Good morning, Friends! Thank you all for coming to worship this morning. Today we have another story from the gospel of Luke. It’s about sin and forgiveness, grace and gratitude.
There’s a lot going on here, so let’s hang onto our hats, and read all about it.
One of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him Jesus went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume.
As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”
Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”
“Tell me, teacher,” he said.
Jesus said, “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii [the equivalent of over $25,000] and the other fifty [the equivalent of $2,500]. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”
Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”
“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.
Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”
Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”
Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
Luke 7:36-50
Let’s try to put ourselves in the story.
Simon was a pretty common name in Jesus’ time. There are a bunch of Simons in the gospel – Simon Peter, Simon the Zealot, and several others.
The Simon in today’s story was a Pharisee. Being a Pharisee meant that Simon wanted, with all his heart, to obey every last one of the many different laws that had been handed down to the Jewish people for generations. The laws had to do with work, with prayer, with keeping the Sabbath as a holy day. The laws had to do with remembering how God delivered his people at Passover, and keeping that holiday special. The laws had to do with keeping your house and yourself, pure and holy, even if that meant pulling back from the rest of the world.
The very name “Pharisee” means “to be separated”. People said that the Pharisees wanted to live their lives behind a tall hedge, where they’d be protected from any kind of sin.
Now, Simon wasn’t a bad person. He truly wanted to be holy. He had heard about Jesus, teaching about a new way, a higher way, a deeper way, to love God. Maybe Simon had seen Jesus heal, or turn water into wine, or feed an enormous crowd, starting with just a handful of bread and some dried sardines.
So, Simon wanted to be holy, and he wanted to get on the bandwagon with Jesus. He knew – like everybody knew! – that Jesus came from God. There was no mistaking that. Jesus was somebody special. Jesus was a great teacher, and Simon knew it. Jesus was a healer, and nobody could do what Jesus did, if God wasn’t with them.
Listening to Jesus was life-changing. Being close to Jesus was something everybody wanted. Being recognized as a friend of Jesus was an honor.
And, remember, Jesus didn’t have a home of his own. Jesus lived on the road. Jesus didn’t have a farm, or a flock, or a small business or a trade. He didn’t have a family, a wife and kids. Jesus moved from town to town, teaching as he went.
So, it was an honor to help support Jesus. Having Jesus come to your house was a big thing. Putting on a supper, for Jesus and the guys who traveled with him, was what the Jews called a mitzvah, a good deed, a holy deed. And Simon wasn’t going to do this part way. He wasn’t going to give Jesus and his friends a bunch of leftovers, handed out to them from the back door. Simon threw a party!
Don’t you wish that you could throw a party for Jesus? Don’t you wish that you could invite Jesus into your home? Wouldn’t it be great, if Jesus would come through your door, and sit at your table, and say a blessing over the meal that you put together for him?
Jesus wouldn’t just bless the meal. Jesus would bless you, and your family, and your household. Jesus would bless your pets, your garden, your work, your home. Having Jesus come into your home would be a lifetime blessing, a day to to remember for the rest of you life.
If you knew that Jesus was coming, wouldn’t you clean your house for him? Wouldn’t you sweep every corner, and shine every pot in the kitchen? Wouldn’t you get out the best china, and make extra trips to the market, and cook the best meal you could possibly put in front of Jesus?
And remember, Simon was someone who wanted to live the holiest life possible, in every last detail.
I’m sure you’ve heard that there are people who keep their house clean, and then there’s nasty clean. So clean you don’t hardly want to sit down on any of the furniture. So clean you can see yourself in the plates. Simon kept his house nasty clean, and Simon had gone all out to welcome Jesus for supper that day.
What do you suppose was on the table? Well, not pork, certainly. Pork, or any part of the pig, wasn’t allowed on Jewish tables. Sorry, folks, Jesus didn’t eat barbecue!
But there would have been other kinds of barbecue. There would have been roast lamb, and meat in delicious sauces. Chicken? Barbecued chicken? Grilled fish? There would have been beef brisket, the way your grandmother used to cook it. There would have been greens, and lots of bread.
Probably not the kind of bread we’re used to. More like pita bread, flat bread, baked fresh that day, straight from the oven.
And wine, the best wine. People back then didn’t drink wine to get drunk. Usually, wine was diluted half-and-half with water. You just got the flavor of the wine, so you could enjoy it. People back then didn’t know about germs, but mixing wine and water made it safer.
Anyway, you get the picture. Simon threw a party. People were happy to be invited. It was a great evening.
Except that, partway through the party, somebody made a scene. A woman showed up, and something happened.
Now, back in that time, women were part of the family. In a Jewish home, women were loved, just as they are today. A good wife was honored, not taken for granted. But in general, at a big meal or a party, women were not invited. Women did the serving during the meal. They brought food and took away the empty dishes. Women were expected to keep quiet, to listen and learn. At a party like this, women got the leftovers, or they ate while the food was being prepared. Men were the guests at the table.
But during the meal, a woman showed up. And not just any woman. This was a woman who – how shall I put it? – this was a woman you wouldn’t bring home to meet your mama.
The Bible describes her as a prostitute, which isn’t a word we use very often in polite company, or at church.
She may have been what we would call a party girl. Or she may have been more like a street person. Back then, she wouldn’t have been on drugs. Or maybe she was more like a stripper, or an escort. People still call it the world’s oldest profession.
Everybody at the party knew who she was. Maybe some of the men knew more than they should, from experience. Takes two to tango, they say.
Anyway, she came in, and there was a big scene. She got down on the floor, and she wept and cried. Her tears ran all over Jesus’ feet. She had some perfume with her, and she took the perfume and wiped it all over Jesus’ feet, and dried them with her hair, crying all the time.
Simon was outraged. His party was ruined. His house – his holy house – was violated. Everybody in the whole town would be talking about it – the scandal at Simon’s house! People would be laughing at him behind his back! What would people say? What would Simon’s mama say?
Simon said as much to Jesus. Simon apologized, he was angry, he wanted to throw her out of his house. He was beside himself.
You know what “being beside yourself” means? It literally means being so angry that you leave your calm, reasonable self inside your body, and the angry, uncontrollable part of yourself gets outside and starts yelling. It’s almost like your real self, the person you try to be everyday, gets frozen, and there’s this stranger, this rage-filled maniac, standing beside you, yelling and screaming.
Have any of you ever had that experience, of just completely losing it? Over-reacting, times ten? That was how Simon felt.
He was angry, he was ashamed, he was probably afraid that Jesus would up and leave the party, and leave Simon with all the wreckage. His reputation was being destroyed. He was going to be laughed at and scorned, because this woman showed up.
Jesus did something different. Jesus wasn’t offended, or even upset.
Jesus looked at her, and saw into her heart, and had compassion. Jesus knew that in her life, she had very few options. Most likely, her husband had died, and left her with no children and no family to look after her. Or, her father had died, and left her with no dowry, and no home.
Women in that day who had no family, had very few ways to support themselves. They had no education – women weren’t taught to read. They couldn’t work as secretaries, or check out clerks. Women could maybe work as servants, or farm workers, but even that wasn’t always possible, since when you took someone in like that, you were expected to take care of them for the rest of their life. In a poor country, no one wanted that extra responsibility.
Jesus didn’t know what her story was, but he knew that she had a story. Her story probably wasn’t a good one.
She wasn’t proud of herself. She was pretty much doing what she had to do, just to stay alive. Nobody envied her, even though a lot of men wanted her. But nobody wanted to live the way she lived. Not really.
Jesus saw all that, and he saw even more. That’s the thing about Jesus, he always saw past the surface. Jesus saw people’s hearts. Jesus knew about people whose lives were completely broken, whose lives didn’t work any more. Jesus knew about people who were lost and who had run out of extra chances.
Jesus knew about all kinds of people, who had made mistakes, or who had mistakes done to them. A lot of the time, when people are at the bottom, it may not be their fault. They’re just there. It’s easy to look down on them. It’s easy to blame people for living on the street, or for being refugees, or for growing up in a broken home, or for a thousand different ways to be hurt.
Anyway, here’s Jesus, at the party, with two scenes going on. On the one hand, there’s this woman, weeping and crying, doing all this intimate stuff, pouring out perfume and wiping Jesus’ feet.
On the other hand, here’s Simon, having a major conniption fit, totally losing it all over the place.
And what did Jesus do? Did Jesus get upset? No, he didn’t. He stayed calm, and he smiled.
Jesus knew people. And he loved them. And Jesus knew that there can be two kinds of sin. One kind of sin, and it’s real, is the kind of life the woman lived.
Jesus saw into her heart, and he knew that behind the pretty face and the clothes she wore, her life was hell on earth. That’s one kind of sin.
But Jesus also understood that there’s a second kind of sin. And that’s looking down your nose at people who are worse off than you are. Feeling contempt is also a sin. Despising other people is a sin. In its own way, it’s just as bad, and just as destructive, as living on the street.
You may have heard the saying, “Don’t feel better, just because somebody sins differently than you do.” That’s what Jesus might have said.
Simon sincerely wanted to live a good life, a holier life. Simon wanted to do the absolute best he could, to live every last one of God’s commandments. He put his heart and soul into this. But somehow, along the way, Simon fell into a trap. It’s one thing to want to be holy. It’s another thing, to go around feeling holier than everybody else.
You all see the difference. I know you do!
So, this is really a story about two extreme cases, not just one. This story is really a two-fer. It’s a BOGO.
You’ve got a woman, who didn’t have a lot of choice, didn’t have a lot of alternatives, living out past the edge of society. Men wanted her, but nobody respected her. People sneered at her, every single day. Her life was hell. Women in her situation didn’t always live very long. They died on the street. Many of them probably killed themselves. Even if they survived, getting old wasn’t going to be any fun.
But somehow, she heard Jesus talk about forgiveness. She heard Jesus talk about turning around. She heard Jesus say that God always gives us more chances, that if we take just one step toward God, that God comes running to meet us. Somewhere, she heard that Jesus forgave people. That Jesus welcomed even people like her, people who nobody wanted in their family.
Even people who nobody wanted contact with, Jesus touched. Even people who were worse off than she was. Jesus wasn’t afraid of getting his holiness all dirty.
That’s the one extreme. The other extreme in the story, is Simon, the holy guy.
You might have expected that Jesus would have been more gracious to Simon. I mean, Simon was the host, after all. He provided the dinner. Jesus did eat the food that Simon put on the table.
But Jesus also knew, that sometimes you can do the right thing for the wrong reason. There’s a difference, between wanting to welcome Jesus, and wanting to impress Jesus. And even if Simon didn’t mean to, somehow he fell into that trap.
As Jesus so often did, he told a story. He said, “Once upon a time, there was a moneylender.” (They didn’t have banks back in those days.) “He loaned money to two people. The first person owed him a year’s wages. The second person owed him maybe a week’s wages. Neither one could pay him back,” said Jesus. “So, believe it or not, the moneylender wrote off the debt. Now, you tell me, Simon – which one of these appreciated it more?”
“The one who had the biggest debt,” Simon answered.
Jesus said, “That’s right. Now, look at her, and look at you. Who do you think loves me more? Who’s showing their gratitude today? She needed forgiveness a lot more. But her sins are forgiven. If you need God’s forgiveness a lot, you love God more.”
Everybody at the party had to scrape their jaws off the floor. “Who does he think he is?” They were asking. “He even forgives sins!”
And Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”
So, don’t forget – there’s more than one kind of sin. There’s doing bad stuff, and making mistakes, to the point where your life doesn’t work.
And there’s looking down on people who are broken, and judging them. Sometimes that’s worse than the other kind of sin.
And remember – it’s all about forgiveness. It’s all about mercy. It’s about God’s love, and amazing grace.