17 June 2007

Luke 7:36-8:3

Our gospel lesson from Luke this morning shows us two ways to approach Jesus. Let’s look more closely at this scripture to determine where we might fit in.

There’s a party going on at the home of Simon, a well-known Pharisee. Simon has invited Jesus to the party as the honored guest. But there was a problem; a woman of ill repute also entered and lavished attention on Jesus. She carried with her a jar of ointment and bathed his feet with her tears. She was a known sinner, as Simon was quick to point out. This unnamed woman wiped Jesus’ feet with her hair and rubbed the ointment into his feet.

Simon was not pleased. Just try to imagine the situation today. If I were at a party, let’s say the upcoming Taco Party, and an obvious prostitute came and hung out with me you’d begin to wonder. There he is in tight short shorts and a shirt that reveals a lot about his body. You’d not only wonder what he was doing there but also why I knew him. You’d wonder why he was spending so much time with me; why he was lavishing attention on me. “How does Gerry know him?” you might think. What do I do in my off time, you might be wondering. One would expect me to be embarrassed by the attention from this person whose life is so unlike ours. And indeed I might be.

Well, would it have been any different, do you think, at this meal that Simon was putting on? Simon and the guests might certainly have been wondering why this woman, who was known to be a sinner, was lavishing such attention on Jesus. And lavishing is the only word that can be used here. She was not just paying attention to Jesus, she was pouring out her heart in all that she was doing.

Simon reacted just as we expect him to do so. He wondered why Jesus, who could be a great prophet at the least in Simon’s eyes, would stand to be around this woman. “Doesn’t Jesus know better?” he thought. “With whom has Jesus been hanging out?” “How does he know her?” Simon reacted with some repulsion and derision of both the woman and, by extension, of Jesus.

Jesus teaches Simon a bit of a lesson in the story he tells about the debtors and then does a most unusual thing: he pardons the woman from all her sins. Right there in front of everyone. The woman becomes an example of God’s great love to forgive even those who have sinned greatly.

There is a post-script on this passage that I’m glad the lectionary creators left in: the three verses about the woman who supported and traveled with Jesus from town to town. We hear about these women so infrequently as the gospels concentrate on the men who follow Jesus. But here we get a glimpse of the facts of the matter; that women were important to Jesus’ ministry. This following the story of an unnamed woman who shows great love to Jesus. I’m not going to dwell on these verses, but they deserve noting.


We have, besides Jesus, two main characters in this story: Simon and the woman. Each approaches Jesus in a different way. And each offers to us a guide as to how we might approach Jesus ourselves.

Some of us might be like Simon; too many of us, actually. The Simons among us see the greatness of Jesus. We are gratified that we have someone as important as Jesus in our home. We know that Jesus is well-known and a celebrity guest. We respect his position as a prophet and a great teacher. But we forget the standards of etiquette around him: we forget to wash his feet, as is required by hospitality of our day. We forget to greet him appropriately, with a kiss. We place him on a pedestal but fail to remember that he needs to be cared for and treated with the standards of protocol. We put him up so high that we forget that he’s up there.

On the other hand, there’s the woman; a woman who is known by everyone in town to have sinned greatly. We’re not told what her sins were; that’s left to our imagination. But she comes in and bathes Jesus’ feet with her tears. She wipes his feet with her hair. She doesn’t care what a spectacle she makes of herself because here she sees her chance to turn away from the sins she has committed and be freed of them. Those of us today who are like her don’t worry about societal convention when it comes to getting close to Jesus. We claim our place next to Jesus, at his feet, cleaning them with our tears. We recognize our own weaknesses and faults and realize that Jesus loves us through them, not in spite of them. We feel renewed in our meetings with our sovereign; leaving our encounters with Jesus refreshed and ready for life again.

How do you encounter Jesus? Do you place him up and far away? Is he a distant figure that you trot out for important occasions when it’s socially acceptable? Or is he close to you, so close you can clean his feet with your tear filled eyes? Can you feel his love and forgiveness as you bow before him?

We have choices to make in our encounters with Jesus. We can be like Simon, the religious leader who knew his place in society and stuck to it. He invites Jesus in but expects a certain type of behavior from him and doesn’t want him to vary from that behavior. Or we can be like the woman, as we face Jesus knowing that we bring all our sins and our faults and our problems and our history. We come anyways, humbly seeking out the forgiveness and grace that we know is granted even before we ask for it.

Yes, there are choices in our relationship with Jesus; choices that we make consciously or unconsciously; choices that we make each and every day. Spend time figuring out how you approach your relationship with Jesus and recognize the choices that you make at every turn.