Daily Worship

Forgiveness

November 17, 2015 0 0

Luke 7: 36 - 50

Jesus Anointed by a Sinful Woman

36 When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37 A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. 38 As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.

39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”

40 Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”

“Tell me, teacher,” he said.

41 “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii,[a] and the other fifty. 42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”

43 Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”

“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.

44 Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”

48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

49 The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”

50 Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

You can feel the tension God, when the unspoken rules are broken, and an isolated person takes a risk, when Jesus sides with the transgressor, whilst the respectable refuse to associate.
And they question your credentials Lord, ‘did you not know what kind of person this was who came so close to you that others gasped?’

Lord, still we do it, we see others as being not like us. With this or that kind of label we restrict and limit them. We define others by the way they look or talk or behave. What a strange kind of morality it is that condemns others for their faults without noticing that we also need to be forgiven. Lord, how can it be surprising to know that all of us share a common humanity, that sin is not only in others but also in us?

Gracious Jesus, thank you that you draw alongside all who have made mistakes. When we are conscious of wrong-doing or having omitted to do the good we might have done, grant that we too may hear the words you said that evening “Your sins are forgiven”. So may we serve you as forgiven people finding your new way. Amen.

prisonersweek.org.uk