Luke 7:41-45

Luke 7:41 (KJB)
There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty.

Since Simon was a wealthy man he would have no doubt understood this parable and he should have been able to apply the answer to the spiritual principle of forgiveness. Jesus starts out with two people who owe debts. One owes 50 pence and the other owes ten times that amount which was 500 pence. The creditor was a money lender but in this case it may have been a friend and not an official lending institution. The pence would have been the Roman Denarius which one Denarius equaled one day’s wages for a working man. One man owed the equivalent of 50 days labor and the other 500, which would have been well over one year’s labor.

Luke 7:42 (KJB)
And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most?

Both of these borrowers had fallen on hard times and were unable to pay back the debt. This of course points to the fact that there is nothing a person can use or do to gain salvation from God. So the person had compassion on both of the borrowers and forgave the debts of each of them. Then Jesus asks Simon a question with an obvious answer. Which one of them would love the lender more?

Luke 7:43 (KJB)
Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged.

Then Simon answered the question by stating that the one who owed the five hundred Denarii would be the most thankful one since that would have taken a big chunk out of any salary he would have received. Jesus then tells him that he judged correctly that the one who owed the most was the most thankful.

Luke 7:44 (KJB)
And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head.

Then Jesus had turned to the woman who had anointed the feet of Jesus and washed his feet with her tears and then verbalizes the inhospitality of His host. Normally, when a person enters the home of another, they will dispatch a house servant to wash the dust off the feet and then dry it with a towel. This was the normal practice in Palestine. However, Simon did not give Jesus any water to wash His feet nor a towel to dry them. He basically was showing he violated the good practices of hospitality. Jesus then compares what the woman did to what Simon did not do. The woman washed the feet of Jesus and dried His feet with her hair, something a house servant should have done, especially in the house of a wealthy man.

Luke 7:45 (KJB)
Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet.

Simon did not even greet Jesus with a kiss of hospitality which was another custom. This custom is still going on today. Then Jesus tells Simon that the woman has not ceased to kiss His feet from the moment that he arrived at his house.

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