The Scripture reading tonight comes from Luke chapter 7. That'll be on page 1027 in the Pew Bible. Luke chapter 7. We're looking at the parable of the two debtors with Simon the Pharisee and the sinful woman forgiven. I will begin reading at Luke 7 verse 33. Luke 7, 33. For John the Baptist has come, eating no bread and drinking no wine. And you say, he has a demon. The Son of Man has come, eating and drinking. And you say, look at him, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. Yet wisdom is justified by all her children. One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and reclined at table. And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at 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, 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 moneylender 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 towards 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 were at table with him began to say amongst themselves, Who is this who even forgives sins? And he said to the woman, your faith has saved you. Go in peace. So as we saw in verse 34, Jesus is called a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. Jesus had been building up a reputation for hanging around outcasts, lowly people, sinful people, even notoriously sinful people. Jesus had this reputation, and even just a couple chapters before in Luke 5, he's questioned about it. The Pharisees ask him, why do you hang around sinners? Why is he dining with sinners? That question looms in the air. Jesus' reputation is before them, but there's also a reputation that Jesus is a wise teacher and even a prophet. So the Pharisee invites Jesus into his home, and there's this dinner party scene, and that's what we're looking at tonight. So let's look at this dinner party through three different angles. Let's first look through Simon the Pharisee's eyes. What does he see, and how does he judge wrongly? Then let us look through Jesus' eyes and how he rightly judges the situation. and lastly, let us look through the woman's eyes and how she sees Jesus. So we're at this dinner party scene. The Pharisee has invited Jesus into his home to recline at table. Inviting Jesus over means he must have seen him as at least a teacher because Pharisees had private dinners in which they would sit around and discuss Torah and the law, but they had it private, that it was just men, just rabbis, and they would seek isolation from impure people and impure foods. So they're seeking isolation. They have this dinner, and part of Simon's motivation in inviting Jesus to this dinner is to see if the rumors are true. Is Jesus a friend of tax collectors and sinners, or is he the wise teacher and prophet we've been waiting for? He invites Jesus over. they're in his home, but the very first thing that happens is there's an uninvited guest. There's this woman who's known as a sinner in the city, which means she has a public, open sin. A lot of people think that means she was a prostitute or an adulteress, something that's public, shameful, and that everyone knew about. And Simon definitely knew about it because he sees her come in, and he thinks that woman is a sinner. The first thing he judges wrongly is he sees a repugnant, vile sinner. He has a pure dinner with the rabbis at his house, and he sees this impure woman come in, threatening his purity. The Pharisees were zealous to make sure they didn't break the law, and they even set up their own laws and tried not to break those, so they never got close to sinning. They washed everything just so, and they made sure there's no impure foods. So to see this woman come in to his dinner already is a shock. He immediately does not want her there. But what we see is this woman comes and touches his dinner guest, Jesus. But this woman doesn't just touch Jesus, right? More than that, she's crying upon him, touching his feet, even taking down her hair and wiping his feet with her hair. And more than that, she even takes a flask of ointment and pours it on Jesus. Simon's appalled by what's happening to his dinner guests, and even more so appalled that Jesus is letting it happen. He can't believe that Jesus is letting this sinner touch him, so he concludes from that there's no way that Jesus can be a prophet. If he were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of woman this is. He'd know she's a sinner. Simon thinks that a man of God, someone righteous, someone who really knows God and is sent by God would not come to sinners and would certainly not let sinners touch him. Simon thinks that he is a man of God, righteous, in good standing before the Lord. And we see what has he judged wrongly about this scene? He's judged wrongly about the woman. He's judged wrongly about Jesus, saying he can't be a prophet. And he's judged wrongly about his own standing before the Lord, thinking that he's righteous and should not associate with sinners. Now we see Jesus immediately proves one of those things wrong by reading his thoughts. Simon said that in his heart, but Jesus, as a prophet, reads Simon's heart and says, he answers him and says, I have something to say to you. and then he tells this short parable of two debtors. Let's now look through Jesus' eyes at this scene, and we'll read the parable together. Look there again at verse 41. A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed 500 denarii, and the other 50. When they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both. Now which one of them will love him more? So there's two debtors here. The lesser debtor owes 50 denarii. This lesser debtor is supposed to represent Simon and how he's conceiving of his debt before the Lord. He sees his debt as serious but manageable. One denarii is about a day's wage. So 50 denarii is about two months or a month and a half's wages. It's a serious debt, but it can be resolved. If you're really strict. If you diligently budget, you could get out from under that debt. So Simon's conceiving of his debt thinking he could manage it himself. Now the other debtor owes 500 denarii. This debtor represents the woman. 500 denarii is a year and a half or almost two years of debt. That's the kind of debt that's crushing and unpayable. That's the kind of debt you cannot get out from under. The debt that no one with normal means would ever be able to pay that off. This woman's crushed by her debt. And of course, debt in this parable is sin. That's how the Bible often represents sin, as a debt that we owe to the Lord. And Simon is thinking of his debt as manageable. Serious, but manageable. And I want to ask you, brothers and sisters, is that how you think of your debt before the Lord? Do you think that you could in some way manage your debt on your own? Any teaching, any religion that tells you that you can manage your debt by yourself is false. That's how many, almost every religion in the world is teaching you something along those lines. And Christians don't believe that, but sometimes individual Christians, in our minds we think, maybe I can pay for a little bit of a debt, work some off, or help out in some way. Christians often accidentally fall into that way of thinking. Perhaps, do you think that your obedience now, your righteousness now, somehow is making up for past sin that you've had? The truth is that whatever you do now can't make up for what you did before because perfect obedience is always required of us with all of our heart soul mind and strength so there's no excess you can't ever have excess righteousness to pay off something you've done in the past i think another way christians can try to conceptualize their paying their own debts is by really wallowing in their guilt when you have some sin there's a right place for guilt, but if you think that by really screwing up your face and really making yourself feel sorry, beating yourself up for your sin, if you think that that somehow resolves it, you've completely misunderstood how our debt is before the Lord. If you think you can pay off your debt, someone told me this, you better get to work. Get cracking, because there's a lot of debt to pay. But the truth is, you can't pay off this debt. And that's seen in verse 42. Jesus says, when they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both. Nobody can actually pay their debts. No one can. And that's what the Heidelberg Catechism question and answer 13 says to us. It says, regarding our debt of sin, can we make this payment ourselves? And what's the answer? Certainly not. Certainly not. Actually, we increase our debt every day. So Simon, thinking that he could somehow pay off his debt or manage it, never actually took one step towards paying off his debt. And neither can we. We can't take even one step towards paying our debts, because every step along the way, we're heaping more debt upon our backs. Our debt is only increasing when left to ourselves. So what did both debtors need here? Verse 42, when they could not pay, neither one could pay. He canceled the debt of both. The word for canceled the debt here in the New American Standard Bible, it says graciously forgiven. And the King James says freely forgiven. And I think that is the right way to picture this is that it's gracious forgiveness that they need, not because of anything in themselves, not because of anything they did. They need to be graciously forgiven only because of the goodness of the moneylender. So Jesus is using this parable to tell Simon, you've completely misunderstood the nature of your debt. We really are all the greater debtor here. We all have more than 500 denarii, in debt. So let us not think that we're like Simon, that we can manage our debt ourselves. We should realize we all sit under a crushing, unpayable debt. So let us also, not like Simon, look at other sinners and condemn them for their sin, knowing that we are all crushed under the same debt. Don't think you are a lesser debtor than someone else. Know that we all have an unpayable dead. So thinking of this through Jesus' eyes still, looking at this dinner through Jesus' eyes, how is he seeing this woman? How does Jesus see her? He says, her sins, which are many, are forgiven. Proving Simon wrong yet again, Jesus did know who and what sort of woman she was. He knew she was a sinner, yet Jesus still let this sinner come and touch him. In Luke 5, 31, Jesus says, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have come not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. So Jesus came for sick sinners. He came for needy, broken sinners. The rumors are true. Jesus is a friend of tax collectors and sinners. Jesus knows who we are and exactly what sort of sinners we are, each one of you. He knows your debt greater than you do because you have forgotten sins. You've forgotten just how sinful you are, and sometimes you don't even notice when you're in sin. But Jesus is the one who paid that debt for you, so he knows exactly what your debt was. And he was thinking of you personally when he died on the cross to pay that debt. So when Jesus is looking at this woman, is he focused on her debt? Is he thinking about what that debt is? Even though he knows it, that's not what he focuses on. Jesus rather sees her faith. Verse 50, he says to her, your faith has saved you. Go in peace. In verse 48, he says, your sins are forgiven. He's seeing this woman forgiven and saved. That's rather what Jesus is looking upon, a forgiven and saved sister, instead of a repugnant sinner, as Simon looks at her. We all sit under this crushing debt, but by the faith that the Holy Spirit works in our hearts, we can receive in our empty sinful hands this gracious forgiveness. And God so far separates our sin from us as far as the east is from the west and no longer looks upon us as sinful, evil creatures, but rather as saved, forgiven, faithful children. It's not because of anything we did or any good quality in us, but only because the moneylender to whom we owe our debt is so gracious, merciful, and loving, and he's worked faith in the hearts of his chosen people. So the question remains, do we believe that the gospel is really this good, brothers and sisters? Do we believe that any and all sin can really be forgiven? Do we believe that our great debts can actually be paid for? Hear this, the blood of Jesus can pay for any and all sin. What about the prostitute? Jesus forgave the woman at his feet. Even the most egregious public sin, whatever it is, even the young women caught up in internet porn today, their public sin is plastered all over the internet. Can they be forgiven? Do we believe that? Do we believe that literally anyone can be forgiven of their sins, any and all sin, if they put their faith in Jesus Christ? Jesus graciously forgave this woman. And if you believe in Jesus, he too will look favorably upon you. So if you don't believe today, today is the day to repent and believe in Jesus Christ. Put your faith in him. Believe that he can forgive these debts. This very well might sound too good to be true. Is the good news really this good? Yes, it is. And that's why we see this woman come to Jesus in tears. Tears because they're tears of joy that she's heard this good news. She's heard of this Jesus. He's hanging out with outcasts, outsiders, the lowly. She hears that the blind see. she hears that the lame walk, that leprous people are cleansed, that the dead are raised, and she hears that sins are forgiven. And she comes straight to Jesus. That's what we need to hear. Let's think of how this woman is looking at Jesus. She's heard these things when she comes to him at this dinner party. What does she see? Looking through her eyes, she sees him as her only hope, the only way that she can be forgiven. She loves him because she already has been forgiven, and she sees the power of God at work. The power of God because only God can forgive sins. That's why those at the dinner table with them said, who is this who thinks he can forgive sins? Because God alone can forgive. So she realizes the power of God's at work, and she comes straight to Jesus. And hear that. She didn't need to prepare herself. She hears this about Jesus, and she comes straight to him. She has that alabaster flask of ointment. She didn't pour it on herself. She didn't need to freshen up before coming to Jesus. She didn't need to pay off a little bit of her debt before she came to the moneylender. She came straight to jesus straight to his feet hear that you can come straight to jesus today and he let that sinner touch him jesus explains how this woman's looking at him if you look at verse 44 with me it's interesting jesus says or luke says turning toward the woman he said to simon interesting he's he's looking at the woman but talking to simon jesus is simultaneously commending the woman for her good works and condemning simon for failing to love him jesus is explaining this he says simon do you see this woman i entered your house and you gave me no water for my feet common courtesy would have been to give him water or to send a servant to wash Jesus's feet after long travels his feet are dirty gross cracked dry you need to wash them coming into a house but he didn't give Jesus this water but this woman comes in and what does she do Jesus says but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair I mean think about how how gross her hair would be after coming away from that her hair would be ruined, stinky and smelly, coming to his feet and scrubbing them with her hair. But she's willing to endure that humility because she sees her Lord. She comes as a servant would to wash his feet. But more than a servant, she goes beyond what an ordinary servant would do. Furthermore, Jesus says to Simon, you gave me no kiss. Again, that would be common courtesy to just kiss him on the cheek. But to withhold that kiss is to disrespect Jesus. So Simon's disrespected Jesus, but this woman, he says, from the time I came in, she has not ceased to kiss my feet. She's continually kissing his feet. To kiss someone's feet is ultimate, the ultimate way to show honor and gratitude to the one being kissed, and ultimate submission and humility to the one kissing his feet. So she sees her Lord and her master. She's submitting herself, honoring her Lord, and humbling herself. But even more than that, Jesus says, you did not anoint my head with oil. That would have been common courtesy too. Give him some olive oil to refresh his face with, to pour on his head and hair. But Jesus says, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. So it's not just olive oil, it's this fancy, expensive perfume, and she doesn't just pour it on his head, but pours it on his feet. The only sources that describe something like that are kings at special banquets. It's a kingly thing to have fancy oil poured upon your feet. It's lavish and extravagant. And here we see this woman coming to Jesus with this extravagant gift. So to see her love expressed, what do we see? The deep humility that she had before Jesus, her Lord. She sees Jesus as her Lord and her master and her king. She sees the power of God at work in him. And she says, there's no deed that's too low for me. I'll come to my God and serve him. And that's true for us, brothers and sisters. There's no deed that's too low for us, his forgiven servants. There's no deed that's too low. Do you think that any service in this church is beneath you? Do you think you're too high to serve coffee? Are you too busy? to teach catechism, to teach Sunday school, to work in the nursery? Are you too great of a servant to clean toilets here, to take out the trash? No. There is no deed that's too low for God's forgiven servants. And what else? We see by the fact that she's pouring this expensive perfume on Jesus that there's nothing that's too costly in serving our Lord. Nothing is too costly because we owe him everything. We could never pay off the debt that we have. We could never give him anything that's worth the forgiveness and grace we've received. Because we have this forgiveness, nothing could ever match that. So think about how you can serve in this church. What ways could you serve? Ask one of the elders, one of the deacons. Ask him how you can help, how can you serve, and know nothing is too low, and nothing is too costly. After hearing this, the parable really lands. Jesus says, this sinful woman whose sins were many, she's forgiven, and that's seen in how she loved much. condemning Simon, he says, he who's forgiven little loves little. Simon thinks that he's got it. He can manage his debt on his own. He's okay. He's not needy and desperate like this woman is. So he didn't put his faith in Jesus Christ. So he didn't receive this forgiveness. So we don't see gratitude springing out of his heart in acts of loving service. We see the proper order is guilt, grace, and gratitude. The gratitude is seen, and each tree is known by its fruit. That's what Jesus said in Luke 6.44, and he's telling Simon, each tree is known by its fruit, and you failed to love me in any way. So the forgiveness was clearly not given. So guilt, grace, gratitude. We see the greatness of our sin and misery. We hear of this Jesus, friend of sinners, and he's the only way that we can be forgiven of this great debt of sin that we have. Upon receiving that forgiveness, the grateful service then comes. We never want to mess it up to think that our loving service to Jesus is earning his favor, earning reward, but we're just receiving grace and serving him in any way that we can. So what Jesus says to this woman, he says her sins, which are many, are forgiven. He tells her that her faith has saved her, and that is true for every Christian. If you've put your faith in Jesus Christ, no matter who and what sort of sinner you are, your sins are forgiven. Your faith has saved you. And you can go in peace. Let's pray together, brothers and sisters. Lord, we are so comforted to hear this blessed declaration of pardon from Jesus' lips. Lord, that we are forgiven of all of our many sins. Lord, we're so grateful to be saved by the faith you've worked in our hearts, that faith in Jesus Christ. We know, Lord, that our faith is an empty hand, receiving the rich blessing of your grace upon us. Lord, would this good news stir our hearts to loving service in Your church? Would we know that we're just humble and lowly servants and that no task or duty is beneath us, Lord, as we serve You, our great King? Would this church be built up by fruitful works of love and gratitude? Amen.