A Tale of Two Debtors
Debt Awareness
Most all of us know what it means to be in debt. To owe. And we know how our realization of this can, and does, shape us - depending on how we experience it. This is illustrated in a powerful way by the story that Jesus tells in Luke 7. A story of debt, and realization, and how that impacts who we are and how we live among others.
Actually this passage reflects a story within a some other stories. The larger stories are Simon's stories and the woman's stories. Seemingly two entirely different stories. But Jesus weaves them together with another story, the parable He tells. A story that weaves them together in ways that show how similar they are, and yet how they were being lived out very differently. Everything depends upon how our stories, our debt stories, interface with the story that Jesus tells - the story that Jesus lives.
The story that Jesus tells is a story of similarities when it comes to our ability to repay, but huge differences in how much the we grasp the significance of the grace that is extended. And to the extent that we realize that, is the extent to which we love. There is a huge difference in the kinds of lives that flow from a realization of the grace that has been extended to us, and the kinds of lives that flow from a lack of the realization of the extent of our debt and our forgiveness. The focus of the lives are different. What motivates and shapes are different as well.
Both Simon and the woman responded very differently because of how their understood their debt, and their forgiveness. There is a lot we can learn as we reflect on our stories in the light of theirs. But perhaps even more, there is a lot we can learn about the kind of God we see revealed in the midst of these stories as well. This story that Jesus tells, this story in the midst of other lived out stories, speaks to us powerfully if we are listening, if we are aware, if we are responsive.
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Luke 7
NIV
36 When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37 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. 38 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.
39 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.”
40 Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”
“Tell me, teacher,” he said.
41 “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 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?”
43 Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”
“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.
44 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.45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”
48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
49 The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”
50 Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”