A Life Transformed

Introduction

I know a number of people who I can only describe as being hopelessly stoic. They have an almost robotic control over their emotions. I'm not saying that's good or bad; what I'm saying is that it doesn't describe me. There are just some things that at times evoke so much emotion in me that I just can't hold back tears. Often it's tears of joy when it comes to how I feel about my family. Sometimes it's tears of sadness when I think of the good friends I have lost far too soon. Sometimes, however, I have shed tears that are difficult to describe, they are tears of joy, sorrow and hope all mixed together when I meditate on my relationship with Jesus. I don't know if that makes sense but my emotions are wrapped up in the joy of being so deeply loved by Jesus, the sorrow of what my sins cost Jesus and the hope of spending eternity with Jesus. Luke tells the story of a woman who washes Jesus' feet with her tears and then dries his feet with her hair. Many of you are quite familiar with this story and if you're like me, you've always assumed that her tears must have something to do with the fact that she's identified as a "sinful woman" and is seeking some favor from Jesus. Well let's reserve our judgment of that until after we've had an opportunity to take a closer look at the story. Perhaps there is another explanation for her tears.

Luke 7:36-50

³⁶ Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. ³⁷ When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, ³⁸ and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. 

³⁹ When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is–that she is a sinner.” ⁴⁰ Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said. 

⁴¹ “Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. ⁴² Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?” ⁴³ Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled.” “You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.

⁴⁴ Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. ⁴⁵ You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. ⁴⁶ You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. ⁴⁷ Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven–for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.” ⁴⁸ Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” ⁴⁹ The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” ⁵⁰ Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

Context

This is one of my favorite stories in the Bible. It has so many teaching elements and intricacies that it has the potential of applying to all of us in some respect. Before we begin on the details of our text, it's important, as usual, to understand the context. At the beginning of Chapter 7, we learn that Jesus has entered the city of Capernaum where he heals the servant of a Roman Centurian. Thereafter, Jesus travels south about twenty miles to the town of Nain. In Nain, Jesus encounters a funeral procession and proceeds to raise the dead son of a widow. While in Nain, something very important happened, John the Baptist sent two of his disciples to Jesus to ask him if He was the One, the long-awaited Messiah, or should they expect another. 7:22 records Jesus' now famous response to John when he says: "The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised and the good news is preached to the poor." These words will have special meaning for us as we dig deeper into our text.

Setting The Stage

V. 36 sets the stage for our story. Jesus is invited to dinner at a Pharisee's house. If you could only read this first verse and nothing else, what do you picture the dinner would be like? Can you think of one time when an encounter between Jesus and the Pharisees ended well? You don't have to go very far back in Luke's text for an object lesson in what happens when you mix Jesus and the Pharisees (cf. 5:21-26, 5:30-39, 6:6-11). But we’ll soon see that this encounter turns out to be far less contentious; perhaps even an opportunity for transformation for this Pharisee. In this middle-eastern setting, dinner guests lounged on the floor around a "U" shaped table with their feet away from the table. It is important to remember that people traveled by foot along the same travel routes as animals. Consequently, sandaled feet could be quite disgusting at times. This provides the opportunity for devotion to Jesus that follows. 

An Unwelcome Guest?

The first curious observation about vv. 37-38 is that a woman, identified as one who "lived a sinful life" shows up in the Pharisee's house along with Jesus. Not so curious, however, when we understand the custom of their day. Darrell Bock writes, "At special meals the door was left open, so uninvited guests could enter, sit by the walls, and hear the conversation...That the woman's actions are rebuked and her presence is not suggests a special, public meal."[1] However, her presence in the home poses a difficult problem for the Pharisee committed to "holiness and purity laws attached to Pharisaic meal practices."[2]

The woman is only identified as one who "lived a sinful life." Historically, it has been assumed that she is either a prostitute or an adulteress of some sort since her sin is obviously quite public. More important is the scene that unfolds before us as this woman washes Jesus' feet with her tears. The English translation does not do justice to the scene. The woman is not quietly crying. Instead, "The weeping is obviously significant, because the term used to describe it, is also used to describe rain showers."[3] The woman goes on to dry Jesus' feet with her hair, kissed them and then anointed them with expensive perfume. Contrast this with the how the Pharisee greeted Jesus when he entered his home; he did nothing for Jesus. Although it was not specifically required, guests, especially honored guests, would have their feet washed by a house servant or at least given fresh water to wash their own feet, would be greeted with a kiss on the cheek or hand and then would be anointed by having a small amount of common olive oil poured on their heads. The Pharisee did none of this while the woman went far beyond what was required.

In v. 39, the Pharisee calls into question Jesus' credentials as a "prophet" because he believes Jesus is unknowingly being defiled by a "sinner" and a "true prophet" would know she is a sinner and distance himself from her. Keep in mind that the text is clear that the Pharisee thought these things "to himself." In vv. 40-43, Jesus tells a parable in response to the Pharisee's thoughts. We often breeze right over this part of the text to get to Jesus' parable and forget the divine significance of this point. Imagine for a moment what it would be like to sit across from someone who knows everything you are thinking! It is unlikely that this particular Pharisee ever questioned Jesus' prophetic credentials again. 

An Important Lesson

The parable in vv. 40-43 tells the story of two debtors; one owing 500 denarii and the other owing 50 denarii and that neither could pay back their debt. It is difficult to contextualize this part of the story because we are unfamiliar with the value of a denarii. Historically, 25 denarii would be approximately one month's wage for the average person. However, this does not begin to explain the extremity of these two numbers. In modern terms, the sense of disparity would be analogous to the difference between an average car loan and an average house loan. In other words, there is a monumental difference between the two debts.

There is an important characteristic to note in the interaction between Jesus and this Pharisee that we do not find anywhere else in Scripture; Jesus addresses him by his first name; Simon. This is intensely personal and should not be overlooked. In most cases, Jesus is very harsh with Pharisees because he knows they are usually being disingenuous in their words and actions. But with Simon, Jesus takes a much softer approach by addressing him personally.

Jesus goes on to tell the story that the debt of each man is forgiven and asks Simon which man would love more as a result. Simon answers correctly yet his answer is nevertheless prefixed with the words "I suppose." Simon is obviously being very careful with his answers but it's too late, he's answered it correctly and unknowingly indicted himself in the process. Jesus' point of the parable is that God is the creditor and the two debtors represent the woman who owes much and Simon who owes little (even if that's only in his mind) and that the level of love and gratitude is directly related to the magnitude of the grace and forgiveness received.

The Start Of A New Life

In vv. 44-49, Jesus justifies the woman's actions as those of one who has received forgiveness for her many sins. Some mistakenly take this text to mean that Jesus has forgiven her because of her actions toward him. However, it is clear from the text that she has had an encounter with Jesus prior to them having arrived at the dinner. The force of the parable makes clear that love is generated after the debt is cancelled and not as a means to receive the favor to cancel a debt. "In fact, the reference to forgiveness in the [Greek] perfect tense [v. 47] stresses that she is in a state of forgiveness."[4] Instead, Jesus' public pronouncement of the woman's previous forgiveness is a means of restoring her to the community. "His words are unnecessary as far as she as an individual was concerned; she has already been forgiven and has acted in accordance with her new-found freedom. Others, however, are unaware of her new state and, like Simon, will continue to regard her as 'a woman known in the city as a sinner.' She does not need forgiveness from God, but she does need recognition of her new life and forgiveness among God's people."[5] Unfortunately, as is often the case, some people completely ignore what just happened and focus on Jesus' act of forgiveness as something that only God has the authority to do without considering the possibility that Jesus does, in fact, have that authority because he is "the One" that John was referring to in 7:19.

Remember earlier I said that Jesus told John the good news was being preached to the poor? Well this woman would have been considered one of the poor in Jesus' mind. She was poor spiritually, physically and socially. However, Jesus' pronouncement in v. 50 "Cannot be limited to 'spiritual' well-being or even, in other co-texts, to 'physical' vitality, but speaks of a restoration to wholeness, including (even if not limited to) restoration to the full social intercourse from which she has been excluded."[6]

Application

Some people glean from this text that there is a hierarchy of sin either in quality or in quantity. Although this may be true culturally, it is not necessarily true theologically or more specifically soteriologically. In other words, all sin requires forgiveness and reconciliation. The force of this teaching revolves around the perception of our own sin. Specifically, most of us believe we are quite good at objectifying and categorizing someone else's sin as being either egregious or benign in nature. However, we are rarely harsh about our own sin as we compare them to the sins of others. In fact, when we think about it, it's actually difficult to list the people who have sinned less than we have! In other words, God is probably thankful that he has people like us since the scale is already so heavily tipped toward those awful "sinners." I'm being cynical of course (sort of). But at various times in my life, I have played the role of both debtors from Jesus' parable. I can speak from personal experience that during the times in my life when I played the role of Simon, my relationship with Jesus was distant and cold. However, during the times of my life when I played the role of the "sinner," I was desperately in love with Jesus and my relationship with Him flourished. There is a two-fold lesson to be learned from our subject text. The first is our attitude toward sinners. Bock writes, "It is so easy to wall people off subtly from God and give the impression they are beyond God's reach, rather than trying sincerely to bring them into the sphere of God's forgiveness."[7] We must make a conscious effort to continuously reach out to sinners with our words and in our actions to demonstrate "The love of God expressed in the offer of forgiveness."[8] The second lesson is the constant and honest assessment of our own sin; not in comparison to the sins of others but in terms of what our sin cost Jesus. Specifically, "sin" cost Jesus his life-any sin, all sin, every sin-just to make it clear. There is no sin that would not have cost Jesus his life. This means that when we kneel before Christ at the foot of the cross, we are all equal—first sinners then forgiven. Armed with that knowledge, how will it affect your life? Have you experienced spiritual, physical, emotional, and/or relational restoration? If you have, then you too can claim that you have experienced A Life Transformed.

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[1] Darrell L. Bock, Luke 1:1-9:50 Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1994), pp. 694-695.

[2] Joel Green, The Gospel of Luke, The New International Commentary on the New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1997), p. 308.

[3] Bock, ECNT, p. 696.

[4] Bock, ECNT, p. 703.

[5] Green, NICNT, p. 314.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Darrell Bock, Luke, The NIV Application Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996), p. 224.

[8] Ibid.