Toby J. Sumpter's Blog, page 93

The Good News of Sola Scriptura

One of the great recoveries of the Protestant Reformation was the doctrine of Sola Scriptura – which means “Scripture alone.” While the reformers recognized many true authorities in a believer’s life (e.g. parents, rulers, pastors, councils, and various traditions), those authorities are only to be obeyed in so far as they require obedience to God, in so far as they are consistent with what He has spoken in Scripture. While Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Christians claim that Scripture must be interpreted by the Church and her traditions and deny Sola Scriptura, Protestants have insisted that the Bible is God’s Word and therefore is the ultimate authority over the Church and her traditions.

This principle is found in Scripture itself when Paul got wind that the Church in Thessalonica had heard reports about additional teachings claiming to be from Paul and the other apostles (2 Thess. 2:2, 2:15). So Paul made it clear to the Thessalonians that the gold standard for his words were his written letters: “If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person…” (2 Thess. 3:14), and then just a few verse later, “I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. This is the sign of genuineness in every letter of mine, it is the way I write” (2 Thess. 3:17). Likewise, Paul notes his signature at the end of Colossians, Galatians, and 1 Corinthians, (e.g. “I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand…”). And in many of his other letters, he identifies his authorized letter-carrier, which stands in as his signature verifying that these words are his authorized words.

Paul was an apostle of Jesus Christ, and this meant that he (along with the other apostles) were uniquely authorized to bear witness to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and to build the Church on their testimony and teaching. The New Testament is the apostolic foundation of the Church, the authorized testimony of the apostles. And as such, it is the Word of God, the standard before which all human beings stand. This is profoundly good news because this means that God’s Word is fixed. God’s Word is clear. All that must be known for salvation and life and faith is set forth in the Scriptures. And in a day full of confusion about authority, we stand before Scripture as the only ultimate and infallible standard of truth. This is good news.

Christ Lives In Me

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Gal. 2:20)

There is no other kind of Christian life. There is only the kind where people are crucified with Christ. This is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life — crucified with Christ. This is the idolatry of self-serving, self-pleasing, self-obsessing through arrogance, bitterness, despair — crucified with Christ. This is the power plays, manipulation, demands, threats, violence, coercion — crucified with Christ. This is the old man, the hateful man, the angry man, the belligerent man, the jealous man, the panicked man, the paranoid man — crucified with Christ. It is everything in me, in you that cannot be good, that cannot stop hurting, that cannot stop being hurt — all if it is crucified, was crucified, with Jesus Christ two thousand years ago.

There is no other kind of Christian life. There is only the kind where the people who live, live because Christ lives in them. They are animated by another person living inside of them. This isn’t a zombie thing, but it sometimes feels like a split-personality thing. But for Christians, the crucial thing is that they aren’t trying to be in control anymore. They’ve sworn off trying to control their own lives, or direct their own destinies. Christians are those who have been subdued, conquered, and they have welcomed the Conqueror inside of them. Here, take my life, it’s yours. Here, take my mind, take my hands, take my heart, take my past, take my present, take my future, take all of me. It is yours. It is not us who live; it is Christ who lives in us. And now the life that we live is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved us and gave Himself for us.

This is not my life. That is not your life. We already died. Our lives were crucified with Christ. Those lives, the lives we attempted to live on our own, were filthy and vile and hurtful and shameful and failures. Those lives are dead. Christ died, that we might die, that our demons might die, that our guilt might die, that our shame might completely die, and now Christ lives so that we might live. He lives inside of us. He has commandeered us. He rules in us and over us. He is our Lord, and so we live by faith in Him. But this is the most wonderful thing because our Lord loved us and gave Himself for us.

There is no halfway life in Christ because there is no Christ who is halfway alive. There is only life in Christ and death apart from Him. There is only shame and guilt and sorrow and fear, or else all of that is crucified with Christ and we live because He, being fully alive, lives in us.

There will be sorrow and hardship and failure and pain, but the life we live is Christ in us. What can cancer do? What can childlessness do? What can instability do? What can sin do? This life? This one I live? This is Christ living in me. This is not me living. This is not my life. This is Christ in me. I live this life by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Do you know this life? Do you know what this is? Does it resonate? Does it make sense of everything and assure you? Does it calm your fears and grant you peace? Or are you afraid to admit that you don’t know what this is? Deep down, you’re not sure this is you?

The question is not whether you can believe. The question is merely, do you want this? Do you really want this? Are you willing to be crucified with Christ? Are you willing to let Him have everything and not hold anything back? All of it. Every last thing. If you are willing, Christ will come in. The problem isn’t on God’s part. There is no reluctance with Christ. No one waits for Christ. It is only Christ waiting for us. It is your reluctance to receive Him, to let Him take control of everything — that’s what keeps you from His peace. But He is ready. He is willing. He loved you and gave Himself for you.

The question is not whether you can believe, whether there is enough evidence to prove that He is real or that the gospel is true. Jesus offers to come into your life. If it isn’t true, then nothing will happen. Nothing will change. If you are willing to win the lottery, and you don’t win, then being willing to win clearly doesn’t matter. But if you are willing for Christ to win you, if you are willing to be crucified with Him, and He moves in and He begins to live inside of you, then it doesn’t matter how much evidence you had. It doesn’t matter how much faith you had. All that matters is that it has happened, and now it is no longer you who lives, but Christ who lives in you.

Fully Paid, Fully Free

In the first question and answer of the Heidelberg Catechism that we’re using for our creed during Lent, it says that our comfort in life and in death is found in the fact that our faithful Savior, Jesus Christ has fully paid for all our sins with His precious blood and set us free from the tyranny of the devil. Paul says in Colossians that God has forgiven all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us, by nailing it to the cross (Col. 2:13-14). Hebrews says that Jesus shared our flesh and blood so that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery (Heb. 2:14-15). In Revelation 5, the elders and living creatures fall down before the Lamb singing, “Worthy are you to take the scroll, and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation…”

Putting all of this together, demonstrates that Heidelberg has it exactly right. Jesus is the perfect lamb of God who suffered, bled, and died for the sins of the world, and your sins were included in that number. When Jesus died for your sins, He took them all away, and He did this by paying for them completely. He did not purchase your sins at a discount. He did not trick the devil and shoplift you from the power of death. No, it is your guilt that keeps you enslaved to the fear of death. The wages of sin is death, and therefore the only way Jesus delivers the slaves of the fear of death is by delivering them from their guilt completely. This is what Paul means by the record of debt being nailed to the cross. That means the charges that the devil (or anyone else) might bring against any one of us were nailed to the cross of Jesus. He paid for our sins. He suffered for our guilt. He died that we might be go free. And this meal is the authorized declaration by Jesus that all of this is true. Are you a sinner? Then come. Are you ashamed? Then come. Are you afraid? Then come and welcome.

Creation is God’s Army

In Genesis 2:1, Moses says that God finished creating the heavens and the earth and all their host. Literally, it says that God finished making heaven and earth and all their armies. In other words, the whole created order, the entire universe with all its myriad creatures and materials is a military force. And clearly, it is God’s army. Martin Luther noticed this and said this army fights for us in our war against evil and sin.

On the one hand, this means that those who say there is no God, those who deny that we are created do so not merely in defiance of God, but they also do so in defiance of all of creation. All of creation fights against them. They are at war with God and at war with all that He has made. This highlights the fact that unbelief is fundamentally a moral problem and not an intellectual one. The problem is not that they don’t have enough information. The problem is that they refuse to surrender to Christ.

But there’s an application for Christians too. For even after we have surrendered to Jesus, we are still tempted to try to keep things from Him. We pretend that there are some things He doesn’t know about. But that’s just not true. He already knows it all. He’s been there with you the whole time, and He is not ashamed of you. In fact, He’s been there fighting for you, delivering you, cheering you on as you struggle against sin. And the whole universe is His military force. He fights for you in the sunrise, and He fights for you in the sunset. He fights for you in the rain and the dew. He fights for you in the symphony and the combustible engine. He fights for you in the billions of stars and plankton, and in the laughter and the tears. He cheers you on from the slopes of the mountains and the surging waves of the sea. The whole universe is His army, His host proclaiming His love, His mercy, His grace. The whole universe fights for Him, and this means that the whole universe fights for you, as you fight the world, the flesh, and the devil.

In a moment, we will sing from Colossians that through Jesus, God is pleased to reconcile all things on earth and in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross. Because of the blood of Jesus, shed on the cross, God’s victory is sure and therefore, so is yours.

Bitterness & Pride

Hebrews says, “See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled” (Heb. 12:15). Bitterness is a root, which means it lives under the surface. You can look at a flower bed and only see dirt and flowers, and not realize that there’s a thick root lurking just below the soil preparing to spring up. And when bitterness springs up it causes trouble and defiles many. There are many communities, families, churches where you can’t quite put your finger on what’s wrong. It’s like a rat died behind the fridge and everything smells a little off.

This verse says that the antidote to bitterness is the grace of God: see to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God. Don’t fail to receive God’s grace. Don’t fail to take it in. God’s grace kills bitterness because it puts everything in perspective. Bitterness grows in the green house of pride. But grace makes people humble. Grace comes to the lowly, the poor, the hungry, the sick, the broken. But there’s a way of being lowly and poor and broken that imagines that it deserves God’s grace. Haven’t I been sad long enough? Don’t I deserve something good? That’s pride, and that means you’re not really broken at all. And God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.

This table is spread for the hungry. It is not spread for the people who think they deserve to get some food because it’s been a while. This table is spread for those who know they don’t deserve God’s grace. This table is a table of grace, a table where we eat a broken Savior and ask him to break our pride so that there will not be any bitterness inside.

The Dignity of Guilt

One of the very unique aspects of Christianity is the dignity ascribed to human beings. Man and woman were created in the image of God and were created to be actors on the great stage of the world, to impact history, to be changers and inventors. People were created with wills, desires, and the power to make choices and judgments. This truly is glorious, but with it comes responsibility. In other words, the dignity of having the freedom and power to make a choice brings with it the responsibility for that choice. You can’t one minute celebrate your ability to invent something and then turn around and claim ignorance for what you’ve invented. You can’t soar to heights of freedom and marry that guy your friends and family warned you about, and then turn around and blame your friends and family for what transpires.

One of the most powerful sinful instincts is to shirk this responsibility. Going back to the garden, Adam blamed the woman, and the woman blamed the serpent. But they had made their own choices. This blame-shifting continues down to today. Marxism and socialism blame economic forces and the power of property for the outcomes of history. Evolution takes it even further and claims that you are the result of atoms and molecules rushing through time and space. You aren’t responsible for your actions, — how could you be? You just do what the chemicals and forces of nature make you do. But while these are attempts to take our guilt and shame away, they simultaneously rob human beings of their dignity. You’re just doing what anyone would do under these conditions.

This is where Christianity is unique. The Bible affirms the dignity of being human, the glory of making true choices, and at the same time recognizes that something has gone horribly wrong in this world. We have chosen evil things, and we can’t seem to stop making wrong choices. And yet far from stealing the dignity of our humanity from us, the gospel affirms our dignity by affirming our guilt. The cross of Jesus dignifies even those evil choices with the punishment they deserve. Jesus receives the punishment due our sin and sets us free from evil so that we may freely choose what is good. The way out of sin is owning your sin so that Jesus can take it away. And as you do this, God is restoring the glory and dignity of being made in His image.

6 Thoughts on Marriage & Remarriage in Babel

So one of the most challenging places the Church is called upon to exercise wisdom and judgment is in the matter of marriage, divorce, and remarriage. The stakes really are high here, and bone-headed laxity on the one hand or severe legalisms on the other do no one any favors and can only add to our current cultural Babel. If we wish to speak with authority into the pansexual orgy taking place in our world, we must be resolute, wise, and cheerful on the issues surrounding the biblical marriage covenant and when (if ever) it may be dissolved and when (if ever) a previously divorced person may marry again. In what follows, I am expressing my own views in my own words, but they represent broadly the views of the session I serve.

First, the Bible teaches that ordinarily anyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery. Full stop (Lk. 16:18). The man who divorces his wife breaks covenant and covers his garments with violence (Mal. 2:14-16). Jesus said it this way, and the Church must clearly and unapologetically teach this. In a time when the world has lost sight of what a covenant is or means, the Church must labor to name the world rightly in this regard. We must speak the truth in love and with compassion, but we must not blunt the truth with spiritual cotton candy. This means that pastors and Christian counselors labor to call men and women to keep their vows, and this means incidentally learning the grace of forgiveness and repentance. Because the gospel of Jesus is true, there is no marriage so dark, no covenant so trashed that it is beyond the hope of the gospel to heal and rise from the dead. What? Is your marriage mangled? Is it disfigured beyond all recognition? You mean like what they did to our Savior before they drove spikes into His hands and feet? Is your marriage cold and dead, like a corpse in a grave? Like the body of our Jesus that first Holy Saturday? You mean hours before He began to live again? There is always hope for healing, restoration, and reconciliation, and Christian counsel believes in the power of the Holy Spirit to raise dead men and dead women from the grave. At the same time, pastors must not be naive, and all appropriate accountability must be called upon as necessary. But if God calls a man and woman together, He does not do so as a cruel joke. The old covenant died and rose again, and many of our human covenants are offered the same amazing grace. To divorce your spouse because it is just too hard is to proclaim an impotent gospel. To move on and marry another is to commit adultery, as though our Lord would tire of our sins and move on to another bride.

Second, and nevertheless, human covenants can be broken, and depending on many particulars, the wisest, most peace-loving, grace-loving, God-loving path may be divorce. Jesus explicitly noted this fact also. He said that everyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, causes her to commit adultery (Mt. 5:32 ). While neither spouse is required to divorce even when there has been sexual infidelity, Jesus clearly notes that it is a lawful ground for divorce. Sexual infidelity is not necessarily limited to outright adultery. Porneas is the term that Jesus uses, and it refers to sexual immorality of many kinds, including prostitution, adultery, pre-marriage immorality, etc. This can also apply to certain forms of extreme pornography use and sexual abuse. It should still be noted here that one of the glories of the new covenant is Jesus coming as the Bridegroom to marry His harlot bride. Israel broke covenant and slept with all the nations of the world. And all sons and daughters of Adam have followed suit, serving our own lusts and passions. All have sinned and sold God’s love for cheap thrills and the illusion of self-fulfillment through rebellion. We are the woman at the well; we are Mary Magdalene; we are the woman caught in adultery. And Jesus is our Great Boaz who doesn’t care, who bears our sins, who pays our debts, who heals our diseases, who casts out our demons, who drives away our accusers, and He has done all of this through the blood of His cross, which is still in the inextricable process of making His bride, the Christian Church, spotless, clean, and pure. This means that there is a particular gospel blessing in the forgiveness of sexual infidelity. When a man or woman looks into the eyes of their spouse, knowing his/her unfaithfulness, and proclaims forgiveness, this is a supernatural and powerful testimony to the grace of God. To be clear: forgiveness is always required of Christians, but reconciliation is not. Sometimes a godly spouse may forgive sexual sin and still file for divorce. Here, I’m merely pointing out that when reconciliation accompanies forgiveness, it adds to the glory of the gospel. But as Jesus Himself notes, sometimes reconciliation is not possible. In those cases, remarriage would not constitute an act of adultery.

Third, the Bible also admits divorce in cases where an unbeliever is not pleased to continue living with a believer (1 Cor. 7:12-15). This may occur when one spouse becomes a Christian or when a previously professing Christian leaves the faith and/or is excommunicated. Once again, the first instinct of a Christian in these situations ought to be towards displaying the glory of the gospel. Paul himself encourages this thinking: “For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?” (1 Cor. 7:16). Christians are called to gospel hope toward unbelieving spouses. And even apart from conversion, Christians should not underestimate the power of their faith in their home. Paul says that the unbelieving spouse and children are made “holy” by the believing spouse (1 Cor. 7:14). Nevertheless, if the unbeliever separates from the believer, let them go. In those cases, the believer is not bound for God calls His people to peace (1 Cor. 7:15). Under those circumstances, if the believer is not “bound” to the unbeliever if he/she departs, then I believe that “unbound” spouse is free to remarry in the Lord.

Fourth, in the same passage, Paul makes it clear that he is not abandoning the Lord’s teaching on divorce or softening what He taught (1 Cor. 7:10). Husbands and wives must not divorce one another, and if either of them files for divorce for unbiblical grounds, they are to remain unmarried. The reason for this is that their divorce is not lawful, and repentance ought to include their reconciliation. This seems to be what Jesus refers to when He says that Moses allowed for divorce because of the hardness of Israelite hearts (Mk. 10:5). In those cases, Moses was not going liberal, and in those situations, the man and woman ought to remain unmarried. If they were to remarry under those circumstances they cause one another to commit adultery, just as Jesus said. This is one of those places where pastors and Christian counselors need to be prepared to stand their ground when somebody shows up asking to be (re)married. Just because somebody filed for divorce does not mean they may lawfully be remarried. Here is one of those places where the Church must double down if we are to have any credibility with the world on so-called “homosexual marriage.” If we are not faithful to God’s word here, why should they listen to us there? And remember that authority is not derived from popularity but from the truth.

Fifth, there is one final exception to the no divorce and remarriage rule, the most explicit reference for which is in Exodus where Moses required that a man who took a second wife not be allowed to diminish his first wife’s food, clothing, or marital rights, otherwise the first wife was free to leave the marriage without penalty (Ex. 21:10-11). As in the case of the believer whose spouse files for divorce leaving the brother or sister “unbound,” I understand the same status to apply to this effectively “deserted” spouse, which is to say the woman who may go out “free” is free to find another husband who will provide adequate food, clothing, and sexual intimacy. This regulation would serve to limit polygamy, but it also establishes the basic duties of the marriage covenant. And here in the law, God says that at a certain point of neglect and/or abuse, it may be determined that a woman (in most cases) is free to leave a marriage with no penalty because of the severity of the conditions the man has created. Regardless of whether this law applied to a concubine or a full-status wife, the point stands. Paul restates this basic covenant keeping responsibility of the husband in Ephesians 5:29 using the words “nourish” and “cherish” — literally “feeding” and “keeping warm.” This establishes at least one other biblical ground for divorce, namely, various forms of abandonment or desertion or sustained patterns of abuse, which amount to a gross failure to keep covenant obligations. We recognize that this final ground for divorce is the most difficult and perhaps the most open to exploitation. Nevertheless, God expects His people to grow up into maturity and wisdom, and this means that the Church must learn to make judgments about particular situations. There will be some situations that are very difficult which the Church determines must nevertheless be worked at (cf. 1 Pet. 3:1-6), and there will be some which the Church determines that the covenant of marriage has been broken and one of the parties is free to go if they so desire. Once again, while we note this exception, we still proclaim the power of the gospel and the glory of grace that covers, heals, and restores even the most damaged marriages.

Finally, a note about what occurs when an unlawful remarriage occurs. Jesus says that an unlawful remarriage constitutes adultery, and so it most certainly does. The question however is whether this is an ongoing state which must presumably be repented of by “divorce” which suggests that the second marriage is not really a marriage at all or whether the act of unlawful remarriage is an act of adultery but thereafter constitutes a true marriage to be honored and preserved despite its illicit beginning. For an analogous scenario, we might refer to the child conceived in an act of fornication. While the act of fornication is itself sinful, the resultant child is not a sin nor an ongoing state of sin for the mother or father. The mother and father of that illegitimate child do not repent by aborting the child. That would be to compound the guilt of the parents. No, repentance means confessing the act of fornication, the lies, the lust, the selfishness, but importantly also includes receiving the resultant child with joy and faith. In the same way, an unlawful remarriage is a sinful act, but the new union created by that marriage is a true one-flesh union, that ought not be aborted. Repentance should include confession of whatever sins may have led to that unlawful remarriage, but then it also includes receiving the new marriage with joy and faith. The primary textual defense for this is found in the law in Deuteronomy where the Lord prohibits a woman from returning to a previous husband after being remarried (Dt. 24:1-4). Moses says that this would be an abomination before the Lord. Therefore, we conclude that a man or woman who is divorced and remarries is under no obligation to return to the previous spouse even if the divorce was illegitimate. Remarriage, however unlawful or unwise, does constitute a true marriage, a new reality is brought into the world which is holy to God and ought to be honored by all men (Heb. 13:4).

All of this really is glorious and wonderful. In some ways it’s a bit like reading a surgeon’s manual, and it is admittedly a bit bloody and messy. But this is because this sinful world is messy. The great temptations on either side are either to refuse to allow messes or throw up our hands and give up trying. Some want a simple manual and take the strictest reading of what Jesus says and then cram all the other passages into their narrow reading. This effectively limits the sorts of cases they will deal with. The attraction is the simplicity and lack of broken bones. The downside is all the broken people who find themselves out of luck. On the flip side, those who refuse to take Jesus’s words seriously at all, are like physicians who encourage drinking and driving and wonder why the ER is always so full of mangled bodies. Can’t quite figure it out.

But the Bible really is God’s wisdom for a broken and hurting world. It proclaims the grace of covenant keeping, the grace of forgiveness and repentance, but it also proclaims the grace of freedom, the grace of peace, and where sin has done its worst, God gives new life.

God loves the marriage covenant. He loves how our marriage covenants mimic His covenant with us. He loves how imperfect marital love mimics His perfect and everlasting love for us. The creation design for this covenant is one man, one woman, one time. But because of sin and death, there is brokenness in the world, and none of our human marriage covenants fully reflect God’s covenant love for us. All of our marriage covenants fall short of His glory. But the good news of the gospel is that wherever we are, if we turn to Him with humble hearts there is always hope. It is never too late. There is always a way toward Him. And Jesus is that way. He comes to us wherever we are and He comes with healing in His wings.

Forgiven Kingdom

Luke XXIX: Lk. 7:36-50

Introduction

Last time we were in Luke, we saw how Jesus challenged people’s expectations. John questioned Jesus, the Pharisees and lawyers rejected Him, while the tax collectors and sinners justified Him. These same themes continue in the following episode as Jesus continues eating and drinking with sinners.

A Dinner

After Jesus has pointed out the difference between the sinners and Pharisees, a Pharisee invites Jesus to dinner (Lk. 7:36). On the one hand, this indicates that Jesus was not opposed to eating with Pharisees, and given the context, the immediate implication is that they need saving too (cf. 5:30-32). On the other hand, we might wonder what the Pharisees’ intention was. He may have been honestly intrigued or curious, or perhaps he was a bit more skeptical or self-righteous. Nevertheless, we are told that Jesus “reclined” at the table, which seems to indicate a more formal meal (compare 9:14-15, 11:37). Some speculate that this may have been a Sabbath meal; others suggest that this Pharisee has been influenced by certain Hellenistic banquet practices. In such settings, a famous teacher might be invited to come and give some sort of discourse on a topic, but the posture of reclining would have been common to both. The other possible allusion may be in the appearance of a woman on the scene. We see something analogous in the story of Herod’s birthday banquet, where Herodias’s daughter danced and pleased the guests (Mk. 6:21-22). Only this notorious woman appears and does something (perhaps) even more scandalous.

A Sinner

Because the dinner guests are reclining with their feet stretched out behind them, the woman is able to enter and stand behind Jesus at His feet (7:37-38). What begins as awkward with the woman appearing at dinner, quickly turns shocking. We are not told exactly how the events unfold, but Luke seems to indicate that the woman appears standing behind Jesus, begins weeping, even sobbing uncontrollably, and as she cries she kneels at Jesus’ feet. As her tears fall on Jesus’ feet, she lets down her hair, an act universally acknowledged as immodest and provocative, and finally she begins to wipe his feet with her hair, pouring a costly ointment on his feet and kissing them as she does so (7:38). Luke tells us that whatever questions the Pharisee had seem to be answered: this man cannot be a prophet if he doesn’t realize what kind woman this is who is touching him (7:39). But at that very moment, as the Pharisee concludes Jesus is not a prophet, Jesus speaks into his thoughts and tells him a short parable about two forgiven debts (7:40-41). Jesus asks, which of the debtors will love the lender more, and the Pharisee rightly answers that the one who is forgiven more will love more (7:42-43).

Turning the Tables

With this correct answer, Jesus turns the tables on the Pharisee. While the Pharisee thought this was an interview for Jesus, he finds out that this has actually been more an interview for him. Jesus turns and faces the woman, and perhaps with a hint of sarcasm, asks if Simon the Pharisee has noticed the woman at His feet (7:44). Without waiting for an answer, Jesus proceeds to point out how the Pharisee has been inhospitable, ungracious, and rude to Him (7:44-46). On the other hand, the woman has welcomed Jesus; she has been the loving host. She is the example that Jesus gives to Simon the Pharisee for how he ought to receive Jesus. Even this is a subtle but extravagant claim. Who does Jesus think He is, implying that He is worthy of such devotion and reverence? But Jesus doesn’t leave it there; He drives the point home even further by explaining the source of the woman’s extravagant actions: she is the debtor forgiven much and therefore she loves much (7:47). And the implied assertion is that Simon loves little because he has only been forgiven little (if any). Then Jesus speaks directly to the woman, and assures her that her sins are forgiven (7:48). And right on cue, the people at the meal ask how He can forgive sins (7:49). But Jesus hardly seems to hear them, and sets the woman free: “your faith has saved you; go in peace” (7:50).

Conclusions

Pharisaism is a religion of outward appearances. Jesus says elsewhere that they were concerned with cleaning the outside of the cup while inside they were full of greed and wickedness (Lk. 11:39). They were whitewashed tombs, beautiful and ornate on the outside, while full rotting bones and uncleanness (Mt. 23:27). They were concerned with “cleanness” and obsessed over washing and what they touched (e.g. Mk. 7:8-13). While this has an appearance of piety, it is really a cover for the despair of unbelief: Unbelief makes peace with sin and the powers of evil, and tries to limp along with an appearance of peace. But Jesus came touching the unclean and making them clean (Lk. 5:13, 8:46). Jesus came to break you out of the captivity of all sin. And He did this by canceling the record of our debt that stood against us, by nailing it to His cross and thereby disarming all the powers and triumphing over them (Col. 2:14). Do not despair, where are your accusers?

There’s a pharisaical tendency in all of us that resents the messy cases, the difficult cases, the awkward cases. But this is deeply ironic since that would disqualify all of us. But this episode goes further than to insist that God’s table welcomes the hard cases (it does that), but it also insists that those cases that seem most extreme are actually the rule. Those forgiven much are the leaders of the Kingdom. We are a Kingdom of forgiven sinners who love Jesus much because we have been forgiven much. All who need forgiveness are welcome, and only those who think they don’t are not. This is a particularly important lesson for us to teach our children.

Behind all of this is the standing question: Who is this? Who is this who allows a notorious sinner to wash His feet, to anoint them, and kiss them? Who is this who insists that this is a perfectly reasonable way to welcome Him? And who is this who forgives sins? These are not reasonable things for any ordinary human being. This is God in the flesh. He is worthy of this love. And what this underlines is the fact that all sin is ultimately against God, and there is no peace until we have peace with Him.

Jesus Commandeers the Table

In our sermon text, Jesus is invited to the Pharisee’s table. But as the story unfolds, Jesus says that the sinful woman has been the greater host. This is because hospitality is an act of love. The woman who was forgiven more, loved more, and therefore is the greater host. But Luke subtly shifts the ground beneath the Pharisee in another direction as well. While the table is associated with the Pharisee throughout the first half of the story, after Jesus points out that the woman has been the greater host by welcoming Jesus, by washing and anointing and kissing His feet after this, when Luke shifts focus back to the table, he speaks of those who are at the table with Jesus. As far as Luke is concerned, when a sinner welcomes and receives Jesus at a table, Jesus commandeers the table. No longer does it matter that this is a table in the house of the Pharisees; now everything revolves around Jesus. Now, everyone is at the table with Jesus. And this highlights the implied question. Luke shows us that it is possible to be at a meal with Jesus and yet not receive Jesus. It’s possible to sit a table with Jesus but not love Jesus. You may have all your theological ducks in a row. You may know all the right answers. But without love, your knowledge is nothing. We don’t know how Simon responded. We don’t know if he was ultimately offended or if he humbled himself and followed the woman’s example. But everyone us still has that choice. We come to this table week after week, and it really is the same choice. Jesus calls each of us by name, and He desires to know us, to assure us of His love and forgiveness. And you do not earn that love or forgiveness. Faith is not being good. Faith is not having everything all together. Faith is knowing that you aren’t good, that you don’t have everything together. Faith is simply falling at the feet of Jesus and finding forgiveness and peace. So come. This table is for sinners.

Every Knee

As we enter this season of Lent, I want to say a word of encouragement that speaks directly into our political situation. Some of you may already feel that you are suffering enough with the talking heads and political commentators, but the simple point that I want to make is that we serve the High King who rules this place. We serve the One who set his face to Jerusalem in order that He might be rejected by men, lied about, convicted of treason and blasphemy, mocked, spat upon, beaten, and ultimately crucified on a Roman cross outside the city like a common criminal. And three days later, He walked out of His tomb alive from the dead forever announcing that all authority in heaven and on earth had become His. This mission of world conquest is what Jesus set His face toward two thousand years ago. And what was one man, nailed to a cross, naked and rejected, turned into a band of twelve, which has multiplied into thousands and hundreds of thousands and millions and now billions. Do not miss the fact that Jesus, our Jesus, is winning. He did not go to Jerusalem to try to win. He did not go to Jerusalem to try to find a way to do something different. No, He went to Jerusalem to purchase this world with His precious blood. And during this season we proclaim that mission, that path, that road, that glory. So now we cast off the works of darkness as we battle against the world, the flesh, and the devil. We proclaim our crucified and risen Savior to all men, and tell them to submit now, to bow before Him now, to kiss His feet in lavish love now. And as we face the turbulent days of an election season, and a country chasing disaster, we stand fearlessly. We have been walking this path for two thousand years. Momentum may ebb and flow from generation to generation, but we are not worried about losing. Jesus bought this place with His blood. All of it belongs to Him. So do your homework, love your neighbors, cast your votes, and smile at the future. Every knee will bow. Every knee in America will bow because Jesus set His face to Jerusalem.