Have you heard the story about the guy who fell through a roof while playing hide and seek, split his chin open and had to get a cow tranquilizer until the vet could stitch him up? Outrageous.
Or the one about the guy who was so excited to have an ice cream until a monkey jumped down, grabbed it off him and then ran into the woods? Outrageous.
Or the one about the guy who’s party was interrupted by a herd of Hippopotamuses? Outrageous.
Today Seth told us an outrageous story about a woman whose unpayable debts were forgiven.
This sinful woman came up to Jesus in great humility, washing His feet with her tears and pouring perfume on them. A man called Simon, who was with Jesus and the woman, looked down on her because she was sinful and asked himself why Jesus would let someone like her do that to Him.
Jesus told Simon a story. He said “Two people owed money to a moneylender. One owed him one hundred thousand dollars, and the other ten thousand dollars. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both the people. Which of them will love him more?”
Simon said “The one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”
Both the woman and the men owing money have debts they can’t repay and just like these two people, we all have huge debts that we can’t repay to God. But just like the money lender, Jesus offers outrageous forgiveness for all our debts.
And this is the outrageous story we want to tell the people of Hoxton Park. That Jesus’ outrageous love brings us outrageous forgiveness and that forgiveness is free to all the people of Hoxton Park.
Please pray for us this week as we go out into the Hoxton Park community; to schools, to Bible studies, to homes, to mosques and temples, to railway stations, and to the Grand Bazaar. Pray that we would tell this story of God’s outrageous love & forgiveness clearly to everyone we meet.