“Big Sinners have a Bigger Savior”
Luke 7:36-8:3
6/17/07
The really big gift that we are given in
today’s Gospel text is the forgiveness of sins.
That’s what it’s all about. But as we hear these
words, the fact that a “sinful” woman is granted the
Lord’s forgiveness while the nice Pharisee who invited Jesus to
dinner is not raises a couple of questions, namely, Who gets the
Lord’s forgiveness and why? The way we answer these
questions will betray whether we are thinking like a Pharisee or like
Jesus.
If we think like a Pharisee, we will believe we need
little or no forgiveness at all, because Pharisees believe in
fractional sinfulness. You believe in fractional sinfulness when
you believe either that some people are sinners while others are not
(and of course, you fall into the latter category), or you believe that
some are at least less sinful than others (and you consider yourself to
be one of those who is less of a sinner than everyone else). One
who believes in fractional sinfulness, then, will not see himself as
needing as much forgiveness as, say, a murderer, a prostitute, or a
thief. One who believes in fractional sinfulness will not
associate with those whom he considers to be greater sinners than
himself. One who believes in fractional sinfulness will see
himself as better than others. This is the way the Pharisee
looked at himself in relation to this woman. He was a model of
outward piety and holy living, a leader and example in the community,
while she was a common prostitute, an outcast from decent society,
unworthy to be touched, let alone sit at the same table with the
Pharisee.
But while a Pharisee believes in fractional
sinfulness, Jesus knows that the real problem is that each and every
one of us is a complete and totally corrupt sinner. You and I are
from the very moment of our conception utterly sinful. So sinful
are we that there is not one part of our being that is not wholly
depraved through and through. None of us are any worse or better
of a sinner than anyone else. We’re all in the same
boat. Regardless of whether we are upstanding citizens, leaders
in our community, or nice people in society, before God we are 100%
sinners, worthy of God’s wrath now and forever. And even if
we don’t feel like we’re sinners (which is part of the
problem), James assures us that if we have broken even one of
God’s commandments, we have broken them all. There’s
no such thing as fractional sinfulness. The Pharisee, the
prostitute, and we ourselves all stand guilty before God.
“There is not one righteous,” says David, “not even
one.”
With His parable about the moneylender forgiving his
debtors Jesus is not teaching that some owe God more than others, that
some are more sinful than others. He uses the differences in
debts simply to illustrate how some debtors, like this Pharisee, only
think that they owe God less than everyone else. The fact is, no
matter how small your guilt may seem to you, before God even the
tiniest white lie or the most secret evil thought makes you worthy of
eternal death.
So, both the Pharisee and the prostitute are equal
sinners in God’s eyes, as you and I are as well. What,
then, is our way out of this predicament? How do we get the
Lord’s forgiveness? The Pharisee responds by saying either
that he needs very little of it, doesn’t need it at all, or that
he deserves it because of his good works or his pedigree. By all
outward appearances, a Pharisee doesn’t look like he needs the
Lord’s forgiveness, because he’s such a good person.
A Pharisee thinks, “I’m nice to people, I haven’t
committed murder, I pay my taxes, I do nice things for people, I
generally obey the law, I believe in God and follow His
commandments.” This Pharisee, Simon, was even nice enought
to invite Jesus to dinner. Surely, if anyone deserves the
Lord’s forgiveness, good people like Simon do.
And look... Even this woman does a nice thing
for Jesus, wetting His feet with her tears, wiping them with her hair,
and anointing them with ointment, and Jesus says that her sins are
forgiven because she loved much. Isn’t Jesus Himself
teaching here that we earn His forgiveness by our works of love?
No! If that were the case, why doesn’t Simon the Pharisee
get the forgiveness of his sins for showing such hospitality to
Jesus? Some would point then to the woman’s faith and say
that it was her faith that earned her the forgiveness of sins.
Doesn’t Jesus even tell her, “Your faith has saved
you”? Does that mean we’re to trust our faith?
Is faith faith in faith? No! Faith is always faith in
Jesus. The woman didn’t in any way earn or deserve the
forgiveness of her sins, either with her kind deeds or by her
faith. Her faith itself was a gift to her from God and simply
received the forgiveness the Lord was giving to her. And her kind
deeds showed that she believed that she had been granted the
forgiveness of her sins. Her good works were the visible evidence
that she trusted in Jesus and knew just how much He had forgiven
her. She displayed her love as a result of the Lord’s mercy
towards her. Pointing to her good deeds, then, Jesus says,
“Look! You can tell by her actions that this woman believes
that I have graciously forgiven her all her sins and cancelled her debt
before God. Therefore, her sins - which are many - are forgiven,
for she loved much; her faith in me has saved her.”
In the same way, the more you realize how much the
Lord has forgiven you, the more you will demonstrate your faith in
works of love like this woman did. Since a Pharisee believes that
God’s forgiveness is fractional, that only some of his sins are
forgiven (perhaps only the ones that he specifically names), he
demonstrates his unbelief by loving little. His forgiveness (to
him) is fractional; therefore his love towards others is
fractional. But just as you are no fractional sinner, so neither
is the Lord’s forgiveness fractional. As the Apostle John
writes, “If we confess our sins (How many sins? All, even
the ones we’re not aware of), God is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Jesus gives you more than enough forgiveness to cover all your
sins. The debt that you owe Him has been completely canceled by
His having paid it for you with His own perfect obedience to
God’s commandments and His sacrificial death on the cross.
As the Apostle Paul writes to the Colossian Christians, “And you,
who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
God made alive together with [Jesus], having forgiven us all our
trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with
its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the
cross.” And the Apostle John writes in the book of
Revelation that it was with His blood that Jesus has freed us from our
sins. It’s on account of Christ and His works alone, not
ours, that all our sins are forgiven. All the glory, then, goes
to Him alone, and our works of love towards our neighbors are the
response of faith, the evidence of our thanks and praise to God for
having canceled our debt for Christ’s sake.
But here’s where the little Pharisee within
all of us wants to come out again to play and say, “Well, then,
since God has wiped out all my debt for Christ’s sake,
who’s paid for it with His blood shed on the cross, this gives me
license to go ahead and live in sin, sinning all the more, so that
God’s grace towards me might abound.” But
that’s not the attitude with which this woman approached
Jesus. Her very actions prove that she was repentant of her sins,
not that she intended to go on with her sinful lifestyle now that she
had gotten forgiveness from Jesus. She was truly sorry for her
sins, as her tears and her humility showed. On another occasion,
when Jesus assured a woman caught in adultery that He did not condemn
her, He did not then say to her, “It’s okay now. You
can return to your life of prostitution. Go in
peace.” No! He said, “Go and sin no
more.” So too with us. Our Lord’s forgiveness
is not a license to live in sin. God is not saying that
it’s okay to sin. As the Apostle Paul writes, we are to die
to sin. It’s what the Holy Spirit is working in us through
our Baptism on a daily basis. In those waters we were crucified
with Christ, so that we might also rise with Him and walk in newness of
life by the spirit, not by the lusts of the flesh.
And yet, we must confess that we constantly fall to
the same sins over and over again. In our weakness we cannot not
sin. That’s where our Lord’s words of forgiveness and
peace are a comfort to us. They would be a comfort to this woman,
too, who, in the weakness of her sinful flesh, would fall again into
sin, perhaps even that very day. Though God’s words of Law
would again convict her on account of that sin, she would run to her
crucified Lord, lay her sins upon Him, and receive His forgiveness and
peace, reminding herself again of His words to her, “Your faith
has saved you. Go in peace.”
That’s what you can do, too, when you fall to
temptation. Confess them to the Lord and repent of them.
Then, hear His words of absolution spoken to you by me your pastor,
remember your Baptism, and eat and drink Christ’s body and blood
for the forgiveness of your sins in His holy Supper. Remind
yourself that you have been purchased with the blood of Christ, that
your debt of sin has been canceled before God, that your sins have been
forgiven and that you are now at peace with God for Christ’s
sake. There is now no condemnation for you who are in Christ
Jesus, “for the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in
Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.”
The ones who get the Lord’s forgiveness are
those who have been broken by the Law, confess their sins, repent of
them, and believe that for Christ’s sake they have the
forgiveness of all their sins which their Lord worked for them through
His obedience and His cross and promises to them in His Word. The
bigger a sinner you confess yourself to be, the bigger a Savior you
have. Lay all your sins on Jesus; He’s more than able to
bear them, and hear the same words spoken to you that He spoke to this
woman: “Your faith has saved you. Go in
peace.” Amen.