Gratitude for forgiven debts

One of my favorite Gospels is when Jesus is invited to a dinner party at Simon’s house, and a woman provides a service that His host had failed to offer. (Luke 7:36-50) The other guests at the party were scandalized because the woman was considered by them to be a “sinner”.  They murmured among themselves that Jesus should have known! Jesus responded first by pointing out His host’s lapse, and then by telling a little parable about two individuals forgiven debts, one small and one large, and asks His host which would be more loving. The host correctly answers that the one forgiven the most would likely be the most grateful and loving. Jesus then tells the assembled guests that the woman’s sins have been forgiven. The guests are shocked and wonder how Jesus could presume to forgive sins, which is something only God can do.

But here’s something I’m betting a lot of people don’t understand about this episode. The story doesn’t say that Jesus did the forgiving, and the parable that He told makes it clear that the forgiveness preceded the woman’s gratitude. Jesus tells His fellow guests that He could tell that the woman had been forgiven (past tense) by virtue of the loving service she provided. She couldn’t have done it had she not already accepted God’s forgiveness.

When we are forgiven much, we tend to return love for forgiveness. Think how grateful we are to someone who says “I’ve got this” when at Starbucks or at lunch, or who with little or no complaint allows us ahead in line. Think what relief we have when we apologize for some small fault and the person we're apologizing to says, "It was nothing."

How much more then should we love the Person whom we have killed by our faults, the Savior who forgives everything, completely! How much can we love Someone who has forgiven before we even ask it of Him? Our debt to Jesus is a debt of profound, complete, all-encompassing love and a greater debt because we have been forgiven so much.