THANKING MY SAVIOR
Luke 7:36-50
G.K. Chesterton was a remarkable writer in the early 1900’s.
He wrote novels, poems and detective stories and was also a popular theologian. Toward the end of his life he wrote his
autobiography in which he tried to state in a single sentence
the most important lesson he had learned from life.
After struggling to find one principle he came up with one.
He stated that the critical factorin life is whether you take
things for granted or take them with gratitude.
Gray Inrig wrote, “An attitude of overflowing thankfulness
is one the prime indicators of our relationship with God.
When gratitude is lacking, grace has either not been
received or not been understood.”
Psalm 136:1 Give thanks to the Lord,
for his mercy endures forever.
God’s goodness is the source of all of our blessings
which includes the forgiveness of all of our sins.
EXPRESSING LOVE :36-39
Personal invitation :36
Many religious leaders wanted to spend time with Jesus and he accepted this Pharisees’ invitation just as he had earlier accepted
an invitation from Matthew a tax collector (5:29).
In Bible times you did not sit up to a table on a chair. The tables were low to the ground like a coffee table so you would sit on a pillow on the floor and lean on the table with your left arm and
your feet behind you away from the table.
The dinner takes place in the courtyard of the house as houses of the well-to-do were built around an open courtyard with a garden.
In the warm weather the meals would be eaten in the courtyard
when there was a large group of people.
Thankful heart :37-38
It was the custom that when a Rabbi was at a meal, all kinds of people would come into the court yard to listen to the conversation.
This explains why a woman, who was not invited to the dinner,
could walk up behind Jesus without anyone stopping her.
Sinner (NIV lived a sinful life) – kind way of saying a prostitute.
The Pharisees used the term to refer to those they considered
to be the lowest persons in society – prostitutes and tax collectors.
Alabaster flask of ointment – a beautiful an expensive jar with
a long neck which contained costly perfumed oil which was used
to anoint a king or embalm a body for burial.
She came in with the specific purpose of seeing Jesus which would have taken great courage because she knew she was not invited.
What brought her to see Jesus was a longing for forgiveness.
Her tears were tears of repentance for her past sinful life.
Leon Morris wrote, “Evidently she intended to anoint Jesus’ feet,
but as she stood there her emotions got the better of her and her tears began to fall on Jesus’ feet. She promptly wiped them with her hair, a significant action, for Jewish ladies did not unbind their hair in public. Clearly she was completely oblivious of public opinion in the grip of her deep emotion. This explains also her kissing of the feet.
Finally she anointed Jesus’ feet with the perfume. Normally this would have been poured on the head. Her using it on the feet is probably a mark of humility. To attend to the feet was a menial task, one assigned to a slave.”
We are not told how she came to know about the forgiveness which Jesus offered. It may have been she heard him speak sometime or through a look that communicated God’s love.
Something had touched her broken sinful heart with forgiveness
and as a result she wanted to express her gratitude to him for
the forgiveness she now personally felt in her heart.
Critical attitude :39
How easy it is to judge other people wrongly because we don’t know what they have experienced or done or are thinking.
Richard Trench wrote, “He mentally put the Lord into this dilemma – Either he does not know the true character of this woman, in which chase he lacks that discernment of spirit which pertains to a true prophet; or, if he knows, and yet endures her touch, and is willing to accept a service at such hands, he lacks
the holiness which is no less the note of a prophet of God.”
He missed the point of Jesus’ ministry and that was to be touched by sinners and to touch the lives of sinners so they would repent
of their sins so they could be forgiven of them by God.
Application
Rebecca Pippert in her book Out of the Saltshaken & Into the World has a chapter titled Loving People Where They Are.
“We need to accept them where they are without compromising our Christian standards. Jesus accepted the ‘gift’ from the prostitute at Simon’s banquet. He shattered his ‘testimony’
by allowing a loose woman to touch him. We too must live
with the tension of being called to identify with others
without being identical to them.”
1. Spend time with unbelievers – eat a meal or do a project.
2. Do some activity with them – fish, golf or go to a game.
3. Listen to them – be willing to hear about their problems.
In a survey by Jews for Jesus 8,000 Jewish believers were asked what initially attracted them to the gospel. Almost 50% said that
it was a personal contact, usually by friend or family member that
most influenced them to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior.
Allow yourself to be touched by a sinner so that you can show them the love of God so their sins can be forgiven by Jesus Christ
Lord, lay some soul upon my heart, and love that soul through me;
and my I humbly do my part to win that soul for Thee.
UNDERSTANDING LOVE :40-43
Denarii – equal to a days pay for a laborer which today would be about $100. Five hundred would be $50,000 or about 2 years work. Fifty would be $5,000 or about 2 months worth of work.
The point is that one person owed 10 times the amount of debt.
Neither person could pay off their debt so both were generously forgiven even though their debts were significantly different.
Cancelled (KJB frankly, NKJ kindly) – Gk. root word is grace.
It means to give freelymeaning to give a gift and here the
man made a gift of what they owed him and so he forgave them.
In :21 it is translated bestow (KJB gave) meaning to give a gift.
It is to show someone grace and is translated forgiveness (11x).
Inrig wrote, “It was an act of grace, because he did not require
the men to work off even a portion of what they owed. He forgave
the debtors and let them go. This is the very essence of grace.”
Which one will love him more – implies there is a link between
love and forgiveness. Forgiveness precedes love which is an expression of the forgiveness we have received from God.
Inrig wrote, “The forgiven person will love the forgiver, because he has been forgiven. Where there is forgiveness there will inevitable be love. Love is a response to pure grace.”
It would be natural for the one who was forgiven ten times as much to love the moneylender more than the other person.
The greater the forgiveness the greater the gratitude should be.
Application
Spiritually we are all in debt to God because of our sins which we cannot pay no matter how many good deeds we try to do.
Inrig wrote, “If none of us can pay the debt of sin, it does little good to determine that someone else is a greater sinner. Spiritual bankruptcy, like financial bankruptcy, is a great equalizer.”
Psalm 14:3 There is none who does good, not even one.
Everyone is just as guilty before God; there is no one who is good.
James 2:10Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point
has become accountable (KJB guilty of) for all of it.
Everyone is guilty before God because we have broken his law.
FORGIVEN LOVE :44-50
Shown by action :44-47
Jesus contrasts the woman’s acts of devotion with the lack of any attention given to him on Simon’s part. He had not even given Jesus the common respect one would give to a guest. Simon had not washed his feet or given him a cordial kiss or anointed his
head with oil which signified the fondness of the host to the guest.
:47 Jesus acknowledges that she was a great sinner and the truth is everyone is a great sinner because we all have broken God’s laws
many times in our lives over and over again and again.
Forgiven – Gk. to cancel, let go or release.
It is translated forgiven (47x) and leave (52x).
- The fever left Peter’s mother-in-law (4:39).
- The disciples left their fishing boats (5:11).
Loved much – demonstrated her forgiveness by her acts of love.
No one is forgiven because of their acts of devotion or love.
They are forgiven of their sins because they believe that Jesus
died on the cross in their place so they could be forgiven.
Our love for Christ is the evidence that we have been forgiven.
Her great love for Christ is a result of her great forgiveness by him.
Forgiven little . . . loves little – because they don’t see themselves as a great sinner only a little sinner as they compare themselves to others. In reality everyone is just as bad as everyone else because
there is none who are righteous, no not one (Psalm 14:3).
A lack of love towards Christ shows a person is not forgiven.
Result of faith :48-50
Forgiven is in the perfect tense meaning: the action is complete.
Jesus was saying that all of her sins were now canceled by God.
In stating that she is forgiven he is taking the prerogative of God
because all sin is first and foremost against his authority.
Psalm 51:4 Against you(God) have I sinned and done what is evil.
Only Jesus has the authority to forgive our sins against
Godbecause he died in our place on the cross for our sins.
When we are forgiven of our sins we are released from the guilt and penalty of them because Christ paid the penalty for us.
Puritan Thomas Adams wrote, “Sins are so remitted (forgiven)
as if they had never been committed.”
:50 She was not forgiven because of her love for Jesus, but because of her faith that he was the one who could forgive her of her sins.
Faith – Gk. conviction of the truth.
Salvation is by faith alone in the death of Christ alone.
Saved – perfect tense means: the action is complete (:48 forgiven).
Go in peace – she could now have God’s peace in place of her sin.
Real lasting peace is the result of being forgiven of our sins.
APPLICATION
Her forgiveness was expressed by a personal response:
1. She gave up her pride – by showing humility.
2. She gave of her time – personally.
3. She gave her resources – financially.
CONCLUSION
Inrig wrote, “Thanking our Savior is the natural response to having been forgiven by our Savior and that our love for the Lord Jesus
demonstrated in public thankfulness reveals our forgiveness by him. There are no little sinners; there is no little forgiveness.”
True forgiveness will be expressed in love for Christ.