Let me invite you, if you haven't already, to turn to Luke 7. The passage that was just read is the text that I want us to look at with the time that we have this morning. Let me start with this. Some of you may have seen this video, but Matt Chandler, who is the pastor of a church in Texas, There's a video online where he tells the story about how when he was a freshman in college, he found himself sitting in a class next to a 26-year-old single mother who was back in school trying to get her degree. And Matt Chandler began a dialogue with her. While they sat together in that class, he began to share the gospel with her and he developed a friendship with this woman. He and some friends in the weeks and months that followed would go over to her house and babysit her child for her when she needed that kind of help. And on those occasions, Matt and the others would share with her about Jesus Christ. She was actually, during that time, involved in an adulterous affair with a married man. And so Matt and his friends would use that opportunity to kind of get her to rethink the wisdom of that relationship that she was involved in, but to no avail up to that point. Around that time, a friend of Matt Chandler's was in a Christian band and that band was coming through the area and playing at an event in that area and so Matt invited this lady to join him and going to see his friend and she agreed to come thinking that she was attending a concert. At the event the band played and according to Matt everything was going well up until the speaker for that event got up to speak. The minister started his message to the thousand people in attendance by saying, today I want to talk to you about sex. Matt Chandler groaned, worried about how the speaker was going to handle the topic. And Matt was hoping that the speaker would address the topic with grace for those who have already sinned and failed in this area. As the speaker began his talk at that event, he took a red rose. And he smelled that rose and held it up to show everybody how pretty it was. And then he threw the rose out into his audience and told them to smell the rose. He said, I want you to smell it and touch it and feel the texture of it. All of you just pass it around from person to person. Then, according to Matt Chandler, this minister began one of the worst and most horrific handlings of the topic of sex that Matt had ever sat through. It was fear mongering at its best with little grace toward those who had already failed in this area. Sitting next to this gal that he had invited, Matt was dying inside. He was looking at the speaker just thinking, what are you doing? As the speaker was wrapping up his talk, he asked the audience, where's my rose? Where is it? Where's my rose? By this time, the rose had been passed around through the hundreds of people who were in attendance, and someone from the crowd brought up the rose and handed it to the speaker. The rose was mangled, and it was broken. The petals were hanging limp, and most of them were broken off. The speaker held up the mangled rose, and his big crescendo of his message was to lift up the broken rose and say, now who would want this? Who would want this rose? Matt said that he remembers in that moment feeling intense anger against the speaker. He was so angry he wanted to physically hurt him. The speaker was holding up this mangled rose thinking that no one would want a rose like that. And his point to the audience was, don't have sex. Don't be immoral, because if you do, no one's going to want you. But is this really true? If a woman has been immoral in her past, is it true that no one would want her? Matt Chandler is sitting in the audience next to the gal that he had brought, and he concluded in that moment that the speaker was missing the greatest opportunity of all. Matt Chandler says, it was all I could do to not stand up and scream, Jesus wants the rose. That's the point of the gospel, that Jesus wants the rose. Matt Chandler is right. That is the point of the gospel. That's the kind of savior we have, right? who loves sinners, a Savior who loves roses that have been mangled and abused by sin. And we're not left to conjecture about this and guess that maybe Jesus is a Savior like this because in Luke 7 we actually see Jesus doing this very thing toward a sinful woman that no one else wanted anything to do with. In Luke 7 Some people look at Jesus by the end of the story and they ask, who is this who even forgives sins? And you could almost paraphrase the spirit of the question as, who is this who would want a rose like that? What we're going to observe, and I think you have notes that are in your bulletin, is seven developments. This is how we'll break the story down. Seven developments. and the story of Jesus receiving and blessing an immoral woman that he forgave. Development number one is that Jesus receives the sinful woman's extravagant expressions of love. He receives the sinful woman's extravagant expressions of love. In verse 36, the text says, Now one of the Pharisees was requesting him to dine with him, and he entered the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. And behold, there was a woman in the city who was a sinner. And when she learned that he was reclining at the table in the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster vial of perfume. standing behind him at his feet weeping she began to wet his feet with her tears and kept wiping them with the hair of her head and kissing his feet and anointing them with the perfume we know from later in the story that the Pharisees name is Simon Simon thinks enough of Jesus to do what seems like a good thing, at least on the surface, and that is to invite Jesus into his home for a meal, which was a sign of friendship. Later in the story, though, we learn that when Jesus arrived, there was no one to wash his feet. There was not even water provided for him to wash his own feet. There was no kiss of greeting that was delivered. There was no anointing of Jesus' head when he came in. We also observe later that Simon was not even sure that Jesus was a true prophet of God. So Simon is by no means a believer in Jesus at this point, but he does invite Jesus into his home, no doubt to learn more about Jesus. Luke tells us that Jesus was reclining at the table, and you might want to make note of that. Nowadays, we don't recline at the table, right? We sit. the table but tables were lower in this day than they are in our day and people would not have been seated on chairs like we do today the table would have been a few inches off the ground if at all and Jesus and the others who would have been at this table would have been lying on their sides resting on their left elbows with their feet pointed away from the table You get that image? Maybe you can do that this afternoon over Sunday lunch, just to be biblical in how you eat. I'm just kidding. But verse 37, the text literally says, behold, a woman, you might want to mark that word, behold, indicating that this woman entering into this room was a surprising development. Luke describes this woman as one who was a sinner. Some suggest that this woman was a prostitute. What is virtually certain is that this woman had sinned sexually in some significant way that forever in the minds of the community associated her with her sin. Whenever people saw her, they would always think of her sin. Imagine living that way in the community that you're a part of. Luke tells us that this woman brought an alabaster vial perfume verse 37 she brought this we don't know how big this vial of perfume was but we know that back in this day that great expenses were allowed on the part of women for such items such perfume owned by a woman like this would have been used to enhance her attractiveness to men it would be a solid conjecture that This woman had used this perfume to render herself more attractive to men. Initially, the text says this woman is standing behind Jesus, but then so moved by love for him, we see here that she starts weeping and her tears fall on his feet. She then bends down and begins to wipe his feet with her hair. And this would entail, obviously, her letting her hair down, which was in itself a very bold move. As Lenski, the commentator, says, to unbind and loosen the hair in public before strangers was considered disgraceful and indecent for a woman, but that's what she's doing. We also learn in verse 38 that this woman is kissing Jesus' feet There are examples in antiquity in Jewish culture of people kissing the feet of an honored rabbi, but it's unheard of for a woman to be repeatedly kissing the feet of someone like Jesus. This is an act of deep adoration and profound dishonor to the point of flagrant disregard for social conventions. Clearly, something has happened in the life of this woman that has caused her to have a very deep love for Jesus and to throw all caution to the wind and how she goes about showing her love for Jesus. She then opens the alabaster vial of perfumed oil and anoints Jesus' feet with it. Normally, this would have been poured on the head, but she pours it on his feet. This perfume that was once valuable to her is now being poured upon the feet of Jesus, whom she loves. To expend this perfumed ointment on Jesus was clearly an act of love for him, but we also need to understand that it was also an act of renunciation and a declaration of her freedom from her former way of life. Something has happened to her heart. She is no longer evidently a slave to the affections of men. She no longer feels like she needs to attract men to find her sense of identity. If she is never desirable to another man again, she, it seems, is okay with that. Her heart has found satisfaction in the love of Jesus, who is the ultimate lover of her soul. And she must show her love to Him. And she'll take this expensive perfumed ointment and spend it on Jesus, indicating that he means more to her than anything that she has. Observe what happens next, and this brings us to the next development in the story of Jesus receiving and blessing this woman that he forgave, and that is that Jesus is criticized for receiving this woman's demonstration of love. Jesus gets criticized for receiving this woman's demonstrations of love. It says in verse 39, now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, so he's not talking out loud, he's just thinking, if this man were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of person this woman is who is touching him, that she is a sinner. Simon not only is faulting Jesus for receiving this woman's love, but he's actually taking the opportunity to infer certain things about Jesus. Indicating that he's trying to figure Jesus out here, and he thinks this is very revealing to me about Jesus. Simon actually makes three inferences. That build on each other. Number one, he's thinking if Jesus knew who this woman really was. he would not allow her to be touching him. Number two, since he is allowing her to be touching him, he therefore must not know the truth about her. And number three, and if Jesus does not know the truth about this woman, then he must not be a true prophet of God. Simon's got it all figured out. Simon would not have realized this, but in thinking this way about Jesus and about this woman, he's actually revealing more about his self-perception than anything else. You see, Simon is not startled by the fact that Jesus has received his gesture of kindness and having him into his house for a meal. Simon's not sitting there thinking, man, if Jesus really knew my heart, He would not be seated at the table with me, letting me host him in this way. No, Simon thinks it's perfectly appropriate. Of course, Jesus would come into my home and receive my gesture of kindness. But Simon is startled that Jesus would receive this woman's gesture. Of kindness. Simon thinks if Jesus really knew the truth about this woman, he would not be receiving her expression of kindness. Simon does not realize this, but his thinking reveals just as much about how he sees himself in a prideful way, as much as it reveals how he sees this woman in a demeaning way. Well, Jesus knows what Simon is thinking. So look at what happens next. Ironically, Simon is concluding Jesus must not be a true prophet because he didn't supernaturally know the truth about this woman. Yet Jesus turns to Simon and responds to Simon's thoughts in a way that makes it clear that he knows exactly what's going on in Simon's mind. And so here's the third development. Jesus prods Simon to consider the relationship of forgiven debt to love. He prods Simon to consider the relationship of forgiven debt to love. Verse 40, and Jesus answered and said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you. And he replied, say it, teacher. Jesus says in verse 41, a certain money lender had two debtors. One owed 500 denarii and the other 50. And when they were unable to repay, he graciously forgave them both. Which of them, therefore, will love him more?" Jesus describes two people who were in debt. It's a parable. One person owed the lender 500 denarii, which would have been about 20 months of wages. The other owed the lender 50 denarii, which was about two months worth of wages. In modern-day currency, think of the difference between 50,000 and 5,000 of debt. Both of these debtors, in Jesus' little parable, are unable to repay. Both of them are helpless. So Jesus says the lender graced, literally, them both. He utterly forgives their debt, and in the process, he bears their debt in his own person. Jesus then asks Simon the question, which of them, which of these two forgiven individuals will love him more? Simon seems to know that he's walking into a trap. He's not sure where Jesus is going with this, but it's not good. And so he's reluctant to answer, and he says, I suppose the one whom he forgave more. Jesus applauds him on his answer and says, you've judged correctly. Essentially, in sharing this little parable, Jesus is laying down a principle that should mean a lot to us. The principle is this. The greater the debt forgiven, the greater the love that the debtor has for the one who forgave the debt. This truth gives tremendous hope for us who have greatly sinned, for it assures us that our former sins can actually play a role in deepening our capacity to love God who has forgiven us. This truth shows us that in God's economy, nothing is ever wasted, not even our past sins. If we come to Christ with our sins and we honestly repent of those sins, he will put his forgiveness on those sins. And in the process of doing so, Jesus literally turns the memory of those past sins into power generators of our love. for God. In the upside-down, topsy-turvy world of the gospel, the greater the sinner, the greater the capacity that that sinner has to love Christ once he is forgiven. For he who is forgiven much loves much, as Jesus will say later in the text. Now, I've got to qualify this a little bit. We need to remember that the woman in this story is not really a greater sinner than Simon, right? The difference between her and Simon is simply that in her mind, she sees herself as the greater sinner. She sees her sin as a bigger deal than Simon sees his sin. That's the difference. It's perception. And I emphasize this so that you don't think that you have to go out of here today and commit big sins in order to be able to love God more when He forgives you of those sins. To get to a place of intense love for God, the most important thing that you and I can do is to simply come to God and ask Him to open our eyes and help us to see the magnitude of our every sin. Because the greater we perceive our sins to be, the greater will be our appreciation of God's forgiving grace. And the more we appreciate that, the more we will love him. Amen. Notice how Jesus presses this point home to Simon, and this brings us to the fourth development in the story of Jesus receiving and blessing this woman he forgave. Number four, Jesus Contrasts Simon's treatment of him to the woman's treatment of him he contrasts Simon's treatment of him to the woman's treatment of him verse 44 and 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. I You gave me no kiss, but she, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she anointed my feet with perfume. For this reason, I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much, but he who is forgiven little loves little." In verse 44, Jesus is asking Simon, do you see this woman? linger on that question for a moment. Do you see this woman? It turns out, contrary to what Simon had thought, Jesus does know the truth about this woman. There's more to this woman than what Simon was seeing. Jesus does see this woman for who she truly is. Simon is the one who doesn't know the truth about this woman. And so Jesus says to Simon, do you see this woman? It's interesting to note that Jesus asked Simon if he sees this woman and then he immediately proceeds to helping Simon to see himself. And what follows, it's clear that Jesus is wanting Simon to both see this woman and to see himself and then to note and study the contrast. Jesus establishes a fourfold contrast. Number one, Simon provided no water for Jesus to even wash his own feet, yet this woman has wet his feet with her tears. Number two, Simon provided no towel to dry Jesus' feet with, yet this woman has wiped Jesus' feet with her hair. Number three, Simon gave Jesus no kiss, Yet this woman has not stopped kissing Jesus' feet. And number four, Simon did not anoint Jesus' head, even with cheap olive oil that was plentiful in Israel. Yet this woman is anointing Jesus' feet with very expensive perfume at great cost to herself. Providing water for an honored guest to wash their own feet was a minimum courtesy, and Simon didn't even do that. The kiss of greeting was totally normal. Simon did not do that. Anointing the head of an honored guest was normal, but Simon didn't do that. The woman, though, did all of these things and so much more. Jesus then, in verse 47, offers an explanation as to why the contrast, to explain why this woman is loving him so effusively and Simon is not. In verse 47, Jesus says, For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven. For she loved much, but he who is forgiven little loves little. Jesus is not saying here that the woman is forgiven because or as a result of the fact that she's loving much. A good paraphrase of Jesus' words would be this, this woman, he says to Simon, has been forgiven of much and you know that she has been forgiven of much because she is loving much. The love she's showing me is giving visible evidence of the fact that she has been forgiven much. That's what Jesus is saying. I love the fact that Jesus does not gloss over this woman's sins. and refused to call them sins, but some maybe nicer word. He calls her sins sin, and he says there are many. He does not excuse her sin. He doesn't diminish them, deny them, or minimize them in any way. And that's something we should take note of. you're looking for a Savior who will minimize and excuse your sins and call them by some nicer name Jesus is not the Savior for you Jesus calls her sins sin and acknowledges that they are numerous yet he affirms here that her sins which are many have been forgiven that's what Jesus gives he gives us forgiveness for our many sins When you hear Jesus saying what he says here, it's very important to note that this woman in this story right now is not a woman in search of forgiveness. This is a woman who's already been transformed by the grace of Jesus. She's already experienced forgiveness during some earlier encounter with Jesus that is not recorded in scripture. And she is showing up here on this occasion to express her love for Jesus, who has forgiven her. As Leon Morris, the commentator, says, Jesus had already turned this woman from her sinful ways, and this was the expression of her love and gratitude for him having done that. And I would agree with Leon Morris' assessment. There's no doubt this woman has already experienced forgiveness from Jesus at a prior moment, She is so certain of this forgiveness and so moved by it that she feels compelled to come to Jesus with an alabaster vial of perfumed ointment to lavish her love on this one who has shown her such grace. Jesus then, the text says, looks at Simon and he says to Simon, but he who has forgiven little loves little. He's saying to Simon, you have not shown me very much love because you evidently don't see your sins to be very great after all. Again, Jesus is not saying here that there are actually people who need to be forgiven only of little. He's talking about perception. Jesus is pointing out that the person who sees his debt before God as a little debt He sees his sins as little sins, has a correspondingly small view of God's grace, and thus does not love God very much after all. It turns out that the reason Simon and this woman are treating Jesus so differently is because they both have a fundamentally different view of their sin. She sees her sin as a big deal. Simon sees his sins as a small deal. And their differing views of their sin problem leave them with differing experiences of God's grace. And their differing experiences of God's grace are what leave them in such different places when it comes to loving Jesus. Do you see that? At this point of the story, Jesus turns to the woman herself and he speaks to her. And this brings us to the next development in our story of Jesus receiving and blessing this woman he forgave. Development number five. Jesus tells this woman yet again that her sins are forgiven. Jesus tells this woman yet again that her sins are forgiven. Verse 48. And he said to her, your sins have been forgiven. Don't pass over this. To appreciate what's being said here in verse 48, we need to just remind ourselves briefly of three moments in this woman's life. The first moment is some point prior to this story when this woman encountered Jesus and believed in him and received the forgiveness of her sins from him. We know she had that prior moment of forgiveness, because that's why she's here, to show her love to Jesus. That's moment number one. The second moment is in verse 47, when she hears, with her ears, Jesus telling Simon that her sins have been forgiven. So she was forgiven at a prior moment. She hears Jesus saying this to Simon, that her sins have been forgiven. And now here, point number three, The moment in verse 47 where Jesus turns to her and tells her yet again that her sins are forgiven. This is now at least the third time that she hears that her sins are forgiven. So the question is, why does Jesus tell her again in verse 48 that her sins are forgiven if she already knew that at some prior moment? And if she already heard him say that to Simon in verse 47, why does Jesus say this to her again? The best way to answer this question is with a few questions for you, and that is, parents, how often do you tell your children that you love them? Once. Husbands, how often do you tell your wife that you love her? Just once. Do you say to your wife, I don't need to tell you that I love you every day. I told you that on our wedding day. And if that ever changes, I'll let you know. No, we're all telling our loved ones that we love them all the time, right? Just about every day, if not several times a day, my children already know that I love them, yet I still feel that I'm addressing a need in them when I say to them, I love you, which is something that they already knew. My wife knows that I love her, yet I feel that there is still a need in her to hear those words from me every day, if not more than once a day, and she does the same for me. What we're learning here is that the same is true in the way that Jesus deals with us. And we see this on display in verse 48 when it comes to his forgiveness of us. We learn here something very precious about Jesus. Here's what we learn. We learn that Jesus does not merely forgive us for our sins, but he delights to remind us of this fact, however often our heart requires. Jesus does not merely forgive us of our sins, but he delights to remind us of this fact, however often heart requires he's not just a Savior who forgives but one who reaffirms and restates and reminds us of his forgiveness however often we need to hear it and that's exactly what he's doing for this woman in verse 48 and he does the same for us however often we need to hear it whenever we need the assurance of He says to us, your sins are forgiven. That's what's happening here. Jesus is saying to this woman, your sins have been forgiven in your past, with the result being that your sins stand forgiven right now. Your sins have been sent away. They've been dismissed. And I've not changed my mind on that. They've been erased from the record books of heaven. When I see you, I don't see your sins and I don't hold your sins against you. Others in this room may see your sins. Others in this room may hold your sins against you. But I want you to know that I don't and neither does my father. And right now, I think you need that reminder from me. So I say to you, your sins are forgiven. What a savior we have. Look at what happens next, which brings us to the next development in this beautiful story of Jesus receiving and blessing this woman he forgave. And that is, people are left asking, who is this who even forgives sins? Who is this who even forgives sins? Verse 49, and those who were reclining at the table with him began to say to themselves, who is this man who even forgives sins? All I want to say about this is that You could actually word their question with a slightly different word order. You could word it this way. Who is this man who forgives even sins? Clearly, in the minds of those seated at this table, they had two categories for sin. There was the run of the mill category of sin that they were guilty of. And yes, they needed forgiveness from God, just like everyone else does. But then there's the category of the capital S sins. And that's the category of this woman's sins. And a good paraphrase of their question would be, who is this man who forgives even capital S sins? That's what they're stunned by. And we can be thankful that There are no sins beneath the ability of Jesus to forgive. There is no sinner beyond the reach of his grace. Knowing this fact should keep us from losing hope for ourselves and losing hope for others that we are trying to help. There's one final thing that happens in this story, and this brings us to the final development in the story of Jesus receiving and blessing this woman he forgave. that is Jesus encourages the woman with words of salvation and peace verse 50 the text says and he said to the woman your faith has saved you go in peace literally your faith has saved you in the past with the abiding result being that you're right now in a state of being saved It's stunning to see the lengths to which Jesus is going to affirm this woman. This is now his fourth moment of encouraging her and affirming her with his grace and forgiveness, with his love and salvation. And he wants her to know that it's her faith that has ushered her into this state of salvation. And then finally, he bids her to go in peace. Literally, this expression reads in the Greek, go into peace. Jesus isn't telling her so much to go away from him. He's telling her where to go. Go, and as you go, go into peace. And walk in that peace. The luxurious presence of all that is needed for a life of wholeness in your relationship with God within yourself and in relationship with others. Your faith has saved you, he says. Now go into this peace. In this story, we observe several things about our Savior. We see that he is one who forgives sins that some deem to be the worst of sins. We see that he is one who tells us that we are forgiven, however often our hearts need to be reminded of this fact. We see that Jesus is one who's willing to offend the proud by showing grace to sinners whom the proud look down on. We see that Jesus takes our sins seriously, and he died to be able to give us the forgiveness of our sins. We see that He is a Savior who inspires intense devotion in those who have been touched by His grace, and we see that He's a Savior who's happy to receive our most fervent expressions of worship. No matter how excited you are to come to Jesus and express your love for Him, He'll never say to you, hey, you're overdoing it there. He receives our most fervent expressions of worship. And if you're here today and you've never believed in Jesus, I just want to ask you, what is not to love about a savior like this? He's irresistible to me. If you came here this morning under the burden of your sins, call upon Jesus name. And be saved and embrace him as your Lord and your savior. And as the lover of your soul and as the great encourager that you will need day by day. Christ will not only forgive you of your sins if you repent and believe in Him, He will be delighted to forgive you of your sins and lavish His grace on you. There is no friend in your life now or in the future who will ever love you like Jesus can love you. Finally, the good news from this story is that it turns out that Jesus really does want the rose And that rose is not just the immoral woman of the streets, it's each one of us. And I'm touched, even in this story, how Jesus reaches out to Simon and engages his heart and tries to help him to see his self-righteousness and his pride. And speaking to Simon as he does, Jesus is speaking to the Simon in all of us, teaching us that we stand in as great of a need of a Savior as any prostitute stands in need of a Savior, and teaching us that Jesus stands just as ready to save us from our self-righteous pride as He is to save us from our immoralities. We are all sinners who stand in need of a Savior, and we can be thankful that Jesus was willing to go to the cross and die on that cross in order to shed his blood so that he can provide for us the forgiveness of our sins that we need and the forgiveness of our sins that he longs to give us, so that he can then forgive us, make us God's children, and then so that he can encourage us every day and say to us again and again, your sins are forgiven. Did I tell you your sins are forgiven? Your sins are forgiven. Now go in to peace. What a Savior. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, we are we're just struck by the beautiful glimpse of you in this passage. You are a forgiving Lord, a forgiving Savior. You have forgiven us of our sins. And you. Are happy to remind us of all the blessings that you have given to us, among which is forgiveness. Even the Lord's table that we celebrate is just, it's a visible mechanism that you created as a way for you to remind us, hey, I have forgiven you. This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness, for the remission of sins. You want us to celebrate this ordinance because it's one of your ways of reminding us and saying to us again and again, I love you. I have forgiven you. I pray, Lord, that such grace would melt our hearts and the deeper layers of loving obedience to you. And may this grace truly serve as the wind beneath our wings as we seek to soar and being the men and the women. That you want us to be. For your glory. We ask all of these things in the name of Jesus.