people feel forgiven of much, like the “sinner,” then they will show much love.
Don’t miss the point. Jesus is using a category of perception, not reality. There are certainly some people who feel that they have little that needs to be forgiven, but that perception is divorced from reality. Those who think they are forgiven little are not forgiven at all. They do not know themselves, and they do not know Jesus. They do not worship at all. Jesus does not forgive a little because no one sins a little. We all have a colossal debt due to sin. Some feel it more than others, but we all have it.
Jesus has put this smug, self-righteous man in his place. He defends the woman against the spiritual bullying of Simon. Jesus has turned to her while talking to Simon, and now he defends her further and vindicates her.
And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
He tells her the same thing we heard him say to the paralytic last week: “Your sins are forgiven.”This once again is a scandalous claim. What he claims causes people to question his identity. Who is this guy? He reaffirms the woman and explains what has happened. “Your faith has saved you.” I love the tense of the verb. The faith that saves has effects that cannot be confined to the past. She is saved by faith. She is a forgiven sinner, a changed life, a triumph of grace. No self–righteous Pharisee can heap enough shame on her to stop her from worshipping her Savior.
This passage has two evangelistic interpretations.First, let’s look at how it covers shame in Jesus’ day.Let us return to our original question. How can Jesus reverse the order of the line in terms of who is close to God? He makes the same shocking point elsewhere:
“Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you”.—Matthew 21:31
Here it is in a nutshell: Both law keepers and lawbreakers are sinners needing to be forgiven. Why would one group be further ahead? Tax collectors and prostitutes like the woman of our story were in need of forgiveness, and they knew it. Pharisees were in need of forgiveness, and they were blind to it. Do you see the difference? Both were spiritually naked, but the Pharisees at the end of the line was also spiritually blind. That is why they were at the end of the line—they were going the wrong way, and they didn’t know it.
Let me say it a different way. Ever since Adam and Eve rebelled against God, there has been a thing in the world called “shame” that comes from a sense of nakedness. If pre-sin is characterized as naked and not ashamed, the fall into sin can be described as naked and ashamed. That text in Genesis is talking about more than physical nakedness. There is also a spiritual component. Adam and Eve tried to make clothes for themselves to cover their shame, but in the end God had to do it for them. The same is true here. The Pharisees know that they are spiritually naked, so they are trying to cover their shame with the fig leaves of morality and rule keeping. They are trying to make their own spiritual clothing. They are spiritually naked, but they strut around like they are not.
They are like the emperor from the book The Emperor’s New Clothes. He thinks that he is wearing the finest of clothes, but he is deceived. He is naked. There he is, strutting through the streets, thinking that he is exquisitely dressed, but he is actually streaking through the streets. Finally a child has to break through the deception by crying out, “He doesn’t have any clothes on!” The Emperor was out in public naked, and he should have been ashamed. The little child got him in touch with the shame he should have felt.
Jesus is saying telling Simon that besides being spiritually naked, he is spiritually blind to the fact that he has not covered his shame. That is why he is at the end of the line.
Why would tax collectors and prostitutes be at the head of the line? Jesus offers a robe of righteousness to cover spiritual nakedness, and these kinds of people know that they are spiritually naked, so they say, “That is exactly what I need.” They run to the Savior because they know they need to be saved. The Pharisees need the Savior just as much, but they are blind to their need. In fact, their blindness is painful in the story because what they need is right there in their living room.
Think of some other ways in which Simon’s blindness increases his sin. Romans 8:31 asks, “Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the One who justifies.” Who will bring a charge? Simon will. He feels smugly superior in calling the woman a sinner as he brings a charge God’s elect daughter. You don’t want to be on the other side of that conversation with Jesus. In fact, his actions are anti-Christ because he tries to put shame on someone whose shame is completely covered by Christ.
Jesus firmly puts him in his place. There were two sinners in this passage, but now one is forgiven and saved, and the one who doesn’t think he is a sinner is still lost and unforgiven. It is in many ways a carbon copy of Luke 15. Many people think of it as the parable of the lost son, but there are two lost sons. The principle is the same as a similar story later in Luke 18. In that chapter, there is a Pharisee who thanks God for how he is superior to other sinners like the tax collector standing next to him. He thinks he is presentable to God. He thanks God that he is not spiritually naked like the tax collector. He thinks he is dressed in the finest robes of self-righteousness, but he doesn’t know he is indecent while approaching God’s throne. The tax collector beats his breast and does not even look up in his shame over his nakedness. He says, “Lord have mercy on me the sinner.” God grants the request of the tax collector. He pours out mercy and clothes him so that now has a right standing before the Judge—he is justified by grace. But the blind, smug Pharisee is condemned as an unrighteous sinner. Then Jesus states the principle: “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
The woman humbled herself as a sinner and found complete covering for her shame. She was weighed down and scraping the bottom of the barrel with shame, but Jesus lifted her up to the skies. Simon was puffed up like a smug, self-righteous balloon, ready to be popped and deflated by the pin prick of Jesus’ powerful, soul-searching words.
The second evangelistic interpretation this passage has is for trying to cover our shame today. There are two ditches we are in danger of falling into. First, we can try to experience salvation from the rules. In doing this, we feel free to flaunt our self-expression, and we look down on religious types as being caught a straightjacket. These people sometimes hide in shame until they feel more presentable. Second, we can try to experience salvation by the rules. In doing this, we feel superior and smug, and we sometimes look down on “sinners” or act as a spiritual bully by inflicting shame on others. Both of these ditches result in us being spiritually naked. Jesus is the only way to be saved and clothed.
The first category of sinner rejects Jesus first because they find his lordship too restraining. They want to be saved from the rules. Later when they have broken the rules, they reject Jesus because they feel like he would reject them.They realize they are sick. “How could he love me?” they ask, “I am dirty and defiled. I need to clean up my act. I need to get myself presentable and acceptable by getting my act together.” They go right to the idea that you get saved by keeping the rules. They think Jesus will reject them so they go to the other ditch.
You might think that the second category of sinner would reject Jesus because they think they are already saved by keeping the rules. Jesus gives a different picture. They are not hardcore legalists who think they can be perfect without any need of forgiveness. They just think they need a little help. This is a subtler, softer form of legalism that says, “I just need to be forgiven a little. I know that I may need a little help, but I am a lot better off than the others. I need to be forgiven a little, but I am basically presentable as I am.”
Hardcore legalists will be ice-cold toward Jesus because they are trying to save themselves another way. Even secular people today try to justify themselves in their own sight by keeping the rules. They just have a different set of rules. Today, this often looks like giving to charity, being environmentally conscious, or a whole variety of things.
People who attend church and think they are Christians can be blinded by legalist logic, too. Softcore legalists may believe they need forgiveness, but it is a small need in their eyes. Jesus is not the main person to pay their debt; he is more like a co-signer. He helps you if you fall short once and a while, but you pay the bulk of the debt. To the soft legalist, Jesus is a supplement, not a true Savior. Soft legalists are not Christians because they are not worshippers. They do not totally reject Jesus— they thank him a little, but they congratulate themselves more. They congratulate themselves for their own accomplishments much more than they celebrate all that Christ has done. The most obvious evidence of legalist logic is a lack of love and adoration for Jesus. Smugness and self-righteousness are indecent sins that are compounded by feeling superior to others and inflicting shame on them.
Let me speak to those who know that they are spiritually naked right now and feel ashamed. Church should not be a place where you feel more shamed. Some people say, “Church? Why would I go there? They would just make me feel worse.” It should not be this way! It should be natural for the hungry to go to a food pantry. The church is a place that preaches a Savior who completely covers your shame. We don’t heap more shame on you; we want to bring you to the only One that can take it away.
Are you trying to cover your own shame? It will be like the gown that you get at the hospital that never quite covers enough, so you feel exposed and lacking dignity. Come to Jesus! Be completely clothed and covered by his blood and robes of righteousness. My sin, O the bliss of this glorious thought. My sin, not in part, but the whole is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord O my soul!
One day Jesus is going to split the skies and return as Judge. He is going to reveal to everyone who the real children of God are (Romans 8:19). He will defend us before everyone who has tried to shame us. But if we are ashamed of him, he will be ashamed of us (Luke 9:26). We are not ashamed to shine for him. We are not ashamed of the gospel (Romans 1:16). The one who believes in him will not be put to shame (Romans 10:11). He is not ashamed to call us brothers (Hebrews 2:12).
The message of Christmas is that Jesus came to be worshipped. As “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence” says, “Christ our God to earth descendeth, our full homage to demand.”
How does this message help us as we move toward communion?
King of kings, yet born of Mary,
as of old on earth he stood,
Lord of lords, in human vesture,
in the body and the blood,
he will give to all the faithful
his own self for heavenly food.
The Savior came as food to the spiritually starved—the bread of life and living water. Come to the feast—it has been paid for in full by the King himself. All the spiritually hungry can come. All the spiritually naked can be completely covered. All the spiritually bankrupt can receive his riches. It can be yours today. Thank God it is enough.
And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.—Luke 22:19–20
It is enough to completely cover us with his robes of righteousness. It is enough to completely satisfy our spiritual starvation. But thank God there is more coming. Jesus wants us to see where all of this is going so he says these words before his words of institution:
And when the hour came, he reclined at table, and the apostles with him. And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.—Luke 22:14–16
Jesus longed to eat the feast of the first supper in the age to come that could only come with his second coming, but to get there they had to have the Last Supper in the present evil age. But there is more coming when the faith shall be sight, when “the clouds be rolled back as a scroll.” No more shame or sin. We proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Sermon Discussion Questions
Outline
We will discover a stunning truth and see a shocking twist in this story:
The Stunning Truth: Worship flows from forgiveness. Those who are forgiven much make much of Jesus. To be forgiven is to become a worshipper.
The Shocking Twist: Jesus completely turns the tables on social standards and sides with the “lawbreaker” instead of the “law keeper.”
Discussion Questions
Application Questions