Our story this morning is a story of contrasts: the holy, proud, and inhospitable host who has a strong sense of who belongs and who doesn't, and the prostitute who doesn't belong but’s tolerated for the services she provides, but knows her hope rests in Jesus. She shows she knows her need for Jesus through a humble act of devotion. Belonging’s an important part of being human. There’s a desire in almost everyone to find a place to belong. The first “not good” in the Bible is when God declares it’s not good that Adam is alone, so God creates Eve. God himself is a community, a trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who completely belong to each other, pouring into each other in an endless dance of belonging. Instinctively we know the importance of belonging; this is why one of the harshest punishments we can do is to shun a person.
Jesus is invited to the home of a Pharisee named Simon for dinner. As they recline around the table, a woman in town who lives a sinful life hears that Jesus is at Simon’s house, so she shows up. One of the interesting customs of the time is that needy people were allowed to visit a banquet and receive some of the leftovers. This has its roots in God’s commands found in Leviticus 19:9–10, “When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God,” and Leviticus 23:22, “When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and for the foreigner residing among you. I am the Lord your God.” God gives laws like this to make sure that even the poor are cared for; reminding Israel that the land belongs to God and they’re simply stewards of it. The Lord provides for all his people, using the law to bind the people to him and to each other. Simon follows the law, but doesn’t have the Lord’s compassion.
Often the host would hold a banquet in the front courtyard to show off an important guest, this is likely why the woman’s able to get close to Jesus. However, some commentators wonder if Simon’s testing Jesus here since he would have assigned servants to make sure something like this doesn’t happen. Simon might be trying to who Jesus really is; sent from God or a fraud; as C. S. Lewis wrote that Jesus was either a liar or a lunatic or the Lord, we need to make a choice what we believe. Jesus is hard to understand; he can heal the sick, he teaches with wisdom and authority, and yet he’s called a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.
When you study history and observe the world around us, it almost seems natural for people to exclude others; to create groups designed to welcome some and reject others. It’s easy to dismiss some people and keep others out. We choose based on whether we believe they’re good, or in Simon’s case, proper enough to belong. Who do you keep outside your circles, who do you consider unacceptable? God knows this about us; this is why he gave Israel laws that upheld the honour and wellbeing of the poor, the widow, the foreigner and outsider. As you read through the laws in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, the Lord keeps reminding the people that everyone counts, even the slaves. They were all considered part of the family when it came to Sabbath laws, everyone’s given rights and responsibilities, everyone’s to be provided for. Israel’s to be an example to the nations of who God’s kingdom and people are to be; in contrast with the evil and selfishness that characterizes the nations.
The woman weeps as she kneels down at Jesus’ feet and covers his feet with her tears. She then wipes Jesus’ feet with her hair, kissing his feet over and over again, and then pours perfume over Jesus’ feet. What a beautiful act of devotion and worship that still impacts us thousands of years later! She knows Jesus is truly a friend of sinners and feels safe with him. Luke now turns our attention from the sinful woman to Simon the Pharisee.
Simon is watching Jesus and how Jesus responds to what the woman is doing. Simon’s thinking in “them and us” ways. You can see a progression in Simon’s logical approach in thinking: first: if Jesus is a prophet, he would know what kind of woman is touching him, second: if he knows what kind of woman she is he would reject her, then third: he’s no prophet so I don’t need to pay attention to him. Simon’s ready to dismiss Jesus from his social circle because he accepts the sinful woman’s act of love and devotion, he accepts her. Jesus knows what’s going on in Simon’s head and challenges Simon with a parable of two people in debt to a moneylender who forgives their loans. Jesus asks Simon a simple question, “Which of them will love him more?” Simon replies, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven,” a logical response.
Jesus’ parable reveals how the sinful woman has more self awareness of her standing with God and need for forgiveness and grace than Simon who studies the Scriptures and law and has dedicated his life to them. Simon’s so proper and yet he shows Jesus great disrespect by not having anyone provide water for washing his feet before dinner and or offer Jesus a kiss of greeting while the sinful woman lavishes Jesus’ feet with her tears and perfume and kissing them. Jesus now drops a bombshell; he forgives the woman of her sins and tells her, “Your faith has saved you, go in peace.” In this brief encounter with the sinful woman, we’re reminded that our faith’s a gift from God and forgiveness is unearned. Faith is the basis of our salvation, not anything we do.
This is the difference between Simon and the sinful woman; she receives forgiveness through faith, receiving forgiveness because she accepts Jesus, while Simon, who’s working hard at keeping the law as his way of pleasing God and receiving salvation through obedience to the law, is questioned by Jesus about his lack of acceptance of Jesus. Salvation comes to the sinful woman because she acknowledges her sin through her tears and anointing of Jesus’ feet, she knows she has nothing to offer except her devotion. To Simon, the woman doesn’t belong, in Jesus’ eyes the woman belongs.
The sinful woman knows how much she owes Jesus while Simon has a hard time believing he owes Jesus anything, or that Jesus is a prophet or sent by God. Yet it’s not her love that saves her, it’s her faith; her forgiveness by Jesus produces her love. Jesus ties the depth of a person's awareness of their need for forgiveness to the ability to love. There are different degrees of sin between Simon and the woman, yet both need Jesus’ forgiveness. Simon has a choice to make, either he believes Jesus is a blasphemer, or he’s God in the flesh. The woman receives Jesus’ declaration of salvation due to her faith in him; the Greek word Jesus uses shows that her salvation is an accomplished act, she can’t lose her salvation since it’s rooted in faith. How do we come to eat with the Lord? Do we come with pride in our own lives, proud of how good we are, or do we come in humility and with tears of gratefulness for who Jesus is as the Son of God, the Redeemer of the World, the washer away of our sin? Do we come with adoration in faith?
In both the Old Testament and the New Testament, faith is the only source of salvation. Faith is the way God’s grace in Jesus and the blessings of salvation is received. Paul’s doctrine of justification by faith emphasizes the centrality of faith in the Christian life. Paul teaches in Acts 13:38–39 “Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses.” To the church in Rome 10:9–10 he writes, “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” The wonder is that faith is a free gift of God given to us!
When you place your faith in Jesus, you become part of God’s family, giving you a place and people you belong to. John makes this point in John 1:12, “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” Jesus knows your desire to belong; he invites you to place your faith in him, and gives you the faith to needed. Come, worship, and bow down before Jesus and hear his words, “Welcome, your sins are forgiven my child, go in peace.”
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