The Why and How Much of My Love for Jesus: I am Simon
Luke 7:36 ¶ One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table.
Luke 7:37 And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment,
Luke 7:38 and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment.
Luke 7:39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.”
Luke 7:40 And Jesus answering said to him, And he answered, “Say it, Teacher.”
Luke 7:41 ¶ “A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.
Luke 7:42 When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?”
Let’s set up this scene a little bit. It really would be a great reality TV show or a podcast. That’s kind of what this is like.
When a Rabbi taught, he would go about his daily activities and people all over the place would stop him and ask him questions. That would be his way of life. You’d have him over to dinner just so you could ask him questions, but in doing that, you’d also have an open forum for people to come and listen to him while you ate dinner. It would be like going out to lunch with Bret, but then they’d mic you and him and there would be chair set up for you to listen to the conversation (like I said, it’s a podcast!)
This Pharisee had Jesus to dinner, and a crowd of people are going to come along to listen. Nobody really watches the door. They figure only welcome people would come and listen.
But this lady comes.
Her skirt was awful short. Her clothes just too tight. You could tell she put out her cigarette after one last puff just before she came in the door. She had a St. Louis Cardinals hat…
And she started weeping and thanking Jesus.
That was her reaction. She didn’t have a question. She didn’t even have an answer!
She had a response.
Her response is what actually brought the judgment, isn’t it? If she would have sat back in the audience, the host would have thought “I’m sure glad this sinner is here to listen to this!”
If she would have stayed outside, nobody would have even noticed her to judge her at all.
But she went inside. She walked right up to that dining area where Jesus would have been lounging with His feet facing away from the food. She busted open a bottle of perfume that would have filled the whole building with its scent.
Jesus knows the judgment is flying, so he asks Simon the Pharisee about forgiven debts. A denarii was a day’s wage, so put in whatever you think. One person is forgiven 50 days of income, the other is forgiven 500 days of income. One 2 months, one 2 YEARS.
When the debts are forgiven, who loves Jesus more?
When Jesus died for my sins, He died for an awful lot.
If we could be anybody in this story, let’s spend a day considering ourselves Simon.
Who is going to love Jesus the most, Simon?
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