Measuring Stick
“For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little.” Luke 7:47 NASB
Much – All or just a lot? That’s the question with the Greek adjective polli. Is the use of this word in the gospel inclusive (all) or exclusive (some)? First we need to know the difference. If “much” is inclusive, then it is describing everything included in the idea. For example, “the many people” means all the people. But an exclusive use of the adjective has the sense of some of a greater number, for example, when we describe many pilgrims, but not all pilgrims, made a trip to Jerusalem. Here’s the interesting fact. Hebrew has no plural word meaning “all.” Therefore, the Hebrew use of “much” or “many” is virtually always inclusive. Whatever is described means everything.
Yeshua wasn’t speaking Greek to Simon the Pharisee. He was speaking Hebrew, so his use of “much” in Hebrew (translated in Luke into the Greek polys) must mean all, not just some. All of her sins were burdening her. All of her sins have been forgiven. As a result, all of her is expressed in her act of love. The sweep of grace captures everything. There are no crumbs of disobedience left on the table or fallen to the floor.
But when grace does not clean the table, when some crumbs are held back, then the appropriate expression is not “some” of the whole but rather “little,” a comparative term suggesting miserly appropriation of what was actually available.
Thus, the measuring stick. “All in” is the true measure of love. Bet everything. Take the full risk. Put it all on the line. Whatever is held back is a sure sign of comparative self-protection and, more importantly, a lack of trust in the graciousness of God. He is willing to include everything. The real question is whether we are willing.
The perplexing psychological twist of human righteousness is that it is generally exclusive. It operates like this: “I’m really not that bad. I’m generous. I’m industrious. I’m pretty responsible. I have high standards. Sure, I don’t always meet them, but then, who does? I’m not perfect. So, yes, I need forgiveness—for those things I can’t seem to manage myself.” In other words, we have the propensity to appropriate God’s offer exclusively, that is, as applied only to those things we can’t deal with ourselves. But that’s not how grace works. Grace is inclusive. It washes all of me, not just those parts that I think need forgiving. Grace is a complete overhaul. That’s why Isaiah, realizing the inclusiveness of grace, can say, “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; and all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away” (Isaiah 64:6). He understood the scope of grace could not be limited to what I think is the problem. The problem is me! All of me! And all of me is in need of grace, which, fortunately, YHVH is willing to provide—on an “all in” scale.
Once we confront our true sinfulness, once we recognize that all our pretenses to self-justification and self-righteousness are just as much an issue as our clear moral failures, then we are ready to love much because then we will understand that we have been forgiven right down to the bottom of our toes. Day 9.
Topical Index: much, polys, Luke 7:47, Isaiah 64:6, forgiveness
Skip,
I love the tension that is created in this story. With the parable about the the 2 debtors, Yeshua says that the one who loves more has been forgiven the greater debt. Then when He is speaking to Simon about the woman, He seems to reverse the order of forgiveness and loving much. He actually says that its the woman’s act of being “all in” with her obedient act that grants her “all” forgiveness”.
Verse 44: “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water….BUT she has washed my feet with her tears…..she has anointed my head with fragrant oil. THEREFORE (Because of what she just did) her sins which are many are forgiven, FOR she loved much (seen by her act of being all in). But he who is forgiven little, loves little.”
Do you see the tension? Its sounds like he is saying in the latter part that the one who expresses much love is forgiven all…..? Is this the reciprocation of grace (loving-kindness) that you speak of often?
Could this be in essence the same thing as “Forgive us our debts AS we forgive those who are indebted to us?” And the stipulations of forgiveness?
Oh, that is deeply good, Skip.
I cannot come to the altar, with my mostly-good self(!), and offer the little I have done wrong(!) to be forgiven. No, a little leaven leavens the whole lump. That is what Passover teaches me. All of the ‘right’ thing, but done in the wrong spirit; just a slight bobble on the delivery of an impressive exercise; a mere misinterpretation of the true intent of an interaction, and, voila! the whole thing has to be scrapped! Start over time for me!
No, when I mess up, all of me was there on the scene of the crime; all of me got dirty, too. All of me is responsible when any of me didn’t make it to the other bank. So what if I jumped the river, but fell in a foot from the bank? All of me got wet!
When I repent, all of me must do so, too. Further, when I have broken even a little bit of the Law, it is if I had broken it all. I read an impressive story once about a truly brilliant guy who scoffed at keeping the Sabbath. He boasted that he was a good person, and that the Sabbath was an just outdated afterthought. An old Sabbathkeeper confronted him on it, and told him that if he was breaking one part of the Law, he was guilty of it all. He volunteered to prove it to him. Then, he proceeded to walk him through all the other nine, and show him that, in the process of ignoring the one, he was having to employ the breaking of all the other nine to do it. He made his case, and won the man.
The Law must all hang together, for it is woven out of one piece of fabric, like the veil that hung in front of the Holy of Holies. To rip one part, then, is to rip it all. There is no conceivable way, then, that I am ever going to be able to walk around with my head held high because I am ‘good enough’. No, grace is the only way that all of me is going to be free, because otherwise, none of me is free as long as any of me is still trapped in the burning building. A Get Out Of Jail pass is not the same thing as saying that I didn’t do the crime! Skating on grace. Only one thing makes it possible. ALL of me has to pretty much stay camped out at that altar! Like, all the time! The only way to avail myself of that grace is to look into that Law of liberty on a continual basis, so as to repent before that altar for what isn’t being reproduced in my life yet. That is like, not there yet, ya’ll! (Um, you can find my camping-out booth down the second row, third from the right…)
I like what David F. said.