THE MAIN IDEA
Christ has forgiven all our sins and is worthy of all our worship.

JESUS IS THE FRIEND OF SINNERS
It’s not that Jesus is the friend of sinners, as if Jesus condones our sin. It’s more that Jesus desires sinners to become His friends. His friends do what He commands (John 15:14). When we say that Jesus is a friend of sinners, what we are saying is that Jesus makes Himself open and available to anyone who comes to Him—no matter who they are and no matter their sins. Jesus made Himself available to this judgy Pharisee named Simon. And Jesus made Himself open and available to this woman “who lived a sinful life” (verse 37). Everyone knew her as a “sinner,” but aren’t we all? Yet that does not define who we are—not in Jesus’s eyes. In Jesus’s eyes, He does not label us as “sinners.” He sees us as beloved children in need of His redemption. And so, it’s not that Jesus is a friend of sinners, per se. Jesus becomes the friend of those who know that they are sinners.

JESUS IS THE FORGIVER OF SINNERS
The Gospel of Luke puts a spotlight on people who are deemed “sinners” more than any other Gospel. But the question is not whether someone is a sinner or not. We are all sinners. The question is whether we genuinely recognize that we are sinners. In the parable, the moneylender represents God. The debt is sin. And the ones whose debts are forgiven are both the woman and Pharisee. But whereas the woman recognized the magnitude of her debt—the magnitude of the devastation of her sin—the Pharisee did not. It’s only when we can understand the magnitude of the devastation of our sin that we can better understand the magnitude of the holiness of God. And God’s holiness is such that there can be no compromise with sin! And so it’s only when we can understand the magnitude of the devastation of our sin that we can better understand the magnitude of God’s great, great love for us. Jesus went to the cross for everyone. And so the difference between being saved or not is whether or not we recognize and confess our need for Christ’s forgiveness. But Christ will never turn down someone seeking His forgiveness.

JESUS IS THE FIRST LOVE OF SINNERS
If we know that we’re sinners, we need to pour out our love to Jesus Christ, our first love. Because He is worthy of it all. This woman went into the house of a Pharisee because she knew that Jesus was there. She brought the perfume with the intention of anointing Jesus’s head. Anointing someone’s feet was not a thing. But she notices that Simon had not washed Jesus’s feet. Her heart was so overwhelmed with love for Jesus, her tears were gushing out. And so she used her tears to wash His feet. And having nothing to dry His feet, she lets down her hair, which was totally shameful for a woman to do in public, and uses it to dry His feet. And she starts kissing his feet, because his dirty, tear-stained, snot-stained, smelly feet are worthy of her adoration. And then, she uses the perfume that she brought for His head to anoint His feet. Because for this Man who forgives sins, even His smelly, dirty feet are more worthy than the expensive perfume she was pouring on them. Everyone else must have felt extremely uncomfortable with her behavior, but Jesus sees her and reassures her, “Your sins are forgiven.” Of course, the only reason she was there was because she had come to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah, who came to redeem the sinners of this world. When we’re in public, we work so hard to save face. But Jesus hates our need to save face in front of others, when He went to the cross to save our souls. We should be more like this woman.

DISCUSSION QUESTION
On a scale from 1 (not at all) to 10 (absolutely), is Jesus worthy of it all? What keeps you from getting to 10?