Bible Study: Struggling with grace

Amen. Amen. Amen.

All right, we will go ahead and get started. If you're joining us online, welcome. We are glad that you're here. We're going to be in Luke chapter 7, verses 36 through 50, taking a look at this parable of the two debtors and the two debtors. Not just the parable, because the parable only sort of takes up a couple of verses, maybe just two verses in total, but the situation surrounding the parable. And it's sort of an awkward situation. You have a lady who's crying over somebody's feet. You sort of have an angry religious confrontation. So there's a lot of awkwardness going on. And the awkwardness, I don't think, is the issue of this account, but rather how we respond to grace, whether we accept it or we see others who are receiving it, and we become angry.

So we're going to go ahead and just walk through this, beginning in verse 36. And we'll make sure we get our slides going. And so we have this, Luke 1:36, "One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table." So the Pharisee, this is the Pharisee named Simon, and he's having the traveling rabbi over for dinner. Not an unusual thing. I remember in college when I was supply preaching, where you go to a different church sort of every week. There was usually somebody in the church who'd take the young preacher out for dinner, and this was the same kind of thing. When the visiting preacher comes in and speaks in the synagogue, somebody in the synagogue wants to have him over for dinner.

And so we need a little bit of cultural context, because what you find is they reclined at the table. And for us, that's kind of a strange thing, because we sit at tables, and most of the time our meals are divided into sort of two parts. We have the meal at the table, and then we have the time we spend with our friends. And so in our house, the way that works is we eat, and then it's like, "Hey, let's go to the living room and sit where it's comfortable." They did everything in one place. And so here's a picture of what that would look like. This is actually a woodcut of what the Last Supper would look like. You kind of have a low table, U-shaped, so that people can come in and serve inside the U, and you sit on the outside reclining on cushions.

This was a meal that would have taken a while. And this wasn't just about eating. This was an opportunity to learn. And so there's sort of two groups that are present. There's the people who are sitting around the table, or over here, if you're online, sitting around the table eating and participating, but also when you had a sort of a famous, well-known rabbi come, what would happen is the host would often open up the door to his house, and people could just come in and sort of stand against the wall and listen to the conversation. So like if you've ever been to a conference and they have a panel, and they got a bunch of panelists sitting up on the stage, and you can ask them questions, and they kind of go back and forth, that's a little bit of what would happen. So people would come and they would just be there to hear and listen to the meal conversation. Now there is some tension in this meal. We have Pharisee and

Jesus, and we know that Pharisees and Jesus tend to generally not get along very well, so it would kind of be like tomorrow if the House Democrats and the House Republicans sit down for lunch together, and there's going to be some tension in our world. That's kind of what's happening here. You have two sort of different factions. One, Jesus, who is coming as God in the flesh, and He's coming rightly, and then you have those who oppose Him. And one of the ways we know that there's some tension in this is later on we'll see that Simon hasn't done any of the polite things that people do. There's no water for foot washing. Remember, you're wearing sandals in that time, and so your feet got pretty gross, and you're kind of sitting around a table. Your feet aren't under a table. They're kind of stretched out behind you or near your neighbor, and so if you've

been following a camel down the road, your feet are pretty gross. Like the kids when they play in the summertime, they come in and we say, "Wash your feet." We put in the bathtub and spray their feet off and it just turns black with dirt. That's what would happen. So before you come in, you would wash your feet. There's no kiss. Now this is not a romantic kiss. This is a sign of affection or welcome. We would probably equate it to like a handshake. Somebody comes in and we shake their hand and say, "Welcome." And there's no oil. This is kind of a way to freshen up. So you're living in a place that's dry. It's arid. It's windy. It's sunny. Your skin gets dry. You come in, you give them some oil. It's a way to sort of freshen up and not feel as dry as you have been. And Simon the Pharisee forgoes all of these customs, sort of leaving it as a sort of a veiled insult to Jesus. And so it's at this point where Jesus comes in and

sits down, that everything sort of takes a strange turn. And it says, "Behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at the table in a Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and she wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment." And so it starts with a little bit of a surprise, that word "behold." It's kind of like, all of a sudden, behold, there was this lady. So she's from the town, likely familiar to everyone present. It's emphasized in this text that she was a sinner. That's likely she was a prostitute. She was an immoral lady. And so you have these sort of several characters. You have Simon, who's the ultra-religious Pharisee, likely hostile to Jesus. Not openly hostile,

but not a, you know, kind of veiled, backhanded hostility. You have Jesus, who's the Messiah. You have the sinful woman, who just sort of surprised showed up. And then you have this observing crowd in the background. It says she brought an alabaster flask of ointment. So this is made of gypsum, which is like a rock or mineral. It's soft, so you can carve it and turn it. There's an illustration of a small alabaster jar. It looks big in the picture. They're kind of almost like a whitish, almost translucent. It was like, you know, very small. It holds perfume, which would be extremely costly. And so she's standing behind Jesus at the back of the table. She is weeping. And this word weeping is not just like, you know, the single tear kind of running down our cheek or, you know, sort of a general demeanor of sadness.

This is like full-on tears just flowing out of the eyes, down the face, enough that she is able to get Jesus' feet wet with all of her tears. And then she looks at his feet. She's trying to wipe off the tears with her hair. She's washing her feet, you know, kissing in a symbol of humility. You know, one of the things that you would do if you were in the presence of a ruler, you throw yourself at their feet. It's a picture of humility, and so it's kind of this strange situation that's happening that for us, if that was to happen right now, we'd probably call the authorities, right? It's like some lady just showed up and just, you know, weeping and crying over somebody's feet. There's something very wrong going on. So let's take a look at Simon's problems, and he has a large stack of problems. It says this, verse 39,

"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.'" So there's a bunch of problems here. First of all, she's breaking the rules of decorum, right? She's causing a scene. This is not a place for her to make a big deal, right? Jesus is supposed to be here teaching and answering questions and talking. Secondly, she's a woman, and in that time period, women, you have to keep your distance. She's a sinful woman, so she shouldn't even be there, let alone touching Jesus. So she's breaking the rule of decorum, she's breaking the rule of distance, and then she's breaking the rule of modesty, which we don't think about in our time and culture very much.

In those days, it was considered extremely immodest to let anyone other than your husband see your hair. And so in the Mishnah, which is a collection of Jewish rules separate from the Bible, it was grounds for divorce without compensation for a woman to go out of the house with her hair uncovered. And so not only is she out of the house with her hair uncovered, but she's wiping Jesus' feet with her hair. And then, so there's a problem with all these rules she's breaking, decorum, distance with modesty, and then there's a problem with the woman herself, right? She's a sinner. Why is she there? She wasn't invited. She has a reputation in town. Everybody knows her. And then Simon has a problem with Jesus, right? If he was really a prophet, he wouldn't let this woman go anywhere near him.

And so in the back of his mind, Simon isn't saying this out loud. He's thinking if he knew who she really was, he wouldn't be within a mile of this woman. And so he has a problem with Jesus. Now, to be perfectly honest, I kind of relate to Simon's things, right? Her decorum is not great. You know, she's hanging all over Jesus's feet. She's a sinful lady. I can kind of understand why he is upset at this situation. And so look at what Jesus says to Simon, and I think to us too, especially when we're dealing with people who are experiencing the grace of God. Let's take a look at this parable of the two debtors. And Jesus answering him said to him, "Simon, I have something to say to you." And he answered, "Say it, teacher."

A certain money lender had two debtors, one owed 500 denarii, the other 50. And when they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both. Now which one will love him more? And Simon answered, "The one, I suppose, for whom he canceled the larger debt." And he said, "You have judged rightly." So notice Simon, he's a little less than polite. Jesus says, "I've got something to say." And what does he go? "Say it." You know, our probably approximation would be like, "Spit it out," right? Like, it's not a nice, he's not saying, "Oh, yes, Jesus, share your thoughts with the group," right? This is sort of rude. And so he just tells this incredibly simple parable, one owes 50, another 500, so the difference is simply a zero. But that extra zero makes it way bigger. And we're talking about, in the money of that time, the difference between

maybe two months of wages and a year and a half. And neither of them could pay, and their debt is forgiven. And so he applies it this in the second half of verse 42, "Which will love him more?" And we all know the answer instinctually, the guy who has been forgiven more. And Simon does too, but he doesn't want to admit it. Look at what he says in verse 43. "Simon answered, 'The one, I suppose, for whom he canceled the larger debt.'" So it's like, "Well, which one, Simon?" And he goes, "Well, I suppose..." He doesn't want to come out and say it blatantly. He wants to come out and kind of work his way around it, because he sees, I think, what Jesus is getting at, and he doesn't necessarily want to acknowledge it.

And so here's what sort of changes how I feel, and how we should go from feeling like Simon, a little uncomfortable with what this woman's doing, to seeing the grace of Jesus. Jesus has just explained why this woman is behaving in the way she is, because she has been forgiven much. And if you think about this woman, she has met two different kinds of people in her life, right? Those who would use her for what she can offer them physically, and those who look down upon her with scorn. And then Jesus shows up, and in Matthew, we hear his words, you know, "Come to me, you who are labor and heavy laden, I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, for I am gentle and lowly a heart. You will find rest for your souls.

My yoke is easy. My burden is light." And there are two reasons for her tears. First of all, Jesus takes away the weight of her sin. And secondly, Jesus loves her. And Jesus is someone who loves her as she is right now. He's not trying to use her. He's not treating her like she is less than or inferior or needs to be avoided. He loves her, and He forgives her. And so we go from this parable to the reactions. And not just reactions for what's described here, but reactions for us. And so, picking up in verse 44: But 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.

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 the table with Him began to say among themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?" And He said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you. Go in peace." So, Jesus is going to contrast their reactions. We've got a little chart here. "Simon, I entered your house. You gave me no water for your 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." So, Simon has been rude at the best and confrontational and dishonest about his motives at the worst by not doing any of the expected hospitality for Jesus. This woman, on the other hand, she's courageous. She comes to a place where she is not welcome. She is honest and vulnerable. She comes not acting as someone that she's not, which is a little bit of what Simon's doing, because he's acting like he's perfect and self-righteous and this great guy, but she comes as someone who is broken by her sin and weeping. And one of the things that is remarkable about her is she is able to be honest, because she knows she is safe with Jesus.

This may be the first time in her life where she has felt this way. Taking down her hair for this woman is not immodest, but it's trusting, saying that I'm safe in the presence of Jesus. This is also costly, both personally for her reputation in the community, for her embarrassment at what's happening, but also monetarily. And so there have been some who said this vial of ointment. If she is, in fact, a prostitute, you don't have banks or savings accounts. This may have been something that she was a treasure, that maybe when she doesn't have as much money or when work stops happening for her, she is able to sell. So she's, in some cases, some commentators believe she's literally giving up her retirement, her nest egg, in the worship of Jesus. So she is overwhelmed, she's welcomed, and she's made safe by grace, by this wonderful gift.

And here's the thing: Simon and everybody else just scoffs, right? They just turn up their noses at her. They begin to question Jesus and say, "Well, how is he able to forgive sins?" Jesus will point to this lady's faith, and I would point out that she is saved not because of her courage, her honesty, her vulnerability, or the costliness of forgiveness. She's saved because she trusted Jesus. In fact, that's exactly what verse 50 says: "Your faith has saved you." Now, all of these other things—her courage, her honesty, her vulnerability, the costliness of her gift—come because she has been saved. They are a reaction. Her life has changed now that Jesus has saved her. And so one of the things that this parable does, I think, is causes us to see the greatness of grace, and calls us, like this woman, to embrace the grace of Jesus.

Now, Simon and this crowd should have been joyful, right? Joyful at the grace for her, joyful at the grace for them. And I want to just think about that for a minute, the grace for them. Both debtors in this parable owe more than they can pay, or the parable says that they'll ever be able to pay. They aren't able to pay it back. And so, for some of us, there's a point of money where it doesn't matter how much or how little it is, you just can't pay it back. And so, both the guy who owes 50 and the guy who owes 500, neither of them can pay it. It doesn't matter how big the debt is if you can't pay it, right? And so, the picture here is that Simon has a debt he can't pay. He just doesn't know it.

But Jesus comes into the hostile house of the Pharisee, and he's reaching out to him, and that's grace, right? It's the father coming out of the house to the older, angry, religious brother and saying, "Come into the feast. Come join the rejoicing." And so, a couple of things to think about. Are we joyful over grace, the grace that has been given to us, like this woman? Or, are we like Simon, where we don't see our need for grace? Or, when we look at others and we see the grace that's given to them, we say, "Well, they didn't earn that." And that's kind of the point of grace, is that we can't earn it. And so, one of the things that this should do is cause us to test our heart and to say, "How do I feel about the grace that's been given to me? How do I feel about my need for grace?

And how do I feel when others experience grace?" And I think part of the point of this parable, and the point of the parables we've been looking at over the last couple weeks, is Jesus welcomes and forgives sinners, and He invites us all to come to Him. Any thoughts or comments? All right, let's go ahead and have a word of prayer. Father in heaven, thank you for allowing us to spend some time in your word. We struggle with grace. We struggle to see our need for it. We struggle to show it to others, and we struggle when we see others receive it. And so help us to see the grace of Jesus for this woman who, in her brokenness, comes to Him and throws herself at His feet, and He comforts her and accepts her and loves her. Help us not to be like Simon, looking down on those to whom you have shown grace. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you.