Sometimes We Forget: Luke 7:36-8:3

Dear God, take our minds and think through them; take our hands and feet and work through them; take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire for you. Amen

One particular Sunday a church was to receive a new pastor. They did not know who this person was; the pastor did not have a particular reputation so there was both excitement and nervousness. The church members wanted to make a good impression on the new pastor and so they clean the church top to bottom. There were fresh cut flowers everywhere, the men wore their suits and ties and all the ladies had new Sunday dresses. Everything was set up perfectly until…what seemed to be a homeless person walked in the door. To say the man was scruffy was an understatement. His hair was all matted and dirty, he had a dirty beard hanging un-kept from his face. His clothes were stained and torn and he had a particular odor like he hadn’t bathed in a couple of weeks. He man came in to the almost horrid looks from the congregation. He sat down in the back of the church and was received not by a handshake or a hug, but by whispers and dirty looks. “Of all the days a junkie bum could come into our church, what will the new pastor think of us?” The time for church was at hand and the pastor was still no where to be found. The people began to worry and squirm in their seats not only because the pastor was late but also because of this new stranger who sat among them. The hour had come and the bum that had received so many dirty, hateful looks stood up. “Good, maybe he is leaving” someone whispered. But the man walks past the people down the middle of the isle and up to the pulpit. The men of the church were being nudged by their wives to put a stop to this when the man spoke. “My name is Rev. Johnson and I am your new pastor. We have some work to do in this church.”

We often, despite the old saying, judge a book by its cover. It is something that is ingrained into our minds by our society. We cannot help it sometimes. We might see a homeless person, or a group of young men on the street and we lock our car doors and roll up the windows. Thousands of young girls starve themselves and participate in dangerous behavior in order to look like society thinks a young girl should look. People who do not look the way we think is normal receive stares and sometimes given giggles from others. Don’t we also sometimes judge a person by their sins especially when those sins are public in nature? When a person is caught in adultery, when a person is caught embezzling money, or when a person is caught drinking and driving these are public sins. We place judgment on others when we forget about our own private sins in our closet. We have a tendency look at the sins first, before we look at the person.

Our story today is like this. Jesus is invited to the home of Simon, a Pharisee, which might seem strange to us because Jesus and the Pharisees always seem to be at odds with one another. Perhaps Simon had some ulterior motives and was trying to lull Jesus into his confidence, or perhaps Simon was a secret follower of Jesus like Nicodemus. We do not know. Jesus comes into the house with no great welcome. Luke says that Jesus walks in and simply takes his place at the table. As they are eating an unwelcome woman walks into the room and kneels at Jesus’ feet. People begin to whisper to one another. “Do you know who she is? Do you know what she has done? Look at what she is doing to Jesus.” She begins to cry and her tears are so great that they fall to the feet of Jesus and wash the dirt and dust of the road off. She then takes her long black hair and dries Jesus feet. The whispers grow louder and more frequent. She then takes a beautiful alabaster jar and pours the contents onto Jesus’ feet and the fragrance form the oil fills the whole room. Jesus can sense the tension in the room and especially in the face of his host, Simon. “If he was a prophet he would know what kind of a woman this was and what she has done, she is a sinner of the greatest kind.” Although Simon says this to himself Jesus can sense his animosity toward this woman. Jesus looks at Simon and tells him a story. Two men were in debt to the same person one man owed 50 denarii about $1,000 and the other owed 500 or about $10,000. The man forgave both debts. Then Jesus poses a question which debtor loved the man more. Simon answers logically the man with the most debt. Jesus then tells him that this woman loves much because she knows that she has been forgiven much…unlike Simon who had not even offered Jesus the customary foot washing and kiss as a greeting.

What does this story mean for us today? I think the main theme in this story is how our need for forgiveness or more importantly the knowledge of our need for forgiveness affects our attitude. The woman knew she was in need of forgiveness. She did not need anyone to tell her she was a sinner. She knew it. She wanted to change her ways and she knew of this Jesus who could make her right with God. We do not know what her sin was, but we can assume by Simon’s reaction that it was a public sin, something everyone in the community knew about.

When we first come to Christ we know how much we are indebted to God and how much God has forgiven us, just as the man with the large debt. As we move on in our Christian life sometimes we forget. We forget that despite the fact that we are saved by faith through grace we still sin and we are still indebted to God everyday. We forget how much we still need God’s forgiveness. We often prioritize sin and label sin. This sin is not as bad as this sin, not helping the poor is not as bad as committing adultery, telling a lie is not as bad as killing someone. We do this to make ourselves feel better. We say to ourselves “Well, at least I am not doing what she or he is doing.” We belittle others sins that might be more public or more heinous in our eyes. We often pass judgment on others, we act like Simon, and when we think that we are forgiven little, just as Jesus says, we love little. We have to remember that we are in constant need of forgiveness. We all sin, as long as one child dies from hunger we are sinners. As long as millions of people die from diseases that could be treated with the drugs we buy at Walgreens we are sinners. The good news for us remains the same however. God loves use despite our sins and offers a constant flow of grace and love from the cross of Calvary.

This is such good news and this is such wonderful, immeasurable grace that we cannot help but to be as the woman in the story kneeling at the feet of Jesus. She comes to Jesus in pure humility. She opens herself up completely to Jesus, she does not hide anything, and she does not pretend that she is not in need of forgiveness. She does not blame anyone else for her plight, but simply and honestly falls at the feet of her Savior. She is repentant. Her tears of sorrow and guilt fall at the feet of Jesus. Her tears are so great that they wash Jesus’ feet clean of the dirt and dust of the road. She knows that the life she has lived is wrong and she wants to make a new start, a new life, a changed life away from all the negativity of her past. She does not care of what people might say, she does not care that she is not welcome in the house of Simon. Her focus is purely and solely on Jesus. She is also sacrificial. She offers to Jesus an expensive bottle of perfume and pours it on his feet anointing them. This bottle of perfume might have been her only possession. Although we know now that grace through Christ is free, she wants to make an offering to Jesus. Not in exchange for forgiveness but out of humility and repentance.

When we became Christians, it might have been at a tent meeting, a church camp, it might have been at the altar of this very church, wherever it was we came with a humble, repentant, and sacrificial heart just as the woman in this story. As we move on as Christians too often we lose this kind of heart, we forget about our constant need for forgiveness and we forget that how we came to the cross is how we should leave the cross and remain as Christians. Remember the parable of the debtors, one owed $1,000 and the other $10,000 and of course the one who owed more loved the man who forgave the debt more. The debt we owe God is immeasurable, uncountable. God created us just a little lower than himself and we rejected God. God sent his only son so that we could learn from him and we rejected him. He died on a cross and rose again defeating death, hell, and the grave and still we reject him maybe not with our mouths, but with our actions. We are in constant need of forgiveness and God is constant in his ability and willingness to forgive us. We owe so much to God we should be filled with love for God and for one another. We are all in the same boat and we all receive the same grace and love from God and so we should love one another.

We owe God so much that praise should be continually in our hearts and in our mouths. We should praise God joyfully and completely. We should tell others who have not yet found this grace and love. Most of all we should be accepting of all people no matter what their sins might be, just as God was accepting of us. Acceptance and love is what draws people to a church. Love and acceptance is what keeps people coming to church. We work together to move away from sin and toward God. We hold one another accountable, but never with judgment and always with love and grace. We have to embrace togetherness as oppose to competition. That is what the Church is in need of. All the programs and big, beautiful buildings in the world cannot match the power of God’s love in a church and acted out in its members. Let us all remember that our debt is great but God’s grace is far greater.

Let us pray…

Grant, O Lord,

that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,

and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.