The Debt of Love - Luke 7:36-50

James H. Cosentino II

Parables: Jesus the Storyteller • Sermon • Submitted a year ago • Presented a year ago

Luke 7:36–50

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Introduction

Read Luke 7:36-50

Luke 7:36–50 (ESV)

One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table. And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.” And Jesus answering said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he answered, “Say it, Teacher.”

“A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?” Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” And he said to him, “You have judged rightly.” Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

The next couple weeks we will be examining the forgiveness of God and the change it should make in our lives. The first change we will be looking at this week is our love for God.

We have discussed previously the greatest commandment, which sums up all of the commandments of God. That commandment is to love God with all our heart, mind, and strength.

The question we have to ask, though, is how do we love God? Is it something we do? Is it something we conjure up, some emotion that we try to work up?

The ones who should have loved God the most, were the ones who struggled with loving God, because they viewed loving God as simply keeping a list of commands.

However, others thought they could love God without any kind of obedience.

Both legalism and licentiousness both keep us from loving God the way we should.

The truth is, on our own, we can never truly love God the way that He requires of us.

This was the case with Simon the Pharisee. He offered this act of hospitality towards Jesus, and Jesus lovingly accepted his offer.

This was an act that was probably predicated upon the idea that hospitality is something that was expected among God’s people. He invited Jesus over to his home to show that he was a good Jewish man and leader in his community.

Part of hosting this dinner would also be to invite others to come and observe the hospitality being shown to this high profile teacher. So the Pharisee held this dinner in an open outdoor area where others could see and hear the conversation and interaction between Jesus and Simon. This is how this woman was able to gain access to Jesus. She did not have to walk into someone else’s home. She had access to Jesus because they were outside.

Here we see a contrast between this sinful woman and this religious leader.

Simon

We don’t know exactly what prompted Simon the Pharisee to invite Jesus for dinner. Maybe it was a sincere invitation. Or perhaps he wanted to observe Jesus and see what all the hype was about.

Part of the custom of inviting someone over for dinner is to greet them with a kiss to show honor and reverence for the guest.

It would also have been proper and polite to bring a basin of water to wash the feet of the guest. This would have been a sign of love and hospitality for your guest.

However, Simon unfortunately did neither of these things. We are not sure why Simon invited Jesus over, but we can see that He has not demonstrated even the minimum required honor and respect for Jesus.

The Woman

On the other hand, there is this sinful woman who hears of where Jesus is and comes to him. Notice her humility as she stands behind him at his feet. As Jesus and Simon are reclining at table, they would have been sitting or lying at the table on the floor with their feet pointed away from the table.

The woman comes to Jesus’ feet with a flask of perfume. She begins to weep and with her tears she begins to clean Jesus’ feet and dries them with her hair. Then in the greatest scene of love and humility, not only does she do what no one else wants to do by cleaning his feet, she begins to kiss his feet.

She is demonstrating the kind of love that surpasses the required practice of hospitality that Simon could not even be bothered with showing.

The Parable

At this point, we see Simon’s heart towards both Jesus and the woman. He is examining Jesus to see if He is the prophet everyone says He is. Simon thinks obviously He is not because He is allowing this sinful woman to come up and touch Him. Surely a man of God would not allow such a woman with a reputation like hers to come near Him.

Jesus, knowing what is in Simon’s heart, shares a very short parable with him. This parable deals with a moneylender who had two men in his debt. One had a debt ten times as great as the other one. However, neither one could pay the debt. It was more than they could handle.

The moneylender graciously forgives both men’s debt and Jesus asks, which one would end up loving the lender more?

Simon rightly says that the one with the greater debt would end up loving the lender more.

Jesus tells Simon that he is correct and it is because of the forgiveness of God that this woman is demonstrating this kind of love for Jesus.

So again, the question that we are asking is, how do we cultivate this love for God that the woman showed to Jesus?

By seeing the debt of love we are in towards Jesus Christ because of His free grace and forgiveness offered to us.

If you are to see the true debt of love you are in towards Jesus, you must first...

Recognize Your Desperate Need for Jesus

The parable showed two men with debts that were forgiven, one was larger than the other, but both of which who were unable to pay their debts.

The one who ended up loving the lender was the one with the greater debt.

Here’s the reality, Simon didn’t really see the need for forgiveness for himself. Oh sure, the Pharisees knew they were sinners, but not sinners like this woman. They were good religious men, and so of course God was going to forgive them of any of the small sins they were guilty of.

This woman, however, knew she was a sinner. She was reminded of it every day and probably even knew what people thought she deserved because of her sin. The woman’s debt, at least in appearance, was much greater than the debt of the Pharisee.

The reality, however, is that while we might perceive our sin to be different than others, we are all equally in debt to God because of our sin.

All sin is an infinite offense against an infinitely holy God

All sin has earned the wages of death

Because of the infinite offense of sin, the just penalty for sin is eternal punishment in Hell

We are truly in a desperate situation and it is all our own doing.

Because our sin is a great offense against God, it should cause us to mourn over and hate our sin.

We see the woman’s response to her sin is weeping at Jesus’ feet. She doesn’t try to justify herself or give reasons why she has sinned. She simply weeps and mourns over her sin.

Anymore, we try to downplay sin as simple characteristic traits. This is just who I am. Sometimes we even blame God by saying the things I do is because of how I was made. I am simply being true to myself.

However, instead of trying to justify my sin, I am being called to repent and turn away from my sin and to acknowledge the utter wickedness of my sin.

Whether that sin is telling a little white lie or sharing a little juicy gossip, or if that sin is the most egregious act of sexual immorality or murder. All sin, because it is a rebellion against the King of Creation, should be mourned over.

Before we can see the good news of the Gospel, we have to see the dire circumstances and situation we are in

If we do not recognize our need and the total ugliness and offensiveness of sin, we will not recognize the greatness of the rescue and forgiveness that Christ has provided

And if we do not see our need, we will fall into self-righteousness and self-dependence and will never grow in our love for and dependence upon Christ.

With this passage of Scripture, there is not so much we need to do as much as we need to examine our hearts.

How do you see your sinfulness? Do you recognize your desperate need for Jesus? Even if we have been believers for some time, we must never forget our total dependence upon Christ for our continued growth in holiness and our fight against sin. We never outgrow our need for Christ and for His grace and forgiveness in our lives.

Receive Jesus as the Friend of Sinners

Jesus came as the Friend of Sinners

The answer to the bad news of our situation is what Christ came to do. He came to be a friend to sinners, to call them to repentance and to offer forgiveness to those who have no hope within themselves.

And of course, if Jesus came to call the righteous to repentance, He would have not spent time with anyone. Regardless of how righteous we might think we are, none of us are righteous.

Romans 3:10–11 (ESV)

as it is written:

“None is righteous, no, not one;

no one understands;

no one seeks for God.

Jesus used this illustration with others:

Luke 5:31–32 (ESV)

And Jesus answered them, “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.”

Who needs a doctor? Not those who are well, but those who are sick.

Of course, there are many sick people who refuse to see a doctor, because they’ve convinced themselves they are not sick. And what happens? The sickness we are infected with doesn’t magically go away because we believe it isn’t there. It actually grows because we have refused to acknowledge it and to do anything about it.

Jesus came specifically to save lost and dying sinners.

How did He do this? By taking upon Himself our sin and the full penalty of our sin.

In this parable that we are looking at, the moneylender ended up forgiving the debts of his two debtors. For the debtors, this forgiveness was free. But when a debt is forgiven, it is not a cheap or free act. This kind of act requires a huge cost. Someone has to cover the cost of the money that will never be paid back. In this case, the moneylender is choosing to take upon himself the cost of the debts. He gave money to these debtors that he will never see again.

In order to forgive the debt of sin that we owe, someone had to take upon Himself the cost of those debts.

How does a just God offer forgiveness for sin without becoming unjust?

If a judge were to simply ignore a criminal act and offer pardon and forgiveness, he would not be considered just because he was not holding up the law.

How is God able to offer forgiveness and still maintain justice by giving every sin its just punishment?

The answer lies in the cross. On the cross, Jesus is able to offer forgiveness to sinners because He is taking upon Himself the sins of the world.

Every sin has been or will be punished. Either we will receive the eternal punishment our sins deserve, or we will turn to Christ, who died the death we deserved and our sins will find their just punishment with Christ on the cross.

The cross reminds us of the great love and forgiveness we have been offered

If our sin is that great and Christ was willing to die for us even in spite of the terrible nature of our sin, then His love for us is even greater.

The Modern Hymn “His Mercy is More”

Praise the Lord, His mercy is more Stronger than darkness, new every morn Our sins they are many, His mercy is more

The cross reveals Christ’s heart for sinners and His desire to offer forgiveness at all costs.

There is no amount of works that can earn you God’s love and grace.

If we are depending upon our works, we cannot learn to love God because we are depending upon ourselves as God to save us.

In the same way, there is no sin that can keep God’s grace from saving you.

There may be someone here who doubts if God could still love them because of all they have done.

You cannot out-sin His love and mercy for you.

What does this mean for us?

Humbly come to Jesus, knowing you have nothing to earn His love and grace for you. In fact it is only in seeing your need for Christ that will draw you to Him.

Tim Keller, a pastor and theologian, who just days before he passed away this weekend, posted on facebook this statement:

What keeps people from receiving God's grace is not so much their sins, but their good works.

Don’t let your own sense of self-righteousness keep you from missing out on what Christ has to offer.

If we want to receive God’s grace, we need to admit our need for His grace and there is nothing we can do to earn it.

Trust in His love and care for you regardless of what you have done

Rejoice in the Grace of God

Jesus’ response to the Woman’s faith and love for Him...

This woman knew of her sinfulness. She knew of her unworthiness before her God. And yet, she had learned that Jesus had come as a friend to sinners and to redeem them from their sins. She might not have known how Jesus was going to accomplish this, but she trusted in Christ’s love and grace for her.

And what was Jesus’ response to her?

Luke 7:48 (ESV)

And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

Can you imagine her response to hearing these words?

This woman, whose sins were known, not just to God, but to everyone around her, have just been declared to be forgiven. Why? Not because of her works, but because of her faith.

She was forgiven and loved because of whom she believed, not because of what she had done. How her heart must have rejoiced at hearing these words!

The Grace of Christ Fuels our Love for God

It will lead us to rejoice and demonstrate our love for Him, no matter what others think

When we realize that Jesus has saved us and forgiven us simply because of his love for us, it is going to change how we view other’s opinions of us. We are going to follow Him and love Him regardless of what others say or think.

The woman knew she was under scrutiny for coming to Jesus. But His grace towards her caused her to not worry about the thoughts others had about her as she came to Jesus.

It will lead us to surrender all to Him no matter the cost

Because of the grace of God towards this woman, it also led her to love Jesus no matter the cost. She gave this expensive oil as part of an act of worship.

Following Jesus is going to require a cost for us too. It will cost us as we turn from the sins we have delighted in. It might cost us our friends or our reputations. It might also cost us our jobs and cost us financially to follow Him. But our hearts will gladly endure whatever the cost as we focus on what Christ has done to redeem us from sin.

Alas! and did my Savior bleed And did my Sovereign die? Would He devote that sacred head For such a worm as I?

Was it for crimes that I had done He groaned upon the tree? Amazing pity! grace unknown! And love beyond degree!

But drops of grief can ne’er repay The debt of love I owe: Here, Lord, I give my self away ’Tis all that I can do.

At the cross, at the cross Where I first saw the light, And the burden of my heart rolled away, It was there by faith I received my sight, And now I am happy all the day!

We must examine our hearts this morning

Have you come to acknowledge your need for Jesus? Have you received His free grace trusting that His grace is greater than your sins?

Is your heart growing in love and affection for Jesus? Are you willing to surrender all and give yourself away to Jesus our Lord and Savior?