Finding Grace in the Lost and Found (RP1)

            During my girls’ elementary and middle school years, we made more than a few trips to the school’s lost and found. Unfortunately, more things remained lost than were found. However, there was great relief and sometimes joy when something of perceived value was actually recovered. I’ve heard friends tell me some great stories of finding something of great value they thought they had lost—a family heirloom, a pet, and even a wedding ring. However, absolutely nothing compares to the stories of personal redemption that people have shared with me. People lost in their substance abuse, lost in their sex addictions, lost in their abusive relationships and lost as they turned their back on God. Stories of how God never stopped waiting for them and looking for them and when they were at their lowest point and they cried out to God for help, how God came running to take them back and love them back to wholeness. This is the essence of Jesus’ story of the Prodigal Son. Do you know why I love this story? Because it’s my story! It’s probably everyone’s story to a certain degree—it applies to those who don’t know God yet eventually call out to Him when all else has failed them and it applies to those who have known and loved God yet have been entice by sin to turn away from Him. This week, as we look at the story of the Prodigal Son, maybe you’ll see yourself in the story like I see myself in the story.

Subject Text

Luke 15:11-32

            ¹¹Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. ¹²The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. ¹³“Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. ¹⁴After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. ¹⁶He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. ¹⁷“When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! ¹⁸I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. ¹⁹I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ ²⁰So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. ²¹“The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ ²²“But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. ²³Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. ²⁴For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate. ²⁵“Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. ²⁶So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ²⁷‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ ²⁸“The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. ²⁹But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. ³⁰But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ ³¹“‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. ³²But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

Context

            It’s hard to keep track of what’s going on in these chapters of Luke’s gospel because Jesus begins to tell story after story after story. So let me remind you of the setting within which Jesus is giving us this teaching. Chapter 14 tells us that it is the Sabbath and Jesus has been invited to eat at the house of a prominent Pharisee. Well wherever there’s one Pharisee, there’s bound to be more as well as some teachers of the law, and this occasion was no different. But try and picture this, large crowds were traveling with Jesus and among them were tax collectors and “sinners” who gathered around Jesus to hear Him speak and they all found their way to the Pharisee’s house. The fact that there were uninvited guests in the house was not necessarily unexpected. As I said in last week’s lesson, it was customary at high profile gatherings such as this to leave the door open so that the public could enter or stand outside the door if there was no room so the discussions inside the house could be heard. Unfortunately for the Pharisees, those who usually followed Jesus lived unpopular, ordinary and usually very messy lives—I guess some things don’t change regardless of how much time passes. But it’s the perfect setting for the story of the Prodigal Son so let’s take a look at Jesus’ teaching.

Text Analysis

            ¹¹Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. ¹²The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.

            Jesus begins his story in vv. 11-12 by introducing us to a man with two sons. The younger son insists that his father give him his share of his father’s estate. The younger son would customarily receive half as much as the older son. Nevertheless, the father had the right to do whatever he wanted with his wealth. It was generally understood that inheritance would have been distributed upon the father’s death. However, an exception to this practice could also be determined by the father. Judaism frowned on the practice of inheritance distribution prior to death stating: “‘To son or wife, to brother or friend, give no power over yourself while you live; and give not your goods to another so as to have to ask for them again.’”[1] But don’t miss something very crucial in this exchange. The son is not just saying that he wants his inheritance, he’s in essence telling his father that he wishes his father was dead! “The son clearly looks to sever his relationship to his father and go away.”[2] Think about the pain and insult the father must have felt. Nevertheless, the father honors his request and lets him go.

¹³“Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. ¹⁴After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. ¹⁶He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

            We have the unfolding story of the son’s new-found freedom apart from his father in vv. 13-16. Come on! This isn’t too hard to imagine is it? Most experts believe that the young son is just a teenager. So now we have a teenager with a wad of money in his pocket and without the constraint of rules from his father’s house…what could possibly go wrong? Well we soon find out that a carefree life without rules is not always what it’s cracked up to be. Nevertheless, the son leaves behind the familiarity of home for the adventure of a distant country. “‘A distant country’ already suggests the non-Jewish world, and this identification is helped along by the prominence of pigs, abhorrent to Jewish sensibilities, in the story.”[3] The text tells us that he squandered his wealth on wild living. The Greek word used for squander paints a picture of “Tossing one’s possessions into the wind.”[4] No sooner had he run out of money when a famine envelops the entire country where he is currently living. That’s when things go from bad to awful.

“Had he possessed his initial, relative wealth he might have been able to ride out the ensuing period of depressed economy. Having spent all he had, however, he had little recourse but to locate himself in a situation wherein he has not only shamed his father, but has plummeted from his status as the son of a large landowner to that of the ‘unclean and degraded,’ for whom even the life of a day laborer would be preferable.”[5]

            In our culture, it is difficult to see the gravity of the son’s situation. He was left with the choice of dying or tending to pigs—as though one would be better than the other for a Jew. Pigs were unclean animals. This represents the absolute bottom for him. He is so low that even the despised pigs are eating while he is starving. He would gladly eat with the pigs at this point if someone would allow it. Let me try and paint a picture of what his life looks like: He insulted his father, he has no money left, he’s starving, he has committed countless sins, he is working in and among unclean animals and no one will help him—he is all alone, he is at the end of the line, he has hit bottom.

¹⁷“When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! ¹⁸I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. ¹⁹I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ ²⁰So he got up and went to his father.

            We see that there at the bottom in vv. 17-20a, he begins to realizes that something has to change. He recognizes the irony in his situation—his father’s slaves are better off than he is. They have more than enough food while he is starving to death. At this point he devises a plan to return home to his father. But after what he’d said and done, how could he?

“The struggling son decides to acknowledge his folly before God and to his father. This combination is a merism to indicate that he sinned against God and his father…The son will act quickly and humbly. He knows he has forfeited all rights to sonship and inheritance, but it is better to cast himself on his father’s mercy than remain in a distant land, living a life lower than the unclean beasts and suffering hunger. The confession pictures his repentance, coming to the father bearing nothing but his need…He accepts the consequences of his choices. There are no excuses, only confession and a humble request. The picture shows what repentance looks like: no claims, just reliance on God’s mercy and provision.”[6]

            The son acknowledges to himself that the “something” his father’s servants have is better than the “nothing” he has, so he sets out on his way home.

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. ²¹“The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ ²²“But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. ²³Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. ²⁴For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

            Verses 20b-24 lead off with my favorite part of the entire story. The text says that while the son was still a long way from home, his father saw him and started running to him. When he reached him, he took the boy in his arms and kissed him. This scene touches my heart at the deepest level. As a father, I can recognize my girls from a long way off. I know how they look from the back, from the side and from the front even at a great distance. But that’s not what I want to bring to your attention. The text leaves us with the distinct impression that the father was watching for him. Maybe he happened to be in the right place at the right time or maybe he was regularly watching for him. Don’t forget, this is a parable, it is a story with a deeper meaning. I believe it paints a picture that the father is waiting, watching, always anticipating and hoping for the son’s return. I want you to notice something else in the text that we generally breeze right over—the father “ran” to his son. This may not seem unusual to you and me but in that culture, it would be quite rare to see a wealthy, respected and elderly man running anywhere! Add to this the public display of affection lavished on the very son that had shamed him publicly and we see a beautiful picture of the father’s merciful and compassionate heart.

            The son, however, is not deterred from his plan. No doubt he recognizes the warmth and acceptance from his father but he, nevertheless, confesses his sins to his father with the deepest humility and no expectation to be treated as a son. I envision the scene in my mind as the father is holding his son’s face in his hands and looking at him intently as his son is speaking but acts as though he hears nothing his son says. Instead, even before his son is finished speaking, he directs his servants to drape the son with a robe, place a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. “The embrace, the kiss, and gifts of robe, ring and sandals—these are all emblematic of the son’s honorable restoration to the family he had snubbed and abandoned.”[7] Thereafter the father orders the celebration to begin and the party is on! But why? Why did the father make such a big deal out his son’s return? Well because the son’s shame and abandonment meant that he was dead to his father and family. He was lost, his father had lost a son. I can’t even imagine the anguish of losing a child spiritually or physically. Sadly, some of you have so you know very well what the father must have been going through when his son returned. What had been lost was now found and the only response was joy and celebration.

²⁵“Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. ²⁶So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ²⁷‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ ²⁸“The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. ²⁹But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. ³⁰But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ ³¹“‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. ³²But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

            The older son re-enters the scene in vv. 25-32. There must have been some party at the house because the older son could hear the music and dancing from the field. When he asks a servant what is going on, he is told that his brother has returned and his father has ordered a celebration. He is incredulous! So much so that he won’t even go into the house. The older son tries to make a case for himself to his father as the faithful son who served him and honored him while his brother did neither. But it appears the older son, even while he stayed behind and fulfilled his proper duties, didn’t know his father very well. How could he not know that his father would react in this way to his brother’s return? The older son is angry. He sees himself as having done everything right while his brother has done everything wrong. Yet his brother is celebrated and he isn’t. He wants his own celebration. He wants his own fattened calf. He doesn’t want a celebration for his brother. Instead, he wants justice! The father addresses the older son gently, in love and understanding—the Greek is translated in our idiom as the father referring to the older son gently as, “my child.” The father makes it clear that celebrating the younger son’s return in no way negates the value of the older son’s faithfulness.

“He affirms the faithfulness of the elder brother and his special place in his heart. He accepts that his son has always been at his side. He reminds the son that all he owns belongs to him; neither the father’s activity nor the brother’s return in any way diminishes the elder’s status…the elder should not lose sight of the benefits he has always had because of his access to the father. In a sense, he has always had access to the celebration. The animals are his!”[8]

But the younger son relinquished the benefits of being a son by turning his back on his father. He was already suffering the self-inflicted wounds of arrogance, pride, sin and disobedience. What would harsh justice or punishment by the father accomplish? Perhaps the father believed the consequences endured by the younger son were sufficient. In any event, the father’s focus was on reconciliation not on justice or punishment. The father refuses to focus on anything other than the fact that his son was once lost but is now found.

Application

            Although the story is known as the parable of the Prodigal Son it really should be the parable of a Loving Father because the father’s actions are really what stand out don’t they? I mean, many, if not most of us can associate very closely with the Prodigal Son, lots of us can relate to the older brother. Some of us can even relate to both of them. But few of us can relate to the actions and attitude of the father. The depth of the father’s love is just so foreign to many of us. We can relate to the Prodigal Son’s need for reconciliation, we can relate to the older son’s desire for justice and punishment, but can we relate to the father’s attitude of grace? We struggle with trying to determine exactly where forgiving sin and condoning sin intersect so that we don’t offend either.

“It was the music and dancing that offended the older son. Of course, let the younger son return home. Judaism and Christianity have clear provisions for the restoration of the penitent returnee, but where does it say that such provisions include a banquet with music and dancing? Yes, let the prodigal return, but to bread and water, not fatted calf; in sackcloth, not a new robe; wearing ashes, not a new ring; in tears, not in merriment; kneeling, not dancing. Has the party canceled the seriousness of sin and repentance?...The father not only had two sons but loved two sons, went out to two sons and was generous to two sons. Perhaps it is because of the competitive rather than cooperative spirit of our society, but the common thought is that there must be losers if there are winners. Hence, even in religion, it is very difficult not to think Jews or Greek, rich or poor, saint or sinner, publican or Pharisee, older son or younger son. But God’s love is both/and not either/or. The embrace of the younger son did not mean the rejection of the older; the love of tax collectors and sinners does not at all negate love of Pharisees and scribes.”[9]

Part of being a follower of Jesus means always trying to see people from God’s perspective not from ours. God is first and foremost in the business of reconciliation. Justice and punishment for sin is also very important. It is why Jesus died on a cross—to pay for all the things we did wrong so we could be reconciled to God. You see, God’s plan has always been about relationship and reconciliation to restore relationship not about justice and punishment specifically. Justice and punishment are necessary in order to make reconciliation available. However, now that Jesus has paid the ultimate price on the cross, the Father comes running to meet us as we turn back toward him. Justice has been served; punishment has been meted out. Repentance (turning away from sin and toward God) leads to forgiveness and that leads to a party of reconciliation! I hope you might someday love the story of the Prodigal Son (or Loving Father) as much as I do. Sometimes we read these stories and we (ok maybe just I do) put a lot of thought into the theology of the story and miss the deep and gentle beauty of the actual story because we know it’s a parable with fictional characters intended to convey a deeper spiritual truth. So I wanted to share another story with you from Philip Yancey’s book, What’s So Amazing About Grace, about a teenage runaway. This isn’t a parable so you don’t need to think really hard about some deeper spiritual meaning. It’s a story about Finding Grace In The Lost And Found.

“A young girl grows up on a cherry orchard just above Traverse City, Michigan. Her parents, a bit old-fashioned, tend to overreact to her nose ring, the music she listens to, and the length of her skirts. They ground her a few times, and she seethes inside. ‘I hate you!’ she screams at her father when he knocks on the door of her room after an argument, and that night she acts on a plan she has mentally rehearsed scores of times. She runs away.

She has visited Detroit only once before, on a bus trip with her church youth group to watch the Tigers [baseball team] play. Because newspapers in Traverse City report in lurid detail the gangs, the drugs, and the violence in downtown Detroit, she concludes that is probably the last place her parents will look for her. California, maybe, or Florida, but not Detroit.

Her second day there she meets a man who drives the biggest car she’s ever seen. He offers her a ride, buys her lunch, arranges a place for her to stay. He gives her some pills that make her feel better than she’s ever felt before. She was right all along, she decides: her parents were keeping her from all the fun.

The good life continues for a month, two months, a year. The man with the big car—she calls him ‘Boss’—teaches her a few things that men like. Since she’s underage, men pay a premium for her. She lives in a penthouse, and orders room service whenever she wants. Occasionally she thinks about the folks back home, but their lives now seem so boring and provincial that she can hardly believe she grew up there.

She has a brief scare when she sees her picture printed on the back of a milk carton with the headline ‘Have you seen this child?’ But by now she has blond hair, and with all the makeup and body-piercing jewelry she wears, nobody would mistake her for a child. Besides, most of her friends are runaways, and nobody squeals in Detroit.

After a year the first sallow signs of illness appear, and it amazes her how fast the boss turns mean. ‘These days, we can’t mess around,’ he growls, and before she knows it she’s out on the street without a penny to her name. She still turns a couple of tricks a night, but they don’t pay much, and all the money goes to support her habit. When winter blows in she finds herself sleeping on metal grates outside the big department stores. ‘Sleeping’ is the wrong word—a teenage girl at night in downtown Detroit can never relax her guard. Dark bands circle her eyes. Her cough worsens.

One night as she lies awake listening for footsteps, all of a sudden everything about her life looks different. She no longer feels like a woman of the world. She feels like a little girl, lost in a cold and frightening city. She begins to whimper. Her pockets are empty and she’s hungry. She needs a fix. She pulls her legs tight underneath her and shivers under the newspaper she’s piled atop her coat. Something jolts a synapse of memory and a single image fills her mind: of May in Traverse City, when a million cherry trees bloom at once, with her golden retriever dashing through the rows and rows of blossomy trees in chase of a tennis ball.

God, why did I leave, she says to herself, and a pain stabs at her heart. My dog back home eats better than I do now. She’s sobbing, and she knows in a flash that more than anything else in the world she wants to go home.

Three straight phone calls, three straight connections with the answering machine. She hangs up without leaving a message the first two times, but the third time she says, ‘Dad, Mom, it’s me. I was wondering about maybe coming home. I’m catching a bus up your way, and it’ll be there about midnight tomorrow. If you’re not there, well, I guess I’ll just stay on the bus until it hits Canada.’

It takes about seven hours for the bus to make all the stops between Detroit and Traverse City, and during that time she realizes the flaw in her plan. What if her parents are out of town and miss the message? Shouldn’t she have waited another day or so until she could talk to them? And even if they are home, they probably wrote her off as dead long ago. She should have given them some time to overcome the shock.

Her thoughts bounce back and forth between those worries and the speech she is preparing for her father. ‘Dad, I’m sorry. I know I was wrong. It’s not your fault; it’s all mine. Dad, can you forgive me?’ She says the words over and over, her throat tightening even as she rehearses them. She hasn’t apologized to anyone in years.

The bus has been driving with lights on since Bay City. Tiny snowflakes hit the pavement rubbed worn by thousands of tires, and the asphalt steams. She’s forgotten how dark it gets out here. A deer darts across the road and the bus swerves. Every so often, a billboard. A sign posting the mileage to Traverse City. Oh, God.

When the bus finally rolls into the station, its air brakes hissing in protest, the driver announces in a crackly voice over the microphone, ‘Fifteen minutes, folks. That’s all we have here.’ Fifteen minutes to decide her life. She checks herself in a compact mirror, smoothes her hair, and licks the lipstick off her teeth. She looks at the tobacco stains on her fingertips, and wonders if her parents will notice. If they’re there.

She walks into the terminal not knowing what to expect. Not one of the thousand scenes that have played out in her mind prepared her for what she sees. There, in the concrete-walls-and-plastic-chairs bus terminal in Traverse City, Michigan, stands a group of forty brothers and sisters and great-aunts and uncles and cousins and a grandmother and great-grandmother to boot. They’re all wearing goofy party hats and blowing noise-makers, and taped across the entire wall of the terminal is a computer-generated banner that reads ‘Welcome home!’

Out of the crowd of well-wishers breaks her dad. She stares out through the tears quivering in her eyes like hot mercury and begins the memorized speech, ‘Dad, I’m sorry. I know…”

He interrupts her. ‘Hush child. We’ve got no time for that. No time for apologies. You’ll be late for the party. A banquet’s waiting for you at home.’”[10]

---

[1] Darrell L. Bock, Luke—The NIV Application Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996), p. 412.

[2] Darrell L. Bock, Luke 9:51-24:53—Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1996), p. 1310.

[3] Joel B. Green, The Gospel of Luke—The New International Commentary on the New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1997), p. 580.

[4] Bock, Luke—ECNT, p. 1310.

[5] Green, Luke—NICNT, pp. 580-581.

[6] Bock, Luke—ECNT, pp. 1312-1313.

[7] Green, Luke—NICNT, p. 583.

[8] Bock, Luke, ECNT, p. 1319.

[9] Fred B. Craddock, Luke—Interpretation, (Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 1990), p. 188.

[10] Philip Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1997), pp.49-51.

(Audio version; Music: "Prodigal" by: Sidewalk Prophets and "When God Ran" by: Phillips Craig & Dean)

A Second Chance (RP1)

Introduction

One of the by-products of growing older is often dealing with the consequences of bad choices I’ve made in my life to this point. Some of those consequences I’ve paid for along the way and some have been dormant and building gradually for decades. I have no doubt I’ll be paying for those one day too. Sometimes, a person can’t help but think about how they would do things differently if given A Second Chance to do it over. Nevertheless, I’m not at all an advocate of dwelling on past mistakes unless they can help us avoid making the same mistakes in the future. One of the positive by-products of making mistakes, particularly for parents, is being able to help our children not make the same mistakes we did. Unfortunately, while recalling our mistakes might serve as lesson material, it does nothing to change the fact that mistakes were made. In this way, mistakes are like toothpaste in that once you squeeze toothpaste out of the tube, you can’t put it back in!

This can describe our life in relation to God as well if you think about it. Whenever we sin, it’s like squeezing all the toothpaste out of a tube. For years, people have desperately tried to deal with their own sins through their own efforts either in the way they live or by meticulously keeping a set of rules or by engaging in some complex religious rituals. However, trying to manage or deal with our own sins is like trying to stuff all that toothpaste we squeezed out back into the tube. What we really need is a new tube of toothpaste. What we really need is a clean slate; A Second Chance. In reality though, no matter what we do, we can’t undo our mistakes regardless of how sorry we may be. All we can really do is accept the punishment and/or consequences for those mistakes—no second chances. While that can be difficult and painful when we sin against another person, it can be devastating and catastrophic when we sin against God. And here’s the bad news, every sin we commit is first and foremost committed against God and the punishment for our sins, any of our sins, is death.

But what if there’s another option? What if God Himself gives us another option? What would you do; how would you react if God gave you A Second Chance for dealing with your sins? Luke tells the story of a woman who washes Jesus’ feet with her tears and then dries them with her hair. Many of you are very 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.

Subject Text

Luke 7:36-50

³⁶Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. ³⁷When 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, ³⁸and 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.

³⁹When 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.” ⁴⁰Jesus 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. ⁴²Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?” ⁴³Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled.” “You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.

⁴⁴Then 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. ⁴⁵You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. ⁴⁶You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. ⁴⁷Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven–for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.” ⁴⁸Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” ⁴⁹The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” ⁵⁰Jesus 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 the analysis of our Subject 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 be expecting someone else. 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 Subject Text.

Text Analysis

³⁶Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table.

Verse 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 that dinner would have been 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. Luke 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.

³⁷When 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, ³⁸and 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.

The first thing that should pique your curiosity about vv. 37-38 is how 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. “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 action is rebuked and her presence is not suggests a special, public meal.”[1] However, her presence in the home could pose 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.

³⁹When 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.”

The Pharisee calls into question Jesus’ credentials in v. 39 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—not what the Pharisee said but what he was thinking! We often breeze right over this part to get to Jesus’ parable and neglect 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! Awkward, right? Well you don’t have to imagine what that’s like because the truth is, God always knows what you are thinking. Knowing that, will it affect the thoughts you allow to linger in your head? It is unlikely that this particular Pharisee ever “thought” of questioning Jesus’ prophetic credentials again.

⁴⁰Jesus 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. ⁴²Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?” ⁴³Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled.” “You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.

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 home 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.

⁴⁴Then 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. ⁴⁵You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. ⁴⁶You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. ⁴⁷Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven–for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.” ⁴⁸Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” ⁴⁹The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”

Jesus justifies the woman's actions in vv. 44-49 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 [in 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.

⁵⁰Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

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. 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. 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, we tend to think that 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. “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 God’s perfect standard and what our sins cost Jesus. Specifically, “sin” cost Jesus His life—any sin, all sin, every sin. 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 deserving death, then forgiven receiving new life. 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 have received A Second Chance.

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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.

(Audio version; Music: "To Be Like You" by: Hillsong and "Revelation Song" by: Phillips, Craig, and Dean)