Your Sins Are Forgiven

Luke 7:36-50
March 8, 2020
Peter Yoo

Sermon Script

Our passage this morning is structured into three scenes. The first scene is from verses 36-39, the second scene is from verses 40-47, and the last scene is from verses 48-50.

Scene One

And in the first scene, in verses 36-39, we are not given any names. No one is named. And in these verses, no one speaks. We have insight into the inner thoughts of the Pharisee, but no one speaks. So in these first four verses, no one is named and no one speaks, not even Jesus.

And Simon, the Pharisee, isn’t introduced by name until verse 40. And as the all-knowing reader, we know something about Pharisees. We know that in the New Testament, Pharisees are generally not well-spoken of. And sometimes, when we read the Bible, we automatically assume that the Pharisee is the bad guy.

But back in those days, Pharisees were the seen as the holiest, most devout and spiritual men. If you could picture the holiest men, the most faithful pastors, people who live and breath out the Bible, Pharisees were something like that. And before we learn his name, Simon is introduced as a Pharisee multiple times in this first scene.

But something’s missing. He invites Jesus for a very special meal and Jesus comes to his home and reclines at his table, which means that Jesus leaned at the Pharisee’s table with his feet sticking outward.

But before guests reclined at the table, it was custom to do a few things: greet them with a kiss, have their feet washed before reclining, and anoint them with oil. This is what ordinary hosts did for their guests before they reclined at the table. But the Pharisee doesn’t do what hosts usually do. If you read the first verse again, there are no greetings. There is no feet washing. There is no anointing. Nothing. It’s as if I invited you to my apartment for dinner, and when you arrive, I open the door, but then I walk away without a handshake or a hug. It’s completely strange and dishonorable, especially if I’m the one who invited you.

To make things even more strange, verse 37 tells us a woman comes to the Pharisee’s home. But she is identified, not by her holiness, but her lack thereof. The Pharisee is identified by his holiness, multiple times he is called the Pharisee, but she is identified with her sin. She is notoriously known as a sinful woman. She is the town sinner, most likely the town prostitute.

And so here’s the question: what was a prostitute doing inside the home of a holy man? The sinful woman, by the way, is never named and never speaks in this entire passage. The sinful woman heard that Jesus was at the Pharisee’s house. But she heard that Jesus was already reclined at the table and he was not treated properly as a guest. So the town prostitute does something unthinkable. She goes inside the Pharisee’s house, and she performs the role of the host. There are at least two places a sinner back then would never dare to go: the temple and a Pharisee’s home.

But she enters the Pharisee’s home and she was completely unprepared to be a host. She had no water to wash Jesus’ feet. She had no towel to dry his feet. She had no oil to anoint him. But as the town prostitute, she most likely carried around her neck a flask filled with perfume inside, so when it was time for her to “work,” she would be ready and smell appropriate. So instead of water, she wets Jesus’ feet with her tears. Her tears. How many tears do you need to wash someone’s feet? In other words, she drenched and downpoured her tears upon Jesus’ feet. And instead of a towel, she used her own hair to dry his feet. Publicly exposing your hair to anyone other than your family was extremely indecent, sometimes was grounds for divorce. Extremely indecent. And instead of kissing Jesus’ cheek to greet him, she kisses his feet. And with the flask of expensive perfume around her neck, she anointed his feet. She has gone above and beyond what hosts ought to do.

And while the sinful woman is functioning as the host, the Pharisee is functioning as a judge. He sees all this, in his own house, and in his inner thoughts, he says, “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 Pharisee refuses to call Jesus by his name and he concludes that this man, whom he invited to his home, is no prophet. His verdict is that Jesus is no man of God. Why? Because Jesus just let a notoriously sinful woman touch his feet. Jesus was contaminated, ceremonially unclean, and no man of God would bother showing his face in the temple ever again after what just happened. This entire first scene begins with great drama.

Scene Two

But Jesus is more than just this man. As we confessed earlier today, Jesus is true God and true man. Jesus, not only knows the thoughts of God, but also the thoughts of man. And so begins scene two. In verse 40, the first name we see is Jesus. And now, Jesus has given us Simon’s name. Why? Because Jesus is revealing who he is. Jesus reveals himself as the Savior who reveals hearts. And Jesus is revealing who Simon is, not with contempt. Jesus does not call Simon this man, rather Jesus gently addresses Simon by his own name. Simon. And Jesus answers Simon’s inner thoughts and reveals his thoughts to him with an illustration. And the meaning of the illustration is unmistakable. The question is simple: who loves more? And Simon responds to Jesus, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” And Jesus replies, “You have judged rightly.” Simon, who judged falsely Jesus’ character has now, finally judged rightly.

And then Jesus turns to the sinful woman, and he says to Simon, “Do you see this woman?” “Do you see this woman?” Why does Jesus say this? Because self-righteous people have the hardest time seeing themselves. They always see others as the problem. We see this self-righteous problem in Genesis 3, don’t we? After Adam sinned, he did one of the most heart-wrenching things in all of history. He blamed his wife. And he blamed God, for his own sin. “This woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” (Genesis 3:12) This is self-righteousness. Today, it goes by another term: “autonomy,” literally meaning “self-law.” Doing what is right in your own eyes.

So how does Jesus expose the self-righteous Simon? He does not treat Simon with contempt, he does not say this man. Rather, Jesus gently and lovingly reveals to Simon that he should not act as judge over Jesus, concluding that Jesus is not a prophet. Nor should he unjustly judge the sinful woman. Rather, he should evaluate himself. At the same time, Jesus reveals why the sinful woman did what she did. Jesus explains her behavior.

The sinful woman knew the debt she owed God, she knew that she was unable to pay as a sinner dead in her sins, but she knew the message of forgiveness and grace that Jesus Christ had preached. And for her, to have her debts to God forgiven because of Jesus, her response is nothing less than a downpour of tears, enough to wash her Savior’s feet. She enters Simon’s home, bringing with her shame upon shame. She dries his feet with her publicly exposed hair, shameful and disgusting before the people. She pours her flask of perfume on Jesus’ feet, bought with her prostitution money, an emblem of her sin and shame. But she brought her sin and her shame to Jesus, never to be taken back, and she gave it to him as an act of worship. “Everything that symbolizes my shame, I give to you.”

Brothers and sisters, we know this very well, don’t we? We know that God created all things. But most importantly, in all of creation, he created us in his image and in his likeness. We were meant to reflect his glory and we owed him perfect, righteous obedience. But all of us, like the sinful woman, have sinned greatly. You and I have a debt that we could not pay back and we deserved to die in judgment. We deserved God’s eternal wrath and hell. But Jesus Christ, lived a perfect life of righteous obedience to God the Father. And the way he forgave your debt, the way he paid your debt was through the payment of his own blood, downpoured on your behalf. And he has given you his perfect life of righteous obedience as a gift, so that when the Father looks at you, he sees his Son, whom he loves, and raises you up into eternal life. Galatians 2:20 tells us that when Christ died on the cross, you died on the cross with him. You and all your sin and all your shame, never to be given back to you.

In the second scene of verses 40-47, Jesus spoke to Simon while looking at the sinful woman. And he compares them together. Simon gave no water for Jesus’ feet, but the sinful woman gave an abundance of downpouring water from her eyes. Simon gave no towel to dry his feet, but the sinful woman gave her own hair to dry his feet. Simon greeted Jesus with no kiss on his cheek, but the sinful woman has not stopped kissing Jesus’ feet. Simon did not anoint Jesus’ head with oil, but the sinful woman anointed Jesus’ feet with her perfume. Jesus did not love her because she loved him first. Rather, the illustration Jesus gives makes it clear that she loves because Jesus first loved her. She loved much because her many sins were forgiven.

Scene Three

And so begins scene three. Simon disappears from the story. And again, no names are mentioned. And the inner thoughts of the people around the table are revealed, but no speech. Except one. Jesus told Simon in scene two that her sins are forgiven. But now, Jesus assures her directly and says to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” “Your sins are forgiven.” And just like the Pharisee who called Jesus this man, the ones at the table with him called Jesus this man. “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” But Jesus says to the sinful woman, “Your faith has healed you, go in peace.”

What does he mean by this? Every single person has faith, so what does Jesus mean when he says, “Your faith has healed you”? The important thing about faith is not the faith itself, but what your faith is in. The sinful woman’s faith is in her Savior Jesus Christ, who forgave her of all her sin. 

A bit of a side note. As believers and followers of Jesus Christ, we can identify with the sinful woman and we can understand why she did what she did. But at the same time, we can identify with the self-righteous Simon and the others at the table and we can understand why they thought what they thought. I don’t want to give an overly spiritual interpretation of the passage. The sinful woman was a prostitute. But how easy it is for us to look down upon those who need the gospel, just as much as we do. How easy it is for us to play the judge over certain people.

What if a known prostitute, who has learned of Christ’s forgiveness for her, entered through the doors of Highland to worship, what would we think to ourselves? What if a corrupt politician, who has learned of Christ’s forgiveness for him, entered through the doors of Highland, what would we think to ourselves? What if a convicted murderer came to know Christ’s forgiving love for him and he came to Highland, what would we think to ourselves? Quite sadly, I don’t ever remember seeing an adult baptism. This humbles me to preach the gospel more to others, even if I don’t like that person. This reminds me that God is the one who changes people’s hearts, not me. Sometimes people who I least expect to accept the gospel might just be those who accept the gospel.

Brothers and sisters, I encourage you to put on, “as shoes for your feet…the readiness given by the gospel of peace.” There is no more hostility between the sinful woman and God. She is no more marked by her sin by God, but she is marked by Christ’s righteousness. She is marked by Christ’s armor. And as Pastor Abe has been going through the armor of God, it is clear that she has stood firm in the full armor of God, definitely having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace as shoes for her feet.

And just as a word of encouragement, sometimes evangelizing, or better put gospelizing, is hard and discouraging. It hurts to be rejected, especially if we share the gospel with our peers. But if I may ask you to turn in your Bibles a few chapters later to Luke 12:37. Luke 12:37 says this: “Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them.” Brothers and sisters, do you know what this means? Unlike Simon, Jesus is the perfect host. When Jesus Christ returns, you will be welcomed in the new heavens and new earth. He will greet you. The sinful woman who had no name and never spoke will be sinful no longer and will sing his praises for eternity. You will see her and finally learn her name. But most shockingly, Jesus Christ will recline you at his table and he will serve you. And so here’s the question: what is a spiritual prostitute like me doing inside the home of the holy God-man? Brothers and sisters, I reassure you, just as Jesus reassured the sinful woman, that your sins are forgiven. All of your gossips? Forgiven. All of your hatred? Forgiven. All of your idolatry? Forgiven. All of your sexual immorality? Forgiven. And you have a seat at the table. Jesus Christ himself will recline you at his table and he will serve you. And this is not a distant truth. I hope Christ comes and takes us home this week, so I can downpour my tears and he will be there to wipe them away. Praise God for Jesus Christ. Please pray with me.

Soli Deo Gloria