The two debtors
Recently in small group we discussed the passage in Luke that deals with Jesus telling the parable of two debtors to Simon the Pharisee (7:36-50). I believe God showed me some interesting things about this passage that I had not previously thought of. First, a quick description of the scene. Jesus has been invited to eat with Simon, so He goes in to eat and a woman (labeled as a "sinner" which meant prostitute) came and was washing his feet with tears and perfume. The Pharisee knows what kind of woman she is and thinks to himself that if Jesus were a prophet He would know as well.Jesus responds to this thought (keep in mind the Pharisee never actually spoke it) with a parable about two people owing money to a lender and one owing 10 times as much as the other. The lender erases both debts since neither can repay him. Jesus asks the Pharisee which would love the lender more. The Pharisee responds correctly that the one who had the bigger debt forgiven would. Then, Jesus goes on to explain that the Pharisee did nothing for Him when He came in (no water to wash feet and no kiss which were customary) but the woman has not stopped doing these. He then says that she has many sins which have been forgiven "for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little".
I used to struggle with this passage because I took it to mean that you had to have had an immensely sinful life forgiven by Christ in order to love the way He wants you love - the way the woman loved. So how does that fit for someone that came to believe at a young age and maybe never experienced some of the "major sins"? Certainly Paul indicates that we are not supposed to "sin more that grace may increase", so does that mean we are just stuck without hope of loving more?
Then came these thoughts. Based on the fact that the Pharisee did not even exercise common courtesy of the day, he clearly did not love Jesus, and he did not believe he was a sinner in need of forgiveness. In fact he thought we has well above the woman who he would never have associated with and assumed Jesus would not either had He known who she was. Jesus proves He not only knows who the woman is, but also who the Pharisee is and what he is thinking and then proceeds to flip the table upside down. This is so amazing to me. My paraphrase: "Simon you knew the right answer to my parable, but clearly you do not know where you fit in it. This woman has great debt that has been forgiven and in return she loves much. You do not know you have debt so you have not been forgiven it and that is why you have loved me little (or not at all).
Jesus is not saying that woman has more debt than the Pharisee; He is saying that she has been forgiven more debt than the Pharisee and there is a difference. With God things are all or not; we cannot be partially forgiven. The Pharisee did not believe and therefore remained in his sins, but the woman had been forgiven. Also, it only takes one sin to fully seperate us from God because of his perfection and Holiness. So in the grand scheme of the scale of sins against God you have this score: Woman= 0; Pharisee = infinity. Not looking too good for Simon. This is so good for us because no matter who we are or what we've done, we've all sinned and put ourselves infinitely far away from God.
The grace of God that offers forgiveness through Christ is the only thing that removes those sins from us and allows us to be back with God, and when we recognize the magnitude of this infinite gap jumped by our Lord on a tree 2000 years ago, we will discover how to love. We are all equal in damnation before Christ and our recognition of the extent of grace will lead us to love. Do we really comprehend how much we have been forgiven? Do we really understand that every day we do not love God above all other things on Earth and put other people before ourselves in everything we are sinning? We all sin VIRTUALLY CONSTANTLY!! Therefore we are desperately in need of the grace Jesus gives. He who has been forgiven much, loves much.
posted by jc @ 2/25/2006 02:38:00 PM
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