The Fourth Sunday after Pentecost, 06/12/2016

Sermon on Luke 7:36-8:3, by Hubert Beck

One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the table. And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s 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 the ointment. 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 is touching him, for she is a sinner.” And Jesus answering said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he answered, “Say it, Teacher.”

“A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 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 have 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 were at table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities. Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s household manager, and Susanna, and many others who provided for them out of their means.

YOUR SINS ARE FORGIVEN

I once had a pastor who invariably opened a worship service with a pronouncement to the effect that there was nobody present whose sins were not forgiven, who were not loved by God. Once that was established he proceeded to conduct the service.

At times I, myself, wondered about that overarching pronouncement and the almost pompous way in which he made such a proclamation. Every now and then one caught an almost silent wonderment from others in the congregation quietly questioning his right to say such a thing. But say it he did, week after week.

Was he just stating what is known, in theological terms, as objective justification? That is to say, was he only saying in bold and bald terms that Jesus’ death on the cross had atoned for all sins, had taken the penalty of all sins upon himself and had thereby effectively forgiven all sins of all people everywhere for all time – including the sins of all who had gathered for that service? There is truth in that, for Jesus did not simply die for a few select people of his choosing or even just for people who were going to believe in him. He died for all – and forgiveness was therefore available for and offered to all – and my pastor wanted to make that plain.

Or was he making some sort of a universalistic statement that everybody, no matter who or what they were or believed, were forgiven because of some mysterious outworking of grace offering a kind of universal amnesty by which all people were saved no matter what? That was apparently what some thought he was saying, and it was to that possibility which they objected.

I personally am quite certain that he intended the former, the first interpretation of his statement noted above, for, knowing him, I was / am quite sure he was announcing God’s grace in Christ Jesus, whose suffering, death and resurrection were the last word over all the miseries that have befallen the world because of sin. In Christ all sins have been redressed and forgiveness is there for the taking.

Of course, “for the taking” is the key part of that statement because an offer made is not the same as an offer accepted or received with gratitude.

A First Hearing of the Gospel

We hear some important things about that forgiveness announced by my pastor in today’s Gospel. But we cannot ignore a number of things surrounding that pronouncement of forgiveness within the story that catch one’s attention upon first hearing its reading. So let us first attempt to catch the broad sweep of what was going on.

The immediately striking things are several:

Jesus is at the table of a Pharisee – and there is a common awareness throughout the Gospel accounts that there was great tension between Jesus and the group called the Pharisees. That is noted only a few verses earlier, in fact. (7:30) It is rather remarkable, therefore, that a Pharisee would invite Jesus to his table.

The woman around whom the account revolves apparently had somehow slipped uninvited and unnoticed into the room. Had she hidden herself in among those serving the meal? We do not know, but it is clear that she was not a welcome guest in any sense of the term. Yet there she was.

The invited guests were seated on the floor with legs outstretched behind them and a low table before them as was the seating at all tables of that day. Somehow this woman had not only managed to gain access to the room in which the meal was being served, but she also had managed to attain a spot immediately behind Jesus as he reclined at the table.

Her reputation was quite obviously known not only to the host of this meal once her presence was revealed, but to all others present also – and to Luke who wrote this account, for he himself knew that she was a “sinner,” and he didn’t hesitate to write that into his account. Although through the years she has been reputed to have been a prostitute, that is not stated in the text. The reputation that preceded her may have been of quite another sort. But it certainly was not a good one!

More than that, she acted very unseemly once she had arrived, letting her hair down, crying so profusely that everyone had to take note – so copiously, in fact, that her tears were enough to make it possible for her to wash Jesus’ feet with them – and in general making such a nuisance of herself as a woman in the presence of men – a very, very unbecoming presence in that society – that it must have initially embarrassed Jesus himself once she began her ministrations not to speak of the mortification felt by the host and others at the table.

And then, still more striking, once the initial “shock” of her appearance and actions had passed Jesus commended her and spoke words of forgiveness to her – which act, in turn, raised real disquiet among the guests who then turned their attention from the woman to Jesus as they asked how he dared to forgive the woman’s sins – or even, by what authority he could do so!

All of which gave rise to the parable through which Jesus even more clearly pronounced the woman’s absolution as though it were a great debt cancelled, and then sending her forth in peace.

It is all very clear, cut and dried. The text had spoken.

A Second Hearing of the Gospel

Yes, the text had spoken, but have we listened closely? There are gaps in the story that we wish we could fill in. But still more than that, there are aspects of the story as it is presented to us that are really quite surprising!

As the scene unfolded the host had somewhat disgustedly said, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.” With these words one is pressed to ask what, exactly, Simon truly thought of Jesus. Had he invited Jesus into his home to check him out, to “test” him, so to speak, or had he invited Jesus to his table with a genuine will to recognize Jesus as truly a man of God and now, suddenly, with the appearance of the woman, did Simon suddenly question Jesus’ credentials when he so willingly accepted the thoughtful service of the sinful woman?

It is important to note also that, after Jesus had affirmed the woman, he certainly did not condemn his host as the hypocrite that we often make him out to be! Although Jesus spoke of Simon’s lack of courtesy when he had first appeared at his door is one thing, but he did not speak of him in a reproachful way once he had confirmed the excellence of the woman’s caring ways. His offer to “say something to him” was not so accusatory as it was edifying – as though he wanted to help Simon see more clearly what was really transpiring there.

Moreover, Simon had quite evidently assumed initially that the woman was a complete stranger to Jesus. But Jesus does not speak of her in that way. Whether it was by a “prophetic sense” of being able to recognize sinners upon sight or whether he, like the others, had known the clearly public reputation that everybody else knew concerning her – or whether by some previous encounter there had been a prior exchange of some kind between himself and the woman – we do not know. But Jesus does not speak to her or of her as a stranger. And the woman’s tearful expression of gratitude suggests that she had spoken with him before this and was now simply building on that previous exchange. It is a gap we wish we could fill in.

What is more, he already knew what her sins really were although they are never enumerated in our text. He simply describes them as “many.” That, however, had not caused him to shun her in any way whatever. In fact, he seems not only to have recognized but encouraged the familiarity between the woman and himself. He did know, however, that she had many sins for which she was greatly troubled.

What is most remarkable about the story and the parable, however, lies almost in obscurity until it is unexpectedly brought to one’s attention. Although the woman may have spoken with Jesus earlier and asked for forgiveness at that time (that is the gap concerning which we know nothing), Jesus spoke forgiveness to her in the text as we have it without first of all and at once expecting or even insisting that she should shamefully fall on her knees, sincerely and sorrowfully speaking words of repentance, and promising to turn away from her sinful ways, as a condition of forgiveness. Nor, moreover, does the parable suggest that the two debtors ever requested a cancellation of their indebtedness. “One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both.” Is that not a true surprise in the parable also? No begging for relief. Not even a polite appeal. Just two indebtednesses cancelled simultaneously for no reason other than that the moneylender chose to cancel both debts simply because he wanted to do it!

All this is brought together when Jesus’ declared “your sins are forgiven” to the woman – which immediately raised the question among those gathered there of how this man was able to forgive sins as though it were his prerogative to do so.

The story and the parable go hand in hand, not to speak of the extravagance of the ointment in the alabaster flask with which the woman massaged Jesus’ feet. That was an expensive ointment. Its purchase required quite a sum of money. And that, too, is a gap in the story, for where or how could the woman acquire such a sum of money? She did it, however, because she “loved much” since she was already aware in her washing and anointing that she had been forgiven much – and nothing was too much to demonstrate her thankfulness for a forgiveness given so totally on one who deserved none of it.

The Simplicity of the Account

It does not take very much reflection to apply the basic message to us and our lives, for it is written boldly into the text. Jesus says quite plainly, “Her sins, which are many, are forgiven – for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” And / or the question he asks in the parable spoken in the midst of the account makes it equally clear: “Which of those whose debts were cancelled – the one with the larger debt or the smaller debt – would love him more?” One’s love for the Lord will always be in proportion to one’s recognition of how deeply and thoroughly God’s forgiveness has touched the very unworthy lives of those whose eyes are concentrated on the heart of God’s tenderness which is so vividly seen in this man whose feet were being massaged and whose hope is established on nothing other than God’s compassionate will for their welfare. Simple, isn’t it? It is, at least, for those who live in the kingdom presided over by Jesus.

But it wasn’t for those in the text who were hoping for and looking toward an entirely different kingdom. The kingdom which Jesus was inaugurating was based on forgiveness, not power – and forgiveness is often perceived as a weakness, an inability to fend for one’s self. Jesus’ kingdom was built on an acknowledgment of need rather than on a boastful demand for God’s good will purchased by people whose worth was marked by their ability to attain a reputable place in the world. His kingdom was based on mercy rather than on a boastful plea presenting one’s self-worth based on a worth acquired and marked by one’s ability to manage and control one’s life in a commendable fashion. Those who looked for a kingdom marked primarily by a decent, upright and honorable citizenry devoted to respectability marked by a noteworthy morality and nothing else were terribly disenchanted. For this woman certainly did not fill any such bill of worthiness on that score.

It was no wonder, then, that they asked “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” Everyone knew the woman as a sinner, but they saw Jesus as nobody more than her brother. They did not know Jesus as one who had been commissioned by the Father to bear the forgiveness of sins to the world. So his pronouncement was not merely shocking. It was downright outrageous. It was clear to them, and they consistently insisted in other settings, “Only God can forgive sins.” Which, of course, is true. But that was precisely what they failed to recognize in their questioning, for the one who had spoken those words was, indeed, the One through whom sins were being forgiven!

A similar story – or is it the same account placed in a different setting in Jesus’ life, as some think – tells of a – or is it this – woman anointing Jesus’ feet in the very shadows, as it were, of his crucifixion. There he tells the scandalized people present who were scolding her for daring to do what she did to “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. . . She has anointed my body beforehand for burial.” (Mark 14:3-9) It is this that the guests did not know – that this Anointed One was on an assignment from his Father to give his life as the Chief Sinner, the One in whom and through whom all the accumulated sin of the world that brings the world into the shadows of eternal death, was on the way to his disgraceful death. Of course, though they did not understand that, even less could they have imagined that he would overcome death and sin in his resurrection.

For that moment, however, the light of his mission was seen only very dimly even by those closest to him. But dim though their vision was, we are told in the closing verses of our text that an entourage of women didn’t give up on him, but continued to trust him, to accompany him, and even to support his mission with the means at their disposal.

That Unexpected Aspect of the Account Guides Our Concluding Thoughts

Remember my former pastor mentioned in the opening moments of this sermon who always assured everybody present that God’s enfolding arms surrounded all of us – and everybody else, for that matter – every time he began a service? Well, maybe he was on to something that we have seen taking place in the texts we have been examining!

The Pharisee in whose house all this took place undoubtedly expected two things: FIRST, that Jesus should be very aware of who was wetting his feet with her tears and then anointing them after having used her hair to dry them, for she was without question “a sinner” who contaminated everybody with whom she had contact – and SECONDLY, if Jesus wanted to have anything to do with her once he fully recognized who she was, he should first and above all make her sinfulness plain by publicly and explicitly calling it for what it was and then demanding that she should openly express penitence in the presence of all these other respected guests before she dared to continue touching and serving him.

That is understandable, for repentance is regularly required by and of people of faith. Would we not, by and large, be of the same mind, joining our voices with his in such an expectation? But there is not a word of penitence on the part of the woman – nor on the part of the debtors in the parable!!! None of them – neither the woman nor the defaulters – admitted to their benefactor that they had made a bad move in getting themselves into such an indebtedness as that in which they now found themselves. Nor did they fall at his knees, groveling and crying out for mercy, before their indebtednesses were cancelled.

This is the most unexpected twist in the account to anyone who insists on responsible accountability. There was no calling for the woman’s remorse, no call for contrition before “he said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’” Perhaps her actions suggested this to Jesus, but it was enough for her to have made it clear that she honored him as the only one in the room who really counted in her estimation. “Love” is the word Jesus used to describe her for his forgiveness surely was more than a covering for her past. It was that word alone in which she trusted – and that opened the door to a new future for her.

Those debtors, likewise, had more than a past pardoned. They had an unexpected future opened to them. Do we not learn something here about forgiveness – as exercised by God above all, but as it is to be exercised among us also? If a miserable past holds a person captive, a word of forgiveness as though none of the past will be held against one is not simply a liberation from a burdensome debt. It is also and above all an invitation to a new future, to a new possibility that could never exist so long as the debt hung over the forgiven person’s head.

So did the fellow whose debt was a mere fifty denarii love the moneylender less than the one who received a reprieve of the much greater debt amounting to five hundred denarii? On the one hand, who knows? On the other hand, who really cares, for both, with their past for which they were very sorry hanging over their heads, have of a sudden, with a word, as it were, been given a new future in spite of their past – and for that both will love their former financier with an immense love.

There we find the question posed to each of us – what is the measure of my love for the Lord? Do I merely seek forgiveness from God as for only a few little petty misbehaviors here and there or do I realize the immensity of the burden that I bring to him who says even as I approach him (remember the father of the prodigal son who saw him coming a long way off and ran to embrace him and receive him back?) and before I can get the words out of my mouth (remember that “speech of repentance” the prodigal son had prepared that the father never bothered to listen to for it was enough that he was coming home again?) the words ring in my ears: “Your sins are forgiven.” The one who bore your sins and mine on the cross and joined himself to us in our baptism and who brings his very presence to bear on our lives in the bread and wine soon to be distributed at this altar is the one who said those words to the sinful woman – and says them to you and me!

My former pastor thought those words were the most important words of invitation one could say to any and all who had gathered to worship God, spreading them like a warm blanket over the coldest of hearts in that congregation, even before the confession of sins and absolution that was to follow! By the standards of this text, he was / is right!

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Lutheran Pastor, Retired Hubert Beck
Austin, TX 78749
E-Mail: hbeck@austin.rr.com

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