Love Much

It's always interesting to look at a concept that the world and Christianity share. Oftentimes, it would be something they've borrowed from Christianity, or just something by common grace overlaps. Forgiveness is one of those very important concepts we see our culture talking about. Most of the time, when we think about forgiveness, when we hear forgiveness, it's forgiveness for our own sake. It's forgiveness so that we're set free from our own anger. Forgiveness so that we're set free from bitterness. Forgiveness so that we're able to love ourselves and love the person who sinned against us. And these are extremely helpful and important ways to think about forgiveness. This morning we're gonna look at something that I believe we only receive from Scripture. A uniquely Christian way of thinking about forgiveness. And it's that we need to be forgiven by God. This morning, we're turning our eyes upon the story of this woman who's come to Jesus. Central to the story is the idea of forgiveness. And specifically, there's forgiveness that God gives us so that we receive peace, and forgiveness that God gives us so that we can love him. Forgiveness from God that then stirs up our love. Our story has three primary characters. It's a very simple and fantastic story. Simon, the Pharisee, he is the host. The whole story takes place at his dinner table. He has invited Jesus. Jesus, the creator who has become like us, the very Son of God. And then the unnamed woman of the city who twice is described very clearly, very publicly known as a sinner. If you take a look at the story, Simon appears to remain in his sin. He judges Jesus and the woman. Jesus warns Simon of remaining in his sin. Jesus welcomes the woman who is confessing her sin. And notice the story ends. The woman receives what she needed. Your sins are forgiven. Go in peace. A simple command, a simple instruction from this passage. Receive forgiveness from Jesus in order to love Him. Receive forgiveness from Jesus in order to love Him. I'm gonna walk through the story. If you're looking for the outline, it's actually just walking through the different scenes of this story. The first is the woman loves Jesus. The woman loves Jesus, that's verse 37 to 38. Second, Simon judges Jesus, verse 39. Simon judges Jesus, 39. Simon judges himself, verses 40 to 43, that's the parable. Then Jesus rebukes Simon, 40 to 47. We end with Jesus loves the woman, that's the end. Let's begin. The woman loves Jesus. The basic setting, one of the Pharisees, we know him by Simon later on in the text, asks Jesus to eat with him, and he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined a table. There's nothing unusual about this. Now, to us, reclining a table might sound weird. This is just how they ate. The story really picks up in a classic Lucan fashion. And behold, Luke is supposed to draw our attention immediately. And behold, another character, there's Simon, his guest, specifically Jesus, the primary guest, and then someone who was not invited. Behold, a woman of the city. We don't know exactly what this title means. Most interpret it to be a prostitute There's clearly some kind of reputation that has followed her because of her public behavior. The key clarifier is she was a sinner. And then Simon himself at the end of verse 39, she is a sinner. Whatever it is she's known for and has practiced sin. Now, the camera angle here, and this is how we're gonna follow the story, it's kind of how the camera angle changes. If you're picturing it, there's Jesus, he's reclining, then the woman comes in and she's just posturing at his feet the entire time. So right now, you're looking at Jesus and the woman in that prime interaction, and Simon's in the background, kind of blurry. But all the attention is upon how this woman is approaching Jesus. Now what it tells us about her is she's a woman of the city, she was a sinner, okay, that's who she was. Something happened to where she's learned about Jesus. We don't know what she knows of him. We don't know if she's actually had an interaction with him. She's learned where he is. He's in probably the most awkward place for her to enter into, a Pharisee's house. And she decides she's gonna come. We don't know anything about the background, but we can appreciate the woman who has a reputation as a sinner is going to go in the place where sinners are most likely to be judged. Shame, in every way, should keep her from coming. Shame of her reputation, shame and being afraid of being judged should keep her from coming, but she inserts herself. She's learned where Jesus is, and that's the only place she wants to be. She could have said, I'll just wait for a better opportunity. Whatever it is, whatever's happened to her in conviction, she knows she has to be with Jesus. She calls this a scene at a dinner. She's an unwanted guest. She's weeping, unwanted noise. There's ointment, that's unwanted smell. And then she's wiping his feet with her tears, that's an unwanted sight. She's shameless because she loves him. How do we know that she loves him? This is the whole point of what Jesus says at the end. I tell you, she loves much, verse 47. She loves much. She doesn't care about what the Pharisee thinks, but Jesus does. She only cares about being with Jesus. She does not care in any way what the Pharisee thinks, but Jesus does. Let's go to point two, our second scene. Simon judges Jesus. So here, this woman's brought her most important ointment, her most expensive item, most likely. She's caused a great scene, and now Simon, he is seeing this, look at verse 39. As he saw this, he said to himself. Now, maybe he's talking out loud. Maybe he's audibly talking to himself. My own interpretation is he's thinking, which really should terrify him a little bit later when Jesus answers what he's thinking. But here, he's thinking to himself and he's thinking with disgust. The camera angle has now put him in full view. We see his own thoughts. We see the way he's contemplating with Jesus as a woman now in the background. Notice who he judges with his thoughts. If this man, Jesus, were a prophet, He would have known who and what sort of woman this is. Who is touching him? For she's a sinner. If this guy were a prophet, he would know better. He wouldn't allow somebody like this to come in and make this kind of scene. Key word there is touch. There's some important assumptions in this judgment from Simon. First, he's assuming that if Jesus were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman this is. That is true. That assumption is true. If Jesus were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman this is, and Jesus knows what kind of woman this is. The second assumption, if he were a prophet, he wouldn't allow a woman like that to touch him. That is wrong. Jesus is not defiled by being touched by sinners. or by touching sinners. He purifies sinners. The whole idea of the Pharisees was to stay away from sin, to protect themselves, believing that sin is something that comes from outside and into you, rather than seeing what Jesus clearly taught, sin is something that comes from within us, and then comes out. The context, if we were just to look at the story before this, that we considered last week, Verse 35, remember when Jesus, he says, the Pharisees, they accused me of being a friend of sinners because I eat with tax collectors. Well, he hasn't invited anybody, but the sinners find him. And then the Pharisee does exactly what Jesus is warning them of. He's judging Jesus for welcoming sinners. You know, Simon the Pharisee, he needs to hear the warning that we saw all the way back with the centurion. The centurion who had a servant who was sick and just said to Jesus, don't come into my house. Just say the word and he'll be healed. Jesus said, I've not seen faith like this in all of Israel. This Pharisee should have faith that would help him see who Jesus is, but instead he's judging Jesus for welcoming sinners. I think we can see just from 39 a clear problem with Simon. He lacks faith. He lacks love. He lacks compassion, and he lacks something else that's crucial to understand the story. Let's go to verse three, or point three, our third scene. Simon judges himself. The woman's come in, made a scene. We see Simon's own thoughts, his own judgment about what he is seeing. And then Jesus, answering, said to him, Again, if Simon is really thinking to himself, this begins to give us a sense of awe and terror. He knows what we're thinking. Simon, I have something to say to you. Simon responds, say it. Rabbi, say it. Teacher. Now, what comes next is a parable. And later on, right next, the next few chapters in Luke are gonna have parables. And oftentimes, parables are used by Jesus to hide truth. That's very clear in Mark 4 11. He says, I'm speaking a parable so that everyone doesn't understand. He's hiding certain truths of the kingdom. That's not what this parable is doing. This isn't a hiding secret parable. This is a revealing, clarifying parable. He wants Simon to know something with clarity. There's a money lender, he has two debtors. One owed 500 denarii, the other 50. When they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more? Key issue here, 50 denarii, 500. I'm no mathematician, I usually ask Ben to verify math declarations before I say them, but that's like a one to 10 ratio, right, Ben? One to 10? So there's obviously somebody who's been forgiven a lot and someone who's forgiven less. Notice what Jesus is doing with this parable. Who do you think's gonna love him more? Who do you think's gonna have more gratitude? Who do you think's gonna have more affection? Who do you think's gonna be stirred up more, the 50 or the 500? Simon answers, the one I suppose for whom the larger debt is canceled. Jesus said, you're right. You're right. Jesus reaffirms this declaration. Look at verse 47. He who is forgiven little loves little. The idea being he who is forgiven much loves much. There's an important and necessary correlation between forgiveness and love. We can't miss that today, that's it. There is a necessary correlation between how much we've been forgiven and how much we love. The point, your love towards God demonstrates the forgiveness you've received. Jesus has led him with his parable to the water. Will Simon drink? Now we have to ask a very important question before we move on. That's an interpretation issue. Is Jesus implying that Simon is one-tenth less sinful than the woman? Is it about how sinful someone is, or is it about how aware we are of our sin? If we're gonna interpret this to say the woman was 10 times more sinful than Simon, and that's why she loves him much more, this would be the proper application. Go and sin as much as possible, so that when you believe in Jesus, you'll love him more. I hope you just hear how crazy that sounds. That not only sounds, it sounds nothing like taught in scripture, but it's exactly what Paul says no to in Romans 6, 1. Where sin abounds, grace abounds. And he knows our sinful hearts when he makes that beautiful passage, that beautiful declaration, where sin abounds, grace abounds. That's the promise. And then he knows that we'll think, well, maybe she should sin more so that we'll have more grace. No, Paul says. No. This isn't about how sinful somebody is. It's about how much they're aware of their sin and confessing their sin. The key is not that she's sinned more than Simon. The key is that she is coming to confess her sin, which is much. And that's why she loves much. It's important. What has Simon just done in verse 39? He judged God. Simon needs forgiveness as much as this woman does. Here, what has he done with this parable? He's caught Simon in his own words. He's reasoned with Simon to give him the principles and the tools he needs to come to a better self-recognition. He's leading him closer and closer to the water. Our fourth scene. the significant scene that contains more dialogue, more words. Notice the camera angle changes because Jesus was speaking directly to Simon. Now he's going to turn towards the woman while still talking to Simon. Okay, so the camera's behind Jesus. He's looking at the woman. You can see the woman, but it's really Jesus and Simon in clear focus. He says to Simon, this is Jesus rebukes Simon, our fourth point, verse 44. These words, do you see this woman? We already saw earlier, Simon saw this, that's verse 39, and he judged. Now Jesus is making an invitation, do you see this woman? The woman you've already judged, condemned. The woman you've thought about and used to judge me. Notice there's something happening here that isn't the forefront but is important. Jesus is caring and protective of the vulnerable. She's vulnerable in this situation. She's the weak person in the room and he's bringing all the attention to her. Do you see her? And the question really is, have you really seen her? She's a fellow human being, an image bearer of God, a neighbor. And she's come in need, and hurting, and desperation, and she's worshiping. If you look closely, Simon, you'll see her. A woman who loves her God. And this is the real point that he's gonna get to. If you see her, Simon, you might learn something. Do you get how difficult that'd be for a Pharisee to hear? Look at the prostitute, Simon, and you might learn something about worship. What he says next is intentionally increasing the tension, really the hostility. There's three contrasting statements. that make Simon look like the bad guy and the woman the good guy. Good gal, sorry. I entered your house. You gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in, she has not ceased kissing my feet. You did not anoint my head, but she has anointed my feet. That contrast. with his guest in his own house. Now he's pointing out the reality, Simon did not even offer him the most basic hospitality for a guest. There wasn't any love shown, there wasn't any welcome. This is a culture that understands hospitality and care. It would be normal for a host to offer someone water for their feet, because feet were usually pretty gross and disgusting, and that would be something they would want to, they would wash their own feet. Someone would offer a kiss, or what we would do in our culture, a handshake. He's contrasting, you've not done the most simple, basic expectations of hospitality. But notice this woman. She's wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. She's not ceased to kiss my feet. She's anointed my feet with an ointment. If we go back to 735. Jesus declared before, wisdom is justified by her children. I believe here he's saying the same thing he said, a good truth produces good fruit. You know someone by their fruit. You know someone's spiritual state by how they love and what they love or whom they love. This woman is demonstrating a true love for Jesus And Simon has demonstrated no love for Jesus. Now, we also need to make this observation. This contrast is not just the most basic, but everything the woman done is at Jesus' feet. There's a humility. There's no presumption about her. And we think feet are gross today, right? Like, we don't want to just have everybody take their shoes off, because we'd kind of say that's not gonna be pleasant, right? Feet are just kind of gross. No amen, but that's all right, we'll keep moving on. In this day, they're worse, because you've got basic sandals, and so they're dirty. You're walking around in the dust all day long. And where you're walking in the dust, the animals also oftentimes are always share the same roads, and animals aren't potty trained. They're filthy. That's why even a servant wouldn't wash a master's feet. Notice, she doesn't care. She wets his feet with her tears. She wipes them with her hair. She kisses them, she anoints them. There's no pride, she's shameless. She doesn't have any pretense in her own worth. She only recognizes Jesus' worth. She lowers herself to wash his feet. She wants to be near him, whatever it takes. She gives him the most expensive item she has, the ointment. It's an act of worship. Now at this moment, Simon should be embarrassed. He has not shown basic hospitality. He's also just been lowered beneath the woman in terms of kindness and care. The teacher has just been taught. Listen, look at, learn from the woman whom you've looked down upon. This is the kingdom rule that Luke continues to use throughout the gospel. The proud will be humiliated. The humble will be exalted. The ashamed will be honored. The sinner who confesses will be forgiven. Jesus changes the story. We saw this with Zachariah and Elizabeth. Remember, Elizabeth, she had her reproach removed because God blessed her with John the Baptist, the baby. God changes the story. This woman who came in ashamed, humbled, lowly, Jesus has now exalted her. She lowers herself before Jesus by faith, and Jesus exalts her. Some important questions to ask before moving on to the last point. Will Simon remain in his sin, or will he be humble enough to be taught by this woman? Last week, we saw this warning of Jesus to the Pharisees. They're like children playing games. They're constantly moving the field goal. They're just about judging other people. Jesus' invitation, see this woman. not looking down upon her in judgment, but as a model of godliness, worship, and love. He gave Simon the parable so that Simon would already see, no, I need to recognize that my lack of love is really a lack of my own recognition of needing forgiveness. The woman isn't any more sinful than Simon. The most significant sin of the woman is against Jesus. She once denied her creator. The most significant sin of Simon is against Jesus. He's judged him. What do you think our most significant sin is? It's against our God. It's against Jesus. This is the reality. If you're not a Christian, this is so important. The one we have sinned against the most is the only one who can forgive us. And he loved us while we were sinners. He came to die for us while we were sinners. The warning for us today is that we would be like Simon and see the principle, see the reality. We have sin. And then say, ah, I'm not as bad as that person. Ah, it's not that big of a deal. Ah, I don't really wanna give up everything I've got, especially this sin, to believe in Jesus. dangerous patterns, Christian to hear, is how often believers come to Jesus like the woman and then quickly turn to the Pharisee. How often someone will come, humble, confessing sin, and then for some reason stop confessing sin and start standing over others and judging sinners. It is a dangerous, deadly pattern. Now the camera angle changes one more time. Simon is out of the scene. He has warned him, he has been told his problem, he's been told what to do, follow the woman and model. We don't know what he does next, but we know now, Jesus, the camera angle is fully focused on the woman. God himself has put all his attention, he was looking at her, now all of his attention is upon her. He says to her the words, your sins are forgiven. That just needs to soak in this morning. Those are the words we must hear. Those are the words that we must contemplate and desire. Forgiveness means sin will no longer be punished. Forgiveness means that sin has been removed from us as far as the east is from the west. Now God must be just, he must punish sin. So what does he do with sin if he's removed it from us as far as he sits in the west? Well, he put it on his own son. The son was crushed. The one who never sinned was treated as if the greatest sinner. Why? So God would be just, the one who punished every sin, and then the justifier, the one who's able to say, you are forgiven because your sin has been paid for fully. When Jesus dies on the cross, the full weight of sin falls upon Him in all of His judgment. We need that forgiveness. How do we get it? She is not forgiven because of her love. She loves because she's forgiven. She's forgiven because she believed. Look at verse 50. Your faith has saved you. Go in peace. Faith means I'm not going to try to work up my own affection. Faith means I'm gonna stop trying to justify my own sin. Faith means I'm going to trust in the one God who alone can declare, your sins are forgiven. It's an amazing picture. In a room full of men who hate her, look down upon her, she's on her knees washing the feet of Jesus, and he has compassion on her, declares your sins are forgiven, and she's saved. And notice all those around are mesmerized, they're amazed. Who is this who forgives sins? You know what's fantastic about after this story? People in town might still call her a sinner, but she's not. She's a child of God. Her sins are removed. Her forever declaration, her forever title is a child of God who's been saved. She came with shame and guilt. She left with peace. She came with shame and guilt. She left with peace. If you're here this morning, what did you come in with is a significant question. Have you come in with shame? Condemnation. Self-condemnation. Guilt. Coming in this way is helpful. The big question is, how do you want to leave? Do you want to leave forgiven? Do you want to leave with peace from God? The invitation is, confess your sins to God. Seek His forgiveness. He restores us. There's three application points as we meditate further upon the story. First, you can be forgiven. You can be forgiven. There's something important that must precede forgiveness, and it's seeing sin as it is, for what it is. You can only be forgiven for sin you actually acknowledge. You're going to be forgiven if you recognize I have done something wrong and I feel condemnation over it. I feel conviction. You see, this is Simon's problem. He does not think his sin is a big problem. And this can happen a number of ways for us. We can think sin's under control. I've got it. You know, I'm in charge of my sin. I don't sin as much as other people. I justify my sin. The big problem for Simon It's all possibly for us. Are we thinking too little of our sin? The way we think too little of our sin is usually directly tied to how we think too little of God. Is he worthy of all honor? All our love? All our obedience? This is the most amazing message. If we avoid taking our sins seriously today, one day we'll stand before Jesus and we'll be silent. we will see the seriousness of our sin and we'll face judgment. But today, if we take seriously sin, confess it, we'll find forgiveness and love from God and peace. We do not know what this woman was like with her identity when she came as a sinner. She knew it, the town knew it. That could have kept her away. This morning, do not let your sin you from coming to Jesus, who came to this world to be like you, to die for you, to rise again to give you new life. He alone can forgive. Second point. We have loved little because we've been forgiven little. A key verse, if you want one memory verse of this passage, he who is forgiven little loves little. The assumption there, if we want to grow in our love for God, it means we stop loving sin. We only have so much capacity for love. We're either directing our love towards sin, or we're directing it towards God. There's no way in which we can try to live this double life, the double affections. We all try really hard to do. I wanna try to figure out how to love sin just a little bit, but God more. No, you cannot love Jesus and sin. You're either forsaking Jesus to love sin or you're forsaking sin to love Jesus. What we love, it shows us where our hearts are. What we do, it shows us where affections are. What's terrifying here is if Simon sees his sin, and dismisses it or embraces it. He's committing to drinking his own poison. Sin promises satisfaction but never delivers. Sin is trying to quench your thirst by drinking from the ocean. It's deadly, it's destructive. It's so dangerous that we would live this masquerading life of pretending that we would love God while embracing sin. Doesn't it just get exhausting? The heart that is fueled to love God is fueled by looking and saying, there's sin in my life, I wanna repent. I wanna confess it. I wanna put it off, I wanna put it to death. The lie of sin is that you're in control. Where Jesus makes it very clear, if you choose sin, you are choosing to be enslaved. This morning, how is our love demonstrating how much we desire to be forgiven of sin? The third point, confess your own sin quickly and often. The emphasis here is on your own sin. One of the ways we can actually evaluate our love or our forgiveness is how quickly we're able to see our own sin versus somebody else. How quickly we're gonna put on our lips somebody else's sin or our own. Psalm 19 is a fantastic psalm to meditate upon later today. It begins by looking up into the general revelation and reflecting, the heavens declare the majesty of God. Then looking at scripture and saying, the precepts and the commands, they're good, they're righteous. God, thank you. And then the most unusual turn, the third part of the psalm, show me my hidden faults. When we look up to God and his holiness, When we look up to God who loves us, even while we're sinners, we're not gonna say, God, just give me enough confession to feel good about myself. No, it's, God, help me see sin so I can repent. Confessing our own sin, not someone else's. Quickly. Too often we think we need to make a deal with God. God, I'll confess this sin if you do this for me. God, I really believe that you can help me with my sin if you'll help me with this health issue, my finances, my marriage, wherever it may be. We don't make deals with God. We just receive his promises. If you wanna know what that confession looks like, God gives us so many examples. I wanna point you to Luke 13, 18, which I think is the key way to pray when you wanna confess your sin. It's not be merciful because I've done something. It's not show me kindness so that I will be better. It's simply this. Oh God, be merciful to me for I am a sinner. The rationale is everything. Be merciful to me so that you can do this for me. Be merciful to me so that I'll do this for you. No, be merciful to me because I am a sinner. The only thing I'm bringing to this relationship, God, is my sin. I need your mercy. I find there's two typical ways we're gonna talk. As Christians, as churches, we're gonna go talk about other people's sin out there. We're gonna talk about our sin in here. We have to be disciplined. Sin isn't something that's coming from outside, pressing in. No, no, sin is something that's inside, that bursts forth. We need to be confessing our own sin quickly and often. This morning we had the Lord's Supper. It is before us. This is where we're going to transition after our song response. But it's a reminder. His body was crushed on our behalf. His blood was spilled to wash us. What we do today, if you're a baptized believer, is you come to receive this, not a reminder, but the effectual work of the Holy Spirit as we take the bread and take the cup to be renewed in our love, because remember, every sin's forgiven. There's a repair. for the Lord's Supper. We need to first confess. A Christian who stops confessing is a Christian who starts embracing sin. Let's close with a silent time of us reflecting and confessing our sin in preparation, and then I will lead us in a prayer of confession. Let us pray. Father, we come before you in the name of your Son who died and rose again, Jesus Christ. We come desiring to confess our sins. We've not honored you. We've not given you thanks. Father, we look too quickly and easily at other people's sin and find a way of boasting about our own righteousness. Lord, we've looked in the mirror of your word and seen clear sin in our own lives and figured out ways of justifying it, suppressing it. Lord, we've not loved you as the one who is most lovely. We've not loved you as the one who's loved us the most. Lord, we've thought too little of you. too little of our sin, and too much of ourselves. Father, we confess we are not quick to confess sin because we like it too much. We don't love you enough. Father, we confess these things with a desire that you would wash us, renew us, restore us, So that as we come before you and pray, more love to thee, oh Lord. You would help us to see the sin, that we would be forgiven more, so that we would love you more. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let us stand and sing our song of response, more love to thee, printed on page 10.