Luke: Christ Our Confidence
Transcript
Read time: ~29 min
Two Ways to Respond to Jesus
At some point along the way in your life you've been introduced to Jesus — surely if you're here this morning. But there's more than one way to respond to who Jesus is. You can think of people in your own life, maybe your own family, but most appropriately think of yourself: how have you responded to who Jesus is? People respond to Jesus differently.
Obviously, there are those who overtly hate him. "Don't talk to me about him. I hate it. I hate that you're a Christian. I hate that you go to church. I don't want to hear it. You'll never convert me. I think it's terrible. Don't talk to me about it. " And then there are those who aren't that overt about it. They just sort of softly reject Jesus. "You do you. Good for you. But I'm just not interested. " They'll let you talk about him for a little bit, but they're just indifferent. They don't care to follow him.
But even among those who receive Christ — even among those who welcome Jesus, who want to know more, who welcome Jesus into their lives — even among those, there can be a massive difference in response. Some welcome Jesus but keep him at a distance. Jesus is important to them, but they keep him in a controlled environment. They're respectful toward Jesus, but they're restrained in just how eager they are to really receive all of who Jesus is and all of what Jesus has done. And then there are those who respond to Jesus in a way that is costly, emotional, maybe even extravagant.
And maybe sometimes, when people express that kind of eager, energetic appreciation of Jesus, it makes us feel a little uncomfortable. Maybe sometimes we try to talk them down: "Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're a new believer — you'll settle down like the rest of us. " But I wonder if it should be the other way around, and we should be pulled in the direction of greater and more extravagant appreciation.
I think that's what we see in Luke chapter 7. We're moving through the Gospel of Luke, so turn there if you would. If you didn't bring a Bible, I'm not offended if you're on your phone — I'll just assume you're pulling up some Bible app. Download something so you can get a hold of what God is saying here in Luke chapter 7.
In this episode we see two responses to Jesus. One person is inviting — literally invites Jesus to a meal — but he's distanced. And then the other response to Jesus is an extravagant display. So let's look at that difference. As we read the narrative, I think we'll see that the difference has to do with forgiveness — your understanding of forgiveness. In order to respond to Jesus the way that we should, we need to grapple with how forgiven we are.
Your response to Jesus is telling of what you understand about God's forgiveness of your own sin.
So join me, Luke chapter 7. We're picking up where we left off last time, starting in verse 36. We'll read through to the end of the chapter, and before the end of the sermon we'll take a quick look at the first three verses of the next chapter. But let's start in verse 36.
I'm going to read it one time, so let's read carefully — somewhat slowly, hopefully not put-you-to-sleep slow, but thoughtfully. It's a familiar story, so let's try to imagine the scene and allow Luke to put these two people in front of us in terms of how they each respond to the presence of Jesus.
The Scene at Simon's Table
One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and reclined at table. 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, 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. 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. "
And Jesus, answering him, said to him, "Simon, I have something to say to you. " And he answered, "Say it, Teacher. " "A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed 500 denarii, the other 50. "
Just pause there a second. On average, one of them owed nearly two years' worth of wages, and the other owed about two months' worth.
"When they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more? " Simon answered, "The one, I suppose, for whom he canceled the larger debt. " And he said to him, "You have judged rightly. "
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. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven — for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little loves little. "
And he said to her, "Your sins are forgiven. " Then 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. "
The Difference Between Simon and the Woman
This is a familiar passage to many of us. I want to point out a few observations to help us appreciate the contrast that Jesus is drawing here and that Luke is exploring for us.
Simon thinks a thought to himself, and Jesus reads his mind. I hope you picked that up in the text. Simon is saying this to himself — not out loud. "If this guy were a prophet, he would know that this woman has no business here. " A "woman of the city" — that's not a nice way of putting things. And just to be clear, she's a sinner. If Jesus knew what he was thinking, well — doesn't that kind of low-key prove he's at least a prophet? Or more than a prophet? He just reads his mind, and then tells him a brief story to basically put in front of him: there are these two characters, and you're one of them. And she's the other one. Why do you think there's such a difference in the way you brought me into your house and the way she is treating me?
The way Jesus lays it out for Simon is that there's a customary way to welcome someone into your home. Today we'd say, "Would you please take your shoes off? " — or "Oh please, leave your shoes on" — but we're going to deal with feet one way or the other. That's not so far from this ancient context. We might offer, "Would you like some tea? Coffee? Water? Soda? Coke Zero? I can go get it" — and then you yell at your teenager to run to the garage and get it from the fridge. We lay out some kind of welcome for our guests. That's normal. But if somebody said, "Also — can I cover your car note this month? " — you'd be like, what? That's above and beyond.
Jesus is saying: there's a normal thing. You come in, somebody washes your feet — you've got sandals, you've been walking around, the feet are all crusty — it's normal to just have a basin and wash them. You didn't even do that. She washed my feet with her tears. And if you noticed in the text, she kissed his feet before she put the ointment on. He's saying, Simon, you didn't do X, Y, Z — which are normal things to do. You were down here. And you're judging her because she's doing this up here. Let me tell you what the difference is.
So there's this sort of spectrum of appreciation. And here you have two people on opposite ends of that spectrum — low appreciation for who Jesus is, and high appreciation for who Jesus is.
Now, when it says they reclined at table — that's hard to imagine with our tables and chairs — but on special occasions, special meals, it seems they would lie down at a low table, propped up on a pillow or something like that, with their feet angled away from the table, eating with one hand propped up on the other arm. This was their posture. We're told this because we're trying to imagine how she's approaching Jesus, how she's accessing his feet. He's reclining, she's standing behind him, and she's got his feet right there. It also tells us this was probably a special occasion — likely a public meal, even though it was in a house. Probably it was open, and others could join.
Oftentimes, I'm told, as I've read about this, that you could have people kind of dropping in, sitting in the background, listening to the conversation. It's a special guest, after all. They probably don't get to ask questions and actually be in the conversation with Jesus, but they can hang around. So what's scandalous here is not that she shows up. What's scandalous is that she shows up and presumes to touch Jesus — when she should be the farthest in the back. She's intruding on the meal as a person who was the last person who would ever be invited to the table. She's not there to beg for scraps. She's not there to eavesdrop on the conversation or to be wowed by what an important guest Simon was able to secure for himself. She's just there to anoint Jesus' feet.
And I think it's important to note that it doesn't matter if she's invited to the conversation, because she doesn't say one word the entire time. Not one word uttered by this woman. She doesn't ask anything. She doesn't say anything. She doesn't call him anything. Jesus is able to see everything about what she needs and who she is through her actions alone.
In contrast, I'm sure Simon was a talker. Well, he was a Pharisee. He learned the law, taught the law, explained the law, gave his well-worded religious answers to people who came to him with questions. He's there to gauge who Jesus is. "I don't think he's a prophet, because he would know who's touching him — so I'm not sure. " But if he's there to investigate, surely he's asking questions and they're talking. Even the thoughts he turns over in his own mind betray him. She's silent.
I don't point that out to say words are bad. I'm just noting an interesting contrast between talking the talk and walking the walk, as many of us say. She's doing something without words that shows exactly where she's at on that spectrum. Her actions communicate everything.
And the text points out twice that this woman is a sinner. People know her as a sinner. Simon refers to her as a sinner. Well, we're all sinners, right? Didn't Simon know that? Well, yeah, but they mean sinner. We don't know exactly what is meant, but something she had done or had been up to made her especially immoral in the eyes of the people. Some surmise she was a prostitute — she's often referred to that way. It doesn't say prostitute. That might be a good guess. But maybe she was known for adultery. Maybe it was some other sin. Either way, she carried this label around with her, and she knew she was guilty.
And then there's what Jesus says about what she's doing here — the alabaster jar, the ointment, the tears, the wetting of his feet. She's pouring out an expensive ointment from a pretty nice flask. If you look up alabaster jars, they're beautiful even today. We don't know what she makes or her background, but what she's doing is not cheap.
Luke also points out that she washes Jesus' feet with her hair. This is actually why I corrected myself earlier. I don't think she came there to wash Jesus' feet. I think she came to anoint his feet. And then when the tears started falling, she wiped them with her hair because she didn't bring a towel. I'm reading between the lines a little bit, but I think she showed up to anoint with the flask — she broke down in tears, she was overcome — and she ended up washing Jesus' feet. I don't think she showed up thinking, "I'm going to cry so hard that I'll wash his feet. " I think it happened.
No towel, so — hair. And the word used here to wet his feet, brachain — I had to look this up — it's used elsewhere to describe rainfall. When the word appears in Matthew, James, and in the book of Revelation, it means rain. Even in Luke 17. So this word, "to wet" — it's not like a couple of drops, a couple of droplets landing on his foot. His feet are drenched, man.
What is she crying about? It doesn't explicitly say. I think the only time in my own life that I wept to the point of leaving a literal puddle on the floor was a time I didn't even know what I was weeping about. Has that ever happened to you? If somebody asked you in that moment, "What are you weeping about? " you couldn't say, "Oh, it's this specific thing. " Had you asked me in that moment, I'd be like, "I don't know. I know I'm broken. I know I feel shattered before the Lord. "
I think that's what she's experiencing. I don't know if it's one particular thing — one thing she did yesterday, one thing that's on her mind. It's sinfulness. She's not arguing the fact that she's a sinner. She comes before Jesus with the weight of her brokenness and breaks down in tears for that reason. So whatever the specific sin, whatever it is that caused her to be known in town as a sinner, that's what's happening. It's her extreme need for forgiveness.
So Jesus points out to Simon: that's why she's doing what she's doing. And that's why you're not doing what you're not doing. Her visceral experience of sensing her need for forgiveness is prompting her to act like this. And conversely, your lack of that sense — the fact that it doesn't weigh upon you — is why you didn't even offer me the basic welcome.
How Forgiven Are You?
So in a sense, you can say: those who have sinned a lot are forgiven a lot, and so they love a lot. And those who have sinned a little are forgiven a little, and so they love a little. Now, is this Jesus saying, "Simon, don't worry, man — she's only doing this because she sinned so much. But I know you, buddy. You've hardly sinned at all, so it makes sense that you didn't wash my feet. I get it. She's done a lot, so she loves a lot. Just let her go, and then we'll continue with our second course"?
I think that's a wholesale misreading of what Luke is communicating here. I don't think Jesus is saying, "Simon, don't worry about it — you don't love a lot, but it's because you didn't sin a lot, so it's no biggie. " I think Jesus is saying: you don't love much because you think little of your sins. It's not that Simon hasn't sinned a lot — it's that he doesn't think he's sinned a lot. Because he doesn't have a great appreciation for the debt he actually owes, Jesus is not that big of a deal. And the implication is: that's not okay. Jesus doesn't seem pleased that Simon offered nothing in comparison to what this woman was doing.
So what God is teaching here through this passage is that to the extent you know how forgiven you are, you will express your love for Jesus. And you can surmise one from the other. How much do I love Jesus? Kind of a little. Well, that shows not how much or little I've sinned, but how much or little I appreciate how much I've sinned.
It's as simple as that. The greater our realization of how forgiven we are, the greater our expression of love for Jesus will be. Jesus isn't just explaining this particular situation. He's saying, this is how it works. And because this is how it works, that's why you see one person at this end of the spectrum and another person at the other end.
Our understanding of forgiveness determines the depth of our love for Jesus. Not just the depth of our love, but how much we show it.
She didn't quietly appreciate it in her heart. She poured it out in ointment. She poured it out in tears. She poured it out in a shameless grabbing, touching, and kissing of dirty feet. Jesus had dirty feet — not because he's unclean, but because he walked our dirty roads.
So how much do you love Jesus? Is it calm, cool, collected, restrained? Or does it go toward the extravagant? Does anyone in your life think it's weird how much you love Jesus? Or are they like, "Yeah, I mean — everybody has their thing. I like LeBron. He likes Jesus. " Or are they going, "What is going on? Are you a fanatic? When did you become a fanatic? Did Jesus ask you to pour out all that ointment? Why'd you use all of it? "
The takeaway from this passage is not to look back in your life and figure out how little you've sinned and then dial back your love to that low level. It's the opposite. The smaller your view of forgiveness, the smaller your view of your sin — not because your sin is small, but because you see it as small.
The wages of sin is death. The wages of whose sin? Everybody. Which sins? Sin. Now, I'm not saying all sins are the same — some sins are more heinous than others, and that's biblical. And of course it's worse to commit a series of sins than just one instance of the same sin — being a repeat offender is worse than one time, yes. But the one singular instance of a trespass offends an infinitely holy God who is perfect in righteousness, pure in holiness and splendor and glory. Sinless angels in God's throne room can't even look at him. What does that mean for those of us who have sinned with our so-called small sins — gentlemanly sins, culturally acceptable sins? Are we small sinners because we haven't murdered? Are we small sinners because we don't rob people? Our sins might be smaller than those who have done those things, but before a holy God, there really isn't any such thing as small, is there?
Our love for Jesus is stoked when we stop measuring our sins against others — like Simon did. Simon had a small view of his sin because he looked at people like her and thought, "Well, at least I'm not that. I'm far from that. " In his mind the scale was flipped. And Jesus is saying, no — it goes this way. It's better to be in her position, not because it's better to sin, but because it's better to appreciate the gravity of your condemnation. So that when you receive forgiveness, you love much. It's not a meh gift. It's the kind of gift where you receive it and go, "Oh my goodness — you shouldn't have. No, seriously — how can I repay you? "
You love much because you're forgiven much. But you realize how much you're forgiven when you truly reckon with what you did to put Christ on the cross. When you see your offenses as great, you'll see your forgiveness as great. And when you see your forgiveness as great, that's when your love for Jesus will be great.
Forgiveness-Driven Love in Action
I told you we'd look real quick at the three verses at the top of chapter 8. I think it's important — Luke put them there on purpose, and I think you'll see why. Forgiveness-driven love — love that's driven by our view of how forgiven we actually are — that kind of love for Jesus expresses itself in tangible ways. That's the point. It's not just talking about it. It's not just using theological language to unpack it. It's doing something about it, like she did. She took this ointment — whatever she was saving it for — and dumped it all over Jesus' feet. So Luke follows that up with some other illustrations. Not just her — other people.
Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's household manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means.
So we're back to that thread, right? This nameless woman, and now he's going to name some women. Not that this is specifically about women — but it's the thread, it's connected to where we just were. These are people who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities. Look, I don't know exactly what to do with all that. We walk through the Gospels and he's casting out demons, and all you have in your head is Hollywood — you're wondering if heads are spinning and green stuff is being spewed out. I don't know.
But we do catch glimpses in certain portions of the gospel writers where there's a supernatural strength, where people can't be bound, where someone is speaking in other voices, where multiple spirits are oppressing one person at the same time. Can you imagine your body being thrashed about in various ways, used to say evil things or do evil things? Sometimes you're in control, then suddenly you're out of your mind — people don't know what to do, they call the Pharisees, throw you in a cave, let you live among the tombs, just leave you alone and move on to the service. That kind of hopelessness. And besides evil spirits, sometimes together with evil spirits — infirmities, sicknesses of every kind. Some of you barely made it this morning because of something you're struggling with. These people are riddled with issues and problems, and it's not because they deserve it differently than anyone else. We live in a fallen world because we're fallen people.
Then he gives examples of people Jesus has released from this prison. Mary, called Magdalene — not his mother. From whom seven demons had gone out. Sheesh. I don't know the details. And Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's household manager. So Herod is one of the villains of the gospel, and she manages his household. If this were G. I. Joe, she'd be wearing the cobra symbol. She works for the bad guy. So Luke is like — even her. Even her, man. And Susanna. Who's that? I know as much as you know. And many others.
At first I was like, what's up with that? You drop her name and then give us nothing? Did she have a demon? But I think that's part of the point. There are all kinds of people with all kinds of things. They're not all the same. They don't all have the same background as the woman who washed his feet. They don't all have a background of being possessed by seven spirits. They weren't all on a deathbed. They have different backgrounds. And many others — and here's the point — not just what they were healed from, not just what they were delivered from, not just the jail cell they were released from, but what they did when they walked out of that jail cell.
Susanna and many others provided for them — for Jesus and his twelve — out of their means. That's how they loved Jesus. They didn't just talk about it. They did something about it. They opened their homes, they cooked meals, they fed these guys, they supported these guys so they could do the work of their ministry.
Giving and Loving Out of Gratitude
Application
An easy way to apply this could start with financial giving to the church. Because what the woman poured out in the form of ointment was costly to her — monetarily. And then you have these women supporting the disciples on their journeys with actual materials and goods, maybe even money, so they could move from place to place without a home, without a headquarters, without a church building to call their own. That's an easy application, but that doesn't mean I won't go there.
I wonder if sometimes our hesitation to give is because we don't see immediate results. You pay for your car to get fixed, and when you pull out of the parking lot, you're hoping the alignment isn't shimmying anymore. What did you just pay for, then? You should be able to immediately see that it's fixed. So you let go of the wheel for a second — I was going to say a minute, but that might be a little long.
You're at a restaurant. You order, they call your number, you go up, you've got your bag, you open it and check whether all the items you ordered are in there — you check it against the receipt. You immediately get to see what you paid for. But maybe because we live in a consumeristic society, we think of giving money as payment and we want to see the thing — like putting a coin in, you want the product to come out of the vending machine. And giving to church isn't like that. It's a little more ambiguous sometimes. Results aren't always immediate. Giving to church can feel like pouring money into a sort of nebulous thing. We do it because we know we're supposed to, but it doesn't always feel very satisfying — and I think that's okay.
What we see in this passage is an extravagant pouring out of love. She's saying, here — have my precious ointment. Have my tears. Have my hair. I have no shame. I've got no pride. I just have brokenness and an extreme sense of my need for forgiveness, which Jesus grants her. A person like this isn't looking for immediate benefit. She's just looking for a way to express her love for the Savior. That's it. She's not asking for receipts. She's not like, "Let me see your feet. Can you put that up on Insta? Because I've got more — I want to start a business. " She's just washing his feet, man, and pouring everything she's got onto him.
I think we can take note there. It's not that we shouldn't know what churches are doing with the money — we should. We have our members' meetings, we look at the QuickBooks sheets, the charts, whatever we've got in front of us. You should know what a church is doing with what you're giving. But I've heard people say out loud, "Tell me what you want to do with it, and then I'll see if I'll give. " Don't do that. Give because you love the Savior. If this church isn't worth giving to, find a church that's worth giving to. I think it's worth giving to. It's not like the more you give, the more my salary goes up — I don't see the immediate input either.
We're all waiting to see more people baptized, more people come to Christ, children raised, marriages healed. When is a marriage healed? Do we report that? Does Erica send out an email — "Marriage healed"? No. It's a process. When do we go, "My kid has matured"? I'm still maturing. You guys are like, "I know, I know — that's why I said it. "
We don't give based on results. We give because we love the Savior. And of course there are results we can recount, even in our church. Every person discipled, every couple married, every funeral message preached, every child taught, every couple counseled, every mother encouraged that she kept her child and that it was the right decision, every downcast soul that's been uplifted, every wayward sinner snatched out of the flames by the correction of God's word — it all matters. And it's all supported by your giving. It is.
We don't give for immediate tangible results. We give because we love. And money is not the only way we give. We give of our time. We give of our energy. Some of us heard this morning about the tremendous undertaking some people will carry out to travel to a Cary International Pastoral Training Site. Some of us live ten minutes away from Sunday school, and our Sunday mornings are well attended — they're well attended. I'm just saying there's another way we love. It's not all monetary. It's giving up time. Those moments where you think, "It's a sacrifice to get up a little earlier" — I know. But that's good, right? It's good to give things up sometimes. It's good to not always have the easy route. Given what Jesus did for me, I can go an extra mile. I can give of my time. I can give of my energy.
And then responding to Jesus isn't just about giving materially to the church — it's about how we love others. Jesus reinforced the Old Testament teaching that we're to love God, and entailed in loving God is loving your neighbor as yourself. One example the Bible leans into for how we do that is extending to someone else the same kind of forgiveness that God extended to you. Maybe what some of us need to take away from this passage is to stop withholding forgiveness from that person in your life who needs it. Now, these things are hard to do, right? They're hard to do. But they're less hard when they're driven by love.
If you adored a particular music artist and somebody came to you and said, "Good news and bad news. Good news — I got you the best seats in the house to see your favorite artist this weekend. " You'd be like, "You did? How did you do that? " "Don't worry about it. They're yours. " "Well, what's the bad news? " "You gotta get in the car and travel, or take the CTA. You gotta get there. " You'd be like, "OK" — it's a no-brainer, because of who you get to go see.
That's the simple point Jesus is making in this passage. When you appreciate Jesus for his forgiveness of your sins — because you appreciate just how bad your record is, to be frank with you, and mine — then you're driven by love and gratitude, and that makes things not feel like a sacrifice. It's just what you do, because you love him.
The Gospel: What Jesus Did for You
And we love him because of this — just to be clear — what did Jesus do for you? All of Jesus' healings and expelling of demons and healing of infirmities, even when he resurrected the dead man in the last chapter — he wasn't proclaiming, "Hey guys, I'm going to walk around and do this for as many people as possible for as long as I can. " He was saying: I'm doing this as a symbol of the greater blessing that is coming through the church. And that is to resurrect people from the inside out — to regenerate people's hearts and minds, to replace that stony heart with a heart of flesh. And the way he does that is by going to the cross. Through his punishing and grueling suffering, which culminated in his death and the giving up of his spirit, he takes all of the things we deserve — the death that is the wage of our sin — and God puts it on Christ so that we have his righteousness.
And when we think about the things we've done that put Jesus on the cross, and we're blown away by the fact that he died and didn't stay dead — that he rose again to defeat death and bring us into a resurrection life — the appreciation goes up. A sincere appreciation goes up. And then we love.
Someone asks you, "Are you a fanatic? " You go, "Yeah. " And they say, "Why? " That's where you start. Not how fantastic Sunday school is, not the quality of the preaching, not whether the seats are comfortable. You go to the gospel. You go to the cross. We are trapped in condemnation, and he has made a way out. "But you don't understand what I've done. " It doesn't matter. I don't know what Susanna did. We don't even know what this woman did. We know it was bad. But in Jesus, he finds a way out.
To know forgiveness in Christ is to express love for Christ. Know that forgiveness. Express that love. So that we don't just welcome Jesus kind of from a distance — we cherish him. Because he cherished us, and there was nothing in us to cherish. We can love Jesus by loving his church, by loving others, loving our neighbors, even loving our enemies in discernible — maybe even extravagant — ways, because God in Christ has loved you extravagantly.
Let's pray.
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