Luke chapter 7 and verse 36. And one of the Pharisees desired
him that he would eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee's
house and sat down to meet And behold, a woman in the city,
which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meet in
the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment,
and stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash
his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her
head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee which had
bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if
he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of
woman this is that toucheth him, for she is a sinner. And Jesus
answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee.
And he saith, Master, say on. There was a certain creditor
which had two debtors, the one owed 500 pence and the other
50. And when they had nothing to
pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which
of them will love him most? Simon answered and said, I suppose
that he to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, thou hast
rightly judged. And he turned to the woman and
said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house,
thou gavest me no water for my feet, but she hath washed my
feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou
gavest me no kiss, but this woman since the time I came in hath
not ceased to kiss my feet. my head with oil thou didst not
anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore
I say unto thee, her sins which are many are forgiven, for she
loved much, but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth
little. And he said unto her, thy sins
are forgiven. And they that sat at meet with
him began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins
also? And he said to the woman, Thy
faith hath saved thee. Go in peace. Amen. May the Lord bless this reading
from his word. Perhaps you can remember last
week we ended the little passage that we'd been looking at by
reflecting that the Lord had made a contrast between John
the Baptist and his austerity, his austere way of living, and
the Lord's more liberal approach whereby he ate and drank and
of course he was accused of being a drunkard and a glutton by his
critics. But perhaps it's just because
the Lord had thus described himself as one who came eating and drinking
that Luke now provides us with this example in which the Lord
accepted an invitation to feast at the home of a Pharisee called
Simon. Now, there are a number of accounts
in the Gospels of women anointing Christ while he sat at a meal. But this occasion seems to be
unique and recorded only by Luke. It's not clear why Simon invited
Christ to his home for a feast. Perhaps to examine him and even
catch him out, snare him in some way. Perhaps it was to provide
his Pharisee friends with an opportunity to scrutinise the
Lord first hand, which he and they appear to do throughout
this encounter. Of course, the Lord knew Simon's
motives and he read his heart as well as he read his thoughts. It's another question why the
Lord should, under such circumstances, agree to dine with Simon and
his friends. except perhaps that he knew about
the coming of this woman and about her seeking him out. And so he complied with Simon
for her sake and to provide her with this occasion and opportunity
to express her love and her honour for her Lord. I think there's
something very lovely in this possibility. Often we wonder
whether we ever really do anything for the Lord at all. I know I
do. I think that a lot. Whether anything that I do amounts
to very much at all. I think that this gives us encouragement
to realise that anywhere and anytime that we act from a motive
of love with an intention to honour the Lord is an occasion
and an opportunity to do so. And that the Lord grants us such
instances And he contrives, if that's the right word, he supplies
the moment for the benefit of his people, for the benefit of
his little ones. He gives us opportunities. Worship
isn't only done in church or performed in a spiritual context. Anything we do for one another
out of gratitude to the Lord even in the most unexpected places,
is an act of worship and praise to our God. And this woman, though
she is never named, was well known to Simon as a lady with
a bad reputation. Now I'll just mention it because
that's where we're at. The word that's used to describe
her here is that she was a sinner. That word is used elsewhere and
translated as an harlot. So that's the reputation that
this lady had. And the Pharisees, at least publicly,
would not allow themselves to be touched by such a person as
this. However, we rejoice that the
Lord is willing both to touch and be touched by sinners like
us. We do not know what interest
this woman had in the Lord at this time. Clearly she had heard
about him. It would appear that she had
been greatly blessed by him in some way. Had he spoken to her? Had she spoken to him? Had she
been helped by him? Or perhaps seen a friend assisted
by him? We just don't know. What we do
know is that she had a great desire in her heart to meet the
Lord and to honour him. So she came to him and she brought
an alabaster box of ointment. It is quite possible that that
was all she had of value in her house. If she were a prostitute,
as is implied, this might have been for her own use to attract
her customers. But something had changed in
her heart and in her soul. And that change brought her to
Jesus and it brought her to tears. Overwhelmed by love and gratitude,
she knelt behind Jesus as he was reclined on a couch at dinner. This is the way that they often
ate their meals. As he was reclined on this couch
at the time of the meal, she knelt behind him and she cradled
his feet in her hands while kissing them with her lips. And the Lord didn't stop her.
He didn't rebuke her, but he allowed her to proceed to do
what she intended. And her tears were indicative
of remorse and regret and repentance for her sin. Her kisses were
evidence of her love for her saviour. Her tears washed his
feet, she dried them with her long hair, she opened her box
of ointment and she anointed his feet as a token of her admiration
and respect. And no doubt we should see here
evidence of the convicting work of God the Holy Spirit. We read
in verse 37, when she knew That is, when she knew that Jesus
was going to have a meal at this Pharisee's house, when she knew,
she came to Jesus. And what all was involved in
her knowing? We're not told, so it's best
not to speculate. But I have no doubt that it was
more than simple intelligence concerning Christ's location
and what he was doing. Like Zacchaeus, she had an irresistible
desire to see Jesus because of the spiritual burden that she
carried and the guilt for sin that she felt. So that for her,
this was a spiritual encounter of great intensity. and her tears
were a token of repentance and the ointment was her prayer for
grace and she may not have been able to explain herself in words
but she spoke clearly by her actions and she revealed her
heart to her Lord and Saviour. Simon, through all this, and
it must have been quite a scene, Simon through all of this maintained
his poise as a host and he didn't openly question the Lord about
what was happening. But in his mind, he found this
encounter puzzling and he doubted if Jesus could be a prophet at
all. as he evidently did not know
the sinful reputation of this woman. Simon's heart was full
of critical self-righteousness, which the Lord discerned. So Christ employed a parable
to convey a lesson to this Pharisee. And he speaks about two bankrupt,
insolvent men who each owed a sum of money. One of them owed ten
times more than the other. And the creditor, knowing that
neither could pay, we're told, frankly forgave them both. And Jesus asked Simon, who would
love their creditor cum benefactor the most? Who of these two men
would love the creditor the most? And the answer that Simon gave,
and which the Lord allowed, was the one that owed the most. Well,
that's probably quite reasonable. However, Then the Lord applied
the parable to Simon's treatment of the Lord as his guest, comparing
it to the conduct of the woman whose heart was full of love
for her Saviour. Simon had shown disrespect by
failing to perform even the basic duties of a host with respect
to the washing of dusty feet and the anointing with oil. There
was no kiss of affection or respect from Simon. And this was all
to Simon's shame and it implied the low esteem that he had for
his guest. The woman, however, sinner that
she was in Simon's eyes, exhibited the greatest love and respect
of which she was capable within her means. And she did what she
should and she did it as humbly as she could to express her affection
and gratitude to the Lord Jesus Christ for who he was. And the
Lord's parable also provided the context to explain his own
divine power to forgive sin. And I suspect that this was not
at once obvious to Simon, but I hope he thought about it afterwards. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
was the creditor in the parable. It is he who frankly forgave
them both. as he alone could. They were
forgiven frankly. That is, they were forgiven without
any contribution from them and entirely at the creditor's discretion
and will. He alone, being the creditor,
being due the amount of money that was owed, he alone was able
to forgive and he alone was able to bear the cost himself. And
this too shone a light on the state of the woman, so that when
the Lord turned to her and said, thy sins are forgiven, it conformed
beautifully to the nature and the premise of the parable, and
it also confirmed what the Lord was teaching to Simon. Simon
was concerned about the extent of this woman's sins and whether
the Lord appreciated how wicked she was. The Lord knew only too
well and he explained it to Simon thus. In verse 47 he says, Wherefore
I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she
loved much. but to whom little is forgiven,
the same loveth little. I don't know how much the woman
had heard of the parable that Jesus was speaking, or how much
she understood of it if she did hear it. It had, after all, been
addressed to Simon. But that didn't really matter.
Her need was different. Her burden was different. She
wasn't questioning the identity of the Lord Jesus as Simon was. She knew who he was and she knew
what she needed from him. His word to her was all that
she needed. And what a blessing it is to
hear Christ say to us in the gospel, your sins are forgiven. Can we not all look back and
thank the Lord that there is forgiveness of sin from him in
this world? Have we known the tears of a
bruised spirit and the fears of a convicted heart? What was
it David said in Psalm 51 about that? We read it a couple of
weeks ago. Let me make a final point, and
that's me done for today. The Lord twice mentions the forgiveness
of this woman's sins. And no doubt that was to emphasise
what he had done. No doubt to the annoyance of
the Pharisees around the table who watched on in judgement. However, it also served to comfort
and reassure this lady. And who amongst us does not enjoy
hearing the Lord tell us frequently that our sins are forgiven? In
fact, we need to hear it. We need to hear it often because
the world, the flesh and the devil are just as readily telling
us otherwise and as frequently accusing us and condemning us. In confirmation of the Lord's
mercy, we learn in the very last line that it was not the tears
that saved this woman. It wasn't even her repentance. It wasn't the ointment or her
prayers for mercy. It wasn't the action of kneeling
before the Lord or the kisses that she gave him. All of those
revealed the true sincerity of her approach to the Lord. But
she came in faith. She came believing Christ to
be who he said he was and trusting that he could do for her what
no one else could. He could take away her sin and
her guilt and her condemnation and he could make her right with
God. What a blessing we have if we
have peace with God. This lady, we're told, went in
peace. She lived in peace. She died
in peace. And today, she is in glory, enjoying
the peace that Christ alone can give. May he grant us all that
peace and bid us live and die in it to the glory of his name. Amen.