"Your sins are forgiven"

This weekend I attended a leadership retreat for the campus ministry that I am involved in called Cru. It was an absolutely amazing weekend that has completely changed my view on discipleship and evangelism. I think I have always had this mindset that evangelism is like those crazy guys who stand out by the student center at UGA, screaming and yelling at people. And although they are reading the gospel, I feel like no one is going to be like “ohh, I have heard about this Jesus guy. Let me just go find about more about him from this scary dude yelling at me.” Like, no. No one is going to say that. What I have learned this weekend is that evangelism is nothing like those guys, but it is simply going out of your way to start up a conversation with someone.However, evangelism is not what I am going to talk about in this blog post. The first night we were on the retreat, one of the staff members, Brooke, gave an amazing talk on Luke 7:36-50. I really want to share this with y’all because it has really impacted me and really made me think a lot about the way I act on a daily basis.

“When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.

When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”

Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”

“Tell me, teacher,” he said.

“Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”

Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”

“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.

Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”

Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”

Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.””

- Luke 7:36-50

Okay, so here is a little background on this passage. Many scholars believe that this woman was a prostitute. She is being extremely courageous when she goes to see Jesus. The common courtesy back then was to wash your guests feet, however the Pharisee did not wash Jesus’ feet. So picture Jesus, laying on the ground, with nasty, dirty, cut up feet. The perfume that this woman brought was very beautiful and expensive. To understand this woman’s humility, you see her go to Jesus’ feet first. When she begins to weep, her tears are literally washing his feet clean and then she dries them with her OWN hair. Back then, a woman’s hair was very treasured, so this scene is so powerful because it really shows how much she understands who Jesus is. Now to the Pharisee. Pharisee means “set apart” and they believed that they found forgiveness through their good deeds. The Pharisee didn’t think about Jesus about the Messiah. Okay, I need you to picture this. This guy is literally standing about 30 feet away from Jesus and he completely MISSED him. Can you imagine that? Standing so close to such an amazing savior and completely missing him…?

Okay, now here is where it gets serious. Jesus begins to tell Simon a story about a moneylender who canceled the debts of two men. One men’s debt was greater than the other, so obviously the man with the greater debt is going to love the moneylender more for forgiving him. This perfectly correlates to the woman in the story.

Okay, here is a part that is often missed. “Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon.” He was facing the woman when he was talking to Simon. Think about how powerful this must have been for that woman. Jesus is looking her in the eyes and praising her for what she has done. PRAISING HER. I cannot even imagine how awesome of a feeling that would have been. Jesus is communicating her worth: he opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble.

And this is my favorite part, “But he who has been forgiven little loves little.” In a couple of blog posts ago, I talked about grace and my experience with it. When I wrote that, I searched and searched for a passage to explain what I was trying to get out and here is a perfect one. When we see ourselves as better than other people, it becomes harder for us to see the beauty of what Jesus did for us. If we begin to see ourselves as the sinners we are, it all the sudden becomes so much more real and powerful that Jesus DIED on a cross for us and that He loved us so much. It is such a simple thing to do yet it can make all the difference.

The woman’s desire for Jesus was greater than her fear of the guests in the room. Think about this. What if she hadn’t gone? What if she had been too scared to go to Jesus? Her life was completely flipped upside down the moment Jesus said “Your sins are forgiven...your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

And if you really paid attention, you would notice that the woman says nothing the whole entire time she was there. Her actions spoke way louder than any words could have. She gave the most valuable things without having to say anything. Out of all the people in the room, she is the only one that REALLY noticed Jesus.

We need to be the woman, not the Pharisee. We need to be at Jesus’ feet always. We need to need him the way the woman needed him. Because the more we need, the more we rely on him, the more joy and peace we will have in our hearts.

A lot of times I catch myself being like the Pharisee. Thinking “ohh yeah, I can handle this. I don’t need Jesus for this one, I can do it by myself.” Or “I don’t sin that badly. Like really, I don’t really need forgiveness for this because it isn’t that bad.” But I am SO wrong. I need Jesus more than I will ever understand, but sometimes it is hard to completely let go of control and let him take control.

So now as I go out into this week and the rest of the semester, well I guess my life too, I will strive to constantly be like the woman in this story: full of humility, understanding that I need Jesus, and continually bowing at his feet.

I truly hope that you got something out of this passage and that you can take this out with you into this upcoming week. Become the woman, not the Pharisee and you will begin to notice radical change in your life and in your heart.

God Bless and have a wonderful week!