The Transformed Sinner
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2013 · 16 June 2013
Let us learn this morning from Luke 7:36-50. When we think about witnessing, when you think about evangelism, when we think about missions, when we think about reaching lost people, what is it that makes the most impact? What is it that can impact a person to embrace Jesus Christ?
A transformed life is really is very powerful testimony. The church has a message that is believable when it demonstrated that people have transformed lives. Jesus knew that in His own personal evangelism, it was powerful to present a transformed life. Jesus uses the transformed life of a woman as a testimony to a Pharisee and all people around the table at this occasion when He spoke.
Most people when they read this identify it as the story of the immoral woman. It is not really that. She is only an element of the story. It is the story of Jesus evangelizing a Pharisee. They accused Jesus of being only interested in drunkards and tax collectors and other sinners. And He was, but He wasn't just reaching those sinners, but He was even trying to reach religious sinners like this Pharisee.
Jesus was committed to presenting a gospel offer to all sinners, whether they were the low-life sinners, or whether they were the high-life sinners, whether they were the outcasts. And now He reaches out to demonstrate His power to forgive sins to a self- righteous Pharisee by using the very person that the Pharisee despised the most, the immoral prostitute whose transformation was very clear and inarguable. This Jesus uses as evidence of His power to transform.
The host in this story in Luke is a Pharisee. Luke 7:36, “Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat.” On the surface it looked like he was open to Jesus. Well that was not the case, as the story makes it very clear. He was a fastidious guardian of the Law. They were the legalists. They were self-righteous.
And the scribes and the Pharisees had already collectively determined that Jesus was a blasphemer. He was a blasphemer because He forgave sin. And so He acted as if He was God forgiving sins. They hated Him because He preached against self-righteousness. And He had continually defiled Himself by hanging around defiled people the Pharisees would never hang around.
They hated Jesus' message. They were in the process of accumulating incriminating evidence against Him. So Simon the Pharisee invites Jesus to his house. He is no friend of Jesus at all, he is a hypocritical enemy. He hated everything Jesus said and was. But the full hostility hasn't yet broken out. There's still in process of accumulating their material against Jesus.
Now here Jesus was willing to go into the house of a man that He knew was a hypocrite. He knew the man had evil intentions. But nonetheless, Jesus, gracious as He always, came to seek and to save that which was lost, and is willing to expose this wicked hypocritical Pharisee to the power that He has to transform. And so He entered the Pharisee's house.
Now you didn't sit in a chair then. They reclined and you ate with your elbow propping up your head and that was how you had your conversation. The idea in that part of the world at that time was to keep your feet as far away from the table. Because the feet were dirty from the street and they should not be close to the dining table.
The table is in the middle and around the perimeter walls there's space for the local people to come in and experience the event itself and to hear the discussion and learn from it. So usually there are other people around. And sometimes there are lower class people that would come into a Pharisee's house. That's the scenario.
Luke 7:37 says, “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.” Now "behold" indicates something shocking is taking place here. It wasn't shocking for a stranger or a poor person to come in, but it was shocking that a woman in the city who was a sinner, meaning a prostitute, came in.
This is just a woman we don't know and it was not Mary Magdalene. But this is a sinful prostitute with a bad reputation. Sinner is a term to describe reprobate people. It refers to those who were considered low class, a woman who chose to be a professional adulteress, immoral, filthy, impure, perverse and is living a flagrantly sinful life at a public level.
She knows that Jesus is going to be there and she has a plan. She brought an alabaster vial of perfume that was part of the trade of being a prostitute. The kind of perfume that's indicated here is not cheap oil but a costly perfume. An alabaster container specifically was quarried and carved in Egypt.
Luke 7:38, "and stood at His feet behind Him weeping." And as she weeps, she began to wet her feet with her tears. She notices that Jesus’ feet are dirty. And this is really a social disgrace. And so since the tears are profusely running down her face, she allows them to fall on the feet of Jesus.
And verse 38 continues, "and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head.” She had no towel either, so she had no choice but to use her hair to clean and dry His dirty feet. Some of the rabbis said if a woman did this in public, it can be grounds for divorce.
Once His feet were clean, verse 38 continues, “and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil.” She was kissing His feet in continual expression of affection. And then the final act of generosity, anointing them with perfume. And so swept away in the emotion she snaps the alabaster bottle and she pours all perfume out on His feet.
This could be a serious problem for Jesus. She's a known prostitute. Someone could say, "How does this prostitute know Jesus so well?” And she's touching Him and she's washing His feet with her hair. Not only that but she continues to embrace His feet as if she didn't want to let Him go, expressing her emotion.
Then in verse 39, "Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, 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.” What he means is, "He just doesn't know who she really is, and that proves that He's not a prophet because if He was a prophet He would know she's a prostitute.”
So we read in Luke 7:40, "And Jesus answered and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you. So he said, “Teacher, say it.” Notice that Jesus answered here what Simon was thinking in his heart and not what he was saying. Isn’t that ironic? Simon concluded Jesus didn't know who the woman was, therefore He's not a prophet, but Jesus knew that Simon was thinking that and so He said, "Simon, I have something to say to you."
So Jesus gave him a parable in verse 41-42, “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.”
Do you know that 500 denarii is the same as 500 days wages. And another person came and needed only 50 denarii. They both couldn't repay the debt. So he graciously forgave them both.
Wow, can you imagine that happening with the bank that holds the mortgage on your house? That just doesn't happen. And the word there is grace, is term used for forgiving a debt as well as a theological term used by Paul of the forgiveness that God gives us in Christ. This is a very generous thing. And you know what makes it so generous?
What makes it so generous is any time somebody forgives a debt, they themselves incur that debt in full. When God forgave your sins, He then incurred the debt and Jesus Christ died to pay it. The debt doesn't go away. It still has to be paid, but the forgiver incurs it and pays it. So in forgiveness the debt is transferred to the forgiver.
So Jesus tells this story and then He asks Simon at the end of verse 42, "Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?” Verse 43, “Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.” So he does not give a straightforward answer. Verse 42 continues, “And He said to him, “You have rightly judged.” Whoever was forgiven the most is going to be showing the most love.
And then in verse 44 it starts to make sense. Jesus turns toward the woman, now we've established a principle here, what's the principle? Great love comes from great forgiveness. Simon, it came out of your brain and your mouth, right? So He turns to the woman who is at His feet and everybody else turns there too and then He says to Simon, "See that woman, I am seeing great love out of that woman.” What does that mean?
Luke 7:44-47, “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, have been forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.”
That's true in the church today. You show me some kid raised in a Christian family, it's all they've ever known. And their level of gratitude and forgiveness is little. Then show me somebody who lived a sorted, wicked, Godless life and was rescued in adulthood and totally transformed and there's a whole different level of love. That's the principle.
Notice the statement from Jesus, "I say to you, her sins which are many have been forgiven," that's past tense. It didn't happen right there then. Something happened in the past with continuing effect. She came there already forgiven, to find Jesus to thank Him. We don't know when. But since Jesus had come to her town, she had been redeemed.
This is a transformed life. You can't explain this woman's behavior any other way. She's been forgiven. She's grateful because all the bondage of her sin is gone, all the depth of guilt is gone. You, Simon, didn't do anything for Me. You showed Me no honor, you showed Me no respect, you showed Me no affection, you gave Me no sacrifice. You insulted Me with your lack of respect and your lack of love.
We can go all the way back to Genesis 18, 29 and 45, and you will find on occasions when people came together there were feet washing ceremonies done in order to make sure that there was an embrace, a kiss of affection and love. This was part of what you did when you received a guest. That's what she did.
The host gave no water, she gave her tears. The host gave no towel, she gave her hair. The host gave no kiss, she repeatedly kissed Jesus’ feet. The host gave not even cheap oil, she poured out expensive perfume. And the reason she did this is because she has been forgiven much. This is an example of real forgiveness.
And so, Jesus is showing this self-righteous Pharisee what real transformation looks like. The people saw it, verse 49, “Those who were reclining at the table with Him began to say to themselves, ‘Who is this who even forgives sins?’” They knew He could teach and preach, heal and cast out demons, and here He could even forgive a woman’s sins.
They were always asking questions. They should have been able to answer that, shouldn't they? God alone can forgive sins, right? But they never get that far. Every meal that Jesus ever had with the Pharisees ended up in obstinate unbelief, it all ended up the same way. Self-righteousness is such a terrible kind of blindness.
The people said, "We heard that this man forgives sins. How can we know that this woman is forgiven?" We can't see forgiveness; we can only see the transformation that it makes: the joy, gratitude, love and affection. So Jesus then used that woman as clear testimony to His power to transform a life. Jesus uses this to witness to the Pharisees of the power of His truth.
Her salvation was evident, not by something she said, she didn't say anything, but by her love to her Savior, so profuse and so passionate. And then in verse 50, “Then He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.” It is not your love that saved you; it was your faith that saved you, that is what produced your love.
Your faith always saves you, always. Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.” It was your faith that always saves. And because your faith saved you, your love comes out because your sins are forgiven. Literally, "Go into peace, go into God's Shalom and live there forever."
Now what level is your love for God? How much do you really love Christ? Have you come to Christ in faith and embraced Him and experienced this powerful and total transformation of forgiveness so that you're literally filled with joy and gratitude and love like that prostitute in the story?
Do you still remember when you were saved? Do you still remember how that affected you emotionally? Do you still remember that feeling when you had that load of sin lifted off your shoulders? Do you still have that urge to tell others about the Gospel of Jesus? Do you still pray for all your friends who still do not believe?
We should be marked by that. It is that awesome love for Christ that is the single greatest proof visible to people of the power of the gospel. An ungrateful, loveless Christian undercuts the testimony of the gospel. Let us learn to put on display our gratitude, our fervent love to our Christ and the world will take note that our sins have truly been forgiven. Let's pray.