The Upload
Posted on Jun 10, 2016 by
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
I pray you have had a blessed week.
In our Gospel story this week, Luke 7:36-8:3, we read about how Jesus had been invited to eat with Simon, the Pharisee. Now we are not exactly sure why Simon wanted to eat with Jesus, but we can be pretty sure that he wanted “get the scoop” on who Jesus really was.
Jesus had been traveling around doing and saying amazing things and so when Jesus showed up it didn’t take long for all the townsfolk to know that Jesus was eating at Simon’s house. Most likely crowds gathered because people wanted to see, hear and touch this amazing man. One woman in particular just had to see Jesus and so she entered Simon’s home and kneeled before Jesus.
The problem was tis woman was a “sinner.” Most likes this this was code language was she was a local prostitute. She stretched herself out at his feet; she covered his feet with oil; she bathed them with her tears; she dried them with her hair. And, of course, all this sensuality, all this sexiness, all this touching was too much for Simon, who would never touch any woman but his wife, much less a woman like this, a sinner, a woman of ill-repute. And so, in seeing what happens, Simon thinks to himself, “How could you do this Jesus?” A true prophet would have known what kind of woman she is and certainly would not have let her touch him.” Now Simon knew that Jesus was no prophet. Jesus was a fraud.
But Jesus turned the tables on Simon and he told him the story of two debtors. Neither man could repay their debt, so the creditor says Jesus, forgave both of them their loan, even the one who owed ten times more. “Which of them will love him more?” Jesus asks. “Who will have more gratitude and more devotion?” To which Simon answered, “The one for whom he canceled the bigger debt.”
Then Jesus lays it all out for Simon. Yes, this woman was a sinner. Yes, her sins are many, but she is still a child of god’s and she has come before God and confessed her sinfulness. Simon, he says, her sins are forgiven. But the real twist here is that in the story there were two debtors, sinner. Yes, one owed more, or in terms of this woman and Simon, one had more sin, but both are sinners and both are forgiven.
I wonder if Simon ever got that part of the story. This story always reminds me of another story I read years ago about a mother who had three children, all of who had gotten sick and they needed to go to the doctor. After the doctor had examined all three children he decided they each needed a shot, but when the youngest child, who was about four years-old, saw the needle he ran to his mother, grabbed her tight and shouted at the doctor, “Just them two’s sick. Just them two’s sick. Not me, not me!”
Simon was like that four year-old, shouting at Jesus, “just she is a sinner, I am not.” But Jesus knew better and as he offered God’s forgiveness to the unnamed woman, he also was offering that same forgiveness to Simon the Pharisee.
None of us has earned God’s grace; we did nothing to deserve it. Yet, thorough Christ, God graciously, lovingly, and freely gives that grace to each of us. AS children of God, we too are called to lovingly and freely forgive each other and our ability and capacity to do so begins to grow when we realize that we are all a recipients of God’s grace, mercy and forgiveness.
Have a blessed and holy week!
Shalom,
Pr. Dave