Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - The Crux of the Cross | The Gospels | Luke 7:36-50

Episode Date: April 3, 2026

Do you believe the cross is true, but functionally deny its power in your everyday life? Why do we still carry guilt Jesus already died to remove? What if Good Friday is meant to do more than inform your theology; it’s meant to transform your heart? In today’s episode, Jeff shares how the woman who anointed Jesus in Luke 7 shows that the forgiveness found in Christ should change how we worship, love, and live. Read the Bible with us in 2026! This year, we’re exploring the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passage: Luke 7:36-50

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jeff Parrott. Today is Good Friday. The day when Christians across the world and across world history remember the death of Jesus on a Roman cross. On Good Friday, we remember that the cross is not like some museum piece that we examine in a long line of interesting but currently irrelevant artifacts. No, far from being an artifact. the cross of Jesus is active. His death is a historical event with ongoing, personal, and cosmic

implications. Good Friday is about a real person, in a real place, in a very real moment that creates the substance of our salvation. And yet, it's possible to believe all of that, to intellectually believe that Good Friday happened, yet functionally deny its significance today. It's revealing that we use the Latin word for cross, crux, to describe the most significant or central part of an issue. We talk about the crux of a certain problem or the crux of the matter. Ironically, we often bypass the crux of the cross of Jesus, the central point of his death that lands in our experience today. We bypass the crux of the cross when we live with paranoid guilt that were somehow not forgiven by God, always looking over our shoulders to see if he still loves us in the midst of our

sin. We bypass the crux of the cross when we feel numb to sacrificial love toward other people, when we're desensitized to a life of self-giving, because God's grace somehow hasn't really settled into our real selves. Our passage today in Luke chapter 7 takes us back to the crux of the cross. It does not let us bypass it. This pastor, shows us the crucial centrality of the forgiveness that is only found in Jesus, a forgiveness that serves as the foundation for our salvation and the fuel for our love. As we approach God's word, let's pause and ask for His grace to move through our time. Heavenly Father, we pause now, we thank you for the gift of life and breath in this day. We thank you for the gift of your word.

we bring before you our joys and our sorrows, our anxiety and our excitement, our calendars and our contingencies. God, would you meet us in this space? Jesus, help us abide in you as we engage with your truth. And Holy Spirit, we ask you to move in and through this time in Luke's gospel account. As we read your living word, may it read us and restore us to new life with you. In Jesus' name, Amen. All right, now let's dive right into our passage for today. We're going to start in Luke Chapter 7, verse 36 through 38, just to kick things off. Here we go. One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisees house and reclined at table. And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisees house,

brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with ointment. All right, we have quite a scene here. Jesus is attending a dinner party at the home of a Pharisee named Simon, only for an unexpected guest to arrive and fill the meal with unexpected meaning. This guest is described as a woman of the city who was a sinner. Now, the encounter between this woman and Jesus is striking. Just put yourself in this moment. She's weeping, letting her tears fall on Jesus's feet.

She wipes his feet with her hair, kisses them, and anoints them with ointment. It's not only her attendance at this meal that's surprising here. As we read this, we realize that it's her humble intimacy before Jesus that really stands out. and it's her humble intimacy with Jesus that causes a stir in the dinner party. Verse 39 says this. Now, when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, if this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who's touching him, for she is a sinner.

Now, Simon's suspicious statement gets closer to the truth than he realizes. Because in reality, Jesus knows exactly. who this woman is. And Jesus proves to be far more than just a prophet who knows about her. There's much more at play that we're going to see as the passage continues. Let's pick things up in verse 40. And Jesus answering said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you. And he answered, Say it, teacher. A certain money lender had two debtors. One owed 500 dinari and the other 50. when they could not pay he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?

Simon answered, the one I suppose for whom he cancelled the larger debt. And he said to him, You've judged rightly. Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, Do you see this woman? I entered your house. You gave me no water for my feet,

but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss. But from the time I came in, she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore, I tell you her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much, but he who is forgiven little loves little. And he said to her, your sins are forgiven. Then those who are at table with him began to say among themselves, who is this, who even forgive?

sins. And he said to the woman, your faith has saved you. Go in peace. Jesus uses the short but powerful parable about a money lender and two debtors to clarify the contrast between Simon and this woman. The debtor whose canceled debt is worth far more has a much larger capacity to love the one who forgave him. In the same way, this woman who is aware of the great debt of her sin, is also aware of the great power of Jesus's forgiveness. That is the thing that fuels her loving response of humble intimacy before him. The greater foundation of forgiveness from Jesus created a greater fuel for her love of Jesus. So back to this suspicious statement from Simon the Pharisee that was truer than he realized.

Yes, Jesus knows this woman. He sees her. He loves her. He knows that she sees her need for his forgiveness. It's significant that she not only weeps at his feet, but anoints him with ointment, an act that is both honoring and anticipatory. It looks forward to his victory over sin through his death on a cross. This woman does not bypass her need for Jesus.

She savors it. And interestingly enough, as she gets to the point of who Jesus is and what he came to do, the other dinner party guests are still perplexed. They don't see him for who he is at this point. But they ask a question that does get to the point of the passage. They ask, who is this who even forgives sins? Let that question resonate over your life on this Good Friday. Who is this?

How would you answer that question right now? Now, there's a way to give a short, thoughtless answer, but go further than that, go deeper than that. How does your heart answer that question? How do your habits, your choices, your desires answer that question? Who is this who even forgives sins? Who is this Jesus to you? This woman in Luke 7 answered that question not with mere words, but with meaningful action.

She answered it with her life. Who is this? It's her creator who knows her. It's her king who loves her. Her redeemer who will go to the cross to forgive, save, and restore her. This woman has gone to the crux of her need for forgiveness, and she's found Jesus there. Have you?

The wonderful unexpected dinner guest is a picture of how all of us are called to respond to the forgiveness of Jesus. Her actions look ahead to the same truth that Peter reflects on in 1. Peter 2 24 through 25. He writes, he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you are like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls. That is the crux of the cross, the place where we receive a forgiveness that serves as the foundation for our salvation and the fuel for our love toward God and others. The 20th century theologian Carl Bart was once asked, when is the exact moment when you were saved? His response is fantastic and it overlaps with our passage and with this particular date on the calendar.

Bart said, I was saved at 3 o'clock on a Friday after. noon on a hill outside the city of Jerusalem in the year 33 AD. So good. If we were asked the wonderful woman from Luke 7 when she was saved, I imagine she'd give the same answer. And the Apostle Paul would join in and say, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. Who is this Jesus? He's the one who died on a Roman cross on a Friday afternoon to impact your life today. He's the one who really gave himself for the real you to free you from the guilt of sin and free you into a life of sacrificial cross-shaped love.

The crux of our salvation lies on the cross of Jesus. See him there and savor his love for you today. Father, we praise you for Good Friday, and it's fulfillment of your promises to redeem and to rescue. Jesus, we trust in you as the one who has the power to forgive sins. Thank you for the goodness of your cross. Spirit, help us see and savor Jesus like this woman in Luke 7, increase our dependence on him, and enhance our delight in him. As we receive this marvelous love of the cross, help us share.

share it with others and all we do. We pray all of this because of your grace, for your glory and in your story. Amen.