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The Price Tags of Forgiveness
A sermon by
Dr. James Flamming
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia
Sixth in a series on “The Mirror Stories of Jesus”
Sunday, November 5, 2006
I read recently the report of a young Roman Catholic priest
about his early Sundays at his very first parish assignment. He arrived anxious
and ready and on that first Sunday the cars began to drive up and he was just so
excited because there were so many and then when he went in to the little
sanctuary he was absolutely astounded that there were so few people there. The
next Sunday it was the same way -- the cars coming and grouping in and yet,
during the service, so few attending. So the third Sunday, he decided he would
look, observe from a kind of a quiet place where he could not be observed and
what the people were doing was coming in and dipping their finger in the holy
water, crossing themselves, going back out that front door, into their cars, and
on to their plans for the day, thinking that they had accomplished what all
needed to be accomplished on that Lord’s day. Any church can get into the habit
of doing things so often that, if we don’t watch it, we begin to simply go
through the motions. We have the service, then we get into our cars and go on
about what we planned for the day.
In the seventh chapter of Luke, Jesus encounters a man who
is very religious. But his religion very well may have been mostly ritual. And
somehow or another, it had never gotten into the depths of his being. As we
gather this day, I would hope that two things that our Lord said were core,
absolutely basic. They are, in fact, what Christianity is all about --
forgiveness and love. That in some way, when you leave this place today,
forgiveness and love will have reached deep into your soul and touched you in
some very significant way.
The way it all happened was that a Pharisee invited Jesus
to have dinner with him, verse 36.
So Jesus “went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table.”
Boy, Jesus was not popular among the religious
establishment. For a Pharisee to invite him to have dinner with him, now that
was a real breakthrough. That would be like – that would be like a high
visibility democrat inviting a high visibility republican to have dinner with
him and the reporters would be there. Jesus was invited and went and dinner was
served.
Verse 37: “A woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus
was eating at the Pharisee's house, and she brought an alabaster jar of perfume
…”
Explanation, please. We can’t imagine this in our culture
but in that day when a special guest was invited for dinner, it was the custom
to open all the doors of the house. Anybody could come in. It was the small
village entertainment. And on this day, an unexpected person walked in the
door. In a small town, everybody knows everybody, right? And everybody knows
what everybody’s doing. They knew her and I can imagine when she walked in the
door, there was a little bit of “What in the world is she doing here?”
As Jesus was reclining to eat, because in that day they
didn’t sit in chairs around the table, they reclined on specially designed
couches. And that would mean, of course, that the feet were exposed. She
walked to the foot of the reclining couch of Jesus. As she brought the jar of
perfume and stood behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet
with her tears, and then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them, poured
perfume on them. And when the Pharisee saw this, he said to himself, “Whooo,
wow, what am I doing inviting this …” This is a loose translation.
“What am I doing inviting this man to have dinner with me? If he were a
prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of a woman she is. She
is a sinner.”Jesus answered, "Simon, …”
First time in this whole passage we know who he was. Jesus
has a way of calling us by name when he’s about to teach us something. I know
he teaches us in groups, I know he teaches us in classes, I know he teaches us
in prayer groups and study groups and all the rest of it, but, when he’s going
to teach us something in specific, you can almost hear him whisper in the ears
of your heart your name. He’s got you singled out. And listen to me: you will
do well to listen to him. He knows you by name; he loves you completely.
Listen to him.
“Simon.
Simon, I have something to tell you."
"Tell me, teacher," Simon says.
Now comes the parable.
"Two men
owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the
other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the
debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?"
I can picture Simon shuffling his feet just a little bit
and then he said,
"I suppose …”
Huh, oh, that’s a great introduction.
“I suppose
the one who had the bigger debt canceled."
"You have judged correctly," Jesus said.
Let’s do a little figuring here. Denarii is not part of
our currency. Let me tell you what it was – it was a day’s wages. Five hundred
denarii would be five hundred days’ wages. Do a little calculation in your
head. Suppose there are fifty working weeks in a year and five days during each
week. You’re looking at 250 denarii, a year’s wages. Five hundred; two years
wages.
Jesus often, in his parables, spotlights the little things
-- the mustard seed, the leaven, the sparrow, the flower in the field -- things
that, ordinarily, we just overlook. But now, no pennies involved. Not a mite;
a denarii. His illustration is intended to say, “Dear friend, Simon. You know
a whole lot about money. You’ve worked on budget committees endlessly You’re
an esteemed member of this community. Let me tell you something. If a person
were to forgive five hundred – two years wages – to write it off, paid in full,
and then to another person, fifty. That’s oh, you know, 10 percent, but fifty
would be almost three month’s wages. Simon, that’s a significant amount. Who
do you think loved him the most?” And Simon answered what was obvious, the one
who had been forgiven most. By the way, wouldn’t you love to know that banker?
It would be something, paid in full. Oh, my – hum. When Jesus uses
paid-in-full parables, he’s looking forward to the cross. And he knows that
he’s going to be doing something on that cross and through the resurrection that
we simply cannot do for ourself. Don’t care how hard we work, how much we
perform, how perfect we are, we won’t be able to pull it off. It’s going to
have to be done by God himself in Jesus Christ the Lord. Paid in full.
Now Jesus makes the teaching specific. Just in case Simon
misses it.
“Simon, when
I walked in here, there was no basin for me to wash my feet.”
That was customary.
“This woman
has bathed my feet with her tears. Simon, you didn’t anoint my head with oil.”
Custom. The honored guest was often, if he were a male,
anointed with oil, just a little, but it was a great symbol. Psalm 23. The
psalmist understands this and says of the Lord God, “Thou anointest my head with
oil and my cup runneth over.” Says Jesus,
“No Oil, but
this woman brought an alabaster jar …”
The alabaster itself was worth a great deal.
“a jar of
perfume. And she has anointed my feet.”
“When I
walked in …”
It is customary for a host to take the guest in his arms
and a little welcome kiss on the cheek. Lots of cultures in our world do that.
That was ancient as well. Says Jesus,
“You didn’t
do that for me. And this woman, she has bathed my feet with her kisses.”
“Now,” says
Jesus to Simon, “she has loved much and has been forgiven and because she has
been forgiven much, she will be loved much.”
Dear one, the Lord God, from the beginning, welded – welded
– tied together, tied in a knot, wove in one piece love and forgiveness. We are
separated … we have separated them. We put love over here on this island. We
put forgiveness over here on this island. We don’t realize they are two sides
of the same coin. We don’t realize they’ve been woven together and Jesus,
through the woman, is teaching us that if we want to love God more, we’ve got to
learn how to be forgiven more. And, if we want to be forgiven more, we will
discover we also love him more.
Is God’s love “tough love?” “Tough” may be not your word.
How about “strong?” How about “intentional?” How about “intense?” I don’t
care what word you use. There’s going to be some demand in God’s love.
Turn over to Matthew, the sixth chapter. Matthew, the
sixth chapter. These are Jesus’ teaching on prayer. If you have the pew Bible,
it’s 15-0-4. In verse 9, he gives us what we know as the Lord’s Prayer we will
sing at the end of this service. But notice that there is one thing he gives
comment on. All of the rest of it, he just leaves. But when it comes to
forgiveness, listen to him in verse 14:
“For if ..”
uh-oh, there’s that two letter word “if.” This is God’s
demand when it comes to loving and forgiving. It is the high price of
forgiveness. “If …”
“If you
forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive
you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive
your sins.”
Tough love. Demand love. Love that has within it reality
woven to the core. The horizontal and the vertical are always connected. God
understands the high cost of forgiveness. Look at what it cost him. First, it
cost him his Son and our savior, Jesus Christ. Then, to pay whatever penalty
needed to be paid or, in the subconscious realities of all of us, whatever
symbol needed to be raised. In the light of all history, where sacrifice has
been such a crucial part, whatever sacrifice had to be made he made it.
Forgiveness is a high-priced matter. No pocket change allowed.
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