Forgiven (Luke 7:36-50 August 16, 2009)

Transcription

1 Forgiven (Luke 7:36-50 August 16, 2009) Who needs Jesus more a prostitute or a pastor? Being well educated in the gospel we all know the right answer. On our theology quiz we would write that they both desperately, completely and equally need Jesus. The only problem with this answer is that so few of us feel it and live it. I think most of you can relate to me on this. When I was saved I was absolutely and completely overwhelmed by how sinful I was how glorious Jesus is and how mind-blowing it was that God would die for me. But over time the glory of my salvation faded. I became so used to the truth that my sins are washed away I didn t feel my sin or my salvation. Truth is, I live a fairly good life. I am a good reformed scholar while my head knows that I am totally depraved and I believe it the reality is that I usually don t feel particularly sinful. So I am not often broken over Jesus sacrifice for me. And I don t love Him as much as I should. The result is that for too much of my Christian life there is little real passion for Jesus and the gospel. What I want to say this morning is simple that is not the way it is supposed to be. That is not meant to be the normal Christian life. In fact to live without real passion and love for Jesus is a joyless, abnormal caricature of the real Christian life. Our passage this morning is one of the more important glimpses into how the gospel should affect the way we live. This is a famous passage one of the most memorable events in the life of Jesus. Gripping, fascinating but it is not meant to be observed from a distance it is meant to change us from within. Look with me at our passage. Beginning at Luke 7:36. 1

2 Here we meet two individuals. Simon the Pharisee and an unnamed women merely described as a sinner. Both of these people are drawn to Jesus. They both want to know this man who claims to be the Messiah who says He can forgive sin. But, ultimately one of them is told you don t really love Me. While the other is told your sins are forgiven, your faith has saved you. The difference between how they respond to Jesus is the difference between heaven and hell. Simon is a picture of those who are drawn to Jesus intellectually but don t enter into a personal, passionate, profound relationship with Jesus. He is a warning to all who will only interact with Jesus on a superficial level. The woman is a picture of how all of us should love Jesus. First we meet Simon. Verse 36: One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee s house and took his place at the table. The first thing we have to note about Simon is that he is drawn to Jesus. Simon is not the normal Pharisee totally opposed to Jesus. Throughout the gospels the picture of Pharisees is one of opposition to Jesus. They think He is dangerous, subverting the truth, undermining Moses. They want Him dead. But not Simon. He not only meets with Jesus publicly he invites Jesus to his home for a meal. The only other Pharisee who seeks a meeting with Jesus is Nicodemus and he organises to meet Jesus at night. He doesn t want anyone to know he is meeting with Jesus. Simon has gone out on a limb here. Hospitality in the first century was far more important than it is today. To ask someone to eat a meal with you is to extend the hand of friendship. It seems that Simon is intrigued by Jesus. The miracles, the teaching, the ripples of wonder. He is wondering if Jesus might be the Messiah. He uses the term of respect Teacher when addressing Jesus. But, at the same time you find hints that Simon keeps Jesus at arm s length. He does not fully and passionately come to Jesus. Jesus touches lepers, dines with tax 2

3 collectors and gathered riff raff as His followers Simon is not sure this is the Messiah he wants. What Simon does not realise is that he is a leper, a tax collector, a prostitute and until he knows this he won t embrace Jesus. Until you grasp this truth you have not grasped the heart of the gospel. But the more respectable people struggle to truly believe this. Countess Huntington was a great supporter of the work of George Whitefield and John Wesley. On one occasion she invited the Duchess of Buckingham to hear Whitefield preach. She wrote back and declined saying: I thank your Ladyship for the information concerning these preachers. Their doctrines are most repulsive and strongly tinctured with impertinence and disrespect toward their superiors in that they are perpetually endeavoring to level all ranks and do away with all distinctions. It is monstrous to be told that you have a heart as sinful as the common lechers that crawl on the earth. This is highly offensive and insulting and I cannot but wonder that your Ladyship should relish any sentiment so much at variance with high rank and good breeding. She may have heard the gospel but she was never pierced by it. The truth is that it is the beginning of wisdom to be told that you have a heart as sinful as the common lechers that crawl on the earth. That is Simon s problem. He doesn t know the full extent of his sin. We see Simon s reticence in the absence of certain courtesies he should have afforded Jesus. If Dena and I invited you to dinner. You would probably have a shower put on some clean clothes then drive to our place and arrive smelling fresh and clean. Not in the first century. There were no showers. Bathing was a rare event. And no cars. To get to Simon s house Jesus would have walked. He would have been sweating, had dust on His clothes and dirt on His feet. The common courtesies were this. When a guest arrived the servant of the house would be summoned to wash the guest s feet and dry them with a towel. Then the servant would anoint the head and often the feet with a scented oil to make him look and smell a little fresher. When this was done, the master of the house would welcome the guest with a kiss of friendship. It would have been quite noticeable that Jesus did not receive these courtesies. 3

4 Simon is curious about Jesus he is intrigued by him but he doesn t want to be seen to fully embrace someone who is so different to any expected Messiah. Doing this might signify that Simon sees himself as no better than the sinners Jesus met with and he most certainly wanted everyone to know he was better than a prostitute or a tax collector. What did he want from Jesus? It is almost as if Simon invites Jesus for an interview to see if He is the kind of Messiah Simon wants. Simon has come a long way. I am sure meeting with Jesus was a bad career move and hurt his standing in the religious community. But something inside him had to find out about Jesus. Simon s peripheral dispassionate engagement with Jesus stands in stark contrast to the next person we meet. Verse 37: And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner. This phrase a woman of the city who was a sinner was a euphemism of the day for a prostitute. Probably the last place she would ever think of treading would be the home of a Pharisee and especially to go uninvited. To walk into that home would not have been an easy thing to do. To go before men who knew her, knew who she was and detested her. So why did she go? We aren t told directly but we can work it out. When the world tells you that you are despised and worthless, when men use you and discard you, when respectable people cross to the other side of the road to avoid you and whisper to their children that you are unclean you soon learn what it means that you are a sinner. Little girls grow up wanting to be doctors and architects and mummys. No one ever wants to be a prostitute it is dirty and degrading. In real life no prostitutes are like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman it is a horrid debasing life. But poverty and need have always pushed some women there and they know where they stand despised, worthless, used. 4

5 No one had to tell this woman that she was a sinner. She would never have looked at someone else and thought I am morally superior to them. She knew she had a heart as sinful as the common lechers that crawl on the earth. This woman had no hope of heaven. But then she began to hear about a man who dined with tax-gatherers, lepers, outcasts and prostitutes. A man who loved them, touched them, and made them clean. A man who said your sins are forgiven you are clean. A man who said God loves you. She began to have hope. Could she be cleansed too? Could a prostitute find forgiveness? She only had one hope. She had to get to Jesus. She swallowed her pride and went before the stares and contempt of those men why? Because Jesus was there. Her one hope was there. Verses 37-38: When she learned that [Jesus] 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. It is hard for us to grasp how outrageous this is. This meal was tense anyway. Simon was unsure about Jesus everyone knew he had not extended all the common courtesies to Jesus. I imagine the diner conversation was strained. Then suddenly a woman everyone knows is a prostitute walks in. She falls at Jesus feet weeping. Men are generally uncomfortable with emotion. From time to time I been at prayer meetings, a couple of baptisms, a time of sharing the gospel when a man or woman is overcome with their sin begins to weep and call out to God. Even though we feel the power usually we aren t good with emotion. People feel uncomfortable. This woman is weeping overcome by the weight of her sin and the possibility of forgiveness. She is overwhelmed by the weight of her sin and pours out her hope in a very emotive and public way. She arrived and immediately humbled herself at Jesus feet. Weeping this is the word for torrents of tears. Unrestrained sobbing. It seems she then realised she could show her love for Jesus by wetting His feet with her tears and cleansing His feet with her hair. 5

6 To do this she had to let down her hair. This was scandalous. No respectable woman did this in public. The first time a woman would let down her hair before a man was with her husband on her wedding night. The Talmud states that if a wife lets down her hair in public it is her husband s duty to divorce her. This woman doesn t care. She will bare her soul for Jesus. She has let down her hair for men for money now she does it for love not sexual love but pure passionate thanksgiving. Whatever it takes to show Jesus her love and gratitude. She kissed His feet. Those smelly feet. She kissed them for they were precious feet. And then she anointed them with perfume. Remember this is a time when bathing was a rarity. So the people of the day especially women covered the smells of the body with perfume. Perfume was expensive. So you didn t use it like we use deodorant it was saved for special occasions. For a prostitute perfume was an important tool of their trade it made them more desirable. It attracted men. This woman just pours out all of her perfume not on herself but on Jesus. She is pouring out this tool of her trade renouncing her past she is pouring out what is most likely her most valuable asset to say Jesus is more important to her than wealth and she is anointing her Lord an act of unrestrained passionate worship. This woman is publicly giving everything she has dignity, profession, wealth, everything in love for Jesus. Verse 39: 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. This whole scene disturbed and revolted Simon. It offended everything he had been brought up to believe. This woman is unclean immoral an outcast. And Jesus let her touch Him. He did not push her away. There in front of everyone He let her wash His feet, kiss them, anoint them. I think if we are honest something inside us understands how Simon feels. 6

7 I don t even like saying the word prostitute. Prostitution is so wrong. It degrades everyone. They have diseases. They have no self-respect. They sell the most precious gift a gift that is never meant to be sold. If we were having coffee in the courtyard after church and a woman clearly a prostitute tacky micro-mini and fishnets drug tracks up her arms smelling of men walked up to Kevin and put her arm around him and kissed him and said so preacher tell me about this Jesus. I guarantee every conversation out there would stop Dorothy would faint and Kevin would struggle with what to do. We would all be looking at him wondering what will he do should I do something and we would be thinking thank you God she didn t pick me to walk up to. We should expect those who know their sin to be drawn to Jesus but in reality we see sin and our hearts say that it doesn t belong near Jesus. Something inside us doesn t want any contact with someone so degraded and depraved. It is wrong. Simon is thinking how could I have thought this man is the Messiah? He lets a prostitute degrade Him. If He were a true prophet He would know what she is and refuse to let her touch Him. Jesus knows exactly what Simon is thinking. Verse 40: And Jesus answering said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you. Simon I not only know what this woman is I know what you are thinking. And you are so wrong. Her sin draws her to Me. And I touch her. It does not defile Me instead I make her clean. And Simon one more thing you too need My touch. Verses 40-43: And Simon answered, Say it, Teacher. Jesus said this: 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 Jesus said to him, You have judged rightly. 7

8 There are many professions we know won t be needed in heaven: There will be no doctors. No need for nurses. No one gets sick. No missionaries. Everyone already loves Jesus. No policemen or undertakers or politicians. Certainly no use for tax-gatherers. But one profession that you might not immediately think of as being redundant in heaven are accountants. While accountants will be in heaven there will be no need for their skills because earthly accounting just doesn t work in heaven. The denarius Jesus talks of is the payment for a day s wage. Rod is an accountant for a large manufacturing firm. If Rod felt generous and when a worker had worked for 50 days Rod decided to pay him for 500 days Rod would lose his job. In fact Rod s employer would call the police and Rod might go to jail. There is a big difference on earth between $50,000 and $500,000 just ask your bank. But, if we are to understand this passage then we have to understand the point of this parable. In heavenly accounting there is no difference between a debt of 5 denarii or 50 denarii or 500 denarii or 500 million billion denarii. Why? Because in heavenly accounting any debt no matter the size has the same penalty eternal death. For the wages of sin is death. Truth is that the best man or woman who ever lived sins regularly day after day for their whole life. But for arguments sake imagine someone who lived a perfect life no sin, no greed or lust or lies. Then on their deathbed one flash of unrighteous anger. In heavenly accounting the penalty of any sin against a perfectly holy God is eternal death. If seems unjust to us we just don t grasp how holy God is. Eternal death is the exact same penalty for someone repeatedly and consciously sinned against God every moment of their life. 8

9 Why? The wages of sin is death and one sin or many and you are dead in your sins and transgressions. Imagine two men out hiking in the savannah of central Africa. They are overdue and a search party goes looking for them. They find the first man. He had been bitten in his sleep by a small poisonous spider. He looks so peaceful. He looks as if he is merely sleeping. The second man was not so fortunate. He had been mauled by a lion and then his body was dismembered by a pack of hyenas. His carcass made the search team retch. One was a pretty death the other an ugly death but here is the point they were both dead. Pretty death ugly death dead is dead. The two men in the parable neither could pay the debt. Both are headed to prison. Then they encounter grace forgiveness. But, don t miss this the difference is not the penalty or the reward the difference is that one man felt the weight of his debt more and therefore rejoiced more in his forgiveness. Verses 44-50: 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. Jesus says Simon when I touch her I don t become unclean she becomes clean. What is the point here? Don t mistake Jesus words: I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little. Jesus is not saying that some are greater sinners and have been forgiven more. Scripture is very clear about this. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. In the sight of God all are utterly sinful. 9

10 The point is not that this woman sinned more than Simon and was therefore forgiven more. The point is that both were sinners of the worst kind but only one felt it. Only one realised the depth of their sin and the forgiveness available in Christ. And because she knew the depth of her sin this woman savoured the sweetness of the Saviour. Her sins were many, they were forgiven and she loved Christ passionately. She delighted in Him while Simon missed out on the most awesome privilege in life. He missed falling at the Saviour s feet and glorying in Him. That is the exposition of this passage. Nothing too difficult in it. Here is the difficult part. Why didn t Simon fall at the feet of Jesus and pour out a passionate love? Why didn t Simon feel his sin? Why because I am sure that as Jesus said this Simon is thinking: What! You want me to degrade myself like her? Cry on You and kiss your feet like her. You have to be kidding! And the point is yes that is exactly what Simon should have done. Simon was stunned. He is a Pharisee. He works hard at living right. He studies the Scriptures. This woman lives in sin. She barely knows the Bible. The bits she knows she disobeys. Yet Jesus says to her your sins are forgiven and to Simon you love too little. Simon and this woman typify two ways those who are draw to Jesus can relate to Him. While it is somewhat simplistic we might summarise them like this: Dispassionate Intellectual Involvement 10

11 Passionate Heart Involvement We might be tempted to simplify this and say Jesus wants heart over mind. That He would rather have a somewhat unorthodox, some minor doctrines off kilter Charismatic Christian who is really passionate for Jesus who feels his salvation deeply than an orthodox, doctrinally correct Calvinistic Christian with no passion for Jesus who doesn t feel the glory of grace. But that is most definitely not the point. While it is true that intellectually minded saints can tend to view passion with suspicion and passionate saints can be suspicious of doctrine these are never meant to be exclusive. The Bible always makes it clear we are meant to engage the mind and the heart. The greatest preachers have always encouraged mind and heart. Richard Baxter spoke of the need for Christians to have light and heat. Lloyd Jones called preaching logic on fire. John Piper says we have to have gravity and gladness. What Jesus is saying here is this. If there is mind only. If there is no passion there is a problem with your faith. Real faith is a passionate faith. No matter how drawn to Jesus you are. No matter how orthodox your doctrine. No matter how relatively good your lives are. Unless you feel your sin deeply and are overwhelmed by the love of Jesus you will love Him little and little lovers are not what Christianity is all about. Simon the Pharisee shows us that we can be fascinated by Jesus live good lives but not be His. Let me put all of this together. This passage should really rattle our cages because too many of us are more like Simon than this woman. We are drawn to Jesus but hold Him at arm s length. We can read the Bible and pray with no passion no brokenness no tears. We can partake of communion without a lump in our throats. We can sing songs about Jesus and the cross with so little feeling. 11

12 We can look at Christians who sing with their hands up and weep and cry praise the Lord and wonder why they are so worked up. We live fairly good lives and that reinforces our belief that so much of Christianity is about living well. And Jesus wants to blow our hearts open and says first and foremost, I want you to have a wild, passionate, personal, profound love for Me then you will have joy then all these other things will be added to you. Truth is my natural bent is to be more like Simon. I like emotion but I am suspicious of it. But I deeply want to have this type of passionate relationship with Jesus. I kept thinking about this trying to put it all together. I know that I am a sinner. I am a good Calvinist who can articulate the depravity of man clearly. But, the truth is that most of the time I don t feel like a sinner. Truth is most of the time I feel like I am doing OK. What is the answer? Should I go out sleep around, do some drugs, rob a bank, beat up an old lady just so I feel sinful? No! I imagine that ten years after her conversion this woman would struggle to feel sinful. What helps us grasp our sin? It is coming to Jesus and staring into His face. What is meant to show us our sin is turning our eyes upon Jesus. The more we see His holiness, His sacrifice the more we see our sin. This passage is not here in isolation. Remember the context. Jesus has just given the Sermon on the Plain. Read through the Sermon on the Plain and the Sermon on the Mount. You have to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. Your righteousness must exceed the Scribes and Pharisees. Love your enemies. Bear good fruit. Obey Jesus. I might start the Sermon on the Mount feeling like a 50 denarii sinner. I have never finished it without feeling like a 50 million billion denarii sinner. 12

13 I have fallen so far short. I need Jesus. We know in our heads that we are that woman sinful prostitutes so far from God unable to do anything about it. But until we feel this truth feel our sin broken over our transgressions our love will be shallow. Simon the Pharisee never really drew close to Jesus. He never touched Jesus. This woman did. The closer you draw to Jesus the more you see your sin and His glory. This woman knelt at Jesus feet. Her eyes were on Christ. And that is why she felt her sin. When we slack off on reading the Bible and praying we might still have enough Pharisee in us to refrain from big sins but we don t feel our grace. The more I read the Bible the more I know my sin. I read: Genesis Adam s sin against the grace and glory of God. David a man after God s own heart who is an adulterous murderer. I read of the Prodigal Son and that is me. I read Romans and Ephesians I am dead in my trespasses and sins. The more I read the Scriptures the more I know my sin. But then I find Jesus. Jesus who came into the world to save sinners. Who touches lepers and prostitutes and cleans them. Who tells a dying thief Today you will see Me in Paradise. I see His wounds, His cross, His blood paying for my sin. The more I look at Jesus perfect, God Himself who died for me the cost is so great my sin must be so great. Then I feel the tears and the emotion and the love. God knows we forget. So He calls us to read His word and think on Jesus and the cross. He calls us to communion regularly to remind us we are prostitutes dead in our trespasses and sins we need Jesus. Romans 7:18: For I know that nothing good dwells in me. But then we come to the cross. Romans 8:1: 13

14 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Brothers and sisters when you read the Bible when you gather here on the Lord s Day is there a real passion for Jesus. A brokenness over your sin. Absolute amazement at grace. Weeping over sins forgiven. Or is it so so? Going through the motions. If our passion is fading. Go to Jesus. Weep. Look at His pierced hands and feet pierced for your sin. Look at His holiness and see how far short you fall. Be like Isaiah: Behold the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory. And then like Isaiah you will know the truth. Woe is me, for I am ruined! I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. And you will call out to Jesus. And you will see His cross and remember He died for me my sins are forgiven my faith has saved me I can go in peace. I have thought long and hard about Simon the Pharisee and the sinful woman this week. While I am convinced and will go to my grave convinced of the necessity for preaching the Word faithfully in season and out. I would cheerfully swap every decent sermon I have in me for a time each week in our service of true brokenness over our sin. A time when we gather as sinners, weeping at the feet of Christ, caring not what anyone else thinks, giving everything we have, delighting in the sheer wonder of His grace. A time where the only thing that matters is Christ s love for you and your love for Christ. 14