Restoring Vision
Luke • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction
Introduction
36 One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table. 37 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, 38 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. 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.” 40 And Jesus answering said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he answered, “Say it, Teacher.” 41 “A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” And he said to him, “You have judged rightly.” 44 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. 45 You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. 46 You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. 47 Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” 48 And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” 49 Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” 50 And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
Our emotions are a wonderful gift from God. They can communicate so much; so much about us, so much about what’s going on with us internally and externally. In our text this evening we meet a man whose response to what he sees demonstrates his need for a restored vision. And we meet a woman who receives the tender gaze of mercy from Jesus. And even before he looks at her in the text, she is overwhelmed to the point of tears. Have you ever been so moved by something that you found yourself crying uncontrollably?...
Times of great joy and times of great sorrow are able to bring that kind of response out of us. Back in the early 2000s there was a TV show my family loved to watch together. It was called “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.” In each show they would select a family or individual who needed a new home. That family or individual would be chosen because of a recent or ongoing hardship, like a natural disaster or a severe disability. And they needed a new home because their existing home was woefully inadequate, but they lacked the resources to change their situation.
The Extreme Makeover folks would swoop in a whisk the family away on a one week vacation. They would demolish the old house and in one week build a fabulous new house that met the specific needs of the family. The climactic moment in the show was when they’d bring the folks back form vacation, and the whole community was gathered at the house, but they couldn’t see it yet. That’s because there was a huge bus blocking their view. The big moment would come when the people from the show and the people from the community would shout together, “Move that bus!” When they saw their beautiful new home for the first time, they’d burst into tears, or start jumping up and down hugging each other, or collapse on the ground in utter disbelief.
Why the crying? Why the intense emotional response? It’s because of the great gift that they’ve received through the love, kindness and mercy of others. This home that’s before theirs eyes and all that the builders and designers have done for them is a gift of such overwhelming value to them that all they can do is burst into tears.
That picture gets us close to what we read of this unnamed woman in our text. She comes face to face with Jesus’s love, compassion, his mercy, the hope he gives, his power and authority to give her the gift of forgiveness, and she’s overcome with emotion.
The lead in to this passage is the previous section of Luke 7; specifically vv. 18-34.
John the Baptist is confused. He had preached that the “mightier one” who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire was coming. But Jesus wasn’t turning out to be the type of Messiah John seemed to expect. So John sends two of his disciples to Jesus to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another” (Luke 7.19)? Jesus says to them,
22 And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. 23 And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”
Then Jesus says in vv.31-35
31 “To what then shall I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? 32 They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, “ ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’ 33 For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ 34 The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ 35 Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.”
V. 34 is what sets up our passage. “Look at him! Jesus is a friend of sinners. “Jesus what a friend sinners, Jesus lover of my soul. Friends may fail me, foes assail me, he my Savior makes me whole.”
There’s not a friend like the lowly Jesus.
Luke includes this account right here as an immediate example of the fact that Jesus is a friend of sinners. And how do we know that? We know it because he comes to sinners and gives them what they have no ability to obtain without him, mercy, forgiveness, and peace with God. Once we are gripped by the immeasurable mercy and forgiveness we’ve received in Christ, we can’t help but become people who become merciful and forgiving. There are two points I want to share with you from this passage The Gaze of Gall, The Gaze of Grace.
The Gaze of Gall
The Gaze of Gall
Luke tells us in v. 36
36 One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table.
Here’s the setting. There’s still some curiosity about Jesus. The Pharisees, the religious leaders, are still studying Jesus and trying to figure him out. It’s common in the Gospel accounts to read about the hostile intent and attitude that the Pharisees direct toward Jesus, but hostile intentions are not the sense here. They want to diagnose him. So, one of them named Simon, invites Jesus to a meal. Jesus accepts the invitation because Jesus makes himself available to all types of people, rich, poor, religious, non-religious, young, old, well-networked, non-networked…every level of the social strata.
Jesus accepts the invitation and takes his place at the table in this special public meal. This isn’t an invitation to a private meal with Simon and his family. This would’ve been a public meal where all the invited guests took their place around the table. The reclined on their left side on low-lying couches and they ate with their right hand. Their bodies were angled away from the table.
The public was welcomed to come and sit by the walls and listen in on the conversation that was taking place at the table.
We’re not told anything about the conversation that’s taking place at the table before v. 37. Whatever it was, it’s of no consequence. What we are told is that there is an unexpected intrusion.
37 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, 38 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.
This woman is described only as a sinner. Why was this her label? Was it related to sex? Had she commited some crime? Was she the town gossip? We don’t know for sure, but what we do know is that it wasn’t private. Whatever it was, it wasn’t something that she could cover up. Everyone knew about it. Imagine if the things that you think or do that you don’t want anyone else to know about was out in the open. That was her. And even though she’s a primary character in this story, she has no lines. We hear from Jesus. We hear from Simon. But we hear nothing from her. However, her actions speak a thousand words.
When she learned that Jesus was at Simon the Pharisee’s house, she determined in her mind that she was going to go and take her valuable alabaster flask of ointment and she was going to anoint Jesus’ feet with it. But when she gets there…When she gets right next to Jesus, up close and personal…It’s like somebody yelled out, “move that bus!” And she got an unhindered view of all of the forgiveness and grace that she had received because she put her faith in Jesus. And it was too much for her to take. She burst into a rain shower of tears. This was no little whimpering she’s doing. When Luke says that she wet his feet, the verb has the sense of drenching his feet with her tears. The tears are flowing so heavily that she had to undo her hair to wipe his feet.
This is not what she planned on doing. She came to anoint his feet as an expression of her devotion to him for the forgiveness that she had received. This text is not about her pursuing forgiveness. It’s about her response to forgiveness received by faith.
Notice Simon’s response. He says to himself down in v. 39,
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.”
The gaze of gall. Can you hear the incredulity in Simon’s response? When he saw “this.” Saw what? He saw the woman. He knew her reputation. Everybody knew. He saw her violating the social order. He saw her disrupting the conversation of the important respected people around the table. He saw her making a fool of herself.
But his gaze of gall was not directed at the woman! He already held her in low regard. He was repulsed by her, but his gall was directed at Jesus! “If this man were a prophet! If this man was who he claimed to be. If this man was a holy man, there’s no way he would tolerate this lowlife touching him!”
Listen. Jesus is a friend of sinners. He is the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, full of steadfast love and faithfulness. And his mercy is offensive to our natural sensibilities. I look and this Pharisee’s response, at his gaze of gall and I stand in judgment over him. But here’s a practice we should undertake when we read stories like this in Scripture. My tendency is to think that I would respond differently than the person or the people who are the negative example in the text. But it’s probably the case that I don’t have to look to deeply in to my own heart and mind to find the same negative attitude in myself!
Where do I find the lavish love and mercy of God to be offensive? Better yet, who are the people that if I saw them get close to Jesus and receive his lavish love and mercy, I’d be tempted to give Jesus the gaze of gall?
Simon responds with indignation, scorn, and doubt. He believes that Jesus has a perception problem. He doesn’t see Jesus rightly. But he also doesn’t see himself rightly.
Jesus knows this. So he answers,
40 And Jesus answering said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he answered, “Say it, Teacher.” 41 “A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” And he said to him, “You have judged rightly.”
Notice first, Luke lets us know that the perception problem is not with Jesus. The one with the perception problem is Simon. Simon is thinking, not speaking. But Jesus is aware of his thoughts and responds to those thoughts.
The difference between owing someone 500 denarii and 50 denarii is the difference between owing someone twenty months of wages and two months of wages.
Jesus tells a parable of forgiveness and love. Notice this question. “Who will love him more?” The point of the parable is that one who is forgiven little loves little. The one who does not know mercy is not merciful. In Jesus Christ we find forgiveness, first so that we can love God. The goal of forgiveness is for us to be reconciled to God, to become devoted to the one who created us, sustains us, restores us, and yes, loves us. And the second reason we’re forgiven is that we might love our neighbor. Does that sound familiar to you? Love God, love neighbor? What’s behind the forgiveness we receive through faith in Jesus Christ? It’s love. Not a mish-mash, loosy-goosy, flimsy kind of love, but a costly, sacrificial love. That is in fact the kind of love we receive from God in Jesus Christ.
And this dear sister knew it! We can see in her actions. She comes to express her gratitude to Jesus for the grace of forgiveness that she’s received. She knows she’s the recipient of a lavish mercy. She brings an offering of thanksgiving in her alabaster flask of ointment. She breaks cultural norms and customs by disrupting the meal as an uninvited guest, by down her hair, something that no self-respecting woman would do in public. But she does not care. Jesus, and all that he has done for her is all that matters to her in this moment.
It is not speculation to say that she is a changed woman. She knows how God sees her. And it’s not the way Simon the Pharisee and the community see her. She knows that she’s a beloved daughter. We don’t know what her life looked like after but I bet the way she interacted with people was different. Receiving forgiveness from God cannot help but change the way we interact with other people. Particularly when it comes to our willingness to forgive others. That is a natural outworking of what Jesus says in v. 47, “He who is forgiven little, loves little.” The one who is forgiven much, loves much. And listen, the way that we daily demonstrate our love for God is most powerfully seen in the way we love others. In this context it’s demonstrated by forgiveness.
We’re not forgiven in Christ to do our own thing. (Extreme makeover example again…once the family moves into their new house, the designers and builders leave, and the family is left to live their life however they please.) Not so with us. Praise God for the fact that he never leaves us alone to fend for ourselves.
The Gaze of Grace
The Gaze of Grace
We need to get a picture of the depth of Jesus’s compassion in this text. Pay attention to Luke’s words in v. 44 and imagine the scene in your mind. We saw the gaze of gall from Simon. Now see the gaze of grace from Jesus.
44 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. 45 You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. 46 You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. 47 Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” 48 And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” 49 Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” 50 And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
Simon doubted that Jesus was a prophet. But Jesus shows that he’s a prophet and more by showing that he knew what Simon was thinking, and he also knew precisely who this woman was…
Here’s the gaze of grace. Who is Jesus talking to? But who is he looking at?
Do you get the picture? Our great God and Savior wants to assure this woman, who may have been struggling to accept the fact that she could have been forgiven for so much, that she could be the recipient of such mercy. Nothing in her life experience likely communicated this as a possibility. She understood the depths of her sin. And with the mix of compassion and authority Jesus assures her that she’s right with God because of her faith. Make no mistake about it. Everyone there at that dinner party, invited guests and spectators thought that the Pharisee was right with God and this sinner was not. But Jesus says that their position with God is determined by their devotion to him.
“You gave me no water for my feet, but she…”
“You gave me no kiss, but she…”
“You did not anoint my head, but she…
In other words, Jesus is saying, “Simon, I’m your guest, but she’s the one who has welcomed me in. There’s only one person here who’s demonstrating hospitality, and it’s her, not you.”
You want to see the assurance of forgiveness? Three times, back to back to back we hear she’s forgiven! V. 47, v. 48, v. 49. And then the benediction in v. 50, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
As my friend Phil Ryken says in his commentary on this passage,
“Everyone knew that she was a sinner, including the woman herself, and also Jesus, who did not overlook her many sins. Jesus knew the full extent of her sin, as he always does. Nevertheless, this woman was fully forgiven…, and this meant that she was no longer defined by her depravity.”
That’s what the gaze of grace does friends. The gaze of grace redefines us such that we are no longer defined by our depravity. We are renewed in Jesus by faith and redefined as beloved of God who bear his image.
Jesus sees us, loves us, changes us, and reminds us that we are beloved and beautiful in him.
Christian philosopher, Esther Meek put it this way,
A sense of personal beauty comes, I believe, only in the generous, self-giving gaze, the noticing regard, of another person. A sense of personal beauty is nevertheless accessible to all, in the life-giving noticing regard of Jesus Christ. If—when—human noticing regard fails to occur, any person may nevertheless experience it in the gaze of the Lord, in personal redemption and the celebration of the Eucharist. His alone is the face that will not go away, and his alone is our highest joy.
How do people who know the self-giving, gracious gaze of Jesus live? How is their vision restored? Let me close with a story from the early church.
Celsus, a second-century pagan writer wrote, somewhere between 175-180 AD, a full-scale critique of this upstart religion, Christianity. Larry Hurtado describes this critique in his book Destroyer of the Gods. Celsus was commited to what he considered the true teaching, a religious commitment informed by Greek philosophical notions.
Celsus portrayed Christians a simpletons. Why were Christians simpletons? Because, he said, they welcomed the worst kinds of people into their fellowship. Unlike other religions of his day whom, he rightly believed only invited those who had purified themselves through extended training and teaching.
Christians were idiots. Fools. Because the church’s testimony was that they welcomed in the worst kinds of people. This is the testimony of those who receive the self-giving, gaze of grace from Jesus. They saw that this is what he did. He extended mercy, welcoming in the worst kinds of people according to society.
And this is the lead we follow. This is the restored vision. Knowing that he’s transformed us. Knowing that we’re no longer defined by our depravity, and we refuse to interact with people as though they are defined by their depravity.
May the Lord give us restored vision, renewed vision, that sees people they way he does.