A parable of Jesus

The Parable of the Two Debtors

The one who has been forgiven much loves much, and the measure of our love often reveals how deeply we know we have been forgiven.

Where and to whom Jesus told it

Jesus is dining at the house of Simon, a Pharisee who has invited him but withheld the ordinary courtesies of a host, no water for his feet, no kiss of greeting, no oil for his head. Into this respectable dinner comes a woman of the city, known to all as a sinner, who has heard that Jesus is there. The setting is charged: a religious man's table, a notorious woman, and Jesus between them.

The woman's actions are extravagant and self-forgetful. She stands behind Jesus at his feet weeping, washes his feet with her tears, wipes them with the hair of her head, kisses them, and anoints them with ointment from an alabaster box. Simon watches in silent contempt, concluding that if Jesus were a prophet he would know what kind of woman was touching him. It is that unspoken judgement Jesus answers with the parable.

The parable

There was a certain creditor, Jesus says, who had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Jesus then asks Simon which of them will love the creditor most, and Simon answers, correctly if reluctantly, I suppose that he to whom he forgave most. Jesus says, You have rightly judged.

Then he turns the parable on Simon and the woman. Simon gave no water, no kiss, no oil; the woman has not ceased to wash his feet with tears, to kiss them, to anoint them. Wherefore, Jesus says, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much; but to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little. The extravagant love flowing from the woman is the sign and fruit of a great forgiveness deeply felt; Simon's cold correctness betrays a heart that feels little need of mercy and therefore loves little.

What it means, and how it has been misread and rightly read

This parable has occasionally been misread to teach that the woman earned her forgiveness by her love, as though her devotion purchased her pardon. But the flow runs the other way, and Jesus makes it explicit: she loves much because she has been forgiven much. Her love is the response to grace received, not the price of grace to be given. Jesus tells her at the end, Your faith has saved you; go in peace, grounding everything in faith and grace, not in the quantity of her tears.

Read rightly, the parable draws a devastating contrast between two ways of standing before God. The woman knows the size of her debt and cannot stop loving the one who cancelled it. Simon assumes his debt is small and so his love is small; his respectable religion has left him a stranger to gratitude. The parable warns that the greatest barrier to loving God may not be scandalous sin but the quiet self-satisfaction of those who think they have little to be forgiven.

The heart of God and the kingdom

This parable reveals a God who frankly forgives debtors who have nothing to pay, both the great debtor and the small, cancelling the debt outright rather than demanding installments. The creditor does not haggle or hold the debt over their heads; he forgives, freely, and the only thing left to the debtors is love in return.

It reveals, too, that God reads the heart beneath the performance. Simon looked respectable and the woman looked shameful, but Jesus saw a cold heart at the head of the table and a forgiven, loving heart at his feet. God is not deceived by the outward decencies of religion, nor repelled by the tears of a sinner who knows her need; he receives the one who loves much because she has been forgiven much.

What it asks of us

This parable invites us to see the true size of our own debt to God, lest we drift, like Simon, into a correct but loveless religion. The measure of our love for Christ is often the measure of how deeply we have felt our need of his forgiveness. When love for God grows cold, the remedy is not to try harder to feel devoted but to look again at how much we have been forgiven.

It also assures the notorious sinner, the person whose failures are known and whispered about, that there is a place at Jesus' feet for them, and that their very awareness of the debt may open them to a love the respectable never learn. Those who think themselves only slightly in need of grace will love only slightly; those who grasp the depth of their forgiveness cannot help but pour out their love.

How it points to Christ

Jesus is the one with authority to forgive sins, as the astonished guests recognize when he tells the woman plainly, Your sins are forgiven. He is the creditor who cancels every debt, and he does so not by waiving the cost but by bearing it himself upon the cross. The love that overflows from forgiven sinners, the tears and the ointment, is love returned to the Saviour who first loved us and paid in his own blood the debt we could never pay.

Frequently asked questions

What does the parable of the two debtors mean?

A creditor forgives two debtors, one owing ten times the other. Jesus asks which will love him more, and the answer is the one forgiven most. It teaches that those who know they have been forgiven much are the ones who love much (Luke 7:41-43).

Why did Jesus tell this parable?

He told it to a Pharisee named Simon who was scandalised that a sinful woman was weeping at Jesus' feet in love. The parable showed that her great love flowed from a deep sense of forgiveness, while the host's coolness revealed how little he thought he needed.