Look! A woman!

Posted on March 1, 2010 | 0 comments

In Luke 7, Jesus is invited for a meal into the home of a religious leader – a Pharisee by the name of Simon. A woman enters the room because she wants to find Jesus, who she had undoubtedly heard was a friend of sinners. And she was well qualified in that department.

Our English translation does not convey the shock that the entrance of this woman made, when it says “when a woman” it is literally “And look a woman!” The shock was primarily because of this woman’s reputation. The text tells us that she was a sinner and whatever her sin, she was a woman of considerable notoriety.

Her desire is to find Jesus and when her eyes finally rest on Him, the other guest fade into a mist of tears; it suddenly doesn’t matter what these respectable people think about her. All that she sees is Jesus and “standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with ointment.”

This woman is a mess – crying unashamedly, her nose running with snot, her hair wet with a muddy mixture of tears, dirt, and the smell of feet.

All eyes are on Jesus what will he do.

So Jesus tells Simon story: “A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?”

Simon’s answer reveals his heart. “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.”

Both were incredible debts considering that the average wages were barely sufficient for survival. And although there is considerable difference in what each man owed, what is important is that neither man was able to pay.

Both would have great love and adoration for the moneylender because their debts had been cancelled. It really doesn’t matter how much they owed. The point is forgiveness – something Simon believes he has no need of. Simon, however, has the same problem as the woman – they both owed a debt that they could not pay.

How often do we fall into the same trap. “I’m a sinner, BUT I am not a ‘big’ sinner like that woman.”

Sin is sin is sin is sin.

The sin debt had to be paid. And Jesus paid the debt so that you would not have to.