“A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 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.”
Luke 7:41-43
I must learn the lesson Simon learned here. Like this Pharisee, I rank my sin too low, assuming great sin in others to be so much worse, and priding myself on my seemingly small sins. But God, in Christ, forgives all sin. And I need to love that truth, embrace it as real for me, because my own judgmentalism and pride are in themselves horribly awful sins for which Jesus died.
Jesus freely forgives great sin. In this passage, the sinful woman (probably a prostitute) expresses great love for Jesus, extending extravagant worship to Him. She "outloves" the hospitality of Simon the Pharisee with her pure, and heartfelt brokenness and devotion. She gets what the proper response to the grace of God should be with her intense sacrificial gift, tears of repentance, and wordless public confession of devotion to Jesus.
Oh to love like one forgiven of great sin! As long as I see my sins as petty, I will not love like she did. Pouring out my stored treasures from my broken jar in worship is what I, a thankful forgiven sinner, must do, for I have been forgiven much.
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