The Gospel lesson for this coming Sunday is from Luke 7:36–50. Jesus is in the home of Simon the Pharisee. Somehow a prostitute snuck into Simon’s house. Crashed this respectable Pharisee’s party.
Why did this woman come? Why did she take such a chance? Luke tells us, “She learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house that day.” She came to see her God – her God who came down to earth in the person of this man, Jesus of Nazareth. She came to spend time with the Christ. She came to have her greater debt cancelled. She came with perfume, kisses, and tears because she loved more.
The Hymn of the Day ties in beautifully with the Gospel. It is Paul Gerhardt’s great hymn of love to Christ, “Jesus, Your Boundless Love to Me.” Gerhardt’s original hymn has 16 verses. Christian Worship contains four of those verses.
There is a lot of talk in Christian circles, churches and songs about loving God. Of course, we are to love God. But Gerhardt’s hymn, like our Gospel lesson, teaches that Christian’s love as a response to God’s love for us in Christ Jesus. Without this, we are unable to grasp God’s boundless love. Without this, we are unable to love God in return.
Verse one: Jesus, your boundless love to me no thought can reach, no tongue declare; dwell in my heart eternally, and reign without a rival there. O Jesus, nothing may I do, but seek my joy in serving you.
Why did this sinful woman come to Simon’s house that night? In the home, sitting at the dinner table is the one Man who understands her, who accepts her as she is, who loves her as no other man in her life. Here is a Man who will not hurt her or use her or abuse her. Here is the Man who would not judge her or reject her, but who had come specifically for her. He came to seek and save the lost. To redeem sinners. To be the Great Physician of body and soul. To be the Canceller of debts, both great and small.
Just as important a question as “why did this woman come” is … “why do you come?” Why do you come to sit in your church’s pews instead of a deer stand or on the beach? Why do you come with tears trickling from your eyes and guilt pouring from your pores? Why do you empty your hard-earned money over Jesus and into the offering plates? Why do you serve him in humility and kiss his feet in reverence?
It is so you can receive Jesus’ boundless love. So he can dwell in your heart. So he can reign supreme in your life. And so you can seek joy in serving your Savior.
Verse two: O grant that nothing in my soul may dwell but your pure love alone; oh, may your love possess me whole, my joy, my treasure, and my crown! All coldness from my heart remove; my ev’ry act, word, thought be love.
Why did this sinful woman come to Simon’s house? She came to know who Jesus is. Jesus has been proclaiming his message that God loves sinners. This is quite different than the message she was hearing from the Pharisees – that God cares for the righteous who keep the Law. But Jesus is different. Jesus is not a prophet who avoids sinners, but who searches them out, and cares for them, and even eats with them. She heard from Jesus that God not only loves sinners, but that his grace and forgiveness is available for them - for her! - even though she could not make compensation for her sins. She believed this! The Word of God from the mouth of Jesus had worked faith in her heart. Yes, she is forgiven! Thanks be to God! She is now at peace!
Why do we come to Jesus? We do not come because we have anything of worth to offer God. Our hearts are naturally filled with coldness and our acts and thoughts filled with malice. We don’t come because God needs us. We come because we need God. We are the guilty who need forgiveness. The weak who need strength. The dirty who need cleansing. The broken who need to be restored. The poisoned who need to be rescued. The lost who need to be found. The dead who need to be raised. The debtors who need cancellation. The poor who need a treasure. The paupers who need the crown. The cold who need warmth. And the loveless who need love.
Verse three: This love unwearied I pursue and dauntlessly to you aspire; oh, may your love my hope renew, burn in my soul like heav’nly fire! And day and night be all my care to guard this sacred treasure there.
Why did this woman come? She came to Jesus with nothing he needs but needing everything from him. If she brings anything, it is faith — faith which itself is a gift of God. She is defiled and unclean, with her heart’s closet full of skeletons, yet still she came. She is a pariah in polite society, shunned by the religious do-gooders, yet still she came. She has no good works to place upon the altar of God, yet still she came.
Why do we come? We come with nothing. Nothing except our sins. We come to hear the message that Simon the Pharisee needed to hear, that the prostitute at the table needed to hear, and that we need to hear – every day at home, every week in worship. It is the message of Law and Gospel, sin and grace, hell and heaven, the commandments and the cross. We come because we often weary of giving love to others, yet God never wearies of loving us. We come to renew our love in God’s boundless love. We come to rekindle the fire of our love in Christ’s love on the cross. Day and night we come to receive from God’s sacred treasure.
Verse four: In suff’ring be your love my peace, in weakness be your love my pow’r; and when the storms of life shall cease, O Jesus, in that final hour, be then my rod and staff and guide and draw me safely to your side.
We can learn a lot about worship from Paul Gerhardt and the forgiven prostitute. We come to worship to meet Jesus because unlike Simon, we realize that we are just like this sinful woman. We come to our respective houses of worship because we have learned that Jesus has come there. We come to receive peace when we are suffering and calm when the storms are raging. We come because we have dwelt all week in the dominion of darkness, but in God’s house Jesus brings us into the kingdom of light. We come because we have spent the last few days squirming in Satan’s clutches, but Jesus has released us to live a new life as a child of God. We come now so that we have confidence in the end to pray, “O Jesus, in that final hour, be then my rod and staff and guide and draw me safely to your side.”