Luke 7,36-50. 11th Sunday after Trinity

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

Luke 7,36-50   4113

11. Sonntag nach Trinitatis  056    

Tiburtius, Martyr at Rome 286 

11. August 2013

1. O God, who declarest Thy almighty power most chiefly in shewing mercy and pity: Mercifully grant unto us such a measure of Thy grace, so that we, running the way of faith in Thy Name, may receive by faith Thy gracious promises, and be made partakers of Thy heavenly treasure (The Book of Common Prayer, 11. Sunday after Trinity).  Amen. 

2. One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and He went into the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 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, 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 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.“ And Jesus answering said to him: „Simon, I have something to say to you.“ And he answered: „Say it, Teacher.“ „A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii [1] 

, and the other fifty. [2] When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?“ Simon answered: „The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.“ And He said to him: „You have judged rightly.“ Then 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 from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss My feet. You did not anoint My head with oil, but she has anointed My feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, because she loved much. But the one to whom little is forgiven little loves little.“ And He said to her: „Your sins have been forgiven.“ Then those who were at table with Him began to say among themselves: „Who is this, who even forgives sins?“ And Jesus said to the woman: „Your faith has saved you; go in peace.“ 

3. There are a number of similarities between this morning’s Gospel lection and our sermon text. Both involve a Pharisee, a gross sinner and God’s mercy. The Pharisee in Luke 7 is a righteous man. This was a common trait among the Pharisees. Their righteousness was based on their keeping of the Mosaic covenant and the many oral traditions of the elders. They were good, moral conservative neighbors. 

4. The sinners, on the other hand, were liars, thieves, prostitutes and murderers. An observant Jew was expected to shun and avoid such people, which wasn’t difficult, because after all who wants to be around such untrustworthy undesirables? 

5. The conventional worldview in Jesus’ day was that the Pharisees were righteous and justified men who had God’s forgiveness. Sinners were unrighteous and unjustified people who were certain to bear God’s wrath and anger. 

6. Luke and the other Evangelists record that Jesus hobnobbed with both the Pharisees and the sinners. Luke himself lists four occasions where Jesus ate a meal as the honored guest of the Pharisees. Simon, however, is shocked that Jesus, a respected teacher and interpreter of the law, would tolerate a sinful woman fawning over Him the way she does. Simon concludes that Jesus is not the prophet he was looking for. Simon trusted in his righteousness and treated both Jesus and the sinful woman with contempt. 

7. Jesus Himself said: »I must preach the gospel of the reign of God ..., for I was sent for this purpose. Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not arrived to call the righteous but sinners to repentance« (Luke 4,43; 5,31-32). Jesus arrived to call you to repentance and to preach His gospel to you. Some of us are self-righteous Pharisees who are content with the righteousness we attempt to earn by obeying God’s law. Others of us are distraught sinners obsessed with our guilt. Jesus redeemed both types of people. 

8. The reign of God is about justification; how is a person justified and righteous before God? There is the self-righteous path that leads away from God and ultimately becomes obsessed with the self and its obedience of God’s law and testament. There is also the imputed righteous path that flows from God and leads back to God that simply trusts in Christ and His obedience to His law and testament. 

  9. The Preacher writes in Ecclesiastes: »In my vain life I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing. Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself?« (Ecclesiastes 7,15-16). A self-righteous person will perish in his righteousness, for he or she, like the Pharisee, will leave the house of God unjustified and unforgiven, but a sinner who falls on the mercy of Jesus, like the sinful woman or the tax collector, will leave the house of God justified and forgiven. Everyone who trusts in Jesus alone and His righteousness will by faith receive that promised gift of imputed righteousness as his or her own. 

10. The gospel changes people. Those who have received the mercy and forgiveness of Christ reciprocate in kind with love. Jesus says that one who has been forgiven a great debt will have much love for Jesus as opposed to someone who has been forgiven a small debt will have less love. In Simon’s case, he has no love for Jesus as he has not received any forgiveness. It is not as if Jesus refused to forgive him, but rather Simon refused the gift because, smug in his own righteousness, he did not perceive the need of Jesus’ forgiveness. Simon’s complete absence of love toward Jesus is exemplified by his complete lack of respect that he had shown Jesus the moment He entered his house. In stark contrast, a sinful woman showered Jesus with love as evidence of the forgiveness Jesus had graciously lavished upon her. Likewise the tax collector in Luke 18 who threw Himself upon God’s mercy and received that very mercy from God who absolved him of his many heinous sins and declared him justified and righteous in His Divine sight. 

11. Jesus humbles those who exalt themselves and exalts those who humble themselves. Jesus is the example par excellence who humbled Himself by being incarnated with human flesh, suffered on the cross, died and three days later exalted Himself by raising Himself from the tomb. Jesus has exalted you, given you His very own righteousness and seals it with your Holy Baptism in the Triune Divine Name. His great mercy now bears much good fruit in your lives. As ones who have been forgiven a great debt by Jesus, respond with great love to Him and your neighbors. In Jesus, your righteousness supersedes that of the Pharisees, and from that imputed righteousness a greater love flows from you that puts all Pharisees to shame. Such is the reality of faith in Jesus and the love that springs forth from that faith.  Amen. 

12. Let us pray. O Merciful Father, who declares all men and women righteous by the merits of Christ Jesus, make us bear food fruit so that we proclaim His gracious deeds among neighbors!  Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 

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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27. Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. 

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2013 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. 

Just, Arthur A., Jr. Luke 1:1––9:50. Copyright © 1996 Concordia Publishing House. 

VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2013 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. 

1. $29,000 at $7.25 x 8 hours. A denarius was a day’s wage. 

2. $2900.