Reader: Now
one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to
the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table.
Jesus is invited for dinner by one of the Pharisees -- Invitation to dinner certainly implied respect for this new teacher and healer. Simon wanted to learn more about Jesus, but it soon becomes obvious that you can't count Simon as a believer -- rather as a sceptic but one who was trying to be open-minded.
Simon, like most other Pharisees would have been a man of means and this scale of dinner party required a larger home and money for food than the average person had at his disposal. This would have been a place to be seen, if OK Magazine had been invented 2000 years ago - they'd have been there.
Hospitality
would have been a very strong value in this part of the world, with a great
deal of fuss being made over guests, especially on their arrival. A basin
would typically be provided so guests could wash the dust of the road from
their feet. Scented olive oil was sometimes offered to anoint a guest's hair
And beloved guests would be kissed as they were greeted. Simon, however offered
none of these marks of a gracious host. Perhaps he thought so much of himself
that he thought his guests should be honoured just by getting an invite to
his latest party.
Jesus accepts the invitation. Jesus had already been criticized for dining
with sinners. But on this occasion we see him mixing with the religious elite.
Reader: When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume.
The woman, though she is a resident of the town is unlikely to have got an invitation. She is looked down upon as a sinner. We're not told what her sin is, she might be a prostitute or an adulteress. While adulterers could be stoned as the law directed - more often, sinners were shunned by respectable society and prohibited from participation in the local synagogue.
We don't know how she came to be in this situation, we don't know what choices she was forced to make - what circumstances she had to live through. We just can't say, and should know better than to judge her harshly. But we can see that she has been battered down. Her self-image is tattered and ragged. She'd be the example the mothers in town use to warn their daughters. Fingers pointing as she goes about town, names being hollered at her from across the road.
For her to come to the banquet at Simon the Pharisee's house is hard, too. She knows that Simon will not be happy to see her in his house. She is a social outcast - her very presence is seen as contamination. But the sinful woman has heard of Jesus. She has probably heard his teaching. She has heard his gracious words of God's love and forgiveness - of his healing and restoration. She has heard him speak of God's Kingdom in words so plain and compelling that she can see herself as a child of God once more, instead of the person that her community would have her believe she is. She has heard that she too can be a full citizen in this Kingdom of Love. She is still broken, but now she can see light and hope beyond.
Early in the
meal there is no focus on the woman. Simon may feel uncomfortable about her
being here, but once she is inside, he does not exclude her from his home.
That would have caused an ugly scene. So he allows her to remain, obviously
in the hope that she will just go away if no one talks to her. The focus is
clearly on Jesus and his words as he partakes of the meal. The woman is standing
behind Jesus, and early into the meal she begins to weep.
Reader: 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.
We could be forgiven for looking at her kissing his feet with some sort of sexual connotation, but in her culture kissing the feet might be considered a common mark of deep reverence, especially to someone like a rabbi.
Finally, she pours scented oil onto his feet out of a perfume vial, such as Jewish women commonly wore around their neck. Once the flask of perfume is opened, almost immediately everyone in the room would have detected it. While Jesus has been the centre of focus up to now, all eyes turn to the woman now kneeling at Jesus' feet, weeping, wiping, caressing his feet with her hair, kissing his feet with her lips, and pouring perfume upon them. That someone was paying him this very intimate and loving attention would have appeared to many of the guests to be shocking. But then when you consider just who was doing it, with her reputation and you have an act that was an absolute scandal, at least that is how Simon the Pharisee interprets it.
Reader: 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.
We don't know what Simon looked like, but we can all work out what the look on his face would have been. The look of disdain - the contempt in his eyes. Simon is sceptical about who Jesus is, he knows that he is a teacher of great note and a building reputation, but he doubts that his wisdom and insight makes him a prophet. In doing so, he judges both the sinful woman and Jesus, and is wrong in both of his judgments. It was the 'done thing to do' to ignore and shun women like this - so he criticizes Jesus' lack of discernment of WHO was touching him and her sinful history. He can't be much of a prophet and miss this! Simon huffs to himself.
Reader: Jesus
answered him, "Simon, I have something to tell you." "Tell
me, teacher," he said.
So Jesus tells a short parable to make a point to Simon and the other guests. His tale involves two people who owe a debt to a loan shark, who has the power to throw non-payers into debtor's prison:
Reader: "Two
men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii,
and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he
cancelled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?" Simon
replied, "I suppose the one who had the bigger debt cancelled."
"You have judged correctly," Jesus said.
Simon has his judgements thrown right back at him.
Reader: 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 -- for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little."
Jesus' response is a wake up call to Simon. Simon's actions have shown little love, while the sinful woman has lavished love upon Jesus. Now building upon his brief parable, Jesus turns the object from love to forgiveness. To help Simon and the others understand her actions, Jesus first tells a story about forgiveness, and then uses the story to interpret the woman's devotion in terms of forgiveness of sin.
Simon no doubt would have been seething. Jesus has shone a light on him and shown him to be more than just an unenthusiastic host. Why should he need forgiveness anyway? He wasn't a sinner! But Jesus doesn't linger on Simon's shortcomings. Instead he turns to speak directly to the sinful woman:
Reader: Then Jesus said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."
She had come to the house with hope in her heart which is why she came with the perfume, and wept, and kissed Jesus' feet because after hearing of Jesus message and his reputation she had already reached out in faith and accepted the forgiveness of God that he offered in his teaching.
Reader: The other guests began to say among themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?"
The guests,
however, didn't understand. Hearing her tell her that her sins were absolved
worried them because only God could forgive sins
But Jesus continues, looking directly at the woman:
Reader: Jesus said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."
He acknowledges that her faith in his promise has brought her a new life. Jesus welcomed her back into the family of God - reminding her who she was born to be, that the opinions of her community didn't change God's love for her, that the mistakes she'd made along the way didn't cut her off from God and that society's labels would not change God accepting her.
In that very public dinner party, Jesus offered her God's unconditional love. Today it is a gift he still offers us.
Amen.
(Dan Joseph)
This
sermon was first preached in the Metropolitan Community Church of Manchester.
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