“as
her great love has shown”, this phrase is taken from Luke 7:47. It is from the account of a sinful woman who
came to the house of a Pharisee, Simon, where Jesus was a guest, and washed Jesus’
feet with her tears and hair, and perfumed the feet with an alabaster jar of
perfume.
Luke
7:36-48 - 36 When one of the Pharisees invited
Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at
the table. 37 A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus
was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of
perfume. 38 As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his
feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured
perfume on them. 39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to
himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and
what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”
40 Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.” “Tell
me, teacher,” he said. 41 “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One
owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 Neither of them had the
money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will
love him more?” 43 Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt
forgiven.” “You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.
44 Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you
see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet,
but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You did not
give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped
kissing my feet. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume
on my feet. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But
whoever has been forgiven little loves little.” 48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
A little
postulation
I
believe this sinful woman could have been Mary Magdalene who was Mary Bethany,
the sister of Martha Bethany, and was the woman who was delivered of demon
possession {Luke 8:1-3} (prior to this event at Simon’s house); in other words,
set free by Jesus, earlier, and forgiven by God of her many sins, did this washing
of Jesus’ feet; and who went on to support Jesus’ ministry, introduced Jesus to
her sister, Martha (and Lazarus, too) of Bethany, and later followed Jesus down
to Jerusalem on His last leg of His journey; and was at the crucifixion, at His
burial, and was the first person, Jesus met up with, when He resurrected. If you want to know how I come to my belief,
you can read this: Were Mary Magdalene and Mary Bethany the same person?
If
you want to just regard this woman as simply “a sinful woman”, it is fine, too,
but you may have some difficulty in coming to how is it that this woman could
come to love the Lord so much, if you do NOT think she was the same once decadent
woman (Mary Magdalene) who was delivered of demonization, as given in Luke 8:1-3. Of course, you can also believe there was no
prior incident, and that the moment the woman was at the house (of Simon), she
was touched by God; but my take is that it was NOT so, for she came prepared –
the alabaster jar of perfume showed it.
The key lesson
What
is the lesson to be drawn from the story?
What picture was it painting? The
key is in verse 47. Jesus said, “Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been
forgiven—as her great love has shown.” What this verse was saying is
that Jesus was saying the sinful woman’s many sins had been forgiven her,
and we could come to that conclusion because her great love indicated so. In
other words, chances are that a great love is an outflow from forgiveness. The sinful woman had developed a great
love for the Lord.
Has great love, but
NOT showing, possible?
How
come she could have developed that great love for the Lord? We will say a little more on this, in a while,
but first, we want take a look at if Simon was also having that great love that
the sinful woman was having, but only NOT showing.
We
need to address: is it normal to have great love and it is NOT showing, or we
say is it tenable to have such a scenario – you have a great love but it
cannot be seen or felt or received? Simon had it, a great love for the
Lord, although NOT seen, felt or received; possible?
I am NOT the worm
in his stomach!
My
mother would say, “I am NOT the worm in his stomach, how would I know!” That just a common idiom, we Chinese have, to
say “How would I know; I am NOT him!”
Between
men, it is indeed difficult to know.
Only when you have lived with a person for a long time, like a couple
married and living together for a long time, you may be able to guess, more or
less, how great is his love for another or for God (as the case, maybe). How do you know; or how have you come to
know? It was from prolonged interactions
with the person, what you managed to see, feel, perceive or received over
time. In other words, between men,
the love in that person needed to manifest, in order that you would know.
The person himself,
does he know for sure?
Now,
let us talk a little about the person himself.
Does he or does he NOT know, if he has a great love for another or for
God? How does he know?!
Firstly,
when we talk about how great or how much, we necessarily have to have a point
of reference to measure from. Then we
have to ask ourselves, vis-à-vis the yardstick, what are we prepared to do or
sacrifice. But then, that is only a
claim - you claim to yourself that you would do such a thing or sacrifice, or
you could be claiming it, in the form of holding out as a promise, to another,
that, that would be what he/she could expect you to do or sacrifice. Only when the occasion actually arises, and
your action is called for, or we say when the rubber (or tyre) meets the road, that
is the moment when we (also he, himself!) really know. Scripture said of the heart of men this
way:
9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond
cure. Who can understand it? 10 "I the LORD search the heart and
examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct,
according to what his deeds deserve." (Jer 17:9-10)
So,
is a man absolutely sure of his love for another or God? I don’t know about you, I will only dare
to say, “I BELIEVE (and it is I believe, NOT absolutely sure) I will do
this or that, when the time comes or if the occasion arises.”
God knows?
How
about when it is between God and men?
Does God know the heart of a man, and so, would know the extent of His
love for another or for God, Himself? We
know God knows the hearts of men (Acts 1:24 {KJV} – God is the knower of
heart), but does it therefore has no need of that love to manifest (by deeds or
sacrifices, as the case may be), for God to know the extent?
My
belief is: from one angle, God has an advantage; He knows the extent of the
love of the person at the time He (God) looks at the heart; whereas, for us,
men, we still needed the interactions over time, that I talked about, earlier
on. In another angle, God is faced with
the same “I BELIEVE…” that I referred to earlier; God, unless He intervenes
against the volition of the person, also BELIEVE he will do this or that, when
the time comes or if the occasion arises.
This is why I said it so:
God
can look into the future, and does look into the future, but the future is NOT
fixed, meaning if God looks at your future now, and then looks at it again 1
year from now, it (your future) may NOT, it probably does NOT, look the
same! The simple reasons are (1) you
grow positively (that is what God wants) or negatively; and so, something God
saw this morning of your future 2 years away, if He looks again, 1 year from
now, that something may be different or completely absent; maybe it is a sin you
will commit, but a year later after you have grown, you will NOT be committing
that sin, a further one year later down the road.
God exercises
“faith” or trust, too!
I
know some people would object to my using this term, faith, on God, but if you think
about what has been said here, even as God expects faith from us (in Him), God
also exercises faith in us (or if you don’t like the word, faith, on God, you
can use “trust”). The story of Job of
the Bible is a case at hand; God had faith in Job, and so, accepted Satan’s
challenge. We can believe that God did
NOT “play cheat”, and controlled the volition of Job; surely Satan knew that
much about what God could do, and the challenge was on the ground of Job was
free to exercise His volition. If you
like, you can read an article of mine on this, here – God also exercises faith
It is both – the
heart then, & the love manifests (manifestations)
After
saying all of the above, my point is that, even for God, to be sure, of the
extent of the love of a man (with an eye on the future; God always have an eye
on the future), He looks at, apart from his heart, that man’s love manifests.
It is NOT God operates like a man, but this is one case of us operating like
God, in that He (God) perceives and knows for sure (we perceives only, NOT
knowing for sure) the heart and so, of the heart’s love, but He still (and we,
too) has to look at actuals (deeds or sacrifices), to arrive at the strength of
the expectation that, that love (its extent) would continue, unabated.
Deeds
and sacrifices are evidences of love at the moment, even as the state of the
heart (which God does know) is, and they could point to more of the same extent
of love, but nothing is a “MUST happen”, unless God over-rides men’s
volition. So, the question, whether
or NOT, God looks at our deeds and sacrifices, when evaluating our love,
the answer is yes.
Actually,
it is NOT too difficult to understand; what you and I are NOT prepared to do or
sacrifice, does tell God directly the extent of our love for Him or for
another. Many people want to claim
absent-mindedness or forgetfulness, but we know God cannot be fooled, for
the priority you accord to God, directly speaks of the extent of your love for God (when you give top priority, you are NOT likely to forget!). Where your treasure is, there your heart is,
said Scripture (Matt 6:21).
The woman had it,
Simon, NOT
All
of the above exposition is to come to the reasonableness of Jesus’ equating the
deeds and sacrifices of the sinful woman, as indicative of the great love she
had for God; and Jesus’ insinuation of Simon was NOT of the same – the great
love for God.
Your deeds tell on
you
Do
NOT be fooled, what you do or NOT do, tells on you, the real you, even when it
comes to love. It is NOT directly spelt out this way, but
the ways of God are along that same line.
I
am going to give us, the Scripture text that refers to righteousness, that
deeds of (or living out) righteousness tells on you, whether or NOT, you are
truly righteous; for the righteous necessarily does righteous, just as Jesus who
was righteous, lived or practised righteousness; and so, His deeds while He
lived on earth, were righteous. When you
substitute the word, righteousness, with love, for the Scripture text below,
you will get the idea:
1
John 3:7 - Dear children, do not let anyone lead
you astray. He who does what is right {practise righteousness} is righteous, just as {in the same manner} he {Jesus} is
righteous.
Another
text that prescribes for us, the general way of God as this “The proof of the
pudding is in the eating”, is this:
1
Pet 1:6b – 7 - though now for a little while you
may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your
faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by
fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor
when Jesus Christ is revealed.
Whether
it is righteousness or love or faith, God’s way or prescription is the same –
does your deeds or life (your living) evidence it? In this Peter’s text above, faith got to be
manifested by you. Faith without deed is
NOT operative faith, it is dead or useless or NOT genuine.
God
is NOT just looking at our words of love, He is looking for our deeds of love,
and sacrifices we made in love, for Him, and so, too, for our neighbours (1
John 4:21).
How did it come
about, the great love of the woman?
“as
her great love has shown” or “as her great love has indicated or revealed”;
what was the thing indicated or revealed?
That same v47 said it – that the sinful woman’s many sins were
already forgiven her.
And
so, we are coming back to our earlier question of how come the sinful woman
could have developed the great love, evidenced by her deeds and sacrifices,
which Simon, without the equivalent deeds or sacrifices evidencing, did NOT
have. The answer is that she was
forgiven much; Jesus said her many sins were already forgiven of her.
If
you are NOT convinced that the sinful woman was the same woman of Luke 8:1-3, the
same Mary Magdalene who was once a decadent woman with demons, and who had been
set free by the power of God through the Lord, Jesus, you will just have to
believe at any earlier point, the sinful woman had met Jesus, and Jesus did
something or preached something, and she responded, and God forgave her of many
sins; and she received it.
We are to forgive by
grace
Forgiveness
is to be given. Now this is revelation
and is consistent with the Word – Forgiveness is given, NOT merited. It is given, NOT bought or merited. So remember, when you forgive, you give; you
don’t demand “payment” of any sort or get people to merit it. Col 3:13 is very clear – we are to forgive as
(the same manner) the Lord forgave (which is by grace; give it). Jesus indicated so, in the text above, in the
parabolic mention of a creditor forgiving two debtors when both had no money;
both the debtors were forgiven, without paying or meriting.
Forgiveness needs
to be received in
At
the same time, forgiveness need to be received in; if the targeted person
did NOT receive it, the power in the forgiveness cannot do its wondrous work.
Suppose
Mr A caused you to fall into a big drain, and you became a crippled, and Mr A
repeatedly wanted to visit and tell you how sorry he was, but you refused his
visit every time; and then he stopped coming. Then after sometime, you forgave
him, in your heart (and it is the right thing to do, and we are commanded to do
that, to forgive from the heart and in our heart), but you did NOT release it
to him, Mr A. Mr A still lived without
receiving in, of your forgiveness, despite you have forgiven him. It could very well be that Mr A, because of
that, be burdened of guilt, condemnation, and developed dysfunctional character
traits, and be impaired of his capacity to love and be of compassion,
especially, when deceptive voices of the evil ones, got to him. If he receives in, your forgiveness for him (for
that you have to release it to him), the forgiveness received in, can break
yokes and bondages, and, with ministry help, he could be a lot more wholesome,
including be repaired of his capacity to love.
Restoration of the
capacity to love
The
receipt in, of forgiveness, helps us to repair our capacity to love. Or with forgiveness, we can love again. Jesus turned to Simon and quizzed him
concerning who would love the creditor more, the one forgiven of a little or
the one for much? It was a parable,
yet, it is still part of the scene of the sinful woman’s coming to love the Lord.
What this parable was pointing, and was helping to explain the scene is
this: The one forgiven (we
have already known above, that, forgiveness are to be given freely – for both the
debtors had no money and not needed any more to pay), much, was turned more grateful and so, would love more greatly. The sinful woman was such a case, Jesus was
hinting, and did say – “many of her sins were forgiven.” Many could NOT understand why Jesus quizzed
Simon or targeted Simon. It was because
Simon did NOT love the Lord like the woman did, and did by deeds; Jesus
contrasted it for Simon, what he, Simon, did NOT do, but the woman did, for her
love.
Humility,
gratefulness, & then the restoration comes
Although
Jesus was pointing to the lack of love of Simon compared to the woman, the more
critical understanding that Jesus was giving was that we need to be humble
of heart, turned grateful, and so, restored of our capacity to love much. Simon was NOT of that – humble of heart,
turned grateful, and restored of the capacity to love much. The receiving in of forgiveness is that
which would turn us grateful, and be restored of
the capacity to love much, and so, love much. The quoting of the forgiveness of debts (as a
parable) was to illustrate this to Simon, and to us – need of receipt of forgiveness,
before we are restored of our capacity to love.
I am NOT like that
sinful woman-what!
Some
may argue, thinking, “But then, that woman, she was sinful-what; bad, bad
woman, but Simon was NOT like that, a Pharisee, you know!”, as if a Pharisee
necessarily has NOT much to be needing forgiveness from God. It can be
untrue.
I
sometimes tell people that a sick person who does NOT think he/she is sick, and
so, will NOT come to the doctor, he/she is impaired the most or very sick. When that sickness is NOT physical, but referring
to spiritual unwholesomeness, such an individual cannot love correctly or
properly. Such people rarely think that
they are wrong, in terms of their claim of NOT being unwholesome, or in their
love or lack of it, or the improper of it (their love); true humility is
absent.
Without
true humility, there is no true gratefulness, and without gratefulness, the
capacity to love cannot be healed or restored, and great love does NOT come
from such a vessel. Did Simon exhibit
this (flaw)? The answer is yes; we read
it in v39. I reproduced vv38-39 here: 38 As she {the woman} stood behind him {Jesus} at his
feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them
with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. 39 When the Pharisee {Simon}
who had invited him {Jesus} saw this, he said to himself, “If this man {Jesus} were
a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that
she is a sinner.” Now, where
is the true humility of Simon? In fact, he
thought he was above Jesus! He also said to the tune of “the woman was a
sinner”, as if he, himself, was NOT!
Metaphorically speaking, do you think Simon think that he is sick, will
he go to the doctor?
Please, I am NOT suggesting
you go & commit sin, to be forgiven!
So,
was it Simon’s fault? Brother Anthony,
are you trying to say we should allow ourselves to be sinning greatly, so that
we can be forgiven much, so that we can be humbled, turned grateful, and be
restored of our capacity to love, and so able to love greatly like the sinful
woman? No, that is NOT my drift; and so,
please do NOT go sinning, in the hope of being able to love greatly.
The
Apostle Paul did address similar questioning; Gal 2:17 said this - "If, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it
becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners, does that mean that Christ
promotes sin? Absolutely not! We don’t go round sinning so that we could
magnify the grace of the Lord through His forgiveness for us, by grace.
God is sovereign,
yet there is your volition
God
is sovereign, and if He wants to force you to your knees, so to speak, He can,
but a lot of the time, He is waiting for you to exercise your volition to come
to kneel before Him, to come to the place of forgiveness. He may help you along, to come, but
generally, it is still you have to come. The drift was NOT Simon was NOT as
sinful, but was that Jesus was pointing to the need to come to the place of
forgiveness, and actually receive in, forgiveness.
Well,
can we argue that Simon loved little (or none; I don’t think it was none),
because God forgave him little, again NOT his fault-what; God’s fault?! The point is we need to come, and we need
to receive. Scripture has parables
and stories, incorporating this way of God.
For example, in the Parable of the Wedding Banquet, the banquet was made
ready and the invitees were to come, but many would NOT come. Is it NOT true, we even say, we still have
to come to the Cross, despite Jesus already died on the Cross; everything
necessary He has made ready, and before He gave up His breath, He said, “It is
finished”. We have to come into
salvation; even as the Word said in 1 John 2:2, that Jesus is the propitiation
for the world (all men).
Please encourage the
coming to the place of forgiveness
As
ministers, our role is to facilitate people coming to the place of forgiveness,
and receive in, forgiveness. As far as
possible don’t stop short, don’t truncate, let the entire process goes right to
the end, i.e. people receive in, the forgiveness.
From
the Cross, (we gotten) the forgiveness, and the restoration of our capacity to
love God back, is it NOT? And when we
love God, we love our neighbour (1 John 4:21).
This understanding is foundational, and when it is foundational, it is
to be cascaded through and throughout our life.
So,
while Jesus was NOT rebuking Simon in any harsh manner, the urge was for Simon
to reflect, and in this regard, for us all, too, on his need for forgiveness
for any sins in his life; to be humble, be turned to gratefulness, and be
restored of capacity to love more and more, God, and so, too, men or
neighbours.
The
fault is NOT God’s, of course, that we are forgiven little. God is waiting to forgive you and I, to come
the place of forgiveness, and we do need to be practising 1 John 1:9.
Jesus was saying
it, after His Father
There
is still an interesting observation from this text of Luke 7; and it is
this: Jesus having said that the sinful
woman was forgiven of many
sins (v47), still said this, to the woman, in v48 - “Your
sins are forgiven.”
Why
did Jesus still say that, that her sins were forgiven, when the woman was forgiven
already, which led to her show of great love?
My understanding is this: In verse 48, Jesus just declared it
that the woman’s sins were forgiven, for Jesus knew God the Father had done
so. Jesus was so led by the Spirit
(or abiding in God), that He knew, and in fact (John 5:19), Jesus did say He
would do only that which He saw His Father (God) doing. It was NOT after all that which the sinful
woman did, that Jesus forgave her sins; she was in no way meriting her
forgiveness; her deeds and sacrifices of love came after her forgiveness and
restoration.
Forgiveness
empowers men to love
Forgiveness
empowers men to love. Now, did the
occasion point to one needs to merit forgiveness, that the sinful woman did
those things, washed Jesus’ feet, kissed them and anointed them with expensive
perfume (and she was forgiven afterwards)?
No. Verse 47 is saying love is evidence of forgiveness received. Or forgiveness received, empowers love. And of course, I have taken the liberty to
expound on, love got to show up in deeds and sacrifices, or that it
cannot be, that you love, when you have nothing to show it, by deeds or
sacrifices; only words!
Anthony Chia,
high.expressions
PS: This account of
Luke 7:36-50 is different from the account in John 12 and Mark 14; the later
happened at Bethany, days from Jesus crucifixion; this Luke 7:36-50, happened early in
Jesus’ ministry, back in the north, in Galilee.
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