Forgiveness, part 2

Luke 7:36-8:3

We are very familiar with this story of the woman anointing Jesus' feet and washing them with her hair (and here, her tears). But Luke places this story much earlier in Jesus' ministry, and instead of using it as a preparation for his death, Luke uses it to talk about forgiveness and gratitude and hospitality.

The woman is identified as a "sinner." Let's guess prostitute? Oh, and by the way, Luke does NOT identify her as Mary Magdalene (whose name comes up at the end of this reading as one who has been healed of demons, not forgiven for sinning). Anyway, Simon the Pharisee's reaction tells us she is not someone that respectable men of God would hang around with. But then Jesus rarely hung with the respectable folk for long.

Leonard Sweet once had a great line, "be careful if you invite Jesus into your house because he likes to bring all his annoying friends!"

We get the impression she has already met Jesus and been forgiven by him, and in her gratitude, she has come to do for him the only thing she knows. Jesus contrasts her attitude to Simon's. It really was unforgivable and a clear slap in the face to Jesus if he had been treated in Simon's house as he indicates here. In the Middle East hospitality is a very high value. When I traveled in Turkey, Jordan and Israel/Palestine, even when we went into the poorest home or monastery, we were always offered water for washing our hands and some kind of food as well as the kisses on both cheeks that are still the common greeting there. For Simon not to do that was obviously intentional and a message to Jesus about his opposition to Jesus.

So here the respectable religious leader disses Jesus while the "sinner" gives him extravagant welcome. And Jesus says it is because she was forgiven much and therefore was grateful. Whereas Simon did not even understand he had anything to be forgiven for.

So if God forgives us but we do not even acknowledge we need forgiveness, do we then show gratitude or humility? If forgiveness happens in a vacuum, does anyone receive it? That's Jesus' question to Simon. To us.

Forgiveness

Psalm 5, Luke 7:36-8:3

Some initial reflections on Psalm 5 that surprised me as I began to think about it. The Psalm is a psalm of lament, words spoken by one who fears for his enemies and wants God to take care of them (Tony Soprano-style, perhaps?)

At first blush, we could all join the Psalmist's cry. The "evildoers" of the world should be punished and destroyed by God and the "righteous" protected. Nothing very controversial about that.

Until you think about who may have written this. The Psalm is identified as a "Psalm of David." If David actually wrote this Psalm, that gives it a slightly different cast. Read this Psalm again as though spoken by a king, someone who is a politician and military leader. Someone who wants God on his side. It just made me think differently for a few moments.

Especially because I might imagine the Pharisee who hosts Jesus at his dinner party including the woman of the city who showed up uninvited at his house in the category of evildoers needing to be harshly dealt with by God.

BTW, for all of you who wonder how she got into his house to begin with, remember that locks on doors didn't exist then, and that most dinners were held in the coolness of the courtyard of a well-off home, a courtyard which would have been easily accessible from the street.

More later on the woman and her relationship with Jesus.