The Lord’s Day
Morning
August 3, 2008
Luke 7:36-50
“Extravagant Love for Jesus #2”
Dr. Derek W.
H. Thomas
Amen. Now turn with me if you would to Luke’s Gospel,
chapter 7, and we’re going to read from verse 36 to the end of the chapter…Luke
7, beginning at verse 36. And before we read this passage, we need once again
the help of the Holy Spirit. Let’s pray.
Lord our God, we thank You for the Scriptures.
Thank You for every word given as the product of Your out-breathing, and
profitable for doctrine, and correction, and rebuke, and instruction in the way
of righteousness, that we may be thoroughly furnished unto every good work. So,
Lord, instruct us now, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
This is God’s word:
“One of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him, and He went into
the Pharisee’s house and took His place at the table. And behold, a woman of the
city, who was a sinner…”
[And the consensus of opinion is that that is a euphemism
for the fact that she was in fact a prostitute.]
“…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…”
[And beware when you’re talking to yourselves, because
Jesus always hears it.]
“…‘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 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 five hundred
denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of
both. Now which of them will love him more?’ Simon answered, ‘The one, I
suppose, for whom He cancelled 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 has 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.’”
Amen.
We have been looking, these last couple of weeks
together while Ligon has been away on vacation, at a theme: extravagant love for
Jesus. Last week we were looking at a very similar story. It’s not the same
story. Last week’s story took place in Bethany; it took place after the
resurrection of Lazarus from the dead; it was Mary of Bethany (Mary, Martha,
Lazarus…Bethany two miles or so outside of Jerusalem). This incident takes place
in Galilee. It takes place probably in Capernaum. It was Simon the leper in last
week’s story; this is Simon the Pharisee — two quite distinct stories.
There’s a woman, and she is a “sinner.” All
the commentators agree this is a euphemism for the fact that she was a notorious
sinner, a well-known sinner…in fact, a prostitute. It might strike us as odd (it
strikes me as odd) that she was there — that she would be allowed into Simon the
Pharisee’s house; but you understand this was probably an open invitation to all
who had attended synagogue to come for dinner, and she may well have been at
synagogue. She would have been in the court of the women, you understand; in
synagogue male and female would have been separated. She has led an
indescribably profligate, awful, drudgery of a life. We need not go there. Her
life was awful. She is a sinner. But she has heard of Jesus. She perhaps has
been listening to Him for some time. If this is indeed Capernaum, Jesus had
frequented Capernaum for some time. He had attended synagogue in Capernaum. He
had performed acts of miraculous healing in Capernaum. She has heard Him preach
and proclaim the kingdom of God in Capernaum and perhaps the surrounding
districts. She has come with perhaps a premeditated act. We can’t be sure about
this. It may be the same kind of perfume as we were thinking about last week
(the anointing oil, the spikenard that Mary of Bethany had), or it may not be.
She has it in her purse. She’s bought it from the proceeds of her profligate
life.
Jesus is sitting at the table in Eastern fashion,
head toward the center, feet outwards. He’s leaning perhaps on His elbow,
reclining on the floor. She’s at His feet on the outside, as it were, of the
circle…among many others, perhaps. She has looked at Him. She has listened to
Him speak. And she falls down beside His feet and tears are welling up in her
eyes and they trickle down her face. She’s overcome with emotion. Her shoulders
are beginning heave at the weight and burden of her emotional response to Jesus.
The tears now are dripping down on Jesus’ feet. As each one drops on His feet,
she unties her hair. She does something that in that setting would have been
socially a faux pas. Now with her hair she wipes His feet, and with each
wipe she kisses His feet, and another tear falls. She wipes it, she kisses His
feet. People are looking and they’re pretending not to see. They’re looking
away. They’re nudging each other: “Imagine that woman! What is she doing here?
In fact…why doesn’t Simon say something? And why does Jesus allow this? Look at
Him! He’s not even moving His feet!”
And Simon the Pharisee, he’s come to understand
something about Jesus. He’s come to understand that He’s a prophet — someone
in whom resides the word of God, someone who could speak for God. (‘But you
know, if Jesus were a real prophet, He’d understand who this woman is. He’d know
what this woman is. He’d know that if she touched Him, He’d be ceremonially
unclean. He couldn’t attend synagogue for a week. He’d have to go through a
ritual of cleansing because He’s been touched by someone who is a sinner. How
can He be a prophet?’)
And there’s Jesus. Turn your eyes upon Jesus; look
full in His wonderful face for a minute. He tells a parable. (Beware when
Jesus tells parables in the presence of others, because someone is being set up!
Simon is being set up.) Two men owe money to a moneylender. (This story was
written yesterday!) One owes five hundred denarii. A denarius was what an
average man would earn in one day. This was a year and a half’s salary. This is
a lot of money. This is $40,000-$50,000, maybe more. That’s a lot of money. The
other owes fifty. Neither of them can pay, so the moneylender wipes their slates
clean, both of them. Which one would love him more? And Simon somewhat
begrudgingly says, ‘Well, I suppose the one who owed the more.’ “You
understand,” Jesus says, “he who is forgiven little loves little; but he who is
forgiven much, loves much.”
What are the lessons? Well, three of them.
I. We need a fresh glimpse of
the gospel.
First of all, we need — you and I — we need
a fresh glimpse of the gospel. This is about the gospel. Jesus is talking
here about the gospel. This whole story is about the gospel.
How can a woman who is a prostitute be considered in
the same league as the likes of you and me? That’s it, isn’t it? They both owe,
and neither can pay, and both are forgiven. And you inherently think — I mean,
tell me this is not so! — we have an instinct for self-justification. It’s in
the genes. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if it is in the genes…not one bit. We
are linked that way to Adam. We are genetically predisposed, we are hard-wired
to think that that is inherently not fair. Jesus is talking here about
grace-based ministry. He’s talking here about grace-based lives. And it begins,
you see, it begins with an appreciation of what God has done for us, and it
begins with an appreciation of what we are by nature.
Jesus’ love, my friends, is not a tool to meet a need
of self-esteem for people who think themselves to be failures. That’s not the
gospel. That’s not the gospel. That is not the gospel! We need to think
of the human heart. We need to think of the human heart as depraved rather than
deprived. John Owen says he who has slight thoughts of sin never had great
thoughts of God. She has great thoughts of Jesus. It’s overwhelmed her. It’s
engulfed her in emotion as she thinks about Jesus and she sees Him. She can’t
help it. She just breaks down in tears. But it begins, my friends, with an
understanding of who she is.
Do you notice in verse 47 when Jesus is speaking to
Simon: “I tell you, her sins, which are many…” ? You see, the way to
justification, the way to an appreciation of grace is not to play down the
reality of our native sinfulness. Her sins were many. Her sins were great. And
the gospel is not a scheme for making us feel good about ourselves.
I heard this woman on TV yesterday — I just about
broke the TV! — she said all you need to do is say three times, “I feel good
about myself.” Did you hear her? Some of you might have heard her. That is such
unadulterated nonsense! The gospel is not a self-help scheme. The gospel says
that we can feel good about ourselves only — only — as we are in union
and communion with Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, and rose again
for our justification.
You know we sometimes talk about unconditional love.
And forgive me in advance, if I may beg your indulgence, if I don’t warm with
wondrous glow when I hear that phrase “unconditional love,” because I’m never
quite sure what it means. Because in one sense it’s true, but in another sense,
my friends, it is not. It is not. Because Jesus wasn’t saying ‘I accept this
woman unconditionally.’ That’s not the gospel. He would lay down His life for
this woman. He would bear in His own body upon the tree the unmitigated wrath of
His holy Father in heaven for this woman. For this woman to be forgiven, oh,
yes! Believe me, there were conditions written into a covenant that the Mediator
had entered into with His Father in heaven. John Stott says when we have
glimpsed the blinding glory of the holiness of God and have been so convicted of
our sin by the Holy Spirit that we tremble before God and acknowledge that we
are namely hell-deserving sinners, then and only then does the necessity of the
cross appear so obvious that we are astonished that we never saw it before. We
need a fresh glimpse of the gospel.
II. We need a fresh experience
of gratitude.
We need, secondly, a fresh experience of
gratitude. Oh, in verses 47-48, don’t think that Jesus is saying that
she is forgiven because she loves; that the basis of her forgiveness is the fact
that she loved. That’s turning the gospel on its head. Love is the response of
her heart to the gospel that she has experienced. When this woman understood
(and she had understood that Jesus was going to die for her…for her, whom
society had used, whom society had abused, and whose heart was desperately
wicked), she could not but respond in emotional outpouring of gratitude…of
gratitude that there is salvation. Oh, can I say it this morning? Yes, because
it’s true: There’s salvation for prostitutes; there’s salvation for murderers.
I met…I’ve actually met several, but I met one who
had murdered and had paid an inadequate price in terms of the state’s
retribution, and he was the first to acknowledge that. And he had by this time
been set free. But in prison, he had been converted–genuinely, truly converted.
But he had murdered. But he had also been forgiven. And tell me…tell me that
every instinct in your body doesn’t respond with the thought that that isn’t
fair. Tell me so! And, my friend, if it does, you need a fresh glimpse of the
gospel, and you need a fresh experience of gratitude.
“I will sing of my Redeemer,
And His wondrous love to me:
On the cruel cross He suffered,
From the curse to set me free.
“Sing, O sing, of my Redeemer!
With His blood, He purchased me.
On the cross, He sealed my
pardon;
Paid the debt, and set me free.”
We need a fresh glimpse of the gospel. We need a
fresh experience of gratitude. When did you last feel so overwhelmingly
emotional at the thought that Jesus gave His life and shed His blood, and
endured the agony of the wrath of God? And, in the words of The Apostles’
Creed, descended into hell for us? Because that’s what it cost to save a
wretch like me.
Simon didn’t get it, you see. He didn’t get it. There
was no place for sinners in the kingdom of God. And, my friend, every single
individual in the kingdom of God is a sinner saved by grace.
III. We need a fresh glimpse of
Jesus.
But there’s a third thing. We need a fresh glimpse
of Jesus, because, you know, in the end that’s what this story is really
about. It’s not about this woman: we don’t even know her name. It’s not even
about Simon the Pharisee. It’s about Jesus.
You notice back in verse 34 (this is the segue that
introduces the story), it’s the accusation that the Son of Man has come eating
and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at Him! A glutton and a drunkard! A friend of
tax collectors and sinners!’ What kind of Jesus do we have this morning?
Well, He’s the kind of Jesus who goes to the other
side of the tracks and rescues a prostitute and brings her into His kingdom.
That’s the Jesus we have this morning. He’s the kind of Jesus who, though He
thought it not robbery to be equal with God, made himself of no reputation. They
said He was the friend of tax collectors and sinners. We need a fresh glimpse of
Jesus: the Jesus who veiled His glory and became incarnate, and took upon
himself flesh and blood; of whom it was said that the birds of the air have
their nests and the foxes have their holes, but the Son of Man has nowhere to
lay His head. And He did it for the likes of you, and He did it for the likes of
me.
My friends, we can go about our ministries, we can go
about our lives, we can go about our public professions of being the Lord’s
people, and we can lose sight of all of those things. We can lose sight of
the gospel, and we can lose sight of the need for gratitude, and we can lose
sight of Jesus. If you are discouraged this morning, it’s because you
have lost sight of Jesus.
Oh, may God by His Spirit so grant to each one of us
a fresh glimpse of the sheer beauty and wonder of Jesus, and that we might —
yes, for a moment or two — even lose our composure at such wondrous love.
Let’s sing together, shall we, the words of hymn No.
645, Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee.
[Congregation sings.]
Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ be with you all.
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