This morning’s Lenten Good News from the Gospel of Luke fundamentally connects the loving of God and the loving of neighbor: You simply can’t have one without the other.
The Word that God has spoken begins with a member of the self-righteous religious elite inviting Jesus over for supper. Customarily, such a host would greet his guest with deeds of hospitality: the washing of feet soiled by dusty roadways, an anointing of oil as respite from the day’s heat, a physical embrace of welcome and friendship. But Simon, the host, provides his guest, Jesus, with no such amenities – a social miscue that doesn’t go unnoticed.
Meanwhile, in an act of embolden love, a townswoman of ill-repute seeks out Jesus. She audaciously enters a privileged place that’s off limits to people of her ilk; she tenderly bathes Jesus’s feet with expensive perfume and adoring kisses. Her love will not be limited; the cynical judgment of others matters not a whit. And through it all, Jesus proclaims good news about forgiveness, grace, and extravagant love.
Please join your hearts with mine in prayer –
Good news God, speak louder than the news updates. Speak louder than our mental distractions. Speak louder than our anger, louder than our fear. Lord Jesus, speak loudly to us today, because we long to hear your Good News once more. With hope we pray, in and by the Spirit.
One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the table.
And a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment. She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment.
Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him – that she is a sinner.” Jesus spoke up and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” “Teacher,” he replied, “Speak.”
“A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he canceled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?” Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the greater debt.” And Jesus said to him, “You have judged rightly.”
Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.”
Then Jesus said to the woman, “Your sins are forgiven.” But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” (Luke 7:36-50)
Call me a skeptic! Call me a cynic! But this whole thing feels like a set-up!
I do not understand why Simon – part of the very religious establishment opposing Jesus – would invite the Lord over to his house. Equally head-scratching is why Jesus is treated so rudely upon arrival – with disrespect no guest should have to endure. It’s as if Simon and company are trying to get a rise out of Jesus – a test to see if this “holy” teacher who’s all the rage will pitch a fit and make a scene because of Simon’s social slights.
Then this woman “with a past” somehow slips into the house of a holy Pharisee who could no more afford to be seen in her company than any of his fellow synagogue leaders. It happens: a few years ago, some crafty gate-crashers finagled their way to a White House dinner. So, yes, it happens, but not often. And probably not at Simon’s place that fateful night. Everyone there, starting with Simon, knows of this woman’s gaudy reputation and size her up with quick glance. So please don’t tell me that the doorman admits her to the party totally in the dark about who it is whom he’s letting in the front door.
Call me a skeptic! Call me a cynic! But this whole thing feels a set-up! This woman has got to be a “plant,” a ringer they bring in to gauge Jesus’s reaction. And Jesus flips the script, following his gracious form and forgiving the woman; he welcomes her repentance and absorbs her lifetime of pain. Jesus is so full of Good News that it’s impossible for him to become unclean by merely contacting the unclean. With Jesus it’s always the other way around: His holiness “infects” the other, cleaning up him or her once and for all, right then, right there. That’s what love is!
And as with the woman at Simon’s party, the one who has been forgiven much has much for which to feel grateful, and therefore is far more likely to be full of love, than those who think they need little to no forgiveness. Bottom line, Simon is a not-so-very-nice person who carries in his sin-sick soul at least as much infectious pus as that unfortunate woman ever did. Yet Simon feels no pressing need for pardon. He’s a self-made man on the Pharisee Plan and remains gratefully and stubbornly accountable to no one – not even Jesus. That’s what love is not.
As it turns out, the kingdom of God – and the Gospel of loving forgiveness that it embodies – hold the greatest appeal to and wield the mightiest impact upon those who know they need grace and mercy the most. Then as now, society’s high and mighty are usually the last to feel so strong a need for forgiveness as one who’s been so lavishly forgiven.
So the scene ends with Jesus turning away from his dirty, rotten, scoundrel of a host, and with Jesus beaming the very grace and compassion we all need toward that woman alone, while the religious elite wag their tongues, shake their heads, and point their fingers – over the tawdry scandal and blatant heresy of it all.
That’s sad. And so also does it warn any of us who even yet feel that forgiveness is needed more for some folks than for us ourselves. We all must pine for that loving glance from Jesus! It’s never something that somebody else needs more than you and I do!
Not long ago, a major nationwide study gathered people’s attitudes about forgiveness. The study found that 75 percent of Americans are “very confident” in God’s forgiveness for their past offenses. Such high confidence surprised the researchers, especially since many of these same people were not regular church-goers. Still, three-quarters of the people surveyed had few doubts about God’s desire to let bygones be bygones between heaven and earth.
But the picture of earthly ties that bind wasn’t so rosy. When it came to interpersonal relationships, only about half of the surveyed claimed that they were “certain” of having forgiven others. Most admitted that, whereas God is a galaxy-class forgiver, ordinary folks struggle. Indeed, it’s difficult to forgive another with whom you are angry. It’s oftentimes even difficult to forgive yourself! But where forgiveness does take place, the study found a link between such mercy and better health. Apparently the more prone you are to grant forgiveness, the less likely you are to suffer with stress-related illness.
Literally and spiritually, forgiveness is where we live.
Do we know that? And celebrate that? So share Jesus’s own eagerness to pass along the love of forgiveness to all who spend their days literally crying for release? Will the sweet, extravagant love of Jesus flow in and through you and me? Jesus issues the summons in Matthew 25 –
“Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’
“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’
“And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’” (Matthew 25:34-40)
Loving God, loving neighbor: You can’t have one without the other. Heaven’s love knows no bounds, and nor can ours. For where there is charity, where there is service, where there is forgiveness – there is love.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Pastor Grant M. VanderVelden shared this message on the Second Sunday of Lent, March 1, 2026, at First Presbyterian Church in Waukon, Iowa, USA. It is part of his Lenten series, “Tell Me Something Good: Grounding Ourselves in the Good News.” Scholarship, commentary, and reflection by Brian Blount, Lisle Gwynn Garrity, and Scott Hoezee inform the message.