Jesus was invited to dine with Simon, the Pharisee. A woman came in knelt behind Jesus at His feet. She shed tears all over His feet, dried them with her hair, continually kissed His feet and put perfume on His feet.
The Pharisee said to himself that if Jesus was truly a prophet, Jesus would have known this woman was a prostitute and as a Godly man would have sent her away. I imagine that was exactly what the Pharisee would have done.
Jesus knew what he was thinking and spoke to him. The teaching to the Pharisee was of a man who loaned 50 pieces of silver to one man and 500 to another. When the time came neither man could pay back what they borrowed. The man who made the loan forgave them both canceling their debts. Jesus question to Simon was which of the two men loved the man who gave the loans more. Simon supposed it would be the one who had the larger debt forgiven. Jesus told him he was correct.
Jesus continued the lesson by pointing out the fact that when He entered Simon didn't offer Him water to wash His feet, nor did he welcome Him with a kiss, nor did Simon offer Jesus the courtesy of olive oil to anoint His head. Jesus then pointed out how the woman washed His feet with her tears, dried His feet with her hair, had not stopped kissing His feet since He came in and poured expensive perfume on them.
Jesus then said, "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 a little love. Then Jesus said to the woman, "Your sins are forgiven."
When we read of what was going on with Simon, the Pharisee and read the example used to teach Simon, we can learn a great deal. First that the woman was welcome even though she had committed much sin. She may have sinned greatly but her gratitude was well beyond that of Simon, who thought he was a much better person than she.
What struck me was no matter what amount of sin we have been forgiven for, we should all respond as the woman did. We are stuck with our sin no matter what we do. We can never replace or do away with our sin. Our sin can only be erased by the sacrifice of Christ on our behalf. That thought should bring us to our knees in gratitude and thanksgiving. The woman realized it, do we?
If we have sinned only once or if we have sinned billions of times, the reality is we have been forgiven much. One sin alone can keep us from eternity and by having only one sin washed away, we have been given more than we can imagine.
We might do well to realize how much of our debt His sacrifice continually cancels, for we sin constantly. Our gratitude to Christ should be great but can only be so when we realize what we have truly been forgiven of and set free from.