This amazing story should give heart to all of us. It begins as Jesus goes to a certain Pharisee’s house for dinner. As they are reclining at table a very sinful woman enters the room. When she sees Jesus there, she begins to weep and her tears fall on Jesus’s feet, which she wipes away with her hair. Jesus’ host, whose name was Simon, begins to wonder how and why Jesus is allowing this woman to continue, since she is a notorious sinner. Knowing exactly what Simon was thinking, Jesus answered him out loud:

Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”

“Tell me, teacher,” he said.

“Two people 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 forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”

Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”

“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—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”

Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

Luke 7:40-48 (full context Luke 7:36-50)

This is truly an amazing story that speaks of a dilemma that we still struggle with today. Just consider, you are at a respectable dinner party at the home of highly regarded religious leader with well-respected people in attendance, when a homeless woman from the street walks in and behaves the way this woman did: What would you be thinking?

Here’s my guess, looking at your watch and thinking, “is it time to leave yet? Where’s the nearest exit”? Come on, admit it, at best this situation would be very awkward.

Yet awkward or not, Jesus used the circumstances to teach a lesson for all of us that should give all of us great encouragement. Yes, the woman was a big-time sinner, but God had not stopped loving her, in fact, if it weren’t for people like that woman, Jesus wouldn’t have needed to come to the earth to die for sinners.

That is how much God loved that woman, and tens of millions of other men and women who have sinned and lived lives of excessive sin. Then, Jesus threw Simon a curve: A sinner like that woman will love God all the more (than men like Simon and his friends) because she has been forgiven so much more.

We all have our past. Some involve comparatively few sins, say only one a day. If you live 75 years, that is 27,375 sins you need forgiveness for; is that really such a small number? No matter how many sins we have needed to be forgiven of, when God looks at us, He sees a clean slate for His sacred child, not a list of transgressions cancelled out― that is what grace is all about. So, what do we do with this information?

We do our best as we go through this life. We do our best to serve God and to put others ahead of ourselves; we are intentional about taking care of our relationships, both with others and with God. Finally, we put our faith and trust in God, firm in the knowledge that He keeps His promises, including the promise to forgive our sins and to love us as His own.

What more do we need?