Receiving

Luke 7:41-47, 8:16-18

“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.” –Luke 7:41-47

Loving comes through receiving.  We are a “pull myself up by my own bootstraps” society in America.  Our society takes pride in being able to come back from adversity, to overcome failure, to resuscitate an economy, to fight back our enemies and to invent a greater future.  We are very self-reliant.  


One of the hardest things for an American to say is “I need help.  I can’t do this.”  And of all the things we can do well as a country, loving isn’t one of them.  We all know about the school shootings and the seemingly random acts of violence.  But that’s not the only evidence of a lack of love.  In general, most neighbors, in most neighborhoods, don’t know how to love other people.  It’s a rare thing to find a neighbor who is genuinely interested in your welfare.  As a matter of fact, most families struggle with knowing how to love the people in their own family.  It’s a challenge for all of us.  In Matthew 24:12, in reference to the end of times, Jesus said, “Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold…”

Where does this desire or ability to love come from?  As Christians, do we just need to work harder or exert more willpower?  Where did Jesus say this abundance of love came from in this lady’s life?  Her worship of Jesus, her love of Him came through an abundance of forgiveness.  I’m not talking about relinquishing our part in committing ourselves to love others (and to love Jesus).  We do need to make a decision every day to love others and to love Jesus.  But I think that our decision (or personal commitment and discipline) to love others is like dipping a cup into a river.  Your decision to dip the cup didn’t create the river.  You just accessed the river by making a decision to dip the cup into it.  In the same way, Jesus creates the desire and ability in our hearts to love when he forgave us.  The river entered our lives when we found God’s forgiveness.  Jesus said, “Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.”—Luke 7:47 

He didn’t mean that she earned forgiveness because she loved much.  He meant that she loved much because she was already forgiven much.  This forgiveness was a gift, it wasn’t something earned.  It’s hard for many people to accept a gift from somebody.  Have you ever forgotten your money when you’ve gone to lunch with a friend.  They offered to buy your lunch and what did you say?  “No way.  I appreciate the offer.  Let me run to the ATM real quick.”  It’s hard to accept grace.  Someone is giving you something because you’re in need.  But who likes to admit they’re in need?

What was it that allowed her to be forgiven?  “Then Jesus said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ The other guests began to say among themselves, ‘Who is this who even forgives sins?' Jesus said to the woman, 'Your faith has saved you; go in peace.’–Luke 7:48-50

Jesus said that it was her faith that saved her.  It wasn’t anything earned.  Other religions say that you need to “do” something to be forgiven.  The Bible says that we can have forgiveness because something was already “done.”  Jesus died on the cross.

Later on, in Luke 8:16-18 we read another parable about receiving.  “No one lights a lamp and hides it in a jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, he puts it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light. For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.  Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken from him.”—Luke 8:16-18 

The day before John gave the sermon last week I had read over the verses that I’m supposed to go over this morning.  When I read over them the first time I drew a complete blank.  Maybe I was just tired.  I don’t know.  But I couldn’t come up with anything.  After wracking my brain for a short time I thought to myself, “I’ll just listen to John tomorrow and see if I can gain any ideas from him.”  Because I was supposed to do a teaching then I was listening with extra, extra attentive ears. 

Ironically, he shared a passage when Jesus said, “Be careful how you listen.”  He drew from an illustration John Bullard gave about this subject.  How differently would you listen to the sermon this morning if you had to teach the same subject to hundreds of people tomorrow?  It would change how you listen wouldn’t it? 

So, one of the questions that could be asked is, “How can I listen to God?”  Sometimes it’s a challenge to get Sarah to listen to Miriam and me.  Her feet are fidgeting, her eyes are wandering, her hands are moving, her mind is pre-occupied, her toes are dancing and her fingers are picking.  Everything is busy.  I have to slow her down and tell her to look at me in the eyes.  Sometimes there’s disobedience but it’s mostly just high energy.  Of course, her school doesn’t spend much time exercising her during the day, so we’ve had to exercise her when she gets home.  That seems to help the attention span.  But she’s amazingly focused at school.  And all the teachers say that she’s incredibly obedient and focused on getting work done.

I think there’s common ground between a child listening to their parents and us listening to God.  In Proverbs 4:20 it says, “My son, pay attention to what I say; listen closely to my words.” I’ll tell Sarah something like, “You can’t see God right now but you can see me.  Right?”  “Right,” she replies.  “So,” I continue, “do you think it’s easier to listen to me or to listen to God?”  “You”, she answers.  “Right.  I want you to be able to listen to God when you get older.  But if you have trouble listening to me, whom you can see, then you will have even more trouble listening to God whom you can’t see.”  I’m not sure if my astute theological insights connect with her 100% of the time but it’s worth the shot.  I’m just trying to show her the end goal…I want her to be able to listen to God when she gets older.  One of the ways she can practice that is by listening to me right now.

The apostle John said, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.”—I John 4:20 Sometimes it’s difficult to love God because you are loving someone that you can’t see. 

So, how can we do better at listening to God?  Well, here are a handful of things I try to do in order to help Sarah listen to Miriam and I better. 

1.  Stop interrupting.  If I’m truly listening to God then I won’t keep interrupting Him, trying to give him my excuses or tell Him why I think I’m right.  God may not be disciplining you.  He may just want to say how much He loves you. 

2.  Stop fidgeting.  Everybody has worries.  If we can be satisfied where He has placed us at this moment in time and not try to move on to the next thing so quickly then maybe we could listen to Him better. 

3.  Look at Him intently.  This means spending time with God on a daily basis.  The daily habit of reading the Bible and praying helps keep our eyes on Him.  We all have spiritual eyes that have a tendency to wander and look at everything but Him. 

4.  Have a humble heart.  If my number one goal with Sarah and Max is for them to just give outward obedience then I’ve missed the mark.  I want them to have a good attitude, not just good outward responses.  Just saying, “God I’m here today to do what you want” is a good first step. 

5.  Can you repeat back to Him what He just said to you?  One of the best ways to show that we’ve learned something is to be able to communicate what we’ve learned.  This is what education research has shown.  This is probably one of the reasons why Jesus said, “No one lights a lamp and hides it in a jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, he puts it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light. For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.” (Luke 8:16-17)  The parables were never meant to be kept private, just to ourselves.  They’re meant to be shared.  One of the best ways I can see if I’ve communicated well with Sarah is by asking, “So, what did I just tell you to do?”

Once a person has received God’s forgiveness how do they receive more from God?  How do they receive more insights into God’s word or more spiritual growth?  Jesus said it’s by being careful how we listen.

As we take communion and have sharing time try to focus on remembering how much God has forgiven you and being careful how to listen.