No 2

(The Two Debtors)

This is one of my favourites; the Bible text is in Luke 7:36-50. Jesus was invited to eat in the house of a Pharisee and He is explaining something to His host by using a very familiar method of His: the parable. By definition, a parable is a story about an earthly thing to explain a heavenly thing. During the meal, a harlot came into the house and began to wash and anoint the feet of Jesus. The Pharisee was indignant and thought to himself: “..if He were a prophet, He would have known who this woman is…she is a sinner” (v39). Jesus, knowing the Pharisee’s thoughts, began to tell the story of two debtors – one that owed 500 pence and the other 50 pence to a certain creditor. The creditor forgave both their debts and Jesus asked the Pharisee: “Tell me, which of them will love him the most?” to which the Pharisee answered: “he, to whom he forgave the most”. That was the correct answer. Jesus wanted to explain that the harlot’s sins were many and that she was more thankful than the Pharisee. His sins were not as many as hers, but they were sins of the heart (envy, self-righteousness, etc) and he did not recognize them as such. The Lord came to earth to reconcile us to His Father, regardless of the kind and of the number of sins we have.