Just As I Am

So he says to her, verse 50, your faith has saved you. By the way, notice Jesus doesn't say your tears saved you, that vial of perfume saved you, leaving the streets saved you, your humility and washing my feet saved you. No, your faith in me, that message I preached, your trust in me, your belief when you heard me preach, if you are weary and heavy laden, come to me and I will give you rest and you came, you're saved. In Luke 7, Jesus was invited to the home of a prominent religious leader in first century Israel, but someone else was on his mind.

Sitting among the VIPs and honored guests of Simon the Pharisee was an uninvited and thoroughly unwanted woman. She was a local town prostitute and all the eyes in the room turned to Jesus to see how he would respond. His response is an awesome example of God's grace and a powerful reminder that all sin, great and small, comes with the same judgment and requires the same cure. This is wisdom for the heart.

Stephen Davey called this message, Just As I Am. Charlotte Elliott was a resentful, bitter, agnostic who lived more than 200 years ago. Although we're not given the details, something had happened where she had become disabled and because of her broken health and her broken heart, she had hardened her mind and her heart against any thought that God loved her.

She developed a violent disposition, temper, made it nearly impossible for anybody to be around her for any length of time. And on May 9, 1922 as a young adult her parents invited a pastor friend that they knew to their home. She was living with her parents and to their home he was invited one evening to have dinner. They hoped that he would have some word, some insight to help her.

Over dinner that night Charlotte instead lost her temper, railed against God, her family, even this visiting minister and her parents slipped out of the room embarrassed leaving her and this pastor alone. He looked at her and said, You're tired of yourself, aren't you? She was taken back by that and he went on to say, You're holding on to your hate and bitterness and resentment because you have nothing else to cling to. And she sarcastically asked him, Well, what is your cure for me?

And he said, The cure is faith in this person you're trying hard to despise. He talked to her then about the gospel. She softened some and then said, Well, suppose I wanted to become a Christian like you.

What would I have to do? I mean, certainly she said, I would need to clean up my life first before God would love me. And he said, Well, he cleans your life up. All you do is come to him and he will love you and forgive you. And she laughed and she said, Come to God like I am right now. And he said, Yes. Whoever comes to me, Jesus said, I will in no wise cast out.

And Charlotte did just that that night. As I read that, I couldn't help but think of all the people I have encountered over the years who are tired of their lives, weary of their sin, burdened, weighed down, clinging to whatever it is they hope will somehow bring them peace of mind, refusing Christ, the cure, who alone can bring them peace. I have read recently of the ministry of one particular counselor who has encountered hundreds of young adults filled with guilt and remorse and growing resentment over life.

He wrote of one encounter with a young woman who'd been raised in a typical suburban home. She had rejected the gospel and tried everything else. Everything else only deepened her guilt and sorrow and resentment. In one session together the counselor wrote that this young woman admitted that she was tired of her life.

She was weary. The counselor wrote, She pulled back her sleeve to show me where she had taken a blade and cut into her forearm the word empty. Empty. I thought of that as I moved into the scene we're about to look at together where it's going to be a dramatic encounter between Jesus and two empty lives. It's going to take place over dinner. The Lord has accepted the invitation to eat at the home of a self-righteous Pharisee and who will show up but a local prostitute. I want to tell you before we dive into this scene both the Pharisee and the prostitute have this same word written across their hearts and across their lives.

Empty. Both of them will leave as it were this dining room one the same one with peace of mind. Now turn to Luke's gospel we're in chapter 7 now at verse 36 where the dinner is described for us verse 36 one of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him and he went into the Pharisees house and reclined at table. Now if you'll notice down in verse 40 we're given the name of this Pharisee and his name is Simon and you need to keep in mind of course that Jesus and the Pharisees aren't exactly bosom buddies they don't you know have dinner together often. In fact no group of men are more consistently hostile and angry with Jesus than this group. Luke is going to mention by the way in his gospel account Pharisees 28 different times and on every occasion that they are antagonistic resentful spiteful hateful toward him. So just sort of remember that because Jesus is not being invited to eat with this Pharisee because he's on the on the verge of becoming a disciple.

Far from it. He's inviting Jesus over to find something to use against him and he thinks he's going to get it. And behold you could paraphrase that to read it. Would you look at this a woman of the city who was a sinner when she learned that he was reclining at table brought an alabaster flask of ointment.

Luke calls her a woman of the city who was a sinner. This is not a general statement. There's no mistaking. This is a first century synonymous.

This is terminology for prostitution. Everybody in town knows her reputation. And here she just kind of walks into the dining room. Dinner's already underway. I imagine everybody stops eating. Forks are you know hanging in midair even though they use their fingers.

But you know you get the point. Conversation stops. People turn and stare. This is amazing courage on the part of this woman and we'll find out why. But at this point suddenly all that's heard in the room is the sound of her muffled sobbing.

As she stands behind Jesus weeping. Now before we go any further you might wonder as I did you know how'd she get in here. Why'd she get in. This isn't her kind of neighborhood. And this is not the kind of house where she would want to go.

Far from it. So would she do it. How'd she even get in. Well one New Testament scholar described in his commentary a large home like Simon the Pharisee would have been a courtyard with rooms built around it. One of those rooms being a dining room. Evening meals were often noisy public affairs especially if you had a large home. The doors would be left wide open. Even people who weren't invited to eat. Friends of the family. Neighbors could wander in even though they wouldn't eat. They could take part in these lively dinner conversations just sitting around the edges. Now let me also point out that in this culture when an invited dinner guest arrived three different acts of hospitality always took place. First the host would place his hand on the shoulder of the guest and lean forward and kiss him on both cheeks accustomed still held around the world today. Secondly a pinch of sweet smelling ointment would be placed on his head that would just bring a sense of freshness to him and to the room.

Thirdly most significantly since once the guests reclined which usually involved literally lying on cushions their heads toward the food their feet behind them servants of the household would unlace their sandals pour cold water over them and wash the dust off their feet. And I say all of that because Simon does none of this for Jesus. There's no hiding this. Simon is openly obviously ungracious and unkind to Jesus and everybody in the room knows it. It's like they're all on edge they're waiting for something to happen.

This is not a pleasant environment. Now if you take one more quick look at Luke's description in verse 37 he describes her as a woman of the city who was a sinner. The word Luke uses here for sinner is a word that refers to someone devoted to sin someone who made sin a part of their life and that's her. She knew it. They knew it. She had as it were carved into her life empty and it had been this way for years long enough for her developed for her to develop this reputation. So here she is. Why now.

Well if you put the gospel chronology together it's very insightful because just prior to this encounter within a matter of hours Jesus has just finished a sermon a brief one where he preached in town and he gave this invitation. All you who are weary and heavy laden come to me and I will give you rest. Take my yoke on you.

Learn of me. My yoke is easy. My burden is light. She evidently heard this message. We can say with some certainty that that's true because the tense of the verbs that Jesus uses for her later on in this text indicates that she has already believed before showing up.

She's now arriving to essentially declare her allegiance to Jesus. Verse thirty seven tells us that she's got an alabaster vial of perfume. Now this wasn't unusual in these days a small bottle of perfume was often worn as a necklace when a woman who would need it while traveling or before some event. But for this woman this vial has been a vital part of her trade so she would stay perfumed for the next encounter. Now look at verse thirty eight 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. Now to us today in our culture this show of affection might appear to be too intimate or perhaps indiscreet but not in this day. In fact one Greek manuscript written 30 years before this event takes place a novel that has survived to this day described a woman who was so grateful that her husband had returned home safely that she went to the temple of her goddess Aphrodite let down her hair in veneration to the goddess knelt at the feet of this statue and wept while repeatedly kissing the feet of Aphrodite.

That's the idea here. Martin Luther the reformer commented on this text saying that her tears are water coming directly from her heart. Tears of gratitude bathing the Lord's feet as she sobs, lost in godly sorrow, lost in wonder, lost in genuine love and praise. That just kind of sets the scene. Now you can imagine at this point dinner. I mean it just comes to a screeching halt.

You know nobody's getting up to go get more coffee or baklava or you know whatever whatever they got. All you hear in this dining room are the sobs and sniffles of a woman who is kissing the feet of Jesus. Well you can imagine you know Simon the Pharisee isn't all that thrilled with this interruption but in a twisted way he's glad and that's because we're told here in verse 39. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this he said to himself, note that he's not saying this out loud, if this man were a prophet he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner. See he's saying if Jesus were a true prophet of God he'd be able to know that this woman is defiling him by her touch. But if Jesus, he's reasoning, can't spot a big sinner like her, if he can't even spot her, he's no prophet, I've got him, I can expose him. Wait till the other Pharisees hear about this, we've got him. What he doesn't know is that Jesus is about to expose him.

So he says to Simon here in verse 40 because he can read his mind, Simon I have something to say to you and he answered, say it teacher, a little sarcasm, say it teacher. And Jesus gives him a parable verse 41, a certain money lender had two debtors, two men owed him, one man owns him 500 denarii, the other one owes him 50. One's 10 times worse than the other guy but they're both in debt.

Denarius was one day's wage. So if you do the math, the ordinary workforce of the day, one man owes two years worth of income and the other man owes two months. But the real point here is that they're both in trouble. So these two men here are being crushed under the debt they cannot repay whether it's two months or two years but then something absolutely unexpected happens. Verse 42 tells us when they could not pay, couldn't pay him back, he canceled the debt of both.

He just burned the ledger, there's no more record of debt. And with that Jesus now asks, now which of them will love him more? In other words, who's going to be the most grateful for having their debtor raised? The guy who owes him two months or the guy who owes him two years?

I think they're both going to be absolutely thrilled. But Simon at this point, because of what he'll say next, lets us know he's a bright man, he's already connected the dots, he knows the Lord is comparing him to the prostitute, they are the two people in debt and he also knows that the debt relates to sin. And in this case he knows the prostitute would be the big sinner and Jesus is sort of rather sarcastically viewing him as the little sinner and that would lead him to try to explain why he isn't even a little grateful to God like she is.

Who will love him more? So Simon now doesn't want to answer the question so he sort of hems and haws. He says here in verse 43, Simon answered, the one I suppose for whom he canceled the larger debt. What do you mean I suppose? I suppose, I can't say for sure, I suppose the one with the larger debt.

No, no, no, no. Simon knows. But he also knows that in this parable the big sinner and the little sinner are equally unable to pay their debt. They're both in deep trouble, they are both bankrupt, they both have the words empty, tired, written across their lives.

But Jesus is finished even though he's connecting those dots. Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, do you see this woman? Do you see this woman?

This is the only person he's seen since you know she came in. Everybody sees this woman. What do you mean do you see this woman? Of course I see this woman.

This question is filled with sarcastic humor. Simon, do you see this? Have you noticed this woman? But it's almost like he's saying, do you really see her? Do you really see how she recognizes her sinfulness and you don't? Simon, here's the implication, you can't even see your sins of selfishness and pride.

You've committed against me this evening so let me set the record straight. Verse 44, 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 from the time I came in she's not ceased to kiss my feet.

You did not anoint my head with oil but she has anointed my feet with ointment. For I tell you her sins which are many are forgiven for she loved much, this is the proof of that, her great love but he who is forgiven little loves little. You know the point that Jesus is making here isn't so much about the amount of sin as it is the awareness of sin. You see in the eyes of God, Simon and the prostitute are equals. Prostitution is no more sinful than pride.

In the eyes of God, all sin is sin. I like the way one woman wrote this in a Christian journal I subscribe to, a pastor's wife who wrote a devotional on this event here in Luke 7. She pointed out and I quote her, for most of my life I have read this passage in Luke and have come away sad. My sad thoughts have sounded like this, well I've never been a prostitute like this woman so I guess I can never love God as much as she did. But if I realize the total wretchedness of my sin, not the sins I could commit or the sins I used to commit, but the sins I commit every day, every hour, then I begin to understand the depth of my Savior's forgiveness. And when I think little of my sin it's really no big deal that Jesus died for me and I love him little. But when I am gripped by the horridness of my sin and the forgiveness through Christ's sacrifice I become like this prostitute and I bow in worship at his feet.

That's the point. Verse 48 says, then he said to her, your sins are forgiven. Literally they have already been forgiven. Then those who are at the table with him began to say among themselves, who is this who even forgives sin?

They're engrossed in a theological argument. Jesus just ignores all of them, I love this. And I want to tell you about this time I get the sense that Jesus has set up this dinner and this dinner really doesn't have anything to do so much with Simon as it does with her because what she needs to hear is the affirmation of Jesus that what has happened is in fact liberated her. So he says to her, verse 50, your faith has saved you. By the way, notice Jesus doesn't say your tears saved you, that vial of perfume saved you, leaving the streets saved you, your humility and washing my feet saved you.

No, your faith in me, that message I preached, the gospel, your trust in me, your belief when you heard me preach, if you are weary and heavy laden, come to me and I will give you rest and you came, you're saved. Now with that he says some words she never experienced perhaps in her entire life, certainly not on the streets. I don't think she imagined she would ever feel this.

She's just beginning to. Jesus said to her, your faith has saved you, go in peace, literally go into peace, go into life now in peace. Peace with God, peace with yourself, peace with your past, peace with your future, peace that will last forever. So that word carved on her heart and life empty is now replaced with forgiven, saved, peace. On May 9th, 1822 when Charlotte Elliot realized that she didn't have to clean up her life before coming to Christ, that that was the work of Christ. She was so moved by this and filled with gratitude.

She would live an invalid life, unmarried, she would pass away at the age of 82. And on the way she wrote a dozen poems that were turned into hymns for the church and many of them were included in what was originally called the hymnal for invalids. The most famous of all of her hymns in that hymnal for invalids became her own testimony who had been empty and not given peace.

Some of her poem reads, just as I am, without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me and that thou bittest me, come to thee, all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. I hope this look at the grace and forgiveness of Jesus Christ was encouraging to your soul today. You're listening to Wisdom for the Heart, the Bible teaching ministry of Stephen Davy. You can learn more about us if you visit our website, which is wisdomonline.org. Stephen's been pastoring for over 35 years, and all of those messages are available for you to listen online. We also post each day's broadcast. If you ever miss one of these lessons, you can go to our website to keep caught up with our daily Bible teaching ministry.

The Library of Stephen's teaching is available on that site free of charge, and you can access it anytime at wisdomonline.org. Thanks for joining us today. Come back next time for more wisdom for the heart. We'll see you next time.