Luke 7:36-50
A Sinful Woman Forgiven
36 Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat. 37 And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, 38 and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil. 39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him sawthis, he spoke to himself, saying, “This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.”
40 And Jesus answered and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.”
So he said, “Teacher, say it.”
41 “There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?”
43 Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.”
And He said to him, “You have rightly judged.” 44 Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. 45 You gave Me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in. 46 You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil. 47 Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.”
48 Then He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
49 And those who sat at the table with Him began to say to themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”
50 Then He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”
God LOVES us to forgive and be forgiving of others...Jesus talks about thins in the LORD's Prayer...Because sinning and forgiving usually involves two or more people, it seems that from God's point of view that sinning is more complicated and involves more than what we might normally think...God has to be Infinitely Forgiving, because sinning and forgiving takes different paths and affects different people each day...
Let us make this story of the sinful woman all about God...The sinning woman at the home of Simon seems to have a sinning reputation, with a noted sinful past...But sinning is not a part of God's nature...But on the other hand forgiving is very much a part of His nature...Jesus in this story forgives the sinful woman, before she repents...Why didn't He wait until she repented"...That is the way God is...And just because it is in His nature to forgive, does not mean God is not hurt by a sin of ours...He maybe hurt more by our sins than we think...When the woman sinned and she must have sinned often (as well as all of us), she hurt God very much...When we sin we break the moral righteousness of being made in His Image and the way He originally created the world and universe to be...Our sins breaks the way God made the world, and the laws He originally set up...Or put in another way, God made a world that was totally good, and when sin entered the world He created, He was more than deeply hurt...Therefore, when we sin we hurt God...And if we read through St. Luke's story about the sinful woman, we can sometimes overlook the hurt and the different ways how sins affect others and to God Himself...
Every sin needs forgiving...And it is in God's nature to forgive...But God is hurt a number of times when our sinning actions involve two or more parties...When a number of people are involved in a sin that requires forgiveness, more is required...If an adult harms a child, the child is hurt...In God's wisdom, He knows the complete circumstances...The child needs God's time and His comfort...But also the adult who harmed the child needs forgiven...Out of God's LOVE, He will help the child...But also out of His LOVE, He will forgive the adult...So we can see how sinning and forgiving costs God great pains...God wants both parties to be helped...So there is a gracious complexity in forgiving...He LOVES both of these children...He has seen us do the wrong when we sinned, and now He must forgive us...Forgiveness causes some pain to the One who wants to forgive...And the more severe the original sin, the more painful the forgiving is...When we have a child of our own who is sinned against, we feel much pain in trying to forgive the one who hurt them...And we are all children of God's, so we can see that both the one sinning and that got hurt causes pain to Him...He is hurt in more than one way...When more than one person is involved, the sin or evil has harmed another child of God's also...So He is hurt in both these cases..God is affected by the party chiefly sinned against and is harmed also by the one who did the evil act and sin...God is wounded in each and every sin, and to make it right, He must help the one who is wounded, and then somehow have the ability to forgive the one who has done this wounding to the injured party...So we can see why Jesus teaches us about the One with Complete Understanding must love, comfort and forgive...And we can see why this Complete Understanding wants to help both of His children and bring them back to His family...His forgiveness must go, to me, a lot further than ours ever will...Complete Understanding is LOVE...And Complete Forgiveness may just be Complete LOVE...
So, we better understand in Jesus' teaching on forgiveness that those who can only forgive a little, can only love a little...We see the love and grace in forgiving...The One who can LOVE Unconditionally, can Unconditionally Forgive...