How Great a Debtor

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 and 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 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 answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” And he said to him, “You have judged rightly.” Then 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 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” (Luke 7:36–50).[1]

Jesus was invited to dine with a Pharisee. Perhaps surprisingly, he accepted. He who said that he came “to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10) would presumably have plenty to seek and save over supper. But as the party proceeded, it was unexpectedly crashed, by a woman known not by name but by sin. Luke records neither.

Uninvited and unwelcomed, she enters the dining room where Jesus dines reclined, as was the custom. She approaches Jesus silently, humbly bowing, weeping, and kissing his unwashed feet. As the tears flow, they wash. As they wash, she dries. As she dries, she anoints his feet with precious perfume, the fragrance filling the air.

Why is she there? Why does she cry? Why does she do what she does? And what motivates her to do it? What would motivate you to crash a party and cry at the feet of Jesus? A sense of duty or desire of reward? These may motivate the masses, but not her. She is weeping tears of love, “for she loved much.”

Tears of Love

There is so much that Luke doesn’t tell us: Perhaps she had heard Jesus teaching; perhaps he had healed her of disease; perhaps he had freed her from demon possession; perhaps she had become a distant disciple. We don’t know, and it doesn’t matter. What matters Luke tells us, through Jesus’ own words, “her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much” (7:47). J.C. Ryle says, “a sense of having our sins forgiven is the mainspring and life-blood of love to Christ. ...The heart which has experienced the pardoning love of Christ, is the heart which loves Christ, and strives to glorify him.”[2] The woman’s love for the Lord, evidenced in her humility, her tears, her public display of affection, all flow from the love of God in Christ. She loves the Lord Jesus, because he first loved her.[3]

When Jesus was asked by a legalist, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” he replied, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22:36-39). Do you suppose the woman who weeps and kisses Jesus’ feet loves the Lord with all her heart, soul, and mind? Perhaps Simon thinks she’s lost her mind, but what we witness in her actions is undeniably whole-hearted love, witnessed in her worship. We may worship the Lord out of duty, but the motivation of our worship must be love. We worship because we love.

Simon, the Pharisee, does not. At most, Jesus is interesting, but Simon shows no sign of love for the Lord. As a Pharisee, he is a man of duty, driven by the legalistic standards of his sort, which Jesus has seemingly betrayed. Simon has no love for his neighbor either, especially the sort weeping at Jesus’ feet.

“One way to test our grasp of God’s grace,” Phil Ryken explains, “is to see how we respond to the people we think of as sinners. What we say about them, how we treat them, and what we do (or fail to do) to touch their lives with the love of Jesus Christ indicates our true understanding of God and his grace.”[4] A lack of empathy for those not of our sort reveals a lack of understanding the grace we have received and a love for the Lord in our hearts. How easy it is for us to say we love the Lord but show no love for others, often justified by what I call “comparative godliness,” in which we judge our neighbor’s sin as more grievous than our own. But Paul says, “you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things” (Rom. 3:1). “We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things,” Paul explains, but then he asks, “Do you suppose ... you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God?” (Rom. 3:2-3). In the game of comparative godliness, the only winner is our sinful self-righteousness. But when we see our sin for what it is and the unmerited favor of God in forgiving us, we will not despise the woman weeping at Jesus’ feet. We will join her!

Thoughts of Pride

As she weeps, Simon wonders, “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” (7:39). Simon thinks he’s found Jesus out, not a prophet but an imposter. A real prophet would know who she is, as Simon did. A real prophet would know what sort she is, as Simon did. A real prophet would know she is a sinner, which Simon thinks himself not.

The picture Luke paints is one of comparison and contrast. Simon is a wealthy member of the religious right; she is an unnamed sinner. Simon hosts the dinner; she invites herself. Simon scoffs with disgust; she weeps with gratitude. Simon secretly judges Jesus; she openly loves him. Simon believes himself righteous; she looks to Jesus the righteous.

Simon’s prideful thoughts tell us he knows nothing of God’s grace. Simon’s self-righteous pride blinds himself to his own sin and destroys all empathy for the woman. Simon’s self-righteous pride blinds him to Jesus’ identity and disregards the woman’s humanity. Simon’s self-righteous pride blinds him to the grace of God and dismisses the forgiveness the woman has received. Simon’s self-righteous pride tells him he’s good enough, but the woman will never be.

Has your self-righteousness blinded you to the glory of God’s grace? Consider Jesus’ tale of two debtors, one who owes little and one who owes much. The tale concludes with the moneylender cancelling the debts for both. Using language uncharacteristic of finance, Jesus then asks Simon, “which of them will love him more?” Perhaps reluctant to engage in Jesus’ trivial tale, Simon supposes, “The one for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” Simon gets it right (Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while!). But getting the right answer doesn’t mean he gets it. Do you?

The sin debt of every son of Adam is insurmountable, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). Not even Simon in all his Pharisaical piety could pay off the sin debt due his Creator. No one can meet such an audacious debt demand. But “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). We owed a debt we could not pay; he paid a debt he did not owe.

Testimony of Faith

Jesus directs Simon’s calloused heart to the woman, asking, “Do you see this woman?” Of course, Simon sees her; he knows her; he knows her sort. But that’s not what Jesus means, is it? He directs Simon not to her identity but her testimony. When Jesus arrived at Simon’s house, he did not receive the common courtesies to a greeted guest, no water to wash his filthy feet, no welcoming kiss, no oil for his head. Simon’s regard for Jesus was so low as to show no hospitality, while in humility the woman cleans Jesus’ feet with her tears and hair, caressing them as one who wishes nothing more than to worship her Lord.

But when Jesus says, “Do you see this woman?” he is not confronting Simon’s lack of manners either. Simon’s problem is a common one: He doesn’t see his own depravity. The sinner that Simon sees is the woman at Jesus’ feet. But it is to, not Simon, that Jesus says, “Your sins are forgiven.” She was the great debtor of Jesus’ tale, for whom all is forgiven. Justified as righteous she is debt free, and “if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36).

Here is one, once lost but now found, to whom he says, “Your sins are forgiven. ...Your faith has saved you; go in peace” (7:48, 50). The verb translated “forgiven” connotes past, present, and future forgiveness. She is not forgiven for a moment but justified as righteous before God forever, saved by God’s grace alone through faith in Christ alone. And so it is for all who believe.

Jesus’ words startle Simon’s guests, who begin talking amongst themselves. Note carefully what they are asking, not “Who is this woman who has earned forgiveness of her sins?” but “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” For, it was not the woman’s boldness, or weeping, or anointing Jesus’ feet that earned her forgiveness. It is Jesus, the righteous Son of God, who would die for her sin and mine, who forgives her many sins.  

While the woman provides a beautiful testimony of faith, a personal testimony is never faithful unless it testifies to Christ alone. Who he is, what he has done, and how he lives in me; these are the primary points of our testimony of faith, answering the question, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” He is our Savior; he is our Lord. All glory be to Christ!

[1] Unless referenced otherwise, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (Wheaton: Crossway Bibles, 2001).

[2] J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Luke, Vol. 1 (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2012), 181-182.

[3] 1 John 4:19

[4] Philip Graham Ryken, Luke, Vol. 1 (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2009), 345.