He Who Is Forgiven Much, Loves Much

Luke 7

Look at verse 36. We read there that 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.

Now, this is important. It’s important for us to see the link between this passage and a couple of the other Gospels. Luke, probably writing later than the other Gospel writers, makes a point of saying that this man was a Pharisee. Luke is focusing on his perceived righteousness. He’s a man who seems righteous.

Yet readers of Luke’s Gospel will no doubt have read Matthew and Mark’s Gospels, at least, and would be aware that in those Gospels this man was called Simon the leper.

So here is a man most people knew according to his disease. I don’t know whether—I think probably—he was healed of his leprosy by this stage, otherwise he would be outside of the city. But nevertheless, he’d been a leper. Leprosy: wasting, unclean skin disease, which made him detestable to all who saw him. And yet you become a Pharisee, delivered from his leprosy. Here he was, having a meal with Jesus.

How might we expect someone like that to behave? Someone who’s been delivered from his leprosy? And ultimately, we know, whether it was directly through a healing of the Lord Jesus or indirectly through the Lord Almighty healing him, this was all down to Jesus.

This should be a truly grateful man and, more importantly, a truly humble man—a man who is so amazed that he, a sinful leper, had been healed and now had the privilege of having Jesus at his house.

But what’s his attitude?

Well, we see him in verse 37 beholding a woman of the city who was a sinner. And that seems to suggest she was a prostitute, or at least someone with a bad reputation. And she learned that Jesus was reclining at table in the house of this Pharisee, so she comes.

Houses were open-plan in these days. It’s all very outdoor, hot culture, so you can walk in and out of people’s eating spaces. And she goes to Jesus. She brings an alabaster flask of ointment.

What we might hope to see is Simon the Pharisee saying, “Come, come and join us at the table, dear friend. We both have been remarkably shown mercy by our Lord Jesus Christ, and he has deigned to sit at my table, and it would be my privilege to have you join us, for my deliverance is just like your deliverance.”

But she’s not invited to sit at the table.

Instead, what we read is that, verse 38, she stands behind Jesus at his feet. She’s weeping, and she begins to wet his feet with her tears, and she wipes them with the hair of her head as she kisses his feet and anoints his feet with the ointment.

She obviously planned to bring this ointment, but had been overcome by shame, pain because of her sins, in the presence of Jesus.

And here’s this mess. Again, we don’t see the Pharisee comforting the woman or saying, “Come, it’s OK. Your sins are forgiven. Jesus loves you.”

No. Instead, he sees this woman, verse 37, and he says 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.”

Do you know what he’s saying there?

“I’m better than Jesus. I’m greater than him. I know she’s a sinner, and I know what she deserves, but Jesus doesn’t even have the sense to see that.”

So, verse 40, Jesus, answering him, said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.”

And he answered, “Say it, Teacher.”

So Jesus is going to attempt to reveal to Simon the leper, Simon the Pharisee, the foolishness of self-righteousness in the midst of not realising just how great a deliverance you have been through.

And so he says, verse 41, “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?”

Verse 43: Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.”

And he said to him, “You have judged rightly.”

The lesson is clear. Whoever owes most and has his debt cancelled—the one who has the greater debt—is going to love him more.

And what he’s pointing to is the fact that it makes sense for this woman to love Jesus more, with this overabundant sense of devotion, because she’s been forgiven much.

And yet it would also be wrong to say that Jesus was giving the impression that this man did not owe Jesus much. It’s just that he had not yet seen it.

And so he’s going to show, through his treatment of this woman, how Simon the leper should have been.

And in fact, the reality is, if another Pharisee is to be trusted, then someone who’s a Pharisee who is saved should have called themselves the chief of all sinners.

And so, actually, this man should have been lower on the ground, crying more tears, anointing Jesus’ feet with more ointment than the woman, because he is more of a sinner than the woman. And he had had the opposite attitude.

So we read, verse 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.

“Verse 45: You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came she has not ceased to kiss my feet.

“Verse 46: You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.

“Verse 47: Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little loves little.’”

And read that as: he who thinks he needs little forgiveness will love Jesus little.

That’s the reality because, as we’ve said, this man should see his utter, utter lack of suitability before Jesus. His actual name was Simon the leper, and we know throughout the Bible that leprosy denotes sin and uncleanness. It was an invitation for him to see his own sin.

I’m not saying that diseases in and of themselves are sinful, but I am saying that there are lessons in these diseases which can show us what it is to be a sinner.

And Simon should have seen that, but he hadn’t.

So he says to the woman, and not to Simon, “Your sins are forgiven.”

And people get the lesson in verse 49: “And 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.”

And we’re left questioning whether the Pharisee even has any faith at all.

And so, for you (especially if you like Simon are a church person) don’t do what we’re all instinctively prone to do, which is to say, “We are better.”

We’re the worst because we’ve known most. We know most about Jesus, and we don’t fall at his feet. We don’t love him. We don’t weep over our sins. We don’t see how leprous we are.

Oh, Jesus, help us.

Let’s fall at his feet.

And the great thing is, you know—and I know so many of you, if not all of you—you do know how sinful you are. You’ve felt your sin before. You’ve felt your guilt. You’ve felt your shame. You’re embarrassed about the things that you’ve done.

The wonderful thing is that we can come, like this sinful woman, to Jesus, and we can fall at his feet. We can say, “Please forgive me,” and bring your devotion to him.

Come to him. Weep before him. Tell him all your sins. Tell him how you want him to save you.

And he will tell you too, just like he told this woman, “Your sins are forgiven. Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

Trust in Jesus. Then you’ll be dismissed with peace—not just peace temporarily, but peace with God.

How we need Jesus.

Those feet that she anointed were pierced, and the blood which poured out of those feet and Jesus’ side cleanses us from all sins.