Bible Verse: Luke 7:50
“Jesus said to the woman: “your faith has saved you. Go in peace”.
This woman who is introduced to us in such a dramatic fashion in Luke 7:36-38 is described as having something that not everybody possesses. She has a faith that saves.
Remember the story. She must have met Jesus prior to gate-crashing the dinner party. At the dinner she startled the guests firstly by arriving at all into such company. Then she burst out weeping, dried her tears off the feet of Jesus with her hair and poured her perfume upon them. Even more startling was the person she was. Not your kind and well-behaved middle-class neighbour but rather a woman whose reputation was non existent and whose company decent people would normally not seek. Rather her life had been dark and ugly and who knows what circumstances and sufferings she had endured. We should always remember that often fallen women are fallen because of fallen men! Let us not be too quick to place the blame of a life such as hers, entirely on her alone. Only God knows the circumstances that brought her to her life of despair.
But then she met Jesus. Thus her tears were tears of gratitude. She had been forgiven, lifted, delivered. And she displayed her gratitude before the very people who would have been her worst critics and most severe judges. But all those who have shared in that most wonderful of all experiences – the gift of salvation – will understand the overflowing of her heart.
But notice what Jesus says to her: “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.” What faith is this? In our world today faith can mean anything and often does. It is not just any old faith in anything that saves. Jesus obviously referred to her faith in HIM. She must have had her eyes enlightened to see Him for who He is, the Messiah, the Son of God, the Mercy Giver of Israel.
We are not told what happened in that special meeting. It is referred to in v 48. But the tense indicates that it was something that had already happened. So this pronouncement of forgiveness is an assurance, a verification – it is really true – your sins are forgiven.
For us to have that same blessing we must come to the same Saviour. Between this woman’s experience and ours, He has died on the Cross and risen again. But if we, like this weeping woman, put our faith in Him, that faith will be honoured with salvation. It is His death that saves us, but we lay hold of it and appropriate it to ourselves by faith. That is, by believing it. Do you personally believe this? Have you placed that faith in Jesus? Then your sins too, are forgiven.
Prayer:- Dear Lord in Heaven, please grant that saving faith to all I know and care about. And may I too, never take it for granted. Amen.