Advent: Love (Lk. 7:36-50)
Advent: LOVE (Lk. 7:36-50)
Call to Hear
Good morning everybody and welcome to BCC! We are a lighthouse of hope to this community and we are so grateful to have you joining us today.
As you’ve already heard, this Sunday of Advent is the Sunday of love. Love is one of the defining characteristics of the Christian faith. Love was God’s motivation for sending the Christ-Child into this world (Jn. 3:16; Rom. 5:8). Love is an identifying mark of the Christian’s union with Christ (Jn. 13:35). Finally, love is a covering for our sin (Prov. 10:12; 1 Pt. 4:8).
If you’ve been in any of the classes that I have taught over the past several years, then you’ve probably heard me share this quote from Dr. Howard Thurman.
“the first step toward LOVE is a common sharing of a sense of mutual worth and value. This cannot happen in a vacuum or in a series of artificial or hypothetical relationships. It has to be in a real situation.”
Of course, Dr. Thurman is speaking here about human love, but during this Christmas season, we need to understand that there has never been a more “real” situation than the one facing all of humanity this morning. I’m talking about the situation that we find ourselves in as sinners and our need for a Savior. As we anticipate the joy that will come on Christmas morning in just a few days, we must always be mindful of the fact that Christmas, as much as it is about a Baby lying in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes, it is equally about Easter where God, in the form of a man, took upon Himself the sins of the whole world. He became sin, who knew no sin so that we might become the righteousness of God through Him. Christmas and Easter are two sides of the same coin.
Let me try to explain what I mean.
John 1:1–5 (NKJV)
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
5 And the light shined in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
John 1:14 (NKJV)
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 3:16 (NKJV)
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Within the Church, the Body of Christ, we are convinced (mostly) of the love of God. However, some may doubt that to be true, such as those who find themselves struggling under the heavy weight of life, scripture does not leave God’s love up for debate. In God’s Word, we are given a sure confidence in His love. We can be sure that God does indeed love us, and in His love He has done for us what we are incapable of doing for ourselves. Because of His great love for us, He has snatched our dead souls back from the grave, claiming us as His very own never to die again and He did this when we would not love Him in return. His love enables us to love Him, to love others and even to love ourselves.
Here are just a few passages from God’s Word that speak to us about the great love He has for each and every one of us here today.
Love of God (OT)
Deuteronomy 7:7–8 (NKJV)
7 The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples;
8 but because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Jeremiah 31:3 (NKJV)
3 The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.
(Further reading: Neh. 1:5; 9:32; Ps 36:7; Hos. 11:1-4.)
Love of God (NT)
God IS Love (1 Jn. 4:7-11).
Ephesians 2:4–5 (NKJV)
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
Romans 5:8 (NKJV)
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
(Further reading: 1 Jn. 3:1; 1 Jn. 3:16; Eph. 3:17–19; 1 Cor. 13; 2 Co 13:11; Mt. 5:43–48; Jn. 3:16; Jn 15:13–14; Ro 8:38–39; Tt 3:4–5; Re 1:5.)
Again, the Bible does not leave the subject of God’s love for us open to debate. You may refuse to accept it as fact, but you cannot disprove it. You may reject it, but you cannot deny it. However, what is of much debate, is the degree to which we actually love God.
The Pharisee and the Sinful Woman (Luke 7:36-39)
Luke 7:36–39 (NKJV)
36 Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat.
37 And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil,
38 and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil.
39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, “This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.”
I want you to envision this scene with me.
A Pharisee, an expert in the law of Moses, has invited Jesus, the Son of God and a “better Moses” (Heb. 3:3), into his home for fellowship. This would not have been a private event. The public were allowed to attend as well. Now, this happens on the heels of Luke’s earlier confession about how the Pharisees responded to John’s call for repentance and baptism (Matt. 3:7-12; Lk. 3:7-20). Luke tells us that while Jesus was speaking about John the Baptizer, that “all the people heard Him, even the tax collectors justified God (Lk. 7:29). They believed what John had said about the coming Messiah and they proved it by being baptized. Luke follows this up by contrasting the response of the tax collectors with that of the Pharisees and lawyers. He says,
“But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the will of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him” (Luke 7:30).
I hope that you heard that, they rejected the will of God for themselves. I pray that you can hear the voice of God speaking to you this morning. I pray that as you listen to the gospel of Jesus proclaimed from this podium this morning, that you will not harden your heart to the voice of God. I pray that you will not stiffen your neck, but instead that you would humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and allow Him to raise you up today.
Well now, we find in Luke 7:36 that a Pharisee has invited Jesus to dinner. Maybe this Pharisee, who once rejected the will of God for himself, has had a change of heart.
There’s another person at this gathering. A woman, a sinful woman. She is so overcome by her emotions that she cannot even speak. She just quietly positions herself at the feet of Jesus while He is reclining at the dinner table and she weeps. Actually, the word used here means that she is sobbing. As tears flood down her face, all of a sudden she notices that they are falling onto the feet of the Messiah. Probably out of embarrassment, she does the first thing that comes to her mind, she grabs a handful of hair and begins to wipe away the stains of her brokenness. She can’t help herself. She isn’t aware of anyone else in the room, in her heart and mind there are only two people there, her a sinner and Jesus the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Her grief is too much to bare and yet she offers Jesus the sacrifice of her lips (Heb. 13:15). On bended knee she begins to kiss His feet. Everyone is staring at her, especially the Pharisee who is hosting the dinner. What is she doing here? How did she even get in?
Jesus though, seems to be unphased by her actions. He receives all that she is offering as she pours out her gift in the only way she knows how. Her tears don’t seem to suffice, so in a moment of spontaneity, she breaks open the alabaster flask of perfume that she has with her and pours it all over the feet of Jesus. This is probably the most expensive thing that she owns (Mt 26:6–13; Mark 14:3–9; Jn 12:1–8). Costing approximately 300 denarii (Mark 14:5).
This woman has stolen the spotlight. All eyes are on her. What an embarrassment!
The Pharisee knows who this woman is, she’s a sinner! You know the one on the street corner. The one who can’t seem to get her act together. It’s her.
The Pharisee also knows who Jesus is, at least he thinks he does. The Pharisee doesn’t utter a word, he just thinks to himself. “Who is this dude? I thought he was a prophet. Actually, that’s the only reason I invited Him to my house, but He can’t be a prophet because He doesn’t even know who this woman is. Everybody knows who this woman is. I mean, if He really knew then He would keep His distance because she’s a sinful woman.”
You see, this is all speculative, but I would imagine that the Pharisee thinks himself equal to or similar with Jesus. He sees how Jesus can command a crowd. People listen to Him when He speaks. He has authority. “We” are both important men.
There’s a word for this kind of behavior. It’s probably not a word any of you are familiar with. The word is homophily. It comes from two Greek parts, ὁμός (homós) 'same, common' and φιλία (philía) 'friendship, love'. By definition it is
“The tendency to form strong social connections with people who share one’s defining characteristics, such as age, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, personal beliefs, etc.:”.
Homophily is a preference for similarity. Birds of a feather flock together. In his podcast, How God Works: The Science Behind Spirituality, David DeSteno acknowledges that there is nothing inherently wrong with the idea of homophily, but he cautions us with the possibility that
“homophily can sometimes work against us. The flip-side of preferring people like me is that it can make it very easy, even sometimes satisfying, to feel contempt for people NOT like me”.
Again, Dr. Thurman, speaking on the subject of hatred says that
“hatred often begins in a situation in which there is contact without fellowship, contact that is devoid of any of the primary overtures of warmth and fellow-feeling and genuineness”.
This was the case with Simon the Pharisee, the sinful woman, and Jesus. Homophily and hatred.
Now, let’s look at how Jesus responds to this situation.
Two Debtors (Luke 7:40-47)
Luke 7:40–43 NKJV
40 And Jesus answered and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” So he said, “Teacher, say it.”
41 “There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.
42 And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?”
43 Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.” And He said to him, “You have rightly judged.”
The Pharisee thought that he knew who Jesus was, but Jesus proves that He does indeed know who the Pharisee is. The story that Jesus tells doesn't clear the woman of any wrongdoing, instead, it does two powerful things simultaneously.
First, to the Pharisee who has exalted himself over the woman, Jesus brings him down to where she is. Second, to the woman who has humbled herself, Jesus exalts her to a place she never imagined she’d ever be.
Proverbs 29:23 (NKJV)
23 A man’s pride will bring him low, But the humble in spirit will retain honor.
Warren Wiersbe points out that
“Simon’s real problem was blindness: he could not see himself, the woman or the Lord Jesus. It was easy for him to say, ‘She is a sinner!’ but impossible for him to say, ‘I am a sinner!’”
Jesus tells Simon that there were two debtors and neither one of them could pay what was owed. 500 denarii? 50 denarii? What difference does it make when you’re broke?
The sinful woman is a debtor and so is the self-righteous Pharisee.
The same is true for you and me. Your sin might not be as bad as mine, but it is still sin and whether you have sinned a little or a lot, the penalty for your sin and mine is death and eternal separation from God (Rom. 6:23). Don’t fool yourself into believing that you’re a good person.
Not one of us is righteous apart from Jesus Christ.
Not one of us seeks after God without the guiding and indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 3:10-12).
All of your good deeds, all of your righteous acts are filthy rags in the presence of a holy and perfect God. Simon must’ve forgotten that part of Isaiah’s prophecy (Isa. 64:6).
Jesus continues by telling the Pharisee that the creditor, the one to whom the money was owed, did a remarkable thing, he forgave the debtors. Both of them. Neither one of them could pay what they owed and instead of demanding payment from them, the creditor forgives them. Jesus follows this up by asking Simon a very interesting question. “Who will love the creditor more?” Not who will appreciate it more. Not who will be more relieved. “Who will love him more?”
Simon replies, “Well, I guess the one who was forgiven the most.” Then Jesus says, “You got it!”
Do you realize how great a gift you have been given by God? To have your sins nailed to the cross of Christ and thrown into the sea of forgetfulness? How do you show your love for a God Who would do that?
Still speaking to the Pharisee, Jesus faces the woman and asks Simon if he can see the woman. The answer is no. All he saw was her sin. Her sin was visible. The entire village knew what her sin was. On the contrary, the Pharisee’s sin was invisible, but Jesus was about to reveal it to him.
Luke 7:44–47 NKJV
44 Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head.
45 You gave Me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in.
46 You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil.
47 Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.”
I wish I could’ve been in the room when Jesus spoke those words to Simon. The Pharisee wouldn’t do the bare minimum for Jesus, but the sinful woman did more than was required.
“Everything that Simon neglected to do, the woman did - and she did it better!”
This woman knew what everybody else seemed to know, that she was a sinner. A big sinner! But she also knew what the prophet Isaiah recorded, Isa. 1:18.
Isaiah 1:18 (NKJV)
18 “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool.
She knew that her sin was public, but she also knew the truth that is proclaimed in 1 Jn. 3:5; John 3:16.
1 John 3:5 (NKJV)
5 And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin.
John 3:16 NKJV
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
As she remembered her sin, she also remembered what the prophet Micah said,
Micah 7:18–19 (NKJV)
18 Who is a God like You, Pardoning iniquity And passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in mercy.
19 He will again have compassion on us, And will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.
The more she was reminded of how sinful she had been, the more she remembered the grace and love of the Lamb Who takes away the sins of the world.
What about you this morning? Do you have a file of God’s faithful love that you can go to and find comfort when Satan attacks you with your past failures? Do you have a divine data source to draw memories of God’s grace from when your own thoughts betray you? I hope you do. Satan may be the accuser of God’s people, but Jesus is our Advocate.
1 John 2:1-2 (NKJV)
1 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.
Listen to me, how much you have sinned, is of no consequence. How aware you are of your sin is what matters.
I remember talking with my buddy Joe Dan Trigg when he was alive.
During our coffee meetings we talked about everything. And we spent a lot of time studying the Bible. I got to hear his life story, the ups and the downs. He had a deep, deep desire to know who God is and to know that God had forgiven him. He was convinced that he had not used his time wisely enough in his younger days and he had some regrets about knowing so little about God and the Bible. He felt like he needed to do more to make things right between him and God.
One day, while we were having coffee, I told Mr. Joe Dan that God wasn’t concerned with how much of the Bible he had committed to memory, I told him that there are only 3 things that he really needed to know:
You’re a sinner.
You need a Savior.
Jesus is the Answer.
The amount of your sin is not nearly as important as your awareness that you are a sinner and Jesus is a Forgiver.
Forgiven (Luke 7:48-50)
Luke 7:48–50 NKJV
48 Then He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
49 And those who sat at the table with Him began to say to themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”
50 Then He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”
Let’s set the record straight before moving on, Jesus doesn’t forgive her because she loved Him. She loves Him because she has been forgiven. Please understand that. There was nothing that she could’ve done to gain the forgiveness she received. There is nothing that you or I can do for God to love us either. We are saved by grace, through faith (Eph. 2:8).
In Luke’s gospel there is no mention of the woman’s name or what her occupation was that branded her a sinner, I think this is left out to make the point that it doesn’t matter where you are from or what you have done there is grace for you too.
Ephesians 2:4–5 (NKJV)
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
This is God’s Christmas gift to us this season and if you are obedient to the Great Commission of Christ then you will share that gift with someone else.
Call to Respond
Sharon Dutra’s dad had been married four times by the time she was 17yo and her mother left when Sharon was only 5yo. She never saw her mom again. She eventually ended up in the foster care system and started using drugs at the age of 13. She says, “I believe that’s when I finally realized that I hated myself.” Two years later she ran away from home and lived on the streets until she got arrested. Which became a pattern for Sharon.
At 19yo Sharon met a guy who was in prison and she eventually married Bill after he was released. They had two kids together. Sharon was not new to drug use, but she had never used needles. Her new husband did and it didn’t take long for Sharon to join him. Over the next 6 years she lived with a needle in her arm, overdosing to the point of near-death four times.
Sharon and Bill got a divorce after some time and she abandoned her family and started living on the streets again. Still addicted to drugs, Sharon turned to prostitution to maintain her habit.
Sharon ended up in a women’s prison in Southern California where God was “preparing another miracle”. Sharon wasn’t looking for God, but He was looking for her. While in prison, Sharon found a book, “Al Capone’s Devil Driver, a book about the mob boss’s chauffeur” who became a Christian. God used that book to get Sharon’s attention. After she finished the book she realized that God was all she needed, so she fell to her knees crying out to God and sobbing over all of her sin.
She knew what she had done and so did everyone else.
However, after pouring her heart out to God that day she noticed something. “When I got up off the cell floor, I was a new brand-new person.”
She read the Bible for hours everyday. When she started this new life, she couldn’t understand how Jesus, Immanuel, could love a sinful woman like her. But the more she read God’s Word the more it spoke “wholeness and hope to her heart”. The more time she spent with Jesus in His Word, “the more the Holy Spirit confirmed the shocking reality of the gospel.”
Who the Son sets free is free indeed.
Sharon married a Highway Patrol captain and they started a ministry to reach people with the Gospel an disciple them in the Christian faith.
Pastor and teacher, Thabiti Anyabwile says that,
To be a big sinner is not the worst thing; to not ask forgiveness through faith in Jesus is. You can recover from a very sinful past—the church is full of people who have…
How about you this morning? Do you realize that you are a sinner in need of a Savior and Jesus is the Answer? If you do, I want to invite you to come and pour out your love for God by asking Jesus to be Master of your life.
Works Cited
Howard Thurman, Jesus and the Disinherited, p98
Dictonary.com
How God Works: The Science Behind Spirituality; (Rethinking Sin, 00:08:46-9:23
Howard Thurman, Jesus and the Disinherited, p75
The Wiersbe Bible Commentary: The Complete New Testament in One Volume, p160
The Wiersbe Bible Commentary: The Complete New Testament in One Volume, p160
I Used to Run with Drug Addicts and Prostitutes. Now I Share the Gospel with Them. - Christianity Today
Thabiti Anyabwile, Exalting Jesus in Luke, Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2018), 139
