Sermon – Luke 7:36–8:3 – A Forgiven Sinner

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Sermon – Luke 7:36–8:3 – A Forgiven Sinner

First Presbyterian Church of Ocean City

June 12, 2016

            Jesus often dined with sinners and people you ordinarily wouldn’t associate with. But Jesus saw inherent worth in all people and was not afraid to share bread with people living on the margin.  Today we will see a dinner when Jesus got a break from all this.  A nice, respectable Pharisee invited him over.  It promised to be a pleasant meal until an unfortunate incident occurred.  This gave Jesus an important teaching moment. We will get to this, but first lets pray.

            “Grant unto us O Lord to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy Glory and our own edification.  Amen. (Calvin)

            Luke 7:36  When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. ³⁷ A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. ³⁸ 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.

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.”

⁴⁰ Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”

“Tell me, teacher,” he said.

⁴¹ “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii,^[a] and the other fifty. ⁴² Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”

⁴³ Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”

“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.

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. ⁴⁵ You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. ⁴⁶ You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. ⁴⁷ Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”

⁴⁸ Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

⁴⁹ The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”

⁵⁰ Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

8 After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, ² and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; ³ Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.

            Luke has given us a story with three characters.  First, there is Jesus, who has been invited to dinner at a formal party.  The second character is Simon, the host for the party and a distinguished Pharisee.  And the third character is an unnamed woman with a dubious reputation.  Jesus uses this situation to tell us a story about God’s love for us as manifested in forgiveness, and our love for God as manifested in gratitude, adoration and worship.

            Since the protestant reformation the church has argued over which comes first?  There are Christians who say that first we love God and show this love with our adoration and worship.  Then God responds with love for us and the forgiveness of our sins.  But I believe, along with the protestant reformers that the Bible clearly teaches that God loves us first and forgives our sin.  Then, in gratitude, we love God with adoration and worship.  We believe that God’s love always comes first.

            But Jesus was not concerned with the question of which comes first.  His message was that the love we receive from God and the love we return to God with adoration and worship are proportional.  The more love we receive from God, the more love we return to God.

            We can see this in Luke’s story.  Simon has little love for Jesus.  He has forgotten the basic elements of hospitality.  He failed to provide Jesus with a bucket of water to clean up from his dusty journey before reclining for dinner.  And he failed to greet Jesus appropriately with a kiss on the cheek.  Simon clearly hasn’t much love for Jesus. But, what about the woman? She certainly has affection for Jesus.  She cleans his feet with her tears, her hair, her kisses and her perfume.  I wouldn’t be going too far out on a limb to suggest that the woman loves Jesus far more than Simon.  And if our love for God is proportional to God’s love for us, as Jesus taught, then the woman must have received far more love from God, as manifested in forgiveness, than Simon did.

            So what would account for this?  Why would the woman experience far more of God’s love than Simon?  One possible answer is that God loves her more than he loves Simon.  But this can’t be the case because God loves the world, everyone the same.  God’s love is infinite.  His forgiveness is complete.  So there would be no difference in the love God offers to either Simon or the woman.

            Another possible answer is that the woman received more of God’s love than Simon because she needed it.  Maybe she needed far more of God’s love and forgiveness than did Simon. That might explain it.  Luke, Simon and Jesus all agreed that she was a “sinner”.  So she certainly needed a lot of forgiveness.  But so did Simon.  We have already seen how mean he was to Jesus.  My guess is that he was as much a “sinner” as the woman.  In fact, all of us are “sinners”.  We all need enormous amounts of God’s gracious forgiveness.  Both Simon and the woman needed God’s loving forgiveness and God was ready to love and forgive both of them.  This does not explain why Simon loved Jesus far less than the woman.

            But there is another possibility.  Both Simon and the woman needed God’s love and forgiveness.  God loved and forgave both of them.  The difference is that the woman realized that she needed forgiveness, but Simon had no idea he needed it too.  And since she knew she needed God’s love and forgiveness she recognized it when it came, and responded with love for Jesus.  Simon on the other hand had no idea that he needed forgiveness, and therefore didn’t recognize the gift when it came.  Without recognition of God’s love for him, Simon had little love for Jesus. 

            Why did the woman know that she needed forgiveness when Simon did not?  The difference between the two of them is the sin of pride.  Pride blinded Simon to his sin.  He thought so much of himself, that he truly believed that he was free from sin. And since he was free from sin he thought he had no need for forgiveness.  But he was deluding himself.  The truth was far from him.  In reality he was totally stained with sin.  And the sin of pride blinded him from realizing his need for forgiveness.

            The woman, on the other hand, wasn’t blinded by sin.  She knew her sin all too well.  People kept reminding her that she was a sinner.  So she had no problem with pride.  And without the sin of pride she saw her need for forgiveness.  And when she received it she was overwhelmed with gratitude which poured out of her in love for Jesus.

            We see from all of this that our love for Jesus is inversely proportional to our pride.  If we have high levels of pride, we can’t see our need for forgiveness.  And when it comes we don’t feel particularly grateful.  Our love for Jesus manifest in adoration and worship is low.  But if our pride is low, then we see our own sin clearly and rejoice when God’s love and forgiveness arrives.

            So where do people today fit on this spectrum?  Are people in America high in pride and low in love for God or the other way around?  The people outside of church have extremely high pride and no regard for God at all.  And increasingly our culture values pride over love for God.  People in churches are somewhere in the middle of the spectrum.  We love Jesus with adoration and worship, but pride still limits our acceptance of our own sin and our love of God.  We need to pray for less pride so that our love and adoration of God, who forgives our sin, will grow.

            We see this in the comments given recently by Donald Trump.  Trump told Cal Thomas, “I will be asking for forgiveness, but hopefully I won’t have to be asking for much forgiveness. As you know, I am Presbyterian and Protestant. I’ve had great relationships and developed even greater relationships with ministers.” (http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2016/06/08/donald-trump-is-asked-who-do-you-say-jesus-is-and-heres-his-response/) 

            I think Mr. Trump pretty describes us in the Presbyterian Church today.  We realize that we are stained by sin and need God’s forgiveness.  But our pride limits our realization of the extent of our own sin.  This limits the love and forgiveness we are aware of coming from God.  And so our love and adoration of God is also limited.  We need to confess our sin of pride, accept God’s forgiveness, and free ourselves to love and worship God with our whole hearts.

            So examine your own lives.  Are you more like Simon?  Do you think you have control of sin; it’s not really a problem?  If so you probably have the sin of pride.  It is blinding you to your sin.  And you’re not experiencing God’s love manifested in forgiveness.  Pray that God will take away your pride so that you can clearly see the sin that stains your life.  Then receive God’s gracious offer of love and forgiveness.  Gratitude will overflow from you in love, adoration and worship of God. Let’s pray.

            We confess O Lord that our pride keeps us from seeing our sin.  Help us to limit our pride so that we can see our sin and the true magnitude of your love and forgiveness.  Then we can respond with a full measure of gratitude, love and adoration.  In Jesus’ name, amen.