Forgiven Much; Love Much!

‘Adonai…’
The room grows silent…
The woman bows to the floor, before the master and begins to weep.
Her tears wash His feet as love is poured from her heart
She breaks the alabaster jar…a years wages…
Fragrance permeates the air…gasps from the others staring in disbelief
As the woman touches the Rabi’s feet anointing them with costly oil…
A woman of sin, unclean. She must not touch him.
‘Adonai my fair one, lover of my soul I adore thee.’
Tears flow from her eyes; eyes that have seen such heartache, rejection and pain
Broken and alone…she finds love she’s never known. She kisses his feet.
She gently touches them with her hands, tender and with reverence … then she wipes them with her hair…not knowing that soon they will be pierced and nailed to a tree….
The others watch in disgust at the spectacle she makes of herself…
Jesus looks at the woman he does not reprimand her but allows her to honor him…
He looks at his host.

 “Who of you offered to wash my feet or kiss me, when I entered your home?”

Jesus knew the hearts of everyone present…He knew their sin….
To the woman he says, “Your sins are forgiven.”

When you are forgiven much, you love much!

Adonai is the plural of Adon, meaning Lord, LORD, master or owner (the word Adon derives from a Ugaritic word meaning “lore” or “father.”)

Luke 7:36-50 New Living Translation (NLT)

Jesus Anointed by a Sinful Woman

One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to have dinner with him, so Jesus went to his home and sat down to eat. When a certain immoral woman from that city heard he was eating there, she brought a beautiful alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume. 38 Then she knelt behind him at his feet, weeping. Her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them off with her hair. Then she kept kissing his feet and putting perfume on them.

When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman is touching him. She’s a sinner!”

When Jesus answered his thoughts. “Simon,” he said to the Pharisee, “I have something to say to you.”

“Go ahead, Teacher,” Simon replied.

Then Jesus told him this story: “A man loaned money to two people—500 pieces of silver to one and 50 pieces to the other. But neither of them could repay him, so he kindly forgave them both, canceling their debts. Who do you suppose loved him more after that?”

Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the larger debt.”

“That’s right,” Jesus said. Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Look at this woman kneeling here. When I entered your home, you didn’t offer me water to wash the dust from my feet, but she has washed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You didn’t greet me with a kiss, but from the time I first came in, she has not stopped kissing my feet. You neglected the courtesy of olive oil to anoint my head, but she has anointed my feet with rare perfume.

“I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.”  Then Jesus said to the woman, “Your sins are forgiven.”

The men at the table said among themselves, “Who is this man that he goes around forgiving sins?”

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

(Greek 500 denarii. A denarius was equivalent to a laborer’s full day’s wage.) These men sitting at the table said among themselves, “WHO IS THIS MAN THAT HE GOES AROUND FORGIVING SINS? Luke 7:49-50

They didn’t know him…they didn’t know they were sitting in the very presence of God…God they professed to be following. They had the look, the wealth, the clothes, the house, they were clean on the outside but inside they were lost, empty and blind. Jesus knew their hearts. What did he do? He told them a story.

Then He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you, go in peace.”

Prayer: Jesus, help us today to sit at your feet and wash them with our tears. Let us kiss you and love you with a pure heart. Help us to love you by loving others. Not for what you can do for us, but because you are worthy to receive all honor and all glory. Amen

~Marla Shaw O’Neill September 20, 2015©