Luke 7:36–50

0:00 Many of you will already know the story of a man named Louis Zamperini, who was an American soldier in the Pacific Theater in World War II. You're probably going to know his story from both a book and a movie that were put out a couple of years ago, a few years ago, by the name of Unbroken. I've talked about this story several different times because I find it just an insanely compelling story. The first time I became familiar with Louis Zamp, he was known as Zamp, right? So the first time I became aware of Zamp's story, Mariah and I had decided to listen to the book, Unbroken, on one of our road warrior trips, 20-hour trips up to Maine to visit Mariah's family.

0:40 And so we decided to throw on the audio book of Unbroken and listen to it during that drive. Now, when we put it on, I knew, just from seeing things in the media and all the rest, I knew a little bit about this story. I knew that Zamp was a prisoner of war during World War II of the Japanese. I knew that he, at the end of the story, I knew that he was tortured. I knew that he went to several different prison camps. I didn't know that he had been lost at sea for several days, but I learned that during the course of the book. But one thing I knew, just kind of vaguely, through looking at media reports and seeing the odd review of the book and all this, I knew that the end of the story was Zamp, this tortured prisoner of war, visiting Japan some years later in order to find and meet his main tormentor.

1:28 He wanted to go find him. So he went to Japan, found his main tormentor, this man called the bird, and he ends up forgiving the bird for what he had done over all of these days. Now, that struck me as a cool story. And that's a really cool story. You get adventure, you get lost at sea, you get prisoner of war, you get all kinds of stuff. But there was this nagging question in my mind. was this nagging irritation that the end of the story just didn't make sense I mean after all of that that happened to him after everything that was inflicted on him by this guy called the bird why does he go to Japan and find him and ultimately forgive him what caused him to do that it was it just was it just willpower was it like patriotism Americans are just really nice people Was the lesson of the book going to be just the passage of time and the way it heals wounds?

2:25 It was a big question. And the sad thing is, if you've seen the movie, and that's all you've seen, you're still left with that nagging question. Because the movie doesn't make any sense either, because it doesn't really tell you why he does what he does at the end of the story. So, as Mariah and I were driving, and we put this book on and began to listen to it, we kind of went into it just thinking it was going to be an adventure story. Guy lost his heat, he's a prisoner of war, he's tortured, and finally, for some reason, not exactly sure why, but for some reason, there's this cordial meeting between the tortured and the torturer, and he forgives him.

2:58 So we were not prepared in any way whatsoever for how the story finally went. And if you don't know the story, and you're like, you know, yelling at me silently because I'm about to give you spoilers, I'm very sorry. It's been out there a long time. And so if you need to stick your fingers in your ears or do something for the next five seconds, that's fine. I'm giving you spoilers. We were not prepared for the story about how Zamp's wife finally dragged him to a Billy Graham crusade and he was radically converted to Jesus Christ.

3:31 We were not prepared for it. But I'll tell you, all of a sudden, as soon as those few paragraphs of the book were read to me through the car radio, everything made sense. That nagging bit of irritation about why Zamp forgave the bird went away. Why did Zamp forgive the bird? Because once he saw that Jesus had forgiven him, there was no other response that made sense. Once he saw that Jesus had forgiven him, it was the only response that made sense.

4:04 See, Mariah and I went into Unbroken, thinking that it was just going to be a story about what the bird did to Zamp, and it was going to be entertaining. But ultimately, that's not what the story was about at all. That story was about what Jesus did to Zamp, and how that changed everything. Well, that's what we're going to see today as we look at our next section of text in Luke chapter 7. So let me invite you to take a Bible. If you want to use one of these red pew Bibles that are here, I think they're under the chairs in the balcony. You can grab one of these if you don't have one of your own. And then you should turn to page 864 in those red pew Bibles, because that's where our text is going to be.

4:45 I know that on a Sunday like this, there are often a number of people who don't come to church all that often. Welcome. We're glad that you're here. Let me tell you how this works. So for the next few minutes, I'm going to stand up here and I'm going to talk about a very particular text of scripture. I'm going to try to expose that scripture to you, or it's really more like exposing you to the power of the scripture. But let me tell you how it's going to work. So if you'll go to page 864, you're going to see a big number eight there. So that's Luke, one of the 66 divisions or books we call them of the Bible. Chapter eight, you'll see there, we're actually going to be up in chapter seven. So if you want to see the seven, you can turn back to the prior page. You'll see the seven there. That's Luke chapter seven. If you look down into chapter seven, you're going to see all these little numbers in there. Some of them are footnotes, but the vast majority of them are going to be what we call verse numbers. It doesn't have anything to do with music. It's literally just a thing that was invented about a thousand years ago to divide the Bible up so we can do this thing right here. So I can tell you, hey, look down at chapter 7, verse 42, right? And you can look into

5:48 7, you can find 42, and you'll be able to see what I'm talking about. So we're not going to be jumping around the Bible today. We're going to stay in Luke chapter 7. So anytime I say something like, look down at verse 40, right, you'll be able to just look into chapter 7. You'll find verse 40. You'll see the details that I'm talking about. So if you're new to Third Avenue, if it's your first time here, you need to know that we're continuing a study through this book of Luke. And over the past few weeks, just to give you a real quick running start, what we've been watching as the story unfolds for six and two-thirds chapters now is Jesus basically making more and more spectacular claims about who he is and what he's come to do. So he started his ministry and he starts saying, I am this and I am this and I can do this and I can do that. And he's just leaving people stunned at what he's saying. So last time we watched Jesus handle basically three very different responses by varying people to who he is and what he's doing. And he gave in the middle of all of that, this warning, blessed is the one who is not offended by me. So in other words, blessed or

6:52 happy is the person who doesn't trip over me because I don't meet what your expectations were or sometimes your demands. Well, today what happens is that Jesus accepts an invitation to a dinner party. And at that dinner party, we encounter two people who really could not be more different from each other. One of them is a respectable, put-together, noble religious leader. The other is a notorious sinner who has a reputation for being a sinner. And the way each of those people responds to Jesus winds up showing us something. I think that Luke, Jesus himself, ultimately the scriptures want us to understand about ourselves and what we need from God. So look with me at Luke chapter 7. I'm going to start reading in verse 36.

7:48 One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and took his place 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 her saw this, he said to himself, If this man were a prophet, he would have known what sort of woman this is who is touching him.

8:24 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 500 denarii and the other 50. When they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both. Now, which of them will love him more? Simon answered, the one, I suppose, for who he canceled the larger debt. And he said to him, you have judged rightly.

8:57 Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, do you see this woman? I entered your house and 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. And 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.

9:32 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. Now, there's some details worth looking at in this text. But before we get there, I want you to look at the whole thing because I want you to see how this story works because it's a little bit unusual. It's not the kind of thing that you can break up into pieces. That's what we try to do. That gets a little hairy during narrative. But this one, you really can't break it up into pieces.

10:03 It just sort of rolls, and it's a little bit mixed up. What you have here is basically a story wrapped around a parable that's in the center of it. You've got a story that's wrapped around a little two-verse parable that's right at the center of it. Now, the story is the dinner. So it runs from verses 36 to 40, and then 44 to 50. That's the story of the dinner. But right in the middle, in verses 41 to 43, Jesus tells this short little parable that winds up, if you pay attention to it, it winds up reframing everything that you were probably thinking when you went into it. So here's the question that I want you to carry around in your brain as we work through this this morning. Here's the question. Why does this woman do what she does?

10:53 Why does this woman do what she does? And secondarily, why does Simon do what he does? But that's the question the whole passage is answering. Now, Simon's got an idea of why she's doing what she's doing. He has an idea of why she's kind of coming apart in his living room. Simon, the Pharisee, thinks that she's doing it because she's a sinner who's trying to get something from Jesus. He thinks that she's begging him for something. But when Jesus finally speaks, the parable that he speaks reveals that Simon is absolutely wrong.

11:28 The parable reveals something utterly different. She's doing what she's doing, not at all because she wants something from Jesus. She's doing what she's doing because she has already gotten everything from Jesus. And that distinction between trying to earn things from Jesus and responding with worship to things already received from Jesus, that's the whole ballgame. That's the whole heart of the gospel. So here's the main idea, and I want you to hear it carefully.

12:01 If you're a note taker, this will be the most important sentence that you can write down today. If you're not a note taker, it literally will not kill you to grab a pen and write this on your bulletin, in the margin of your Bible. I have watched people do this. It does not kill, not a single person has ever died from writing down this sentence. Main idea. Your love for Jesus will never exceed your awareness of your need to be forgiven.

12:35 Your love for Jesus will never exceed. There will never be more love for Jesus than there is awareness of your need to be forgiven. That's where we're going. Two points. Number one, a respectable man and a scandalous woman. A respectable man and a scandalous woman. And then number two, a forgiven woman and an unforgiven man. So number one, a respectable man and a scandalous woman.

13:06 Number two, a forgiven woman and an unforgiven man. All right, let's start looking at it. Point number one, what we're going to see first is a respectable man and a scandalous woman. And we're really just kind of looking at the details of the dinner party. Not so much the parable yet, just the details of the dinner party. So the story opens with an invitation. 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. So this Pharisee, he's not named anywhere else in the Bible, sends out an invitation and asks Jesus to come to a dinner.

13:39 Jesus is already super famous. Word is going out about him and his teaching and his miracles and all the stuff that he can do. And so Simon just decides, hey, I want to get an up-close, personal look at this guy. So he invites him to dinner. All right, now, before we go on, let's just briefly note something that at various times throughout Christian history has tripped people up. Some people have done a couple of different things with this passage that I think are not correct. So, on the one hand, some readers have tried to identify this woman with Mary Magdalene, another character in the story.

14:11 Or maybe even with the woman who anoints Jesus in the other Gospels before his crucifixion. But I don't think either one of those things is right. I don't think she's Mary Magdalene, and I don't think she's the woman who anoints Jesus later on in the story. Why is that? Well, lots of reasons, but just if you're curious. Mary Magdalene actually isn't introduced by name until the very next chapter. She shows up in chapter 8, 2, and when she is introduced, Luke introduces her like somebody you haven't met yet. It's not like he says, and that woman's name that anointed him was Mary Magdalene.

14:41 He just introduces her like you haven't ever met her yet. In terms of the later anointing that shows up in Matthew 26, Mark 14, that's in a totally different place. It happens in Bethany, outside of Jerusalem, where Jesus is staying during that point of his ministry. It happens at the home of a different Simon, who is called Simon the leper, which would make it impossible for the leper to be the Pharisee. That's against the law, right? Here we have Simon the Pharisee. There we have Simon the leper. And then the details are different. Like here, she weeps and anoints his feet.

15:15 There, she anoints his head. And so what you have here is Luke telling us about a totally different woman. And in fact, she's unnamed. We don't know who she is. She never shows up again. as far as we know, in the story. She's unnamed, which flags us to the fact that the point of this story is not who she is, but what she does and why she does it. All right, so let me set the scene for you. What you've got here is this big, formal dinner party. This is not an intimate little occasion. It's not a little, you know, candlelit dinner between the Pharisee and Jesus. This is a big formal Palestine dinner party and in first century Israel these were semi-public events like you didn't close the doors on the crowd and just have your little dinner this was more like a state dinner where everybody kind of gets to watch all of the principal characters converse and talk and maybe there's a rabbi present and so the people can kind of learn from the conversation that's that's going on houses of rich people in in first century Israel were big they would have had a

16:18 You know, most of the house would have been in kind of a square around a central courtyard. And if the weather was good, these formal occasions would be set in the courtyard. So they'd put out a table and it would literally be kind of on the ground, only elevated by a few inches. And it'd be pretty big out in the middle of the courtyard. And then when it says that Jesus reclined at the table, it doesn't mean, you know, back like this in a recliner. There was a particular way to recline, and that, I'm not going to show you, but you lay down on one elbow like this, and your feet are out here.

16:51 This is extremely, don't meme this, please. Your feet are like back here, right? And you eat like this, and you can look around, and you can talk to everybody as you lay at the table. So Jesus' feet are out behind him. Now, not only was all of that going on, but these big formal dinners were open to the public. You know, you could kind of, you know, cycle through and hear what you could hear in the conversation. So if it strikes you as strange that this woman breaks into the Pharisee's house in order to do all of this, and, oh, that must be made up.

17:24 It's not. That's just part of the culture. These were open dinners, and so it wasn't strange at all for her to be there. What is strange is who she is, and therefore the fact that she's there. Look at 37. Luke makes no bones about it. Behold, a woman of the city who was a sinner when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisees' house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment. So Luke tells us she's a woman of the city. It's a colorful phrase.

17:56 Woman of the city. A sinner. And it means something very specific. It doesn't just mean that she was generally a sinful person. That's all of us. That wouldn't describe anything unique about her. What it means is that she had a reputation. She was known as a sinner. And the most likely implication, in fact, is that she was a prostitute. Now, Luke doesn't spell that out. We're not told that anywhere else. But those words kind of have that connotation, right? And that's how most people have interpreted this. It doesn't really matter.

18:27 The point is everyone at that dinner knew exactly who she was and what she was. And she walked in anyway, and that's why Luke puts that word at the beginning of verse 37. Behold, like it's surprising, and everybody would have turned to look at her as she came in, because she's not supposed to be there. It had nothing to do with the fact that the doors were closed, it's just her reputation should have shamed her into not coming. But it didn't, she walks in anyway. And then she does something that is just jaw-dropping.

18:59 Look at 38, standing behind him at his feet. So remember, he's reclined out, his feet are back here so she doesn't have to walk up to him while he's standing or sitting. His feet are reclined out. She walks up behind him at his feet, weeping, and 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, stop and just kind of understand for a second what's going on here. She's weeping, Luke says. That's not a little sniffling.

19:29 That's not polite weeping. she's weeping so much that it looks like she just kind of loses all composure and her tears start falling on his feet i don't think she intended to do that i don't think that was the idea i don't think she wanted to have the tears wash his feet and then to take down the hair and and that wasn't the plan the plan was to quietly sort of come up and use the alabaster alabaster alabaster ointment you know thing break the neck off of it pour it on his feet that was the plan to do it in a kind of you know nonchalant sort of sort of way non-scandalous as much as you could way but it looks like she just loses all composure when she sees him and her tears are wetting his his feet and she even seems to panic a little bit and lets down her hair which in that culture was something a respectable woman simply did not do in public and she's not respectable but even somebody who was just trying their best to get through the day would not let their hair down in public. And so she's wiping his feet with her hair and kissing his feet. And then she breaks the

20:33 alabaster flask and she pours this perfumed oil on them. And the way the text reads in the Greek is that it's not just one time. It's not just that tears fall, step one. Step two, she wipes them with her hair. Step three, she breaks the thing. Step four, she pours the oil. It's not that. The way the text reads is that she's doing this over and over and over. She was wetting his feet and she was letting down her hair and she was wiping and she was anointing there's nothing controlled about this there's nothing planned about this and you got to understand this is scandalous to walk into a big formal dinner like that and to have your tears falling all over somebody and you're taking down your hair which was the same thing as getting undressed and wiping his feet and all the rest of it's excessive. It's over the top. It's undignified. It's the kind of display that makes people go, oh my gosh, secondary embarrassment. Makes people uncomfortable.

21:37 But that's exactly the point. She doesn't care. She is so captured by something about Jesus that she's thrown every concern about her reputation and dignity completely out the window she doesn't care well now look at simon look at verse 39 when the pharisee who had invited him saw he's named simon later when the pharisee who had invited him saw this he said to himself if this man were a prophet like everybody says like i thought he was when i invited him to my house if he were a prophet he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching That word touching is particularly sexual.

22:21 He knows what he's saying there. If this man were a prophet, like I thought, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him because she is a sinner. Simon looks at all this and he thinks to himself, you'll notice he doesn't say this out loud. He thinks it. He says to himself, if this man were a prophet, he would know. Who she is. Now, look carefully at what Simon's doing there.

22:54 He's making two judgments at once. He's judging two different people, handing down two verdicts from his high and lofty place, two verdicts against two people. For one thing, obviously, he's judging the woman, right? She's a sinner. She's untouchable. She's disqualified. And he's judging Jesus. If Jesus were really who he claims to be, if Jesus were really all that that I've been hearing about him, he would never have let this happen. Obviously, he's not what I've heard he is.

23:28 So Simon's sitting there. He's sitting there in his respectable house, his respectable dinner table, making respectable judgments about who's clean and who's dirty, who's a prophet and who's not, who's in and who's out. And he has no idea that the man sitting across from him is reading him like a book. Well, we'll get there to what Jesus says, but before we do, let's jump down and pick up something that's said a little later because it kind of fills out and completes this picture of Simon and what he's thinking right here.

24:01 Skip ahead to verses 44 to 46. So past the parable where Jesus is speaking more directly to Simon. Look what he says. Turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, do you see this woman? I entered your house, Simon, and you gave me no water for my feet, but she's 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's not ceased to kiss my feet. You didn't anoint my head with oil, but she's anointed my feet with ointment. Now, to us, that all sounds a little bit weird, because when you go to somebody's house for dinner, if they did any one of those three things, you would think it extremely strange.

24:36 Here, friend, here's some water. Take your shoes off, wash your feet. Also, here's a kiss. And also, you know, I have this fine Pompeii olive oil, you know. It all sounds extremely weird, but in those days, it wasn't. It wasn't. All of these things were expected when you invited someone to dinner. You're supposed to give them feet to wash the dust off their feet. You're supposed to embrace them, give them a kiss, right? And you're supposed to put oil on their head to, you know, smooth their hair and get the dust out of it and all the rest.

25:09 That's the stuff you're supposed to do. It's basic hospitality. It's the bare minimum that you'd offer any guest. And Simon probably pointedly did not do any of it for Jesus. It's like inviting somebody over to your house and not having a table setting for them. It's like, hey, we got a TV tray over there for you. Just go over there. You gave me no kiss, he says. Standard greeting. Simon withheld it. You didn't anoint my head with oil. Common courtesy. Simon skipped it. You didn't give me any water for my feet.

25:41 Just basic hospitality. But this woman, do you see what she does? She takes all three of those normal hospitality things and she makes them extravagant. She makes them extravagant. And I don't even think she intended to do that at the beginning. She hasn't stopped weeping on his feet to wash them and kissing them and anointing them since she walked in. Do you see the contrast? Simon invited Jesus into his home but kept him the whole time at arm's length. He was just going to observe Jesus. He was just going to take a look at him.

26:13 Gave him a seat at the table, not the seat of honor, not even the normal hospitality you'd give. The woman, who wasn't even invited, has been lavishing on Jesus everything Simon refused to give. All right, now, what does any of this, the story of this dinner party, what does any of this have to do with us right here and right now? Well, here's what I want you to see, because it has everything to do with you and how you respond to Jesus.

26:48 Everything. This contrast between Simon and this woman has everything to do with you and how you respond to Jesus. How? Well, Simon is the picture of dignified distance. Dignified distance. He's close enough to Jesus to be respectable. He invited him over for dinner, right? Gala dinner that he's throwing for Jesus. It's a respectable honor to Jesus. He can tell people afterwards that he ate a meal with this famous prophet.

27:22 So now he's one degree of separation from Jesus. He's close. But he is not so close that it actually costs him anything. He doesn't humble himself. He doesn't lower himself. He keeps his composure at all times. He keeps his dignity, keeps his control. That's Simon, the dignified. The woman, she's not a picture of dignified distance at all. She's neither dignified nor distant. In fact, she's kind of the opposite. She's the picture of unashamed devotion.

27:54 She doesn't care what it looks like. She doesn't care what people think. She doesn't care about anything. She's so captured, again, by something about Jesus that dignity and respectability is the last thing on her mind. What is it that captured her? What captured her? What made her respond like this? Is it that she's trying to get something from him? Is she begging? That's what everybody in the room would have thought. What is so capturing to her that she responds like this? We'll get to that later. That's the big question. But I want to press on this a little bit more.

28:25 I want to press just on this bare difference, obvious difference between Simon's response to Jesus and the woman's response to Jesus. Because I think when push comes to shove, there are a whole lot more Simons in evangelical churches than we would probably like to admit. Some of you come to Jesus the way Simon did, with a kind of dignified distance. Close enough to be respectable, but not so close that it costs you any respectability.

29:01 so you come to church you sit in the pew you listen politely but you hold Jesus at arm's length because doing anything more than that feels excessive feels undignified it feels like too much look I think this is particularly a temptation for men by the way not exclusively a temptation of men but i think it is especially a temptation of men some of you who are men like me you'll watch a football game or a basketball game and you will scream your lungs out at the television you will pump your fists you will high-five and fist bump strangers you will paint your faces. I know this because I've seen you do it in my house, many of you. And truth

30:08 be told, I've done it with you at certain times. But here's the question. Do you give King Jesus the same full-chested praise that you give the Louisville Cardinals or whoever it is you want to fill in that blank with. Let me just, this may feel a little too nuts and bolts to you. That's fine. I mean pastoral privilege, right? I can talk about what roughly what I want to talk about up here. Let me talk to you about how we sing. I know that among men, and maybe it's not so true here at Third Avenue, but across the evangelical world, there's a tendency for men to be, in particular, very restrained in the way we sing, right?

30:51 And a lot of us just, we sing from the little hangy-down thing in our throats. That's where our voices come from, right there. That's where it comes from. It's amazing, great. You know, that's not how men sing, brothers. It's not how men sing. You know where men sing from? They don't sing from right there at the hangy-down thing. They sing from their chests. That's how they sing. They sing from their chests. Look, I'm not telling you with all of this.

31:24 Please hear me. I am not telling you that everybody has to act the same way when we worship Christ together. I'm not telling you that. I'm not asking for more hands. That'd be fine if you want to. I'm not asking for more hands up or any of that kind of stuff. I mean, my goodness, at the Good Friday service just a couple of days ago, somebody, you know, over here, I think over there, I couldn't really see. But I know that there were some people out there who were like, at the last song in particular, you had your hands going, right? You were rolling. And I'll be honest with you.

31:54 I mean, that's really not me. I mean, you're not going to find me doing that. I mean, if you even see me sort of taking my bulletin and going like this, you know the Spirit's gotten a hold of me. But brothers, what I am saying is that you, the men in our congregation, especially you who are members of this church you should be the loudest fullest voices in this place when it comes to worshipping the king your voices are what make hell tremble even if it looks silly to the world now you know I know I know there's a chance there's an off chance that the guy at your office that you need the promotion from could step in here someday and see you singing from your chest and that could hurt your chances he could think

32:57 you silly oh but brothers your king is greater than your boss look i please don't misunderstand me i'm not saying that you don't do this right now i mean this this congregation is probably only about two-thirds the size of this. We lifted the roof off this place on Friday evening. So what I'm saying to you is more, you know, it's less, please start doing this. It's more, please don't ever stop doing this.

33:29 Don't ever be so dignified, so respectable that you can't sing loud for the king who died for you. It's not just about singing either, is it? It's about the posture of your whole life toward Jesus. And the question is, are you like Simon, kind of keeping Jesus at a polite, respectable distance because real devotion to him feels like too much? Or are you like the woman, so gripped by him that you'd rather look foolish than hold back your praise and your devotion to Jesus?

34:04 Which one? I mean, that raises a question, doesn't it? I mean, I've kind of hinted at it a couple of times, but why? Why does the woman do what she does and why does Simon do what he does? Why is there the difference between these two people? Why does she weep and he just sits there? Why does she overflow with love and he feels nothing? Well, that leads to point two. A forgiven woman and an unforgiven man. This is where we're going to look at the parable in the middle. So starting in verse 40, we get Jesus' response to all this.

34:37 And the first thing that happens is that he turns to Simon, look down at verse 40, and he says, Jesus answering said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you. Simon, I have something to say. Now, it's hard to know exactly what the tone of that was. I mean, it might be that he said it with a kind of smirk, right? He's reclining at the table, and he reads Simon's mind, and he goes, Simon, I have something to say to you about you that you don't know.

35:18 Might be that. Might have been more stern. Simon, I have something to say to you. I mean, you don't know, but it's obvious that something is about to happen. Simon is trapped, he takes the bait, he doesn't really have a choice but to take the bait, he can't just ignore the question, I mean, it's his name, right, and Jesus is looking right at him, but he's wary, he knows that he's on dangerous ground here, now your Bible, if it's an ESV, sounds a little too enthusiastic, and he answered, say it, teacher, but it's not that, it's not, yes, say it, teacher, sock it to me, I'm all ears, it's not that, It's more in the Greek, more like, okay, go on.

36:04 He's wary. And then Jesus tells a story. Look at 41. A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed 500 denarii, the other 50. When they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both. And he asked this question, now which of those two people will love Jesus more? Really simple parable. I mean, some of Jesus' parables go on for a long time. This one's like two sentences. You've got two debtors and one money lender that's lent money to both of them. One owes 500 denarii. Denarii is the plural for a denarius, so it's kind of coin in the Roman Empire, right?

36:36 And the other owes 50. Now, given that a denarius was about a day's wage, what you've got here is one guy owing about a year and a half's wages and another guy owing about a month and a half's wages. But the amounts don't really matter. It's not what's important. Jesus just kind of seems to have pulled two numbers out of the sky. The point is that one owes 10 times more than the other, and neither of them can pay off the debt. And then in a kind of surprise move that Jesus doesn't give a whole lot of time to, the moneylender cancels both the debts. You don't have to pay your 50, you don't have to pay your 500, that's that.

37:10 And then he asks the question, which of them is going to love the moneylender more? And Simon, obviously reluctantly, you can hear his grudging tone in the text, The one, I suppose, who had the larger debt canceled? And Jesus says, yep, yep, you've judged it rightly. The one who had the larger debt canceled is going to love the money lender more. There's going to be more gratitude from the larger debt than from the smaller debt.

37:41 So well done, Simon, good answer. And then Jesus sort of circles it in, and it's almost as if he said, but now let me show you what you've just said about yourself. Okay, so what does the parable mean? What's it revealing? Well, I think this parable helps us realize three fundamental truths at the exact same time. Number one, it shows that Jesus knows exactly what Simon is thinking. Jesus knows exactly what Simon is thinking. You look back at verse 39, Simon says to himself what he says.

38:19 Well, it turns out, it turns out that Jesus does know. If this man were a prophet, he would have known the heart of this woman, etc., etc. It turns out he does know. He knows who she is. He also knows who Simon is. He knows what he just thought in his mind, what Simon just thought. He knows what he thought, but didn't say. I mean, you see the irony in that? It's just wild. The very thing that Simon sort of snarkily said a prophet would be able to do, prophet would be able to know what I'm thinking. Well, I do, buddy. It's just devastating. Number two, the parable shows us finally why this woman did what she did to Jesus. And really, it's a total about face from what everybody in that room would have been thinking at that time. You know what they would have been thinking? Everybody in the room, they knew who she was. They knew her reputation.

39:14 Simon knew her, knew what she was known for. And he looked at her and thought she was doing all this stuff in order to get something from jesus trying to earn his favor trying to win forgiveness through all these tears and this perfume she was begging he thought for something but the parable says no no no that's not what's happening at all she's not trying to earn something she's not seeking anything she's not begging she's responding to something she's already got her debt has been canceled and therefore she loves. And think about it, that's the whole logic of the parable, isn't it?

39:55 First the debt is forgiven, then the love flows out. This woman walked into that room, not as somebody trying to get something, but as somebody who had already received everything she needed. We don't know when that happened. Something though happened between her and Jesus. Luke doesn't tell us how, he doesn't tell us when, he doesn't tell the story. There's not another word said about her in the entire Bible. But somehow, either through his teaching or through a personal encounter, she'd already met him. She'd already heard his word of forgiveness and now she's overflowing with gratitude and love because of what she knows he's done for her.

40:33 Number three, the parable exposes Simon as the greater debtor and yet he doesn't even know it. It exposes Simon as really the greater debtor and he doesn't even know it. See, Simon's looking at this situation, and he's like, there are two kinds of people in this room. There is this sinful, reputationally disgusting woman, and then there's me, the righteous one.

41:08 But that's not how it works, is it? The parable doesn't talk about one righteous person and one debtor. It talks about two debtors. now one owes more and one owes less sure but the point is that they both owe and neither one of them can pay for it they're both like we talked about last week bankrupt i mean it's worth noting too that jesus doesn't mean to be saying with this parable it's just not the point he's not saying that simon really does have less sin than the woman i mean you can think about it in various ways. I mean, he's saying, sure, you got less publicly obvious sin. You don't have a public reputation like her. He may even be saying, look, you think of yourself as a very small debtor.

42:02 The trouble is, even though Simon doesn't have that reputation, even though he may not be as publicly gross as her, his sins sort of tucked in under the fine robes and hidden under the the turban, it turns out are just as deadly as hers. You can't see them, but they'll kill you just the same. No, the thing, the point is that she knows her sins are deadly, and he has no idea. That's the difference, and it's the great difference between her and Simon. The woman knew. She knew the weight of her sin. She knew how far she'd fallen. She knew how desperately she needed mercy. And so when that mercy comes, it produces this explosion of love and gratitude.

42:46 Simon didn't know. He thought he was fine. He thought his debt was manageable. He thought his respectability and his position and his money was enough. He thought his religious credentials meant that he didn't need what this woman needed. And so he sat there at the dinner table, hosting the Son of God, and he felt nothing. That's terrifying, isn't it? That thought, that he hosted the Son of God and felt nothing is terrifying.

43:17 Simon was in mortal danger. Not because he was a worse sinner than the woman. Not that he had more sins than the woman. It was that his blindness to his sin made him incapable of love. He couldn't love Jesus. Because he didn't think he needed Jesus. That is a far, far more dangerous place to be than all the way down in the gutter.

43:51 Look at verse 47. Because this is where people, I think, can get confused if you don't read it carefully. 47, therefore I tell you, Jesus said, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. Her sins, which are many, are forgiven because she loved much. Now, you read that quickly, and it sounds like Jesus is saying that her love caused her forgiveness, doesn't it? It sounds like she loved so much that now her sins are forgiven.

44:22 But that's exactly wrong, and we know it's wrong because it's exactly the opposite of the point of the whole parable. In fact, it's the exact opposite of the next sentence. In the parable, which comes first? Is it the cancellation of the debt, or is it the love? It's a cancellation of the debt, right? The debtor loves because he's been forgiven, not in order to be forgiven. Okay, so what's that little word for doing then in 47? Right? Because it sounds like because. Well, there are different ways to use that word. We do this in English.

44:53 Once I explain it to you, it won't be surprising to you at all. That little word for there is, you might say it's a piece of evidence as opposed to a cause. It's being used as a piece of evidence as opposed to a cause. What it means is, as proven by this. So her sins are forgiven, and we can tell that because she loves so much. Her sins are forgiven, and you see? You can see that because she loves so much.

45:29 The love is the proof of the forgiveness, not the price of it. And then Jesus drives it home with this contrast that uses the same exact logic. He who is forgiven little, loves little. It's the forgiveness that's the driver of the love, not the other way around. Now when he says that, he who is forgiven little, loves little, he's got to be looking right at Simon when he says that, right? He's got to be looking at him and saying, Simon, you don't love because you don't think you need to be forgiven of much.

46:00 It's not because your sins are actually small. They're not. It's because you can't see them. Now, I want you to be careful here. I don't want you to hear all of this that I'm saying about being forgiven much and therefore loving much and think, ah, well, I guess what I need to do is go out and get myself into some real sin today so that I can know what it is to be forgiven. Years and years ago, we had a Sunday evening preacher here at 3rd Avenue who preached, literally, from the pulpit.

46:35 Some of you need to go and get yourself into some big sin so that you'll know what forgiveness is like. That was bad. Sunday evenings can be like that sometimes. They're a bit of a spectator sport. You never know what you're going to get from time to time. But it's absurd. It's exactly the objection Paul talked about in Romans 6. Shall I go on sinning so that grace may increase? If I sin more, I'll be forgiven more. And that'll be great. Fun for everybody. Paul says, by no means.

47:09 The point is not the size of your sin. The point is the depth of your awareness of your sin. This woman didn't love more because she sinned more. She loved more because she knew more. She knew more about herself. She knew more about her need. And therefore, she knew more about what forgiveness cost. Simon's sins weren't smaller. They were different. They were less public. But they weren't smaller. It's just that his awareness of them was smaller.

47:42 And look what happens next, 48, 49. Jesus says directly to this woman, your sins are forgiven. And then the people at the table start muttering. Who is this who even forgives sins? This has been an ongoing question in Luke. We've seen it before, right? Back in chapter 5, when Jesus forgave the paralytic, the Pharisees said the same thing. Who can forgive sins but God alone? And of course they're right, and Jesus keeps pressing that ball forward. When Jesus looks at this woman and speaks forgiveness over her, he's claiming, yet again, to be God.

48:14 And the guests feel it. This murmur goes through the crowd. They feel the weight of what's happening. They don't necessarily understand it, but they feel it, and the murmuring starts. Then you got this last verse, 50. He said to the woman, your faith has saved you. Go in peace. Why does he say that? Why does he say that? Well, he's nailing down what we've been talking about. It's not love has saved you. It's your faith has saved you.

48:47 Your trust in Jesus, your reliance on him, your understanding that he's the one who can save. That's what saves you. Look, some of you this morning are in exactly the same place as this faithful, crying woman. You know exactly who you are. You know exactly what you've done. Maybe you even have a reputation for it. And you know the weight of that. It might be that you walked into this place this morning carrying some shame in your heart and mind that you haven't told anybody about.

49:22 Maybe there's some sin that you can't shake or a past you can't outrun. Something you did at some point that makes you feel like you've been totally disqualified and shut off from God forever. Friend, if that's you, if that's you, take a look at this woman and even more, take a look at what Jesus does in response to her. She walks into this room full of people who despise her, who know her shame, and she doesn't care.

49:53 Because the only person whose opinion that mattered to her had already spoken. And the word that he spoke over her was forgiven. For that word forgiven is for you too. It is not, it is never because you've earned it. It's not because you've managed to clean yourself up sufficiently. It's simply and solely because Jesus speaks it. And when he speaks it, the matter is closed. Forgiven.

50:26 Put your faith in the one who lived for you and who died for you and who rose again on the third day. And find that word spoken over you. Trust him. Trust him. Repent of your sins and trust him. Some of you are right there. Some of you, though, are more like Simon, and the irony of that whole thing is going to be that you're sitting there, and you're Simon, and you don't even know you're Simon. Because the whole irony of Simon is that he doesn't, Simons don't know that they are Simons, right?

50:58 Because they cannot see themselves. But you're here, right? You're respectable. Your life's more or less in order. You got a nice suit on. You don't have some dramatic sin story, And because of that, even if you say you're a Christian, the gospels always felt a little, you know, it all feels a little academic. Is it important? Yeah, yeah, sure. Okay, fine, sure. Is it true? Yeah, more likely than not. But the fact that the king of the universe became flesh and lived for you and then died in your place has never wrecked you.

51:37 It's never made you weep. Friend, if that's you, let me say this to you as kindly as I know how. The fact that the gospel never wrecks you is not evidence that you're doing fine. It might very well be evidence that you don't see yourself clearly. So what do you do? If that's you, what do you do?

52:09 Let me tell you what you do. you pray, and you read, and you sing. You pray, and you read, and you sing. You pray that God would show you your sin. You pray he would drop the trap door out from under you so that the thing that you think is, it's respectable, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm a sinner. I have pride, or I have some lust. I have this, I have that. But that's all common sense to humanity. Pray the Lord would drop the trap door open and show you the abyss of your sin. Read the scriptures, see the greatness of God, and see your lostness, and come to terms with that.

52:46 Sing the truths of these songs that we're even about to sing, not with a kind of, you know, impatience that just wants to get out of here, but with a heart that wants to understand deeply and really. When we take the Lord's Supper here in just a moment, don't just take that little bit of bread. And put it in your mouth and gulp it down. Don't do that. Take that little bit of bread and put it, symbolizes the body of Christ, right? Take that little bit of bread and put it in between your teeth and crush it. And then crush it again between your teeth and know that it was it's you who held him on that cross.

53:41 Look, my point here is not to make you miserable. It's exactly the opposite. It's so that when you think of the forgiveness that Christ has given you, it won't anymore be an academic ho-hum thing. It'll mean something to you. It's so you'll know that, it's so you'll be the kind of person whose love for Jesus is not just polite, but actually extravagant you know sometimes the only thing between you and that kind of love for jesus is just an honest look at yourself and that sort of honest look that moment where you finally look at your heart and you say oh my god be merciful to me a sinner that's where the whole thing begins in just a second we're going to take the lord's supper together brothers and sisters when you do i want you to come to this table the way that woman came into simon's house

54:43 not with your own dignity intact not with your own composure intact but with the full weight of what you've been forgiven. Pressing on your heart. Come to this table today and mean it. Let's pray. Our Lord Jesus, we pray that we would know ourselves clearly and that we would know you clearly and that the infinite gap that exists between who you are and what we are would be filled in with the glory of the cross of Jesus Christ.

55:22 Let that happen today, even as we take the Lord's Supper together. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.