44 Then [Jesus] turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. 45 You gave Me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in. 46 You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil. 47 Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.”
48 Then He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
49 And those who sat at the table with Him began to say to themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”
50 Then He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.” (Luke 7:44-50)
To many people, Jesus’ teachings and words simply seemed to come out of nowhere. And in many circles today, there is a belief that Jesus “replaced” Old Testament teachings. Nothing could be further than the truth: Jesus confirmed and enhanced the teachings in the Old Testament because the God that wrote the Hebrew Scriptures had fully come down to Earth as a man! What did this mean? That the distance between God and man had been removed: God was and is among us. Previously, forgiveness of sins came about in the following manner:
20 And [the priest] shall do with the bull as he did with the bull as a sin offering; thus he shall do with it. So the priest shall make atonement for [the people of Israel], and it shall be forgiven them. (Leviticus 4:20)
The problem with the scribes, priests, and Pharisees is that they forgot who and what was doing the act of forgiving in the above sacrifice. Could the bull forgive the people? Could the altar forgive the people? Could the fire itself forgive the people? When was the last time your household fireplace forgave you for your sin? (Modern environmentally-conscious houses excluded.) The Jewish leaders thought the motions of the sacrifice were doing the work, but those who really followed God and accepted Jesus when He appeared before them knew better: God Himself, ultimately, was the ONLY one who could forgive sins. Jesus, in preempting the tradition of animal sacrifice, made clear the He and only He was the one who had been forgiving Israel of its sins from the beginning; the sacrifices at the Temple were just a gateway to something much better: the Cross.
There is something else to observe here. How many times did Jesus forgive people of their sins that are recorded in the Bible? Many times, to be sure. Much of the time, as in the above passage, it didn’t include someone saying the words to Jesus: “Lord, forgive me of my sin. I am a sinner. Amen.” In fact, when you read the whole story, the woman mentioned above didn’t say anything at all. Jesus did all the talking! What happened? She simply sat at his feet, weeping, anointing his feet with oil, washing them with her tears, and wiping them with her hair. Now think of the lame man who was lowered by his friends through the roof into the house where Jesus was teaching. Did he say “I am a sinner; forgive me?” No! Jesus was filled with compassion and made the first move.
I am not saying you’re not supposed to confess your sins to Jesus. But simply saying a choice phrase from a tract is not going to give you an instant get-out-of-hell-free card for the rest of your life any more than pouring plasma and platelets on a piece of granite was going to do the job either. Instead maybe Jesus just wants us to wash and anoint His feet. “He who believes in Me, it is he who loves Me.” We can’t lose sight of the God who does the actual forgiving. Since Jesus isn’t here in the flesh right now, but in the Spirit, let’s gather at His feet and lean on His bosom. I think He enjoys it a lot more!
