Getting Real With Our Debt and Increasing In Love

“‘A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?’ Simon answered, ‘The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.’ And he said to him, ‘You have judged rightly.’”

— Luke 7:41-43 (ESV)

The goal of the Christian life is to be so humble that we become increasingly aware of how great a debt we’ve been forgiven. To be free is to be constantly in awe at how much Christ has done for us… and to be increasing in love.

When the topic of God’s love comes up in church, the tone is usually focused on the greatness of God’s love. The Bible is clear that God’s love is completely unconditional and God-initiated (1 John 4:19). So it is interesting that in Luke 7, Jesus talks about different measures of love.

Jesus does not speak in riddles when he says that those who are forgiven more will love more.

Consider that as we contemplate the unending, unchanging, and unconditional love of God, we are only confronted with how temporary, fickle, and conditional our love is. Jesus is showing us in Luke 7 that the only way to increase in love is to increase in humility.

Luckily for the man with the extremely high debt, the grace shown to him was enough to shock him into gratitude. His appreciation for the act of forgiveness made love almost impossible to ignore.

Yet the man with the “smaller” debt was not much better off; he still had a debt to pay and was still the recipient of grace. Yet in the context of the story, Jesus seems to be implying that the man with the smaller debt had forgotten his burden by becoming distracted by someone else’s crisis.

Jesus told the story to flip the cultural narrative in a scandalous encounter at the house of Simon the Pharisee:

One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table. And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, 'If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.' And Jesus answering said to him, 'Simon, I have something to say to you.' And he answered, 'Say it, Teacher.'

Luke 7:36-40 (ESV)

Simon quickly judged the woman, but in doing so, he downplayed his own sinfulness. Everyone could see that the woman was out of place, least of all Jesus. But Jesus was willing to extend forgiveness and recieve worship from the woman, while the religious and well-established positioned themselves toward Jesus socially and politically.

When Jesus cuts back with a story of forgiveness and love, he is telling Simon that while the woman may be more openly sinful, no one in the room was debt-free.

The sting in Jesus’s short parable was the accusation that Simon had a love-deprived heart.

Jesus was not pointing out that the woman had a greater debt to pay. He was showing Simon that the woman knew her debt was great, and that the rest of those gathered were blind to their need for Jesus.

The woman received forgiveness, and most of all, she got love. Simon got a rebuke, but worst of all, he missed grace.

I think Simon and his guests were interested in Jesus, but they had a false view of religion. They thought that greatness was about having no debts, so they saw the woman and judged her. Jesus said that greatness is about getting real with our need for God, and putting all our debts—every last penny—at his feet.

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Reflect

1. Who are you in the story? Challenge yourself to let the Holy Spirit show you where you’re forgetting your debts and missing out on love.

2. Do you trust that Jesus is ready to show you grace? Take some time to pour out worship in your own way. Come to the feet of Jesus in humility and trust.

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