A Past Redeemed | Luke 7:36-50

In Luke 7, Jesus is invited to dine at the home of Simon the Pharisee when an uninvited woman—known publicly only as “a sinner”—enters the gathering. Though rejected and labeled by religious society, she boldly approaches Jesus with tears, worship, humility, and costly perfume. While the Pharisees see her only through the lens of her past, Jesus sees a repentant sinner in need of grace.

Through a parable about two debtors, Jesus exposes Simon’s self-righteousness and reveals that those who recognize the depth of their forgiveness respond with deep love and worship. The woman leaves forgiven, transformed, and at peace.

This passage reminds us that our past does not have to define us, Jesus welcomes broken sinners who come in repentant faith, and true transformation is found only in Him.

Luke 7:36-50 (ESV)

36 One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table. 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, 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. 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.” 40 And Jesus answering said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he answered, “Say it, Teacher.”
41 “A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” And he said to him, “You have judged rightly.” 44 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. 45 You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. 46 You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. 47 Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” 48 And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” 49 Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” 50 And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

Transcript

Regret, Shame, And Real Hope

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Well, I'm not a big fan of preaching Mother's or Father's Day messages. Because when we look at the biblical picture of what it looks like to be a godly mother or father, sometimes we can just leave church feeling pretty discouraged, going, Man, I really miss the mark. Because here's what I know there's something every parent has in common. You ready? Every one of us, I can almost guarantee you, have we look back on the way we raised our children, and we have moments of regret. We we look back to certain decisions we made, or maybe even seasons, and we all have regrets. And here's the thing that's not just true of parents, is it? We all can look back up uh to our lives in the past, and maybe it's last week, maybe it's last year, maybe it's 20 years ago, and we all wish we could go back and relive certain moments within our lives. Can I get a witness? The unfortunate news is this we can't. We can't change yesterday, but I've got great news for us today. And it's this in Christ, how many know our past can be washed away? We're made new creations in Christ. Here's something I want to preach to myself, especially and to each one of you today. We don't have to carry the shame of our past. Are you grateful for that today? That shame can be replaced with God's peace. Today, if you will listen and you apply what we learned from this story in Luke chapter 7, I'm telling you this: you can be freed from the burden of past mistakes in the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know, even Christians struggling struggle with letting past things go. It's hardest to forgive ourselves sometimes, isn't it? Well, today we come to a text in Luke 7, a wonderful, beautiful passage, where we find a woman who is possibly a mother, we don't know, with a at best shady past. But what we find in today's text is that she receives the mercy of Christ. She comes in this room with tears of sorrow, and she leaves with tears of joy. And so I'm going to begin unpacking this by looking at her colorful past. That's a nice way to say it. Look at verse 36. One of the Pharisees asked him, Jesus, to eat with him, and he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at a table. And behold, a woman of the city who was a sinner. And I want you to kind of underline that. When she learned that he was reclining at a table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster, alabaster flask of ointment. So we have this man by the name of Simon, and he is a Pharisee, and he invites Jesus over for a hangout session, a meal, and uh he invites many of his Pharisee friends over with him. Now, here's what you've got to understand about kind of these meals in the ancient world, particularly in Jewish culture, they were not closed off like meals are today. Like if you have a Mother's Day meal at your house, man, I hope you're cooking for your wife. I'm taking mine to Proud Mary's just as good. And uh listen, what what if today you you were at home having a meal and just somebody off the street smells the food and just walks in? Like that's not culturally acceptable. If it was, I'd be doing that quite a quite often. But in Israel, at this time in the first century, meals were somewhat open. As a matter of fact, scholars think that this meal might have taken place in a courtyard. So often at these meals, there was a distinguished guest. That's what Jesus is doing there in this story. And if someone happened to be passing by and they were interested, they could just come up and take your food. A beggar could come off the street and come up and hear what's happening and eat or whatever. So we have this woman doing just that. She's an uninvited guest, but she crashes this party, so to speak. Now, Luke does not tell us her name. You know, many people I've heard say, well, it's Mary Magdalene. No, it's not. It's almost certain that it's not Mary Magdalene. Luke does give her a title, though. What is it? The sinner. The sinner. Why would Luke say that? Well, this is how the religious elites see her. They reduce her to her worst mistakes. Now we don't know what her sin was, but scholars uh almost all agree that she was likely a prostitute. And that to these men in the room except Jesus, this is all she is. What a tragedy. But aren't we guilty of making those same labels, reducing people to their worst mistakes? The alcoholic, the addict, the adulterer. Maybe today you feel like your identity is wrapped up in your past mistakes. But can I just give you good news today? Your past, your sins do not define you. Amen. The Bible, to be sure, calls us sinners, doesn't it? But that's not all we are. Let me just read you a passage in Genesis 9. This is the word of the Lord that says, Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed. For God hath made him in his image. Do you have a past? Yes. Do I have a past? Yes. If you made mistakes, yes. Do you have regrets? Do I have regrets? Yes, yes, and yes. But that's not all we are. We're not just sinners. We're not just people of regrets. We're not just people of mistakes. Beloved, we are beings created in the image of Almighty God. Which means this, friends. I don't care what someone has done, we ought to treat them with dignity because they're made in the image of Almighty God. Here's what I love about the story: this woman walks in, crashes the party. She doesn't let her colorful past stop her from approaching Jesus. Now that might be a word for somebody today here or watching online, say, well, you know, this is this Jesus. I understand that you people can go to him, but but me, you don't know, Pastor, what I've done. You don't know where I've been. You don't know what I looked at last night, what I said yesterday. I would just encourage you, like this woman, do not let your past stop you from coming to Jesus. How many know he came for people like you and me? Look at verse 37. Behold, a woman of that city who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at the table in the Pharisee's house, she 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 ointment. She's got a colorful past, but today in this text, she has a hopeful encounter. I want you to see that this lady comes to Jesus intentionally. In other words, she doesn't just smell the apple pie and come in, right? No, she has heard about Jesus. She knows he's at Simon's house and she wants to encounter him. And we know this because she comes with this alabaster flask to anoint him. She's prepared. Now, this is a radical move that she would show up in this house because she is rejected by the host of this party. They think of her as merely a sinner. They want nothing to do with her. You've gone to a dinner, you've been invited to something even, but you know people don't really want you there. It's awkward. Why is she so desperate to get to Jesus? Well, no doubt she's heard about Jesus' love for sinners. Let me just let's go back, if you want to turn there with me, Luke chapter 5, just a few chapters back, a couple chapters back. Look at chapter 5, verse 27. After this, Jesus went out and he saw a tax collector named Levi, this is Matthew, sitting at the tax booth. Now, this is what you have to know, and you'll get this. If you I just filed my taxes this last week, I filed an extension, all right? It's all good. In in the ancient world, in Jewish culture in the first century, tax collectors were just lumped in with sinners. And I think we could do that with IRS agents, right? I'm just joking if if you're here and you're an IRS agent. But the the Jewish people, especially Jews who were tax collectors, they would often betray their own people to take extra money for Rome. And so it says, and leaving everything, Matthew rose and he followed Jesus. And Levi made him a great feast in his house. And there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at the table with them. And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at the disciples, saying, Why do you eat with tax collect and drink with tax collectors and sinners? Jesus answered them, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Perhaps this woman, and I can be almost certain of this, has heard about this Jesus. You know, this woman has been rejected by the religious, but she hears about one, this man called Rabbi or a prophet or this teacher who has done great miracles, who eats with sinners, who welcomes the sinner. And so she makes a beeline to Christ. And I love this. She comes to Jesus quickly. She doesn't wait. Like, think about this. Like she walks in the room or the courtyard. They're eating. Jesus may have been speaking. She doesn't wait to the end, till the meal's over and pull Jesus aside and say, Hey, can I talk to you now privately? Oh, beloved, she's hungry for Jesus. She doesn't come in and sit on the back row. Tabitha, I'm glad you're moving up. Listen, she doesn't sit on the back row. They call them back row Baptists, right? She uh she listen, she comes in. Imagine, Jody, where you at? You and Thomas and your kids. The first Sunday you're here. I'll never forget we had three sections instead of two. And there was a section right here, and you all came and sat in spitting distance of me. And I thought, man, that is bold the first time you're here to come up front. That's exactly what she does. I had a, you know, she doesn't wait for the altar call, so to speak. Does that make sense? Probably about a year ago, I wasn't even done preaching yet. And this lady starts making her way towards me. I thought she was going to attack me, so I did the crane. You know, I got ready. No, but she came up, bawling her eyes out. She could not wait another moment to encounter Jesus. She just wanted prayer. And at first I was shocked, but then I was like, that's how you do it. Yeah, we have an altar call at the end, but listen, you want to encounter Jesus, come up now, right? That's exactly what this woman does. She approaches him quickly, but watch this. She approaches him recklessly. What'd she do first? She sobs at Jesus' feet. This is a dignified crowd. But she just comes up, and not to be crashed, but she just snots and cries and all that at Jesus' feet. Then she lets her hair down, she starts wiping his feet off, dries his feet with her tears or with her hair. Now, this is scandalous because in Jewish culture, in this day, a woman's loose hair was considered intimate and private and even provocative at times. And obviously that was not her intent here, but she does this in a room full of men. You understand? This is reckless. As far as the Pharisees are concerned, this is they're shocked. And then what's she does? She starts kissing his feet. Oh my goodness. And then she takes this alabaster flask and she anoints Jesus. This is a costly, costly perfume. Uh perhaps her most valuable possession. Here's what's happening here. This is an act of humility and worship. Watch this. When she comes to Jesus, she doesn't do it casually. She pours out her heart to him. She weeps. She doesn't care what people think, she just wants Jesus. She pours out her emotions. And then she pours out even her body as she wipes his feet with her hair. Lord, take all of me. And then she even gives her material possessions. She doesn't come casually, she comes laying it all down at the feet of Jesus, quite literally. There's a man, true story, several years ago, who came not to this church, but another one. And he came to the altar and he and he wanted to encounter Jesus. And he gave his life and heart to Jesus Christ. And this man had a colorful past. The pastor prayed for him, and we were in and they were rejoicing as he received Christ. And all of a sudden, he takes a bag out of his pocket and throws it on the altar. The pastor goes and looks, and it's a bag of marijuana. The pastor didn't know what to do with it. But uh that is, man, that's what it looks like to come to the feet of Jesus. Amen. That's how every sinner should approach the Lord. I love this thought. The woman does not attempt to clean herself up before getting to Jesus. So many people think, well, I've got to get things together a little bit, I've got to get off the bottle or the drugs, or I've got to, you know, I've I've got to do this or do that. I've just got to clean myself up a little bit. And then maybe he'll accept me. No. Here's the problem with that. You can't clean yourself up. Oh, you might put the bottle down, but you're still going to sin. When you compare yourself to God's holy word, you and I are always gonna fall short. But this is the message come as you are. Now we don't want to stay as we are. Jesus changes us, but come as you are. In your filthy rags, come to Jesus. With all your regrets, come to Jesus. Now look at how her critics respond to this reckless behavior. Verse 39. Now, when the Pharisees who had invited him saw this, this is Simon, he said to himself, If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who was touching him. For she is a sinner. Boy, that sounds like some religious folks, doesn't it? They are shocked by her scandalous behavior, but watch this, they're even more shocked by Jesus' response. Why didn't he cast her away? He must not be a prophet. If he knew, he'd be like us. Cast her away. We don't want the sin germs on us, right? Jesus responds to them with a parable. Luke 7, 41 and 42, a certain money lender, Jesus says, had two debtors. One owed 500 denarii and the other 50. When they could not pay, he canceled the debt of them both. Now we ask Simon, which one of these will love him more? So it's a real simple parable. You got two people who owe this lender money. They have one thing in common. Both are unable to pay their debt. So the money lender graciously just forgives the debts. And so in the parable, the person with the more debt represents the sinful woman. The other man with the lesser debt represents Simon. Now, I want to be careful here because in parables, we've got to be careful about what would you say, interpreting every detail literally. Okay? We all stand sinful before the Lord, right? It's not that one is worse than the other. We are all sinners, but this Jesus is making a point. And Jesus here, what we see is he's quite aware of the woman's sin because he's talking about the one who has this massive debt. So Jesus asked Simon a question: which one of these debtors, the one of those 500 denarii or the 150, which one will be more grateful? Which one will one will love the moneylender more? And there's the response in verse 43. Simon answered, the one, I suppose, for whom he canceled the larger debt. And he said to him, Simon, you've judged rightly. And turning towards the woman, he said to Simon, Do you see this woman? Oh, I love this. I entered your house, you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears. She 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. Jesus is explaining something here. See, he's comparing Simon to this woman. And he says, Simon, you didn't do what was expected of you as a host. But this sinful woman, so to speak, has behaved appropriately. Simon, you didn't provide water to wash my feet, but the woman washed my feet with tears. You know, your your feet would be grimy from walking, and this was you you would offer the the guest water to wash his feet. Simon did not greet Jesus with a kiss, and this was a common greeting. Thank the Lord we don't do this anymore. But the woman, he didn't kiss Jesus on the cheek there, but the woman kissed his feet. Simon did not anoint him with oil, but the woman does. And look at verse 47. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she is loved much. But he who is forgiven little loves little. And he said to her, Your sins are forgiven. Then those who were at his table with him began to say among themselves, Who is this who even forgives sins? This points us to the deity of Christ. So the woman honors Jesus and she demonstrates, watch this, repentant faith, not mere intellectual belief, but repentant faith in the Lord Jesus. She worships him and she's aware of Jesus' mercy and he cancels the debt that she owes. Now we got to be careful here again. We don't want to take the part where Jesus talks about the man in the parable who was forgiven little as literal. There's no indication that Simon repents, and if he doesn't repent, he does not receive Christ's mercy. Here's what we find in the story, as a matter of fact, Simon is ignorant of his own sin. See, Simon and other Pharisees label the woman by her sin. Oh, she's the sinner. But they don't do that to one another. Why? Because they're blinded to their own malevolence in evil and wickedness. You know, it's interesting again that we refer to people as the alcoholic, the adulterer, the drug addict, but why don't we do that with everybody? Why don't we say, oh, the gossiper, the liar? The self-righteous, the prideful? We're all sinners. We could all be reduced to our sin. Could it be that Luke omits omits naming the woman's particular sin because we all have sins that could define us? So we can't look in this and say, well, I'm not a prostitute, so this doesn't apply to me. No. That's not true. You and I, we've all got sin that could define us. And I just say we've got to be careful that we don't judge the most messed up of human beings when they come to the altar. Let's not forget that we all have a past and we all have regrets, and if it were not for grace, we wouldn't be where we are today. Here's the thing: we all have a debt that we could not pay. True. Each one of us, like this woman, are dependent on the grace and the mercy of God. The woman has a colorful past, a hopeful encounter, but with Jesus, here's what she has: an unbelievable transformation. Look at verse 50. And he said to the woman, Your faith has saved you. Go in.

unknown 23:22

Wow.

Let Go Of Shame And Come Forward

SPEAKER_00 23:25

The woman came broken, she leaves whole. She came with tears of regret, she leaves with tears of joy. She came with shame, she leaves with a clear conscience. She came with anxiety, she leaves with peace. She came lost, but she leaves saved, redeemed. Amen. There was a church in Colorado. I pastored in Greeley for about five years. And uh just north of us was a town called Fort Collins. And uh there on there there's a college there in right on the main drag there, there was a strip club. And um there was a church there in Fort Collins, another Sumba's of God church called Timberline, wonderful church, pastored by Darry Northrop. And Darry told the story of a man in this church who um who fixed hair, cut hair, beautician, I guess. Can you call men that do that a beautician? Is that right? Okay. What's that? Well, he's not a barber, but he he he uh yeah, did real pretty hair. Not a barber I would go to. So um actually I probably would. It's not funny. If you can't pick on yourself, who can you pick on, right? So here's the thing. Why did I say that? I gotta bring this back around. It's a great story. So he had this guy in his church who worked in this beauty shop, let's say. And these strippers would come to him and have him fix their hair. And this one particular lady was so broken, had children, and she did this just to get money to provide for her kids. If I remember right, she was a single mom. And uh this man would just talk about Jesus and show the love of Christ to these ladies without judgment. Long story short, the the lady gets saved. She uh she comes to the church to get baptized and she brings her stripper friends with her. And there's a balcony in the church. They've all got their little mini skirts on, really. And uh they're walking up, you know, ready the the balcony. They wanted to sit kind of far away to watch their friend get baptized. And the ladies are making sure their husbands aren't, you know, looking up, you know, and stuff. And there's a lot of judgment, I'm sure, in that place, just like what's happening in our story. But do you know that started a revival? Stripper after stripper after stripper got saved. And do you know sometimes later, that strip club had to close down and it became a satellite church of timberline? That's the grace of God. Those women, I promise you, had regrets. They were washed away, and God used them to start a revival. A church is massive now. If you're like me, you've got regrets. And listen, I've got to preach to myself today because listen, I promise you, you can ask the people who are closest to me. I bear shame from things I did from childhood, from middle school, from high school, 20 years ago, early on in my marriage. And I know, I mean, I teach people this all the time. Your past doesn't define you. You don't have to carry the shame. Jesus bore that shame at Calvary. So most of us know that intellectually today, but oh may it that truth sink into our hearts. If you're here today and you're a Christian and you're still carrying that shame, come to Jesus and just fall at his feet and say, Lord, take that shame away. If you're here and you're not a Christian, don't let your past stop you from coming to Jesus. Don't worry about what anybody thinks. You say, Well, this is my first time in the building. It's my first time in church in a long time. Well, the woman, it's her first time at Simon's house, and she just came up and wept at Jesus' feet. So we're gonna open these altars. We'd love to pray with you. Come have your past washed away. Isaiah 1 18 though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow.