Luke 7:36-50
Jesus Forgives and Shows Mercy to 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.”
Jesus teaches us that we are to treat others as we want to be treated...And we are to love our neighbors, all of them...We are not to measure or compare their sins to are because each of us sin in some degree...So Jesus teaches us that we are to love ourselves and to be kind with ourselves...Then we can love and be kind to our neighbors...
Liking and loving yourself and being kind to oneself is not always easy...When a society is large there are people that others find that are unattractive, or threatening, or too this or too that...They look at these people and think that they are better than them, because they sin less...This makes it difficult for us to love them and be kind to them...People can overcome this but they must show common decency and kindness and love...
If one feels they are lesser, it is very difficult to overcome how you think about yourself...And if we cannot overcome that we never grow in faith, and we never learn, and so we will never to able to teach others about love and kindness...It will be harder to teach others about God, if we are always negative thinking and always feeling lesser about ourselves...We will find it hard to live an abundant life, with the baggage of not liking or being kind to ourselves, so that we can treat others in a loving way...
As Simon the Pharisee hosted Jesus for dinner, Simon lacked good hospitality and forgot to show this common decency and kindness to the sinful woman who was crying and at Jesus' feet and anointing Him with perfume...I do not see Simon showing love and kindness to the sinful woman...Jesus teaches us that even though the woman's sins were many, her repentance and loving actions toward Jesus showed that she knew that she needed forgiveness, which she had faith that Jesus could provide...Simon had not shown as much love to Jesus because as the sinful woman and he was not aware that he himself had his own sinful nature that he owed to God...Now it is possible that the woman did sin more than Simon...One might think Simon think he is righteous...But because Simon also sins he too, falls short of the glory of God with his own sins...He too should show thankfulness and love for God's mercy and grace and forgiveness...But Simon might not even think he needs forgiving or needs God's Grace...
Jesus teaches us that, if we are not each aware of how great our own sins and sinful nature is, then we find it difficult to know what our own sin debt is to God...If we think we are righteous then we are not seeing our sins properly in God's eyes...So we will not have a proper degree of love and gratitude to God for the grace that He has shown us in His forgiveness of our own sins...We also will not show the proper love and kindness and forgiveness toward our neighbors, when we compare ourselves to others as being somehow better than they are...We will not show our neighbor love and kindness, because we think they sin more than us or we are better than they are...Jesus teaches us we are all in need of God's grace and mercy, each and everyone of us, as are our neighbors, and each and everyone of us sins and need forgiven...