20250914 Luke 7:37-50 The Two Debtors

Compare these two people. The first reads through the Bible yearly, attends church every Sunday, volunteers every time there is a need in the church, has memorized many Bible verses, and gives 10 percent of their income to the church.

The second is an ex-drug dealer. They are currently unemployed. They are currently struggling with substance abuse and have not been able to get help. If I asked you, "Which one of the two is most likely enjoying God’s blessings? Or which one is most likely in the right with God? Which one is most likely in line with God’s Kingdom Values? What would you say?

I do not think I’ve given you enough information. I don’t think we can know. I don’t think we can ever judge good external behavior or bad external behavior and know someone’s heart truly. I have been surprised so many times. If someone does something that rubs me the wrong way, I find that soon after judging them, I learn something new that makes me ashamed of my judgmental posture. The opposite can also be true. When it appears that everything is right on the outside, it can become obvious that good external behavior is a way to keep people away. They do not want to be found as ashamed, hurt, and insecure, and right behavior or pious living can be a way to escape hard realities.

Luke 7:36-50 is about two debtors or two sinners. It is a wonderful text that is a great place for all of us to go to to understand and explain the heart of the Christian message.

This text teaches us about Jesus, his being, his work, and the heart of what it means to be a Christian. This text is counter-intuitive, counter-cultural, and even unfortunately, counter-Christian culture.

This text is confrontational. The gospel is good news, but for some, a text like this may make the good news feel like bad news. It challenges the way we "do Christianity." This text may challenge our perception of ourselves. It does not allow us to have a comfortable Christianity.

It invites us all to never stop growing into a deeper awareness of our sin. It also invites us all to stop judging appearances. It offers to all who come to Jesus the glorious promises of the forgiveness of sins and a life of peace.

Luke 7:36-50 has three movements. We see two responses to Jesus, that flow from two perceptions of Jesus, and lead to two responses from Jesus. We will reflect on Our Response to Jesus, Our Perception of God’s Grace, and Jesus’ response to us.

First, we see Two Responses to Jesus in Luke 7:36-39

There is a response from a Pharisee and a response from a woman known as a sinner. Their responses will allow us to reflect on our own response to Jesus.

Luke 7:36-39

First, we have a Pharisee.

In the text, Luke could not stress more that Jesus’ host was a Pharisee. Luke 7:36 says, "One of the Pharisees invited Jesus.” Luke 7:37 says, "Jesus was reclining at the Pharisee’s table." Luke 7:39 stresses, "Now when the Pharisee who had invited him." We learn that the Pharisee has a name, Simon, but Luke keeps stressing that he is a Pharisee.

Luke wants us to know that the villain in this account is one who believed in the one true God, who cared that worship be done according to God’s will, and he was one who was generous to the poor. In Luke 7:30, Luke commented that Pharisees were rejecting God purpose for them by not getting baptized by John. Here, Luke shows what this rejection looks like. In Luke 7:44, Luke contrasts Simon's welcome of Jesus with the woman's welcome. Simon didn’t have to do anything for his guests, but the text shows Simon did nothing to make Jesus welcome. When Jesus is approached and touched by the sinner Simon rejects the idea that Jesus could be a prophet, because a prophet would know the kind of woman that she was. Not much else is said about Simon. We must assume that he was curious enough about Jesus to invite him for a meal. In contrast to the woman, he seems to keep his distance.

Second, we have the woman.

She is called a woman of the city, who was a sinner. Around the table, the men were lying on their left side, with their feet stretched out away from the table. In Luke 7:38, Luke writes that the woman was standing behind Jesus at his feet with a flask of ointment. She was overwhelmed by emotion and started to weep. Her tears wet Jesus’ feet. It appears that she panicked and, not knowing what to do, she let her hair down to dry his feet. Then, she kisses his feet and anoints them.

Application: These two responses invite us to respond to Jesus.

Simon is curious about Jesus, so he invites him. He observes and assesses Jesus. He assumes that if Jesus was a prophet, he would know what kind of woman she was and would not let her near him.

The woman is moved to tears by Jesus. Her perfume was worth a year's worth of pay and she used it on Jesus' feet. She devoted herself to Jesus. She was so captivated by him, in a way that no one else mattered.

These are two very different postures towards Jesus.

Are we careful, analytical, and distant from Jesus? We can have a sophisticated system of doctrine and be good at rule keeping while being far from Jesus, like the Pharisee. Is our faith cerebral? Are we good at identifying who’s right and who’s wrong? Who’s progressive and who’s conservative? Who believes the Bible like I do and who doesn’t? Who attends a Bible believing church and attends that “liberal” church? This is not an invitation not to be discerning, but a warning not to be so overly analytical that we miss Jesus.

The woman may have heard Jesus teach and it could be that we are reading of her response. Maybe she heard Jesus teach, “I came not for the righteous but for sinners” (Luke 5:32). Maybe she heard of Jesus' reputation as a friend of sinners and tax collectors (Luke 7:34) and that drew her in. The woman’s response is messy. She let down her hair. This was scandalous. An old Jewish writing said that letting down your hair before a man who was not your husband was a ground for divorce! This woman was so overwhelmed by Jesus that she forgets the world around her and cultural customs.

We should not use this woman’s scandalous and good response to Jesus as an excuse to condemn orderly worship. There is a difference between someone encountering Jesus for the first time and others who have encountered Jesus in worship for 10, 20, 30 years. We should not judge those who are more composed and still in church. And we should also celebrate the zeal and sometimes unrestrained passion that new converts unashamedly express because of their newfound love of Christ! The question is, do we primarily analyze Jesus or do we treasure Jesus?

Second, we look at Two Perceptions of Jesus in Luke 7:40-43

Luke 7:40-43

Just previously, the Pharisees was questioning Jesus’ identity based on his welcome of the sinner. Now, Jesus shows the Pharisee was wrong on two counts. Not only does Jesus know this woman, but he is such a prophet that he can even read his mind!

Jesus shares this parable - 41 “A moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii” which is a year and a half’s worth of wages, “and the other fifty,” which is a month and half worth of wages. 4”2 He cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?”

Simon gets it right. The one who was forgiven the larger debt will love more. Simon was right about the parable, but wrong about the outworking of this parable in the Kingdom of God.

Application – Now for us.

This parable does not teach us that whoever sins the most, loves the most. Rather, it commends the one who perceives the most forgiveness. Some people do terrible things and are blind to their sin. They do not repent and do not perceive receiving any forgiveness.

Other people live pretty good lives but when they offend someone, they check in, apologize, and offer a safe space to talk about it. They have a great awareness of their sin and notice when they have a judgmental posture. They are quick to take responsibility and recognize that sin flows out from their heart rather than blame others. This self-awareness and humble posture allow them, who may not be considered “bad sinners”, to perceive much forgiveness from God.

Other times, it is as Jesus illustrates. The one who is a worse sinner experiences more forgiveness than the one who has a more stable life. I heard this story recently from a woman who shared about her childhood and then what it was like to navigate relationships with her aging parents. When she was a child, her mother was angry, violent, scary, and unpredictable. Her dad was pleasant and reasonable, but a very passive man who worked for a church. If you would have asked the child who she would rather spend time with as a child, her dad would win every time. Fast forward forty years, her mother has been in therapy for 20 years while her dad remained the same even tempered, pleasant, passive person. Her mother became aware of how much she hurt her daughter. Until her death, whenever they met, her mother asked her if there was anything harmful from the past that she wants to revisit with her. She offered her daughter a safe place to process traumatic childhood events. When she talks with her dad, he tries to avoid those hard conversations. Who would she rather be with now? The mother who hurt her deeply, who learned to love her deeply, or the pleasant Dad, with a great sense of humor who wants to focus on the positive and leave the past in the past and avoid hard topics?

It is easier to keep the past buried.  This approach also keeps our relationships shallow. But there is way more joy that awaits us in facing our sin, confessing our sins, and enjoying deep genuine intimacy with those around us. Repentance is the key to strong relationships and experiencing God’s grace. She who was forgiven much, loved much. He who was forgiven little loved little.

I hope this can be the parable of our lives. We want to be a people who is forgiven much who loves much. The more we confess and notice the wicked schemes of our hearts, the more we actually accept the depth of our sin the more we appreciate God’s grace. It is not a matter of him forgiving us more, but for us to enter a deeper awareness of our sin and the abundance of his forgiveness. The more we know our sin, the more we know God’s grace.

The more we know our sin, the better company we become. People who are in touch with their own sin become more forgiving of others. Bonhoeffer writes, “Anybody who lives beneath the Cross and who has discerned in the Cross of Jesus the utter wickedness of all men and of his own heart will find there is no sin that can ever be alien to him. Anybody who has once been horrified by the dreadfulness of his own sin that nailed Jesus to the Cross will no longer be horrified by even the rankest sins of a brother.” If we want to become loving people, we need to know our sin, to perceive how much God has forgiven us.

Third, we look at Two Responses from Jesus in Luke 7:44-47

In Luke 7:44-47, Jesus responds to both Simon and the Woman. He turns his back on Simon, literally, and assures the woman of the forgiveness of sins.

Luke 7:44-47

Jesus shows that his parable’s teaching is bearing itself out before them. Jesus shows how much the woman has loved him in contrast to how little Simon showed hospitality. Simon gave him no water to wash his feet, no kiss, no ointment for his head. The woman wet his feet with her tears, wiped them with her hair, and kissed his feet.

According to Luke 7:44, Jesus turns his back to Simon and looks at the woman. He tells Simon in Luke 7:47, "Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, because she loved much." In this case the "because" introduces the evidence. The evidence of the woman's great forgiveness is her great love. The knowledge of her forgiveness transformed her into a loving person.

In Luke 7:48, Jesus says to the woman, "Your sins are forgiven." Only God can forgive sins. In offering the forgiveness of sins, Jesus claims to be God. The text ends in Luke 7:50, with the words, “Go in peace.” He is inviting her with the forgiveness of sins to “walk into a life of peace.” This peace is a metaphor for salvation, it is the kind of Life God has for all of us. This peace is a return to Eden with peace with God, peace with others, and inner peace.

Application – Now, for us.

This text teaches that to be right with God, little theology matters and little piety matters. What matters is acknowledging the depth of our debt of sin! Theology absolutely matters for the enjoyment of the Christian life. God’s commandments are given to us for our good. Worship of God and the Love of God work themselves out in love, awe, and a desire to keep God's commandments. But, this text, highlights Jesus’ posture towards sinners. Christ came for sinners like me and you. He pursues us in our sin. He came to die for us while we were enemies of God. Christ is a friend of sinners, he makes peace with sinners, he forgives sinners, so all are welcome.

If we are good in our own eyes, we will never come to Jesus. If we try to protect the reputation of our goodness, we will never weep, let our hair down, wipe Jesus' feet, anoint them, or kiss them. We will be more like Simon the Pharisee, who evaluated Jesus from a distance. Jesus turned his back on Simon and told the sinful woman, "Your sins are forgiven." We need to come to Jesus as sinners and he forgives us.

Conclusion - Jesus and Us (Luke 7:48-50)

Let's return to our initial scenario. We have one who outwardly is a model church member, and we have an addict, ex drug-dealer. Which one is closer to Jesus. We can't know.

The religious person might be using religion to avoid facing their sin. The addict may be fully aware of their sin and know how badly they need Jesus. Or, it could also be that the religious person has a great awareness of their sin. Because of his knowledge of the forgiveness of sins, he joyfully lives the Christian life. He loves his church and is generous to a fault! It could be that the drug addict got to where he is by running away from God and living with the consequences of his sin. Can we know if a religious person is closer to God than a known sinner? No, we don't have enough information to judge.

This text teaches that we are all debtors or sinners. And we all have the same God who loves forgiving sinners who turn to him. Let us turn to him, confess our sins, and love as forgiven sinners who walk in God’s peace!

I became a Christian and rejoiced that my sins were forgiven. If in 2009, when I became a Christian, I described to you the kind of sinner I was, and then did the same today, you might think that I have become a worse person. Today I would take way more responsibility and speak of my sin with greater precision than I was able to 16 years ago. My awareness of my sin is deeper and so is my love for Jesus. There is only one hero in this story, not the one who becomes more aware of their sin, but our gracious God who forgives. I know I love this text now more than I did in 2009. This is not for a morally good reason. I’m just more aware that I am a sinner. I am impatient, judgmental, materialistic, and an attention seeker. I break the 10 commandments in one way or another… When I forget my sin, I am quicker to judge others. When my sins are before me, I notice that I am quicker to be merciful. If this is the case, then I want this awareness of sin even more in my life, so that I can be more aware of God’s forgiveness and be more merciful.

Christianity belongs to Jesus, and he says he wants the kind of people who live in deep awareness of their sin and forgiveness. This is the kind of Christianity the world needs. It would make the church the most loving gathering on earth. It will be the safest place to raise children, the safest place for repentant sinners, the most compassionate place to speak of abuse and trauma. Those who are forgiven much, love much. We have a God who forgives sins. Let’s repent with specificity, rejoice in God’s forgiveness and live in the peace that salvation leads to.