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Luke 7:36–50
“Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little” (v. 47).
Although the ministries of John the Baptist and Jesus differed, they overlapped in the offer of God’s forgiveness to sinners. John’s ministry exhibited austerity while the ministry of Jesus had a more celebratory air (Luke 7:33–34), but the forgiveness of sins through faith and repentance lay at the heart of the message that both men preached. The main difference is that sinners receive divine pardon through faith in Jesus, not faith in John (e.g., see Rom. 3:21–4:25).
In today’s passage, Luke addresses the topic of forgiveness by recording Jesus’ anointing by a sinful woman in the home of a Pharisee. This is not the same event as in Matthew 26:6–13; Mark 14:3–9; and John 12:1–8. Luke tells us about something that happened in Jesus’ earlier Galilean ministry, but the other Evangelists describe an act of service to our Lord that took place in Bethany, outside Jerusalem, just before He died. Some of the details are similar, of course. In both events, a woman anoints Jesus with a costly ointment as a sign of her great devotion to our Savior.
The anointing that Luke describes occurred in the house of Simon, a Pharisee who had invited Jesus to dine with him. While they were eating, a woman poured the ointment on Jesus’ feet and washed them with her tears. This was a sign of tremendous respect, but Simon did not respond to her actions kindly, for she was a sinner (Luke 7:36–39). In other words, she was guilty of some kind of notorious sin, though Luke does not tell us what it was. He also does not mention how the woman gained access to Jesus, but when people entertained guests in those days, they often left their doors open or ate in the courtyard. Access to Jesus would not have been difficult to obtain.
Jesus responded to Simon’s objections that He had allowed a sinful woman to touch Him by telling a parable about debt forgiveness and pointing out that those who have had a great debt erased love a lender more than those whose forgiven debt is smaller (Luke 7:40–43). Next, He undermined Simon’s self-righteousness by noting that the Pharisee had not provided Him with the customary services that a good host gave to his guests back then: water to wash His feet, the kiss of greeting, and oil for His head (Luke 7:44–46). Simon was not nearly as righteous as he thought he was, for he could not give even the basics of loving hospitality to Jesus, but the woman’s love for Jesus was the outer sign that she had received the righteousness that comes by faith and had been forgiven of her sins (Luke 7:47–50).
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Dr. R.C. Sproul comments, “There is no greater gift that the Lord God can give any of us than . . . to forgive us for every sin that we’ve ever committed.” The more we understand that, the greater the love we have for Him, because He who is forgiven much loves much. Our love for God increases to the extent that we know how undeserving we are of the pardon and the generous forgiveness that He bestows. We study Scripture to better know both of these facts.
for further study
- Joshua 23:11
- Psalm 130:3–4
- Ephesians 1:3–10
- 1 John 4:7–12
the bible in a year
- 1 Samuel 10–12
- Luke 13:22–35