Congregation I invite you this morning to take your copies of God's Word and turn in them to Luke chapter 7 and I'm going to read in your hearing this morning verses 36 through 50 But really the bulk of our time is going to be spent in verse 47 Following along in a pew Bible, you could find that on page 864. Luke chapter 7, verses 36 to 50. Let's give our attention to the reading of God's word. Luke 7, 36 through 50. One of the Pharisees asked him, that is Jesus, to eat with him and he went into the Pharisee's house and reclined a table. And behold, a woman of the city who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining a 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, 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 money lender had two debtors, one owed 500 denarii and the other 50. When they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both. Now, which of them will love him more? Simon answered, the one, I suppose, for whom he canceled 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 loved much. But he who is forgiven little loves little. And he said to her, your sins are forgiven. Then those who are at table with him begin to say among themselves, who is this who even forgives sin? And he said to the woman, your faith has saved you. Go in peace. As for the reading of God's word, the grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of our Lord stands forever. And we're thankful for it, are we not, congregation? Let us bow our heads this morning in preparation for the ministry of the word. Fathers, the psalmist says how good it is when brothers dwell together in unity. And Father, as we embark upon the ministry of your Word this morning on Communion Sunday, when we will hopefully do that very thing, dwell together in unity around the table of unity, a unity, Father, that we have not bought, a unity that we could never bring about by our own efforts or by our own moral character or by our own reputations, but a unity that has been undertaken and accomplished by your son Jesus Christ, by his life, by his death, by his resurrection and ascension, coronation, and present reign over his kingdom. Father, I pray that it would be good to us this morning. I pray that this congregation would dwell together in unity. I pray that we as a people would never assume or take advantage, as it were, in a negative way, the unity that we have, Father, but that rather we would strive for it week in and week out, Lord. How good it is when unity is at the center, how good it is when anger division, resentment, and bitterness is cast out into the outer darkness, and what burns in the midst of our midst is a warmness of love and compassion and mercy toward one another. Father, would you do that this morning through your Word? Would you remind us of the depth from which we've been redeemed? Would you remind us, Father, of the debts that have been canceled? Would you remind us, Father, of the righteousness that has been imputed to our account? Would you remind us, Father, the millions, yea, verily, trillions of reasons that we have to love. Would you do that through your word and help your servant this morning, we pray. In Christ's name, amen. Well, this passage begins fairly normally. We see that Simon the Pharisee invites Jesus to share a meal with him and no doubt some other Pharisees. And who knows if what Simon's disposition was. Who knows if he was, perhaps on the one hand, like Nicodemus in John chapter 3, who was, might we say, a seeker, who was interested in what Jesus was doing, was interested in what Jesus was about, but on the other hand, also had to maintain his reputation in Jewish society. Couldn't get too close, but he could certainly invite this man over for dinner to try to learn a little bit more, or maybe on the other hand, what he was doing. was not trying to get to know Jesus a little bit better, but maybe he was trying to trap him. We really don't know. We do know from the Mishnah, which is the Jewish or rabbinic interpretation and application of the Torah, if you will, or the Old Testament, We do know that the Jews had a custom that every time they gave a meal, what they were supposed to do is they were supposed to go out into the streets and say, anybody who wishes to come in and feast with us, you may. And the idea was that the poor and the destitute and those who are hard on their luck would be welcomed in to come. But there was a custom that came with this, you see. Though the poor were invited to come in, there was a certain protocol that they were to follow. And that protocol was, you don't mix it up with our guests. You sit around the outskirts of the room, maybe on the couches on the outskirts, and you just keep your mouth shut. But you certainly don't talk to our guests because that is what the men will do in the center of the room. So, we don't know what Simon's intentions were, and the main reason why is because right after the first verse of this text, this dinner party is crashed. It's crashed by a woman who took up Simon on this invitation, but she broke all social convention. Instead of keeping her mouth shut and staying on the outskirts of the room, staying in the couch, keeping her mouth quiet, not talking to anybody, she went right to Jesus. It's bad enough that she broke social conventions, but to make it even worse, she went to the main guest of the party. And she did what caused everybody to gasp. I mean, can you imagine? Just put yourself in the people's sandals in that time. You can imagine people going up next to each other and whispering to one another and their eyes trying to divert to the very presence of this woman. They don't want to make eye contact with her and yet they're aghast that she is taking attention away from the host and his party. But she's there for a reason. She is described in the text as a woman of the city who was a sinner. We'll come back to that in a moment. But she's there for a reason. She's there for a purpose. One purpose only, and that purpose is to worship Jesus. Why? We're not told, but the narrative soon makes it clear to us. It's interesting in this text, listen very carefully, listen. that Jesus doesn't formally forgive her until after her act of love and after Jesus's interaction with Simon the Pharisee. We see that in verse 48. He said to her, your sins are forgiven. But even then, it is really a declaration of what this woman already seemed to know as she came into the dinner party. Why does she already know it? Why does she already know that she's forgiven? I would submit to you the reason is that Jesus' reputation precedes him. She knows this man. She knows of this man. She has heard the scuttlebutt about this man. She has heard the rumors and all the tabloids, as it were, in Jewish first century society. And she has been told that this man receives all sinners. She has even heard radical phrases like, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of heaven before you Pharisees and Sadducees, and that is certainly appealing to her. But Jesus' reputation preceded him. She knew that in him was forgiveness, Behold the faith of this woman. She doesn't even ask for forgiveness. She assumes forgiveness, but this is not a sinful presumption of forgiveness. It is presumption, listen, bursting with love as a result of forgiveness. So I want you to consider first off this morning, I'm gonna make three simple points. First off, consider this sinner's worship and what it communicates. Consider this sinner's worship and what it communicates in verses 37 and 38. The text says in verse 37 and 38, And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner when she learned that she was reclining at table in the Pharisees' 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. I want you to notice three things about her worship here, just three simple observations that I think are packaged for us by Luke in such a way that we could take them with us out these doors when we leave. Number one, her worship was a costly worship. Her worship was a costly worship. It was a costly worship on many different levels. First off, you have the fact that she had this alabaster ointment. We don't know much about her, but we know that she didn't get a formal invitation to this dinner party, which means she wasn't among the elite of society, which means that the only way she got in was that all the poor and the destitute were welcomed in, so she's probably on the lower level of society. And yet she brings this alabaster flask of ointment And what does she do with it? She breaks it open on her lord's feet. But this was costly in a different way also. It was costly in that the very going into this room, this dinner party, was costing her her reputation. Now, one might argue, well, her reputation's already shot, so it doesn't matter. And certainly, you could reason that way. But for Pete's sake, everybody has their dignity, right? And this woman knew. She knew that as she walked into this room, the back of her head would be burning with the stares and the glares of the eyeballs from all around. And they would, in her heart, certainly be murdering her. They certainly would be judging her. They certainly would be condemning her. It was costly in that respect. And in that respect, I think that when we consider the action of this woman, there is much for us to mine out application-wise. Do we have a costly worship when we approach the triune God? I am not simply speaking of your private worship times. Those are important, but I would submit to you that the more important times of worship are together corporately with the people of God. And are those times of corporate worship costly to you? I almost hear in the expression of her actions here, the voice of David. I will not render unto my Lord worship or sacrifices that cost me nothing. I will give unto my Lord that which cost me something. If my worship doesn't challenge me, if my worship doesn't press me, if my worship doesn't cost me, it's not a worship and a sacrifice that my Lord deserves. My Lord deserves worship that is valuable. So first off, we see in verse 38 that this was a costly worship. But secondly, I want you to notice it's a humble worship. It's a humble worship. Notice that Luke says that she stood behind him, not in front of him. Now, there is a cultural reason for this. He was reclining at table. He was kind of laying down on his side, if you will. But still, she doesn't come before him in front of him. She's not worthy to look him in the eye. She comes behind him. And notice also that Luke says she anointed his feet as opposed to his head. Later in the text, Jesus will, in a roundabout way, rebuke Simon the Pharisee by saying, I came in and you didn't even anoint my head. You didn't even anoint my head. I would have let you anoint my head. But you didn't even anoint my head. But this woman, from the moment she walked in, has been anointing my feet. And think about that for a moment. That is a humble worship, is it not? It is not assuming that she can, if you think about it, and the rubric of our worship, the posture of our worship, by the way, is very important. She was not assuming that she could come to her Lord and look him right in the eye. But she took more of a groveling approach. A more obeisant approach, approach that says, I will kneel at the feet of my Lord and I will worship at those feet. Who am I that I should stand over him to anoint him? And when she sheds tears upon his feet, she doesn't wipe them off with a towel. What does she do? She wipes them off with her hair. She debases herself before her Lord. This is a humble worship, you see, but finally I want you to notice It is a joyful and repentant worship. I come back to her shedding tears upon his feet. No doubt there are mixed emotions in these tears. There is guilt for her sin. We haven't got into what kind of woman she is in a moment, but we will. But just take a generic approach to your understanding of the idea of sinner. And we see that she has guilt for her sin. She is broken over her sin. Even as she is worshiping the Lord, she probably has running through her mind the various ways in which she has broken covenant with her Lord, the various ways in which she has let down her Lord. And she is broken over the guilt of it. And yet, and yet there is joy for the forgiveness that she is assured of. We see a mixture here of both joyful and repentant worship. Well, speaking of the guilt of her sins, what do we know about the sin of this woman? All the text says is that she was a woman of the city. It says, probably more prominently, that she was a sinner. And Simon the Pharisee in verse 39 seemed to know, quote unquote, what kind of woman she was and therefore was disgusted and amazed that Jesus would claim to be a prophet and still associate with her. In other words, Simon indicates both the woman and, excuse me, he indicts both the woman and Jesus in his heart. Now, some have said that she was a prostitute, others that she was an adulterer. They've tried to make connections between a woman of the city and a sinner. The fact of the matter is we really don't know, and honestly, I think it's barking up the wrong tree to try and figure that out. What does the text say? It says that she was a sinner, and with this description, every single, listen, every single one of us can relate. Accordingly, what the Spirit intends in this text is for sinners Like you and me, number one, to fill in the blank as we come to this text and we allow this text by God's grace and through the leading of the Spirit to be a mirror through which we approach the Lord in our worship. We could kind of fill in the gap of sinner with whatever we have done and whoever we are before the Lord today. That's what the Spirit intends, but here's the main thing that I believe the Spirit intends for us to get out of this text this morning. Let me say that again. loves fiercely and the loving sinner forgives freely. I want to consider those two things now. Look secondly now at this question. Why does the forgiven sinner love fiercely? Verse 47, I'll read it again. Jesus says, therefore I tell you her sins which are many are forgiven for she loved much but he who is forgiven little loves little. Now, I wanna point out at the very beginning, and this is very important, that this is not so much about quantity as much as it is about quality of sin. What do I mean by that? What Jesus meant when he said that those who have been forgiven little love little is more, listen, it's more of a commentary on how such a person views their sin before a holy God than it is how deep and wide their rap sheet of sin actually is. It is true. that in Jesus' parable here, he contrasts one who owed 500 denarii and another who owed 50, and certainly these are comparable quantities, that's true. But you see, if you measure your sin by how it stacks up to another's sin, you've really missed the point. To do so is to think in terms of quantity rather than quality. The one who takes his sin lightly or justifies it is the one who has the smaller debt. I mean, if you think about it, if you're thinking in terms of quantity, against whom are you going to compare your sin? And if you play that little religious game, might I add the adjective that hypocritically religious game, then your love is going to wax and wane, isn't it? When you compare yourselves to those who have more sin and you have less sin, you'll love little, less. And you compare your sin to those who have less sin and you have more sin, then you're gonna love more. No, I don't think that that's what Jesus is getting at. The one who has a deep sense of how repugnant sin is, that is the person who has a great debt. A deep sense of sin comes not so much from a reflection on sin itself, listen, it comes rather from a reflection upon the one against whom we've carried out that sin. And this fresh sense of forgiveness can be experienced by young and old believers alike. You think about it for a second, if you think back to the time when you were saved, and I see this even today in younger believers. there is this sometimes overwhelming zeal in younger believers, isn't there? I remember I had it as a younger believer, and sometimes I would get frustrated because the older saints would kind of, you know, give me that little smile, you know, as if to say, well, you know, it's a phase, you'll get through it, you know, and I would get frustrated because I was more than earnest about my love for the Lord. I was serious, but you know, to the, hoary-headed point. It's true that, you know, I hadn't experienced as much life as a Christian, but nonetheless, you ever remember back about how younger believers have this overwhelming zeal? Listen, their love for the Lord is fresh. It's fresh. It's new. It's right off the heels of a magnumonious paradigm shift. where they have been plucked up from the kingdom of darkness and planted in the kingdom of Jesus Christ himself. And they love it. But then there's older believers, too. It's not as if they don't have zeal, but their zeal is a little bit differently. If I could compare and contrast, it would be like this. The younger believer says, amazing, I'm forgiven of all these sins. And the older believer says, amazing, I'm still forgiven after all these years. I'm still forgiven after all these years. And so this freshness, this fresh sense of forgiveness can be experienced by younger believers, by older believers, and by everyone in between. It doesn't have to do with how many years you've been walking with the Lord. It has to do with really an exalted view of God, so high, so exalted. and a low view of yourself that every time you do sin, you realize how much it has offended a holy God, and it grieves you, and then you come to the foot of the cross, and you realize once again, you remember once again, oh, the ministry of reminder. You're reminded once again, God has forgiven you in Christ, and that freshness, that zeal comes back, rushing in by the work of the Spirit to make you love much. Forgiveness should never cease to arouse our worship and our love to greater and loftier heights. But forgiveness received, listen, this is very important, forgiveness received will also liberate us to forgive other brothers and sisters who have offended us. And the table is the place where we have a wonderful opportunity to express a love that freely forgives. So let's consider finally this morning, this final question. Why does the loving sinner forgive freely? Why does the loving sinner forgive freely? Because we saw that the forgiven sinner loves fiercely and the loving sinner forgives freely. These are really two sides of the same coin, are they not? Well, I would answer that question biblically, why does the loving sinner forgive freely, by saying this, because love reduplicates itself. Love reduplicates itself. What do I mean by that? This is gonna sound counterintuitive, and some of you are gonna get your dukes up, but just let me finish, okay? It's gonna sound counterintuitive on the surface, but hear me out. Jesus assumed self-love. Jesus assumed self-love and made self-love the foundation upon which we are to understand love of the brethren. So you're saying, wow, that sounds a little like psychobabble, like, you know, self-esteem and all those self-hyphenated words. Well, let me just give you three things that Jesus says, and I want you to listen to the self in all of these. Matthew 22, 39, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets. Huh, Jesus seems to think and believe and predicate his commands and imperatives on this idea that how you think about yourself, how you wish that others would treat you, how you wish that others would forgive you, how you wish that others, listen, would show you grace and mercy, you reduplicate that as you have received it. On the other end, you give it. Let me give you another one, Matthew 6, 14 to 15, Jesus said radical things. And I think that the basis of what he's saying is love reduplicates itself. Now what Jesus is conveying in these three commands or teachings is that the love that we receive from God, especially in forgiveness, is reduplicated in the love that we show to others, especially our willingness to forgive them. So whereas loving much is fueled by great forgiveness, loving little is fueled by an unwillingness to forgive. Now maybe you don't identify so much this morning with a woman who was a sinner. as much as you identify with somebody else in the text. Who is that somebody else? Well, that somebody else is Simon. Simon was, listen, Simon was resentful that Jesus should show so much favor to her rather than him. I mean, for Pete's sake, this was Simon the Pharisee. I mean, this was Simon who made a great sacrifice to have a great feast and bring all these guests over out of his own funds. And he's doing all these religious things. And the Lord should know and see and recognize and appreciate what this religious man is doing. How dare he let a prostitute, maybe, take all of his time and attention? Perhaps your life is more characterized like Simon by bitterness, anger, and resentment to those who have wronged you. Maybe those who, listen, maybe those who have accomplished more than you. Maybe those who have misunderstood you and maybe, you know, separated themselves from you. It's a sad life indeed to live if this is you and I have good news. You don't have to live this way. The kind of bitterness and anger and resentment that characterized, I believe, Simon's attitude is the kind of bitterness and anger and resentment that can characterize our attitudes. And what we do sometimes is at night when we can't sleep, what do we do? We start thinking about all those people that have wronged us. Start thinking about all those people who have maligned us. Start thinking about all those people who should know better and who owe us an apology. And we start to get bitter and angry and we get into this cycle of kind of marinating in anger and bitterness and resentment. And you know what this can do? It can rob you of your work. I mean, maybe you're sitting there at the computer one day or whatever you do in your job and like you take a break mentally and you start thinking about all these people that have wronged you and how you deserve more. It could rob you of your work because you can't stop dwelling on it. Maybe it could rob you of your family time because while you're physically there at the dinner table, you're not mentally there because your mind is somewhere else because you're thinking of all the accolades that you deserve that have not been thrown at your feet and you start to get angry. It could rob you at the end of the day of your joy. But here's what the reduplication of love means. It means loving the sinner freely. Loving the sinner freely. You know what? Here's how love works. When you get caught in that cycle of thinking about how all these people have wronged you, you know what love does? It does two things. It not only allows you to show them something that even though maybe they don't deserve, it's something that has been shown you, but you know what it also does? It liberates you. It liberates you. I can't tell you how many times, and I still struggle with this, I'm a man, I'm a sinner, that my mind starts going and I'm a prisoner, I'm a slave to bitterness and anger and resentment. And I can't get myself out of that cycle. And I'm like, Lord, give me something to get me out of this cycle. And you know what he gives? He gives love. And love liberates me to be able to say no matter what they've done, no matter whether or not they're asking, I'm going to have a disposition of forgiveness, ready and willing, standing ready and willing to forgive them when they come and ask for it. But until then, I'm gonna love them. Because you know what? At the end of the day, at the end of the day, if we keep doing the tit for tat thing, it's never gonna stop. It's like the Arab-Israeli conflict over in the Middle East. This bomb kills these people, and then they retaliate, and they retaliate, and they retaliate. It's just never going to end. But you know what can end it? Love can end it. Love can end it. And not only give them something that will bless them, but free you and liberate you from the cycle of bitterness and resentment. I thank God that he has given us this powerful thing called love. So as we come to the table this morning, I would ask you to consider that very attitude within your heart. Is there someone? Is there a group of people? Are there a group of people? Are there circumstances that maybe even you're bitter and angry toward the Lord? What can you do to free yourself and to give to others what you did not deserve but God gave to you? It is love. And we're gonna experience that this morning as we come to the table. So let's bow our heads this morning in preparation for the table. Father God, we thank you that you have given us such unconditional love. We really can't fathom it, Father. We read things like we did last week in 1 Corinthians 13, and it's so idyllic, it's so lofty, it's so impossible, and yet, Father, yet, you have actually given to humanity and to history one who has accomplished this type of love perfectly. your Son and our Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, I just pray that as we commune with and upon him this morning, that you would give us the ability to love, love over bitterness, love over judgment, love over harboring the kind of dissension that caused our Lord to go to the cross in the first place. Father, would you allow us to be liberated this morning? Would love liberate? We pray. We ask all these things in Christ's name. Amen.