LOVE IS BEST
One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he
went into the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table. And behold, a
woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was
reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask
of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to
wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and
kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. And Jesus
answering said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he
answered, “Say it, Teacher.” “A certain moneylender had two debtors. One
owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not
pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him
more?” Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for
she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” And he
said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
Luke 7:36-38, 40-41
Jesus
redirects this conversation with Simon the Pharisee onto ground he
should have understood: the Shema, Deuteronomy 6:4-5: "Hear, O Israel:
The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all
your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." Love is
best. Love comes first. Simon the Pharisee is also to understand this:
Jesus is God, God at His most loveable.
Micah 7:18: "Who is a God
like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant
of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show
mercy."
ReplyDeleteWith Christ, everlasting love displays the choicest of her stores. (Isaac Watts, 1707)