He Who Is Forgiven Little, Loves Little

If you've been around a while, you know that Good Friday and Easter, you've probably heard me say, are two of the hardest sermons of the year for me to preach. They're right at the top of the list. And they're hard because I don't know what to say. I feel like it's all been said or we've all already heard it. And so as part of my habit of preparing, I go back through and look at what I've already said so I don't accidentally say it again year after year, the exact same thing. And so this year, what I want to talk about is How we should respond to the death of Christ. John, do I just keep talking since I didn't do a sound check? Because it sounds really tinny or something to me. And some of your faces are looking at me like that too. So, all right. Well, there we go. So what I want to talk about today is how should we respond to the death of Christ? And so there are a few things I'm going to take for granted that we've covered in previous years or that...

I think, are common knowledge to us. And one is that the death of Christ was a payment for sin. And it was the death of a righteous man, a man who had no sin and didn't deserve to die, for the unrighteous man and woman and child, you and me and everyone else who's ever been created on earth. I'm going to take those things for granted. There's a few things I want to say just sort of to get them out of the way, things that have been rolling around my mind. that I think are worth addressing before we get into the sermon proper. The first is, how should you feel on Good Friday? How should you feel on Good Friday? And sort of the bigger question is, how should you feel as a Christian? I often feel like I'm having to put my thumb on the scales of our feelings because of the pressures that weigh on us. One of those pressures is that we should be a happy people, that our lives should be easy and comfortable.

and that if we're not happy or enjoying every minute of life, that something is wrong. And my contention is, yes, that thing is sin, our sin and the world's sin, and that it's not inappropriate for us to feel the lack in this world. But there's a danger on that side of always feeling bad and always wallowing and struggling under the weight of your sin. And what I want to tell you is, even as we study the death of Christ, actually the point of the Christian life is not to always feel bad about your sin. That actually feeling bad about your sin is not repentance. It doesn't glorify God. In fact, many times I think it denies his mercy. And it works as a buffer or an insulator from God's grace and his mercy. Actually, the thing we're supposed to do is recognize our sins, yes.

and then repent of them, and then receive the mercy that we find in the death of Christ. But actually, if you think of the songs that we've sung, and sort of this question, how should I feel on Good Friday, when we think about the death of Christ, I simply want to say to you, you should not perpetually feel bad about the death of Christ. For two reasons. One, he's not dead anymore. And Good Friday is not a rehearsing of a bygone time, you know, this three-day period in history where his people didn't know he was going to be raised or where he hadn't been raised yet. The point of Good Friday is not to turn the clock back and feel like the disciples did between Jesus' death and his resurrection because he has been raised. So today's Good Friday, and it's not a sermon about his resurrection.

But we should not ignore, and I don't think as Christians it's ever good for us to lose sight of the fact that he is raised from the dead and seated at the right hand of his Father. And that we should never, not even on Good Friday, act like Jesus is still in the grave. Now you might say, well, but how am I ever going to feel bad if I don't act like he's not raised? And I say, this is poison to your soul to act like Jesus is not raised from the dead. It's really dangerous. To think that you can turn that switch on and off based on what day of the year it is. One of the dangers is that the rest of the year you decided to turn that switch off. You never feel bad about your sins. Except for on Good Friday when you know we're supposed to feel bad about them. Instead of that pendulum and that swinging back and forth, I would rather that as we live as Christians, we would recognize that we're sinners each day and that God's mercies are renewed to us.

Each day. That Jesus was raised 2,000 years ago and he sits at the right hand of God and he intercedes for you every single day. Even on Good Friday. Even when you realize your sins. He's always there interceding for us because he's been raised from the dead. And so feeling bad about your sins and beating yourself up about them or coming to a Good Friday service and sort of reflecting on how bad of a person you are, if that's where it stops, you haven't figured it out yet. It's one thing in our society to get people to feel their sins. But that's not actually the whole gospel. It is the precursor. It is the foundation. That spade work has to be done. But if all you ever did in your garden was go out there and pull the weeds out and chop up the ground, but you never planted anything and never grew anything, there would never be a harvest. And that's a miserable life to live. And so my exhortation at the beginning is...

regarding how we should feel on Good Friday, we should always be mourning over our sins. And today is not an especially different type of day other than we take time to gather and to commemorate and to remember the death of Jesus Christ. But that's not meant to make us feel bad because it was the love of God. Our closing hymn tonight is How Deep the Father's Love for Us. And so even in Jesus' death on the cross, You see the love of God demonstrated for you if you're a Christian. And you should never lose sight of that. And never hide your eyes from it or act like that's not for you. It is always and every single day for you. Even today. So how should you feel on Good Friday? Forgiven. Forgiven. That's how you should feel now. Is forgiven and loved by God. And what we're going to do tonight is look at an example in Scripture that sense of forgiveness looks like and what it produces in us, okay? Because forgiveness is not the sort of thing that we store up inside of ourselves or that doesn't evoke a response in us. It evokes a great response in us. And so we're going to look at an account where a woman comes in and she weeps and she washes Jesus' feet with her tears and with her hair.

And we're going to compare it to the owner of the house, Simon the Pharisee. And we're going to look at these two people and see how very different their responses are to Jesus Christ. Our text is Luke chapter 7, verses 36 to 50. Would you please stand as we read the word of the Lord? This is the word of the Lord, and it is eternally true. Now one of the Pharisees was requesting him to dine with him. And he entered the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. And there was a woman in the city who was a sinner. And when she learned that he was reclining at the table in the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster vial of perfume and standing behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and kept wiping them with the hair of her head and kissing his feet and anointing them with perfume. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, if this man were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of person this woman is who is touching him. But she is a sinner.

And Jesus answered him, Simon, I have something to say to you. And he replied, Say it, teacher. A moneylender had two debtors. One owed 500 denarii and the other 50. When they were unable to repay, he graciously forgave them both. So which of them will love him more? Simon answered and said, I suppose the one who he forgave more. And he said to him, You have judged correctly. Turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, Do you see this woman? I entered your house. You gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but she, since the time that I came in, has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she anointed my feet with perfume. For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little loves little.

Then he said to her, Your sins have been forgiven. Those who were reclining at the table with him began to say to themselves, Who is this man who even forgives sins? And he said to the woman, Your faith has saved you. Go in peace. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. Now here's my difficulty. If you've been here for seven years, I preached this text a while that long ago. This exact text. Raise your hand if you remember. You were here seven years ago. Then I probably had 45 or 50 minutes and I didn't have a long introduction like I did today. So we're going to try to get through this in less than 45 minutes. This is an uncomfortable passage for me to read. There's lots of things in there that are like, that would be weird. Have any of you guys ever been to a feet washing service? Is it weird? Did you have your feet washed at the feet wash? I know, but the guy behind you is shaking his head yes. Did you have your feet washed?

Was that weird? Were you a kid? You were an adult. Was that weird? Really weird. Yeah. I imagine. I can't imagine. Like, I don't want to wear flip-flops, you know? Like, I don't wear flip-flops because of my feet. And, like, the idea that some stranger would wash my feet is just unconscionable. I think if someone offered to wash my feet, I would just tell them no. Huh? Yeah, if you're going to wash my feet, wash my whole, yeah. It's like, are you kidding me? Like to let somebody touch my feet is just, right? It's just weird. And then there's this question of like, there's this woman and she hears that Jesus is at this Pharisee's house. And she comes in there and she's this notorious sinner who she knows nobody likes her. Like she's got a reputation that's preceded her. But she doesn't care. So she comes in there and they're all laying down at the table. And I stared at this text and I'm like.

How was she behind Jesus but washing his feet with her tears? I'm trying to imagine how he's sitting or how he's like, because that just doesn't work, right? They're reclining at the table and all I can figure is that they were literally laying down on their side and his feet were out to the side and she was behind him and his feet were exposed and as they're eating or speaking or whatever, there's this woman weeping tears enough to wet his feet and then taking her hair. And could you imagine being there? Just having someone doing the normal, I'll wash your feet. But then it's a woman who's weeping at the table with her hair. I mean, it's incredible to our sensibilities to think that we wouldn't just be like, I need to go to the restroom. It's just an unbelievable story. Because no one responds the way I'm describing. No one there is like, well, that's weird. They're all like, okay.

Here it is. We're eating. She's crying. It smells good. Is she using her hair like a scrub brush? While we're sitting here thinking that would just be incredibly awkward, incredibly weird, strange, like I'd like to get away from this. I would not want to be that person. We do see what their thoughts are, what their interactions are. What's Simon sitting there thinking while this woman's doing this? If he were even a prophet, he wouldn't let her do that. He's making judgments about the woman. What kind of woman she is. Whether even being touched by her was a good idea. To be associated at that level with her. And Simon's saying, he's clearly not a teacher or not a prophet. He's not anyone to listen to or to respect or to follow. He doesn't even know what kind of woman's touching him. And if he does, he doesn't care. And he should. He should care what kind of woman she is. She's a sinner. A woman from the city who was a sinner. If he knew what sort of...

who and what sort of person this woman was touching him, that she was a sinner, he wouldn't allow that. And so Jesus takes the opportunity to teach. And what's interesting is through this whole account, she never says a word. She never says a word. Here she is, weeping, crying, washing, anointing. She never says a word. Here are the men talking. Simon's thinking to himself, what kind of man are you? Jesus, who knows everything, right? the thoughts and intentions of our hearts, knows what Simon's saying to himself. And he says, you know, Simon, here's a story. One guy owes 500 denarii, another 150, you know, greater and lesser. Neither one of them can pay. The one they owe the money to, he forgives them both. Who loves more? He says, well, I think the one who had more debt. Makes sense, logically, right? And then he turns and he says to Simon, and you wish you could have been in the room to see.

How everything changed when Simon figured out what Jesus was saying to him. Simon, do you see this woman? Of course, everyone sees that woman. Of course, Simon's seen that woman. He's formed an opinion about that woman. Simon, do you see this woman? And then he turns to Simon and says, when I entered your house, you gave me no water for my feet. Simon, when I entered your house, you gave me no kiss. Simon, when I entered your house, you didn't anoint my head with oil. Now, what are these things? Were these weird things for Jesus to be pointing out? In their day and age, no, those were not strange things to do. One of the things, like, you know, if someone comes over to your house in the winter, what do you do when they come in? They come in and they take their shoes off so they don't, you know, that's their hospitable thing to do. You take their coat and their hat and you go put it somewhere. Wherever it is you put that stuff, that's just hospitable. Like, if you ever went to someone's house and you walked in and you had, like, all this stuff, and they were just like, oh, yeah, come on in, make yourself at home, you'd be like, I...

I don't know how to make myself at home because I don't know where my coat goes. You'd realize that would be inhospitable for someone to do. They should come to the door and say, welcome, great, we're glad to have you. Hug, right? Kiss. Let me take your coat. Let me take those bags. Come on in. Can I get you a drink? Right? These are the normal things that we would do that would be expressions of our hospitality. And you realize that Simon did none of these things for Jesus. Giving water to wash your feet or having one of your servants wash his feet. which would have been a more common practice, granted, in their time than it is in ours. None of that. Come on in. No washing for your feet. No greeting. No affection, which would have been very common. If you were to show up at someone else's house in the church today, now, and they came in, they're just like, yeah, come on in. Or you left, and they're like, yeah, see you later. And they didn't get up, and they didn't come give you a hug, or they didn't walk you to the door, or they didn't greet you. You'd be like, there's something missing here. Well, there was something missing here.

From Simon. You didn't give me water for my feet. You didn't give me a kiss. You didn't anoint my head with oil, which would have been a sign of blessing or welcome or love. You didn't do any of these things, Simon. And all of that amounts to what? What is Simon's opinion of Jesus, of his guest? You're not worth any of those things. You don't deserve any of those things. He treats him very much like a servant and not like a guest. And yet this woman, who's a sinner, comes in and does all of those things. without water, without oil, without a brush or a rag or some sort of cloth to wipe his feet. She uses what she has, her tears, her own hair, her own perfume. She loves on him. And all Simon can do is look at her and go, I know what kind of woman she is, and if you knew what kind of woman she is, you wouldn't let her do that either. It's an awful response from Simon. It's just awful.

And you think of what it must have been like for that woman. You think she knew what her reputation was in the city? I don't know. Do you know what your reputation is? Do you know generally what people think about you, what your strengths are, what your weaknesses are? I think we all have some sense. I hope we all have some sense of what our weaknesses are and what other people have to put up with. I don't think there's any question that this woman knew that she was not a welcome guest. But she comes in and she does all of these things. And Simon looks at her just with contempt, despising her.

and Jesus for him allowing her to do this. So Jesus tells this story and says, who loved more? And he says, well, I suppose the guy who owed more money. And Jesus says, yeah, you're right. And then he says, in effect, through all of this water and kissing and anointing, he says, you have not loved me at all. You don't love me at all. And the way he expresses it is he says, he who is forgiven little, loves little. And so what Jesus does here is he explains this woman's behavior. It was extraordinary behavior. It wasn't normal for women to do what this woman was doing. And so Jesus explains it and he says, she's doing this because she knows who I am. And not only does she know who I am, she's doing it because her sins have been forgiven. Now you might read this passage as though she's earning her forgiveness or she's begging for her forgiveness. But it's simply not the case. Jesus calls to this woman and he says to her, your sins have been forgiven.

And even then, you would think that Simon and the other Pharisees would figure out what was going on here. They might realize and be convicted of their own failures, but even then, that's not their response. They say, who is this man who even forgives sins? Like from beginning to end, they look at Jesus and go, who do you think you are? They were blind. They were blind to who Jesus was, to what he was about to do. And many times, Now today, I'm afraid that we live blind like them. I could push us and push us and push us about how we're blind and how that's bad. But instead, I'd rather for us to look at this woman and say, you know what I want? I want to love Jesus the way she did. That's it. That's it. She knew that her sins were forgiven. And all we see here, whatever kind of sinner she had been in the past, All we can do is presume she was converted recently. It's the only thing that explains her behavior. That she had been a sinner, notorious, a reputation for it, and then heard Jesus teach or something and was changed by God, converted, and her sins were forgiven. And what we see here is her response. He's over there. I'm going over there. All I've got is perfume. I'm going over there and I'm going to...

bear whatever the reproaches of these unbelievers to express my love to my Savior. That's what the death of Christ purchased for us. That's it. One of the things we ask in our membership interviews is what is the significance of the death of Christ? And this is the answer. This is the answer. That our sins are forgiven. And you can have no better words spoken to you from Jesus until you die, other than the words he says to this woman at the very end. Your faith has saved you. Go in peace. Go in peace. Go and live your life in this world knowing that there is peace between you and God. Where there didn't used to be, there's now peace. Go in peace. I think often when we think of our sins, we should think, what a wretched man I am. What a wretched woman I am. My sins are not sins of ignorance. My sins are not even sins of convenience. I go out of my way to get to my sins. My sins are sins of habit.

My sins don't even satisfy me and I know it and I still go and do it. I was talking to Eric earlier this week and I said, you know, what I was telling you, the particular example I was giving him was about playing pool. I used to play pool a lot before I was a Christian. I used to gamble a lot before I was a Christian. And I was good at pool and so I'd win money. And I just, I don't know why, like probably the last year or two, I just want to go play pool. Like I'm no good at it anymore. but I just want to go play pool. And you wonder, you're like, why? Like, I haven't wanted to play pool in 15 years. And it's not because I'm any good at it, and the idea of going and gambling isn't attractive to me. I'm not like, that's what I want to go do on a Friday night. It's not that. It's like, I just want to go to the pool hall in the middle of the day when nobody's there except the regulars, just play pool. Now, to you, you may say, well, that's the stupidest. I don't, what kind of person are you? Like, what is that? Why would you want to do that? And I go, I don't know.

But that was what I used to do. Way back when, that's what I used to do. I met my wife in that pool hall. I probably used to play pool, and I'm not kidding you, 45 hours a week. I just didn't sleep. I worked about 50 hours a week. I'd go to the gym five days a week, and I played pool six days, seven days a week for hours and hours. I got good at it. I spent a lot of time doing it. And I don't know why it's attractive to me again, other than to think, you know what? What was it then? What was playing pool then? It was an escape from the nothingness of life, the aimlessness of what I was doing. It was like something to go do. There were people around, and it was fun, and so I'd go do it. Why is it attractive to me now, 18 years later? Why does that come back up? Probably because for the same reason it came up then, I just want to get away from the pressures of life. Don't you ever just want to get away from the pressures of life? Some of you might be too young to...

really have that desire, but being 40, almost 41 now, like the pressure, it's like everywhere you turn, there's just pressure. There's just work. There's just like, you can't stop. And it's crippling. Like you just more and more want to get away from it. And I was playing pool sinful, and does that mean I'll never ever go play pool again? No, that's not actually what it means. It's not what I'm trying to say. What I'm trying to say is I've got to sit here and think about why do I want to go do that? Well, probably for the same reason I used to, as I said. I just want to get away from the pressures and burdens of life.

So here's my question to you. If I go play pool and waste a bunch of time, is that a forgivable sin? Now, I'm not saying I'm going to do it or I'm planning to, you know, right? But I'm just saying, like, this is some of the ways our sins show up. They just sort of just live in the back closet of our heart. And every once in a while, they find their way out. And here they are after a decade or more. And you're like, here it is again. Like, what are you doing here? I thought I got rid of you. I want you to know that those sins are forgiven.

God is pleased to forgive those sins, even those sins in his children. The sins of ignorance where you should have known better. The sins you pursued knowing you shouldn't have pursued them. The sins that have lived in the closet for years and decades only to show up again. Now in my life, using myself as an example, when those sins come up, what am I supposed to do? Go through the whole rigmarole and the whole I feel bad for this and this is like just turn in on myself, worry about it, think about it, feel bad about it, wallow in it. No. No. My work is to fight those temptations and that when I sin, whether in that way or any other, to remember that God has loved me and forgiven my sins and put me at peace with him. And I'm not supposed to use that as an excuse for continuing on in sin. But if you've tried to do that to yourself, to make yourself feel bad enough about sin, hoping that it will keep you from falling back into it again, you've realized that's a broken play. It doesn't work.

You'll feel bad for some amount of time until you determine that you don't need to or shouldn't have to feel bad anymore about it, only to fall back into it again. And so we ought not to spend our lives on that sort of rat wheel. Because when we do, that's like going out and pulling up all the weeds out of our garden and tilling up all the ground and preparing it for something good to grow, but never planting anything good. So what is the good thing that should be planted in us that God has planted in us? through the indwelling of his Holy Spirit. It's this abiding knowledge that your sins are forgiven through the death of Christ. You're going to commit sins tomorrow that are forgiven by the death of Christ. And so your business is not to work yourself up into a fuss about it as though that pleases God. What will please God much more is for you to do like this woman did, which is not to act as though your sins aren't forgiven, but to act as though they are forgiven.

That's what you should do. Hey, you know what? I'm a terrible sinner. Notorious. I shouldn't be a pastor. Our elders shouldn't be elders. You husbands don't deserve to have your wife's respect. You parents don't deserve to have your kids listen to you. You wives don't deserve your husband's kindness. We don't deserve any of that stuff because we've just failed all over the place. And so what? We live our lives just feeling bad for those things and wallowing in them and acting like our bad feelings about ourself will please God. They won't. They won't. Even your tears won't please God unless you use them to wash his feet. But you only use them to wash his feet to love him and to love others if you believe that your sins are forgiven. If you live as though your sins are forgiven. And so I'm not arguing that you should act like your sins aren't a big deal. I only mean to say that feeling bad for an extra long period of time about your sins

It doesn't make them any more or less forgiven. It's so easy for us to keep track of our sins or maybe even easier for us to keep track of other people's sins and to record them. But when we remember that our own sins are forgiven and we remember what they are and what we're like, all of a sudden other people's sins just find their perspective. Like the log in our eye versus the speck in our brother's. All of a sudden other people's sins, it's like, yeah, they did that. They shouldn't have done that. That wasn't right. But I love them. Like I really do love them because God's loved me and been merciful to me. And I've done way worse, way more often than what they just did. And so the key to having fellowship with one another, loving one another, and expressing our love for God and our appreciation for the death of Christ is to believe and to live like our sins are forgiven. There's nothing more sophisticated or spiritual to the Christian life than that. To know that your sins are forgiven if you believe in Jesus Christ.

No matter what they are. No matter what they are. And that Satan's, we should always bear in mind that Satan is the accuser of the brethren and the father of lies. And he'll come and he'll snatch up this seed as quickly as he can from your garden. And you need to make sure that he can't. That he doesn't. Right? If you have gardens and you go out and plant them, what do you have to do? You have to keep away the birds. You have to keep away the bugs. You have to keep away all of the threats. The cold. So you have to protect it.

And so this message, this truth, the death of Christ that secures the forgiveness of your sins, you have to hold on to it with both hands. We have to remind each other about it, that our sins are forgiven, that we bear them no more. I'll tell you a funny story about me wanting, like understanding this and how it worked out with Vanessa and I. We were going to get married and we were planning our service, you know, planning, picking out the music. And I said, honey, I want to sing It Is Well With My Soul. You know that song? The men and the women, it is well, it is well with my soul. There's this version, and I don't even remember how the words go exactly, but it's like my sin, oh, the sight of this, it's this glorious sin. Maybe, I'm sure John knows the words, right? But it's like, you're in my sin, there it is, not in part, but in whole, nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more. And I say, honey, we need to sing that song at our wedding. And she says, honey, that's a funeral song. That's a song that belonged to funerals. And I was like, what do you mean? And she's like.

This is what that song's about. It was written by, I think it's Horatius Bonner that wrote it. And see, he wrote that song, just a little tidbit of trivia. He wrote that song as he and his family were immigrating, and there was a shipwreck, and his wife and all of his children died in the shipwreck. And he was left alone in this new land. And then he writes the song, So in the sea billows roll, he's writing about his family, his wife and his children drowning. And what he has in mind is his own sins. The trials of this life and the mercy and forgiveness of God. How could you write a song like that after going through such trauma? By knowing you're a sinner and that God forgives sinners. And that he says to them, go in peace and sin no more. John says, go and sin no more. My children, I'm writing these things to you so that you will not sin. But if you sin, when you sin, know that you have an advocate with the Father, Christ Jesus. So...

That's what the death of Christ is about. That's what the death of Christ is about. It's about your sins being forgiven and you not bearing them anymore and you not having to pull that weight back onto you. Cast it off. Praise God for it and love other people. Worship God freely. Lift up your voices. Forgive as you've been forgiven. This is the Christian life and this is the Christian life in light of the death of Christ, not just the resurrection of Christ. This is what the death of Christ did. It took all of that sin and it paid for it and it's not there anymore. It's not in deferral like our student loans. And there's not a payment plan like our credit cards. It's gone. It's off the balance sheet. You don't owe it anymore. And as much as you keep adding to it, it never changes. The forgiveness never goes away. And we would do well to remember that and to extend that to one another.

And to stop feeling so bad and acting so morose and being so down and dour about our sins. Because Jesus died to pay for them. So love God. Love your brothers. Let's pray.