I was at the courthouse the other day doing something – I was waiting in a certain part of the building for some people and
I could hear a discussion going on on another floor. I could tell that one of the people was starting to get really upset – in
fact, it became so heated and loud that soon there was a lot of activity as county deputies rushed in to get the person out
and under control. You could tell, looking at the rest of us people in the building, that it was pretty awkward and
uncomfortable. Everyone kind of thought something should be done, but no one wanted to step in and do anything – me
included.
We all kind of have expectations of propriety – what’s right – in various places. You shouldn’t hearing belching in
restaurants. People from the opposing team shouldn’t sit in the home section and loudly cheer for the opposing team.
There are just some unwritten rules that ought to be observed.
Today, as we continue our series in the Gospel of Luke – a REAL Human Life – we find Jesus in what appears to be kind
of an uncomfortable situation. But Jesus, always taking His direction from the Father, living out the human life perfectly,
handles it in a way that you and I need to learn from. As we open up God’s Word, let’s ask God Himself to help us see
what He wants us to see. PRAY
Open up to Luke 7:36-38. READ. At Jesus’ time, people’s tables were close to the floor and they sat on the floor to eat.
I don’t know how older people dealt with that – for me, the floor seems to keep getting farther and farther away. But this
is the scene we find Jesus in here.
This Pharisee – perhaps really seeking answers or maybe trying a political ploy to look good with this Magic Man – invites
Jesus over for a meal. We can see later in the passage that there are lots of people at this meal – probably friends of the
Pharisee.
As Jesus sat down to eat, from somewhere this woman showed up. I’m not sure how she got in. This meal was happening
at the Pharisee’s house – so it’s not like a compound where there would be guards at the door, but surely someone would
have noticed this woman come in and tried to stop her, but the Father had other plans for her.
How uncomfortable would this have been for those at this meal – especially the Pharisee? This woman, this SINFUL
woman, barges in to this private home and this meal that was probably by invitation only. And she is SOBBING. She is
crying so hard that she has enough tears to wash the feet of Jesus. Her sobbing and her actions would have made
conversation pretty difficult.
And as she continues to sob, she gets down on her knees and begins to wipe Jesus’ feet with her hair – very personal and
intimate. And as she does that, she actually begins to kiss His feet. There is a time and a place for things, and other times
and places are not appropriate. And we can tell that the Pharisee was getting ticked off about what was happening. Luke
7:39. READ.
He wondered why Jesus would allow this to continue – if He was REALLY as spiritually insightful as He seemed to be, He
would know what kind of a woman this was. If He was really a prophet of God, the Pharisee was thinking, He would cast
this sinful woman out and get back to the meal.
This circumstance happens immediately after what we looked at last week which ended with Jesus declaring that the
religious people would not take any answers God was giving them. In Luke 7:31-35, Jesus addresses the attitude of
people who don’t think they need to repent and don’t think they need forgiveness. This Pharisee may have been among the
crowd when Jesus said all that. He obviously saw himself as better than this woman.
Before we talk about the Pharisee, let’s look at this woman. Verse 37 says, “Behold, a woman in the city who was a
sinner…” It doesn’t tell us what her sin problems were, but they are pretty easy to figure out. It is pretty clear that she was
a woman who would do any activity, any scheme, any perversion – anything – to find food and shelter and even
acceptance and love. But she had only found rejection. The Pharisee knew she was a sinner. She knew she was a sinner.
Jesus knew she was a sinner. EVERYONE knew she was a sinner – that’s how she was known.
This woman brought two things to the Pharisee’s house when she found out Jesus was there. She brought a fancy alabaster
flask of fragrant oil – probably part of her tools of her sinful lifestyle – AND she brought FAITH. She brought faith that
Jesus COULD help her (it is pretty clear she wanted freedom from her sin).
In verse 38 we can see her hope and her expectation and her longing for freedom. She may have been going down for the
last time at this point – this may have been her final attempt to salvage her life. She was so distraught that her weeping
produced enough tears to actually wash the feet of Jesus. This Man – unlike all the other men – was her last hope for the
freedom she longed for. She desperately desired that freedom and love and acceptance and forgiveness and value and a
different life. So she came to this Man and, in the only way she knew how, she appealed to Him for help.
And something happened – before the Pharisee ever said a word about her and before Jesus even said a word to her, she
knew she had found what she was looking for, which caused her that much more sobbing – gratefully responding to Him
and the forgiveness He extended to her from God the Father.
So in verse 39, we see this Pharisee judging this woman – he gives her what she has come to expect from people –
although he actually doesn’t SAY anything. But in his self-righteousness and self-centeredness (the two indicators of what
makes judgment), he declares in his own mind that she is unworthy of grace, mercy, forgiveness or anything God has to
offer. The Pharisee does not see this as an opportunity to help her or reach out to her, but to set himself above her.
Jesus, as He always did while on earth as a human being, listened to the Father and noted the Pharisee’s response to what
was going on. Verse 40 is an ominous statement, I think. “Simon, I have something to say to you.” I don’t think Simon
the Pharisee knew what was coming. He was enjoying his own righteousness and appearance in comparison to this woman
– even seeing himself as more religious than Jesus – Jesus couldn’t even see what kind of a woman this was in Simon’s
mind. Look out, Simon, my friend. Jesus sees right through you.
When we look at people in judgment or condemnation, we ought to know that Jesus sees right through US, too. He sees
our self-righteousness and self-centeredness. He knows exactly who we are and exactly the sins WE deal with that are in
no way less offensive to God that the other person’s sins. Be careful, my friend, Jesus sees right through you. Simon is
oblivious to what Jesus sees. “Say it, Teacher.”
Here’s what Jesus says – He sets up a scenario for Simon to think about. Luke 7:41-43. READ. A denarius was a day’s
wages. In today’s money, if you receive $10 an hour, one denarius would be $80 to $100. One guy owed the lender 50
days’ wages - $4000 to $5000. The other guy owed 500 days’ wages - $40,000 to $50,000. If your pay is more like
$20 per hour, double the amounts. And neither one of them could pay it back. So the lender forgives the debt of both of
them.
Jesus then asked Simon the Pharisee this question – “Which one of them loved the lender more?” And Simon easily sees
the answer – “Probably the one who had owed more and had been forgiven the greater amount.” Jesus tells Simon, “That’
s right – you can see that.”
Luke 7:44-47. READ. Simon, do you even SEE this woman? You invited Me over here for a meal, and ever since I
arrived, your thoughts have been on your agenda, your appearance, your SELF. This woman came in and has not stopped
demonstrating her total humiliation, her great sorrow, her full devotion to Me in everything she has done. So, I am letting
you know that her sins – which we all know are many – her sins ARE forgiven, seen in how much she loved. Her love
shows her understanding of the forgiveness she has received.
But, Simon, to whom little is forgiven, that person loves little. The person who doesn’t see his need for forgiveness and his
hopelessness will never have the kind of response this woman had. This situation reminds me of Jesus’ words in Luke 19:
10, “I came to seek and to save that which was lost.” And also in Luke 5:31,32 which we have seen already, “Those who
are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to
repentance.”
Look at what happens next. Luke 7:48-50. READ. We aren’t able to hear the inflection Jesus has in His voice when He
says these things to this woman. I think He is affirming what she already knew – YOUR sins ARE forgiven. The rest of the
people around the table – Simon’s friends – miss the point completely that Jesus is sharing with them. It is those who see
their need of forgiveness and come that are forgiven. The people around the table are instead offended by His statement of
forgiveness to this sinner-woman. But Jesus continues His assurance to her, “Your FAITH has saved you – go in peace.”
Woman, you came in here a sinner hoping for grace and mercy and forgiveness and peace and life. Your faith in Me – sent
by the Father to heal the brokenhearted and proclaim liberty to the captives (Luke 4:18,19) – your faith has saved you.
Your faith in Me to provide what you knew God offered has now brought it to you. You can now go on from here in
peace – peace with God – knowing the salvation He has provided. And go on living IN that peace, too.
Where are YOU? How do you see yourself? Do you have it all together and Jesus is kind of like a good luck charm or a
magic formula when you have a hard time? Or do you see yourself as far away from God’s perfect standard and a mess –
even if you have CLAIMED to be a follower of Jesus? It is time to get things right.
Many of us have come to church week after week, year after year and we still struggle with the same issues of sin that we
struggled with last week or last year or 10 years ago. Sometimes we have good weeks where we feel pretty good and
sometimes we fail miserably and are forced to see this ugliness we thought we would get away from. But we come – I
know we’ve had people come as guests who are “going down for the last time” and hoping just one more time that there
really is truth and relief in “church.”
Maybe you are about to go down for the last time. Maybe you have come today hoping that Jesus will show up and set
you free. Today is your lucky day! Actually, as God’s Word says, today is the day of salvation.
Truth and relief and rescue from sin is REFERRED to in church, but it comes through Jesus Christ. And He is real – He is
calling – He sees your faith and He is responding with forgiveness and peace and restoration and love. Jesus says in John
10:10, “The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy” – is that how your life feels? – “but I have come
that they may have life and have it to the fullest.” The same Jesus who told this woman, “Your sins are forgiven” says the
same thing to us who come to Him in faith.
As the worship team comes up, I want you to take some time to respond. You don’t have to cry buckets of tears – if tears
are there, that’s OK. You don’t have to kiss His feet or buy expensive perfume – you only have to BELIEVE. Believe in
the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. There is nothing any of us can do to clean ourselves up or make ourselves
more acceptable to God. He accepts us as we are – come as you are. There is no one here who is any less sinful than
you. There is no one here who is any MORE sinful than you. Sin is sin is sin is sin is sin.
This woman in Luke 7 expressed worship and praise to Jesus for the things God did in her as she put her faith in Him. I
kind of think of her attitude as what we see in Psalm 84:10-12. READ. I would rather stand at the threshold of the house
of God than to live any longer in the wickedness of the world.
This helps us look at our hearts in worship, too. What this woman did in gratefulness for forgiven sins was what God
desires from anyone who worships Him. It was “worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23). The devotion to God in this
woman was deep – in spirit – and it was true. This was no show. She didn’t care what people thought of her or even if
she was making a fool of herself and other uncomfortable.
Her worship was not despised by God. Her spirit was broken and she worshiped from a broken and contrite heart (Psalm
51:17). Read and study Psalm 51 – this is David’s response to being found out about stealing a man’s wife and killing the
man to cover up her pregnancy. How should you and I respond to our Savior for how He has rescued us from our sin?
Jesus told the woman at Simon’s house, “Go in peace.” If you have experienced the forgiveness of God like her, go in
peace – go live IN the peace God has provided. And don’t go back to the uproar. Repent and follow Jesus.
If you know Jesus has released you from the sin that has entangled you, take some time now to express your gratefulness to
Him. You don’t have to come up front – you can if you want. You don’t have to cry. You only have to believe in Jesus
and receive the gift of salvation He has made possible.