Washing Jesus' feet with her tears. Luke 7: 36 - 8: 4

In their wisdom, the Lectionary authors left out a verse just before today's gospel reading, which makes the story make more sense, and sets it right into its proper context.

It goes like this: “And Jesus said to the Pharisees that prostitutes and tax collectors will go into the kingdom of God before you Pharisees.”

Jesus had a sort of running conflict going with the Pharisees. They were the great establishment figures, guardians of Temple protocols, and noted for their self-righteous attitudes and upholding strict observances, particularly of the purity laws. They were great foils for each other, Jesus and the Pharisees, often locking horns, the establishment versus the radical rabbi. It would be wrong to write off the Pharisees as baddies – and very likely that they and Jesus had a healthy respect for each other, and rather in the way of TV wrestlers or politicians, they squared up publicly for joshing bouts for show. Jesus and the Pharisees would make their respective cases in the Temple, bantering and name calling, Jesus giving as good as He gets, calling the Pharisees broods of vipers and hypocrites quite regularly.

And rather in the manner of politicians sharing a cab after slugging it out in a TV debate, today we find Jesus showing up to a fancy banquet at the home of Simon the Pharisee, who He had very recently insulted with the verse I just read out: that sinners and prostitutes would enter the Kingdom of heaven before they would. So the scene is set for one of those dinners where the men posture and banter at the table. And in first century Palestine the women were spared having to endure that, as their role was to serve the men at the table, but that was as near to the table as they got. Imagine then the shock and the social outrage, when the woman in the story comes in weeping (we're not told why). She washes Jesus' feet with her tears, dries them with her hair, anoints him with expensive ointment. What did she think she was doing? How embarrassing this incident must have been, flying in the face of every social convention. To be fair to her though, we are told she was a woman with a reputation. So really speaking, she had nothing to lose.

Any decent man would have been outraged at her behaviour. Not Jesus. He colludes with the behaviour, and embarrasses His host by so doing.

But at this point an interesting twist takes place. Just as Simon is thinking to himself, "Doesn't Jesus know what kind of woman she is?," Jesus tells a story which shows he most certainly does. And that he can read his host like a book too.
It's interesting that while this story appears in all the gospels, only Luke reports it emphasizing its social implications. Luke was a pretty classy man – in the same social league as the Pharisees. So - good for him for facing up to those demons by giving his version this slant!

Maybe it reminded him - and in turn reminds us - that God's care, love and forgiveness is for everyone - without distinction, though not always equally.

All are forgiven, but not all are forgiven equally, because some have greater debts, and God's forgiveness is absolute, and complete, without reservation. And never with a hidden catch.

So it means that my debts are forgiven, but also that someone else's much larger debt is also totally forgiven.

This was the good news: that one of the marks of the new community of those who followed Jesus, that God's hospitality is extended to all without distinction or preferment, male or female, black or white, gay or straight, smart or slow, rich or poor. It makes us wonder what our churches would be like today if we could fully live this hospitality without distinction or preferment.

And since the gospel story is about facing up to self righteousness – let's make ourselves squirm by asking who do we identify with in it? The choice is: are we Simon the Pharisee finding fault in others all too easily? Are we super-critical and intolerant of the faults of our husband or wife, our kids, our in-laws, our friends, that work colleague we try to avoid, that person who always disagrees with us? Do we look across the congregation and with a sense of superiority in our hearts magnify the faults of others and minimize our own? Is that who we are - judgmental of other people and their faults?

Or are we like the woman who knows her sinfulness, and comes to Jesus saying, “Lord, I have faults. Would you forgive me and help me to change?” This woman loved Jesus because he forgave her and healed her, and God wants us to do the same.

The key to the story is in the line that Jesus speaks to Simon while he looks at the woman. He turns to Simon, and says “Her sins are many and they have been forgiven therefore she has great compassion.”

The truth is that if your sins have been forgiven you then have great compassion. Great compassion for all imperfect people like your husband, your wife, your kids, your in-laws, your friends, for people with alternative lifestyles, for people on the margins of society who you might struggle to love or be kind to. Jesus makes this connection and so must we!

And by the way, this isn't the first time Jesus challenged the Establishment. Remember how the Pharisees brought in a woman to Jesus, threw her on the floor and said she had been caught in the act of adultery? What was Jesus going to do about it? Jesus kept looking at the ground where he was doodling with a stick. Eyes fixed on the ground, he said to the Pharisees, “Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone.” When he looked up, everyone was gone. Jesus then said to the woman, “Go, your sins have been forgiven.”

Maybe the woman caught in adultery was the same woman in our story today. Jesus had saved her life, because as an adulteress she could have been stoned to death. In appreciation for saving her life, she showed up at Simon the Pharisee’s house, and did what she did. What these episodes show us is a woman’s profound capacity for love and for faith. By contrast, Simon the Pharisee is shown to be hostile to Jesus, failing to offer him the basic courtesies of hospitality. His shortcoming is revealed by the person who has supplied what was lacking, as Jesus points out to Simon: “You gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears”

This woman of today's gospel has much to teach us about what needs to happen in us, so that we too will love Jesus as we should. You certainly wouldn't have had to ask her if she loved Jesus. You would have been able to see her love for Him very plainly — in her actions toward Him.

So let's ask ourselves now - do we love Jesus? Do others only know this because you tell them? Or can they plainly see your love for Jesus in your actions in His name.

AMEN

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