Luke 7:36-50
Jesus Forgives a Sinful Woman
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.”
Matthew 18:21-35
The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant
21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”
22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. 23 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
26 “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27 The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.
29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’
30 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.
32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
Matthew 6:9-15
The LORD's Prayer
9 “This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.’
14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Who do you know that teaches as much about forgiving and forgiveness than Jesus...I do not know of anyone or have read about anyone in the past who teaches and knows so much about forgiveness than Jesus...
Forgiving and forgiveness is a very important in life...Forgiving and forgiveness are very important in Jesus' teaching...Before reading what Jesus had to say on the subjects of forgiving and forgiveness, I really knew very little about them...Oh, I thought I had an idea of what forgiving and forgiveness meant, but they were very shallow definitions of two of the most important subjects in the world...So two of the greatest lessons Jesus has taught me are on forgiving and forgiveness...
What is life without forgiveness?...In the Pharisee's house is does not seem that Simon understands how important forgiveness is, especially to those needing mercy...Jesus shows Simon that the woman with the most sins, would love Him more because of the great number of her sins...The greater the love the sinful woman would have for Him, just like the example Jesus had told Simon of the two people who owed the moneylender...The one with the largest debt, would love the forgiving moneylender more...God is ready to forgive, and He does it immediately here...Jesus quickly said to the sinful woman, “Your sins are forgiven.”...The more she showed the sorrow for her sins and her love for Him (she wept at His feet and kissed them), the more He listens and hears us in the showing of His forgiving mercy...Without hesitation Jesus forgives her, as if He is the injured party in the many sins in her life...
And we are not to forgive someone just one time, but over and over if they need forgiving...When Peter came to Jesus and asked, “LORD, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me?...Up to seven times?”...Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times."...Jesus expects us to forgive others just as He does...And He expects us to forgive them from our hearts...
C. S. Lewis said this about One Unusual and Forgiving Jew, “Among these Jews there suddenly turns up a Man who goes about talking as if He was God…He claims to forgive sins…He says He has always existed…He says He is coming to judge the world at the end of time…Now let us get this clear…Among Pantheists, like the Indians, anyone might say that he was a part of God, or one with God: there would be nothing very odd about it…But this Man, since He was a Jew, could not mean that kind of God…God, in their language, meant the Being outside the world, who had made it and was infinitely different from anything else…And when you have grasped that, you will see that what this Man said was, quite simply, the most shocking thing that has ever been uttered by human lips…
One part of the claim tends to slip past us unnoticed because we have heard it so often that we no longer see what it amounts to…I mean the claim to forgive sins: any sins...Now unless the speaker is God, this is really so preposterous as to be comic...We can all understand how a man forgives offences against himself...You tread on my toes and I forgive you, you steal my money and I forgive you...But what should we make of a Man, himself unrobbed and untrodden on, who announced that He forgave you for treading on other men’s toes and stealing other men’s money?...Asinine fatuity is the kindest description we should give of His conduct...Yet this is what Jesus did...He told people that their sins were forgiven, and never waited to consult all the other people whom their sins had undoubtedly injured...He unhesitatingly behaved as if He was the party chiefly concerned, the person chiefly offended in all offences...This makes sense only if He really was the God whose laws are broken and whose love is wounded in every sin...In the mouth of any speaker who is not God, these words would imply what I can only regard as a silliness and conceit unrivalled by any other character in history."…
Think about this?...How does a Man or any man in life just come out and start forgiving people?…How does One do it so nonchalant and very common and make each forgiveness seem real and natural...It was a most shocking thing to be telling other people -"I forgive you!"...What gives any man the right to forgive me or anyone else for that matter?...Who or on what authority does a Man have the right to say "I forgive your sins?"...What kind of Man wants to go around forgiving others?...And what is on His mind, when He says I forgive you of your sins?...What is He thinking?...This really would be quite an odd and different Man who would do something along these forgiving lines…He does it in a quite common way, and a convincing way…How can that be or even work?...And yet, when I read these verses of Him forgiving people’s sin, I completely believe that He has done the forgiving and He was the One who was either robbed or troddened on… I do believe that in the mouth of any person who is not God, these words would imply what I can only regard as an unbelief, maybe a showoff, an oddball, and with a conceit unrivalled by any other man or woman in the history of mankind…These forgiving words would be unbelievable to my ears by any other person today, if I heard them -other than God…And through the gospel stories, I do somehow believe Him and that He somehow can forgive sins…
I have often heard that we can forgive someone of the sin, but we do not have to forget the sin...I do not think that Jesus put that condition on any one He forgave...It does not seem completely forgiving or coming from the heart to remember and to say I will not forget your sin...But being human it is difficult to forgive some of the sins that are committed against us...And God knows we are Jesus and in some cases we just cannot forget what happened to us, even though we have forgiven them...We know God's forgiveness is a heartfelt forgiveness...
And in the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant, we see that Jesus connects our be forgiven from God to our forgiving of others...Jesus teaches us that God will treat us as merciful as we treat others in our forgiveness...He says, “This is how My heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”...And in the LORD's Prayer He says something very similar...For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you...But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins...
Since Jesus teaches so much about forgiveness, we know that it is very important...May I pray "May I be forgiven and forgiving."..."May I be forgiven by my Father in heaven and forgiving to others."...