The WaySample

Responding to the Way

Forgiveness of Sins

Picture this: you are a prominent religious leader in your community and want to meet this person that all the people are talking about, so you invite Jesus over to your house. You hold a big banquet and a woman with quite the negative reputation comes in and starts crying at Jesus’ feet and washing His feet with expensive perfume and her hair. What a scene!

You can probably say you have never had this experience while hosting a party, but maybe you would have been tempted to have many of the same thoughts about Jesus as Simon. Jesus, however, knows Simon’s thoughts and confronts him with a story and a question: which of them will love him more?

Jesus knew exactly who it was who was weeping at His feet. He knew every sin the woman had committed, and He didn’t need the gossip around town to know. He also knew Simon and each of his sins. In this story, we have two different people living two very different lives, but before God, they were both sinners and rebels against their Creator.

However, they had two entirely different responses. We have a woman who recognizes the darkness in her heart and her desperate need for someone to save her, and she believes Jesus is that person. Then we have Simon, a self-righteous Pharisee who was quick to see everyone else’s sin but slow to recognize his own.

We all come before God as sinners, completely unable to change that on our own. There is no place in heaven for sin, or heaven would be a place like earth—full of pain, suffering, hatred, and despair. What hope do we have of spending eternity there? Only the hope of a Savior who gave His life for us on the cross and forgave our every sin. The guests at the party asked, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29).

Which is harder for you: to recognize that you are sinful enough that Jesus had to die for your sins, or to believe that you are even worth Jesus’ forgiveness and salvation? Jesus has forgiven every sin for those who come to Him, recognizing their sin like the woman in our story who asked Him for forgiveness.

Prayer:

“Jesus, thank You for the mercy and grace you show me daily. Help me to see my sin and my desperate need for a savior, and help me to accept the forgiveness You so joyfully extend to me.”

Explore at Your Speed:

The Bible has much to say about Jesus’ forgiveness. For further study, read John 3:16-18 and two stories found in John 8:1-11 and Luke 5:17-26. Notice again the heart of the Pharisees and the heart of Jesus in these stories.