CAUSE & EFFECT
A man screams out in pain because a hammer has smashes his finger. The hammer is the cause; the scream is the effect. An unexpected gift is given by a husband to his wife. She smiles in appreciation. The gift is the cause; the smile is the effect. A child starts to cry because a bully on the playground calls him a nasty name. The name calling is the cause; the tears are the effect. The concept of “cause and effect” is a basic law of nature in this world. It’s important to understand what each one is in any given situation and it’s just as important not to mix them up.
This is true for the stories of Scripture as well. It’s essential to understand both the cause and the effect of the things that happen so that there is no confusion about what the story means. Because if the cause and effect are not properly identified, the truth will be skewed and false conclusions will be made.
Our third Scripture reading earlier this morning in Luke 7 is a story in which the cause and the effect is misunderstood by many different people. And it’s a pity because it’s such a beautiful story! It’s filled with gospel and forgiveness and faith! But when the cause and the effect of this story are switched around, either through ignorance or blatant denial, the comfort and the peace of this account are completely ripped away and all that is left is a guilt trip and an impossible task that no one can live up to. I ask you to listen or to again read carefully what happens in this story because at the end of it I’m going to ask you about Jesus’ forgiveness and the woman’s love: what one of these options is the cause and what one is the effect. “Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, ‘If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.’ Jesus answered him, ‘Simon, I have something to tell you.’ ‘Tell me, teacher,’ he said. ‘Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?’ Simon replied, ‘I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled.’ ‘You have judged correctly,’ Jesus said. Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, ‘Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.’”
Now which one of these actions caused the other: Jesus’ forgiveness or the woman’s love? Jesus’ forgiveness was undoubtedly the cause of the woman’s love. And there can be no dispute about that, first of all because of the parable Jesus’ used to explain his point and secondly, on account of the very last sentence Jesus speaks: “He who has been forgiven little loves little.” The forgiveness comes first: the love is a Christian’s response. But you can see how detrimental it is when that cause and its effect are switched around! There are plenty of church bodies in this world that will take this story and say, “Look! Jesus forgave this woman based on the fact that she loved him so much! He couldn’t possibly withhold his love from her after the perfume and the hair and the tears. Her love prompted Jesus to forgive.”
How sad. How anti-Christian. How blasphemous it is to say that our love could possibly prompt Jesus to action. How damaging it is to God’s plan of salvation to claim that the amount of love we show to him determines the amount of forgiveness we get back. That is sickening. And that’s not only contrary to the clear words of this story but it is also contrary to the clear words of the rest of Scripture. As John says in his first letter, “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
But I’m not too concerned about you making that mistake with this story. You know what the Bible says. You understand the relationship between Christ’s love and your love. You believe that you can do nothing to earn or to gain or to prompt God’s forgiveness for you. A misunderstanding of that key concept of Scripture doesn’t worry me about the people in this room. But this does worry me: many of us can better relate to the Pharisee in this story than to the sinful woman. We can see ourselves acting more like Simon the Pharisee than acting like the woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears. Because what he did seems normal and what she did was so outrageous! It was so over-the-top! As Jesus was sitting down to a nice dinner with prominent people, this detested and ostracized member of society invites herself in, falls to the ground, cries unashamedly and uncontrollably at Jesus’ feet in front of the entire room, pitifully wipes his feet with her hair, kisses them with her mouth, and pours an excessive amount of perfume on them without him asking. What an uncomfortable public display of one’s emotions! What a bold thing to do in front of those who did not like her to start with and for a man whom she knew was God himself! I don’t think I’d ever do such a thing. Even if I lived during that time, even if I had the opportunity, even if I had the same reasons to do it as this sinful woman did, I don’t think I would have. I probably would have acted more like the Pharisee: do something nice for Jesus but not overdo it. Show my appreciation for him in a small way but certainly not show my love and overwhelming gratitude to him in front of other people in such an unconventional way. It’d be too much. It’d be too revealing of who I am and what I have done.
And I’m not saying it’s a bad thing to show your appreciation to the Lord in small ways, in quiet ways, in private ways. That’s not it at all. I’m not really talking about the different ways we give thanks; I’m simply referring to the attitudes of our hearts. Why did the woman do what she did? Why did sinful human being make such a public scene of her love for the Lord? So that everyone would see what a dedicated Christian she was? Because she loved the spotlight and wanted attention? Because she liked making people feel uncomfortable and wanted to see the Pharisees squirm? No! She did what she did because she had been forgiven! Her unpayable debt had been paid. Her entire sinful life was wiped clean. Because of what Jesus was about to do on the cross her bill of 500 denarii had been paid in full! And she couldn’t keep it in! She had to let it out! She was compelled to rush to Jesus’ feet and express her thanks to him in the only way she knew how: through tears and humility and an outpouring of love that was unconcerned about what anyone else would think. She loved much because she knew and believed and relied on the fact that she had been forgiven much. There was no doubt in her mind that a great weight had been lifted off her shoulders and so how could she not praise the Lord with ever fiber of her being?
The Pharisee, of course, had a large debt canceled by Christ as well. But judging from the words Jesus spoke to him it doesn’t seem like the Pharisee knew it. He probably thought that he wasn’t quite as sinful as this “sinful” woman, that his faults weren’t so bad, that his debt wasn’t so big. Yeah, he had a few mistakes to be cleaned up, but they weren’t anything major. He had a few problems with keeping the law but they were miniscule. And whether we think of ourselves like that or not, our actions make it seem like we do many times anyway. Instead of pouring out thanks to our God every chance we get, we pray to him only on occasion and only when we have time and only for a about 20 seconds. We have other things to do, after all! Instead of expressing our appreciation to him at a worship service we half-heartedly participate, we go through the motions, we daze in and out of the sermon, we find no joy in the hymns or the liturgies or the prayers. Instead of making a conscious effort to demonstrate our love for our Savior by helping those around us we avoid the situations in which we know we’ll have to exert some effort for someone else, we do as little as possible so that we can have more time for ourselves, we look down on those we don’t agree with instead of looking out for their best interests. Does this sound more like the actions of the sinful woman at Jesus’ feet or Simon the Pharisee at the head of the table? Our actions are the effects of the cause. And although the cause is always there, sometimes the effects are absent.
But I’m not going to tell you exactly what you should do and what you should not do when it comes to your love for the Lord - because Scripture doesn’t get into minute detail. The Bible gives us general principles that we are to apply to the specific situations in our own lives. But I will tell you about the cause of these effects. I will speak to you about the motivation behind your actions. Because the cause is what prompted the sinful woman to fall at Jesus’ feet that day. The Lord didn’t tell her to bring a jar of perfume or wash his feet with tears or wipe them with her hair. The Lord simply forgave her and everything else she did spontaneously flowed from a thankful heart.
And so let me remind you about what your thankful heart already knows: The Lord has forgiven you. And don’t think of that well-known fact as mundane or boring or simple! This is the most important news anyone could ever tell you! The Lord has forgiven you! Do you realize what that means! It means that the Lord has canceled your entire debt! Every stupid thing you’ve said, every revolting thing you’ve done, every disgusting thing you’ve thought, every mistake, every rebellion, every act of selfishness is no longer counted against you. And Jesus canceled this massive debt not just by tearing up the note. You can tear up a bill by the credit card company all you want, but the debt still remains. Nor did Jesus merely take a magical spiritual eraser and rub out the blots and blemishes on your record and call it even. No, the only way to make it “even” was to take the punishment that your sins deserved. He had to payback the “Moneylender” of the parable. He had to come up with the amount you owed. And so he paid your debt with his life. Nothing else would suffice. The Father would accept nothing less. And so Christ gave up his breath on the cross and canceled the debt that had once been yours. You are no longer on the hook for what you’ve done. You are no longer held accountable for all those sins you’ve committed. Jesus was held accountable. Jesus was on the hook. Your debt is gone. And Jesus did it without you asking him to, without demanding reimbursement, without your knowledge. He did it because he loves you.
How will his love affect your love for him? How can you thank him? How can you praise him? How can you show your love for him in this life? What can you do? That should be the question that always runs through your mind when you get up every morning: What can I do? What can I do for the Lord because of what he has done for me? Is there one more thing I can give? Is there one more person I can help? Is there one more way I can show my God that his sacrifice for me was not in vain, but his sacrifice is appreciated and cherished and it is the motivation for everything I do in this life? What can I do, not to earn forgiveness, but because forgiveness is already mine?
“He who has been forgiven little loves little,” Jesus said. And so is there any reason for us to love little? Is there any reason for us to show our love to the Lord on occasion? Is there any reason for us to demonstrate our love for our God only when we feel like it? Our entire eternal debt has been canceled and in its place we have been given a heavenly eternal inheritance. We have not been forgiven just a little. On the contrary, we have been forgiven more than we will ever know. And so wash your Savior’s feet with your tears. Wipe your Savior’s feet with your hair. Pour the perfume of your praises on your Savior every day you live on this earth. He has done something for you that no one else could. He has done something for you that no one else would. I know, I know you appreciate what he’s done. Don’t be afraid to show your love for the one that has loved you so much.
Amen.
“Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen & amen. - Ps. 106:48
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