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'Jesus annointed by a sinful woman' - A sermon given by our Reader, Peter Kane |
This is an interesting story! It has real punch, but we read it so casually that we don't hear the punch.
Jesus forgives the sinful woman and criticizes the Pharisee, and we aren't surprised at all. For one thing, when we hear the word, "Pharisee", we think, "bad guy!" but the Pharisees were not bad guys. They were the best, not the worst. They devoted their lives to doing God's will. They studied the scriptures carefully. They were scrupulous to obey God in every way, and they encouraged other people to do the same. It would not be far off the mark to compare the Pharisees to Sunday school teachers. The Pharisees were the best of the best.
Try to imagine, then, how Simon the Pharisee saw this encounter with Jesus. Simon had invited Jesus to his home for dinner. That was quite an honour! Simon did not invite just anyone for dinner. Simon held an important place in the community, he invited important people. It wasn't clear yet that Jesus was an important person. He had attracted lots of attention but he might be just a rabble rouser. Simon invited Jesus to dinner to get a better look. People were calling Jesus a great prophet - and Simon wanted to see if that was true.
But a disturbing thing happened at dinner. A woman - a woman known to be a sinner - had been in the crowd that surrounded the invited guests. She pushed her way through the crowd and went to Jesus as he reclined on pillows beside the food. She had begun to weep and had washed Jesus' feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. She had perfumed his feet and had kissed them.
That was bad enough, but Jesus did something even worse. He seemed to tolerate both this woman and her unseemly behaviour. As far as Simon was concerned, that told the story - Jesus could not be a prophet. If he were a prophet he would know what kind of woman this was. If a prophet he would cut her down with that quick tongue of his. If he were a prophet he would send this woman packing.
We have read this story so many times that we are no longer surprised that the woman wept and acted as she did - things like that happened to Jesus, didn't they?
But stop and think for a moment. If you are a man, how would you feel if a strange woman came to you weeping? How would you feel if she started washing your feet with her tears and wiping them with her hair? How would you feel if she started kissing your feet? Most men would be embarrassed, mortified! And most, but not all, would run away as fast as their feet could take them.
If you are a woman, imagine how you would feel if another woman came to your husband weeping and begant to wash his feet with her tears and wipe them with her hair? Would it bother you to see another woman kissing your husbands feet? Would you wonder what had been going on?
Or, as a woman, going to a man, weeping and washing his feet with your tears and letting down your hair to wipe his feet? Can you imagine kissing a man's feet - a man whom you really did not know well? In public?
Or imagine having a dinner party at your home and having an incident like this take place? A woman knocking on your door and going, weeping, to one of your guests? Then her washing his feet with her tears and wiping them with her hair - in your dining room - at your table? And then the woman kissing his feet and all the time the man acting as if nothing untoward has happened?
Now can you understand how Simon the Pharisee might have been more than a little upset? How embarrassed he must have been? How this pillar of the synagogue must have felt, having this shameful woman disrupt his dinner party? You can imagine his shock turning to disgust as Jesus failed to push this sinful woman away.
There are, you see, surprises in this story! And the surprises are important! In fact they are the key to understanding it! Unless we uncover the surprises of this story, we cannot understand what it has to say to us. We cannot understand how Christ directs us to change our lives. We cannot understand what Christ demands of us.
This story is surprising, because a woman accosted Jesus in a way that could easily be misunderstood - and Jesus not only tolerated her, he welcomed her. He rewarded her. He forgave her.
This story is surprising because Jesus lifted up the bad woman and slapped down the good man. Don't forget that Simon was a good man. Everyone makes mistakes, but it is said that Simon made fewer than most. Everyone sins, but Simon sinned less than most.
But as good as he was, Simon did not care about the sinful woman. To Simon she was only an intruder and an embarrassment. Simon could not see in her the image of God. She was a sinner, and that was that. Because of that, Simon could not love her and could not imagine that God could love her.
Simon's eyes were clouded to the possibilities in this woman. He was not sure what the woman's tears meant, but he never considered that they just might be tears of repentance and gratitude. He never imagined that they might represent the beginning of a new life for her.
Simon could only see the obvious in people. He could see the good only in people like himself - achievers - doers - pillars of the community. He could see the possibilities in the rabbi's son. He might be able to see the possibilities in Jesus. That was what this dinner was about, after all. He needed to take a closer look at this young prophet who had impressed so many people. Maybe, just maybe, this Jesus might have possibilities.
The woman was another story, of course. She was a sinner, and she knew it. She needed forgiveness, and she knew it. God alone could meet her needs, and she knew it. She came to jesus because he offered a new start. She came to Jesus because he offered hope to the hopeless. Jesus responded by saying, "Your sins are forgiven".
Jesus did not tell Simon that his sins were forgiven. Simon would have asked, "What sins?" But Simon was a sinner too. The real difference between the woman and Simon was that the woman desperately sought mercy. Simon didn't realise that he needed mercy.
That speaks to us today - those of us who attend church regularly - those of us who have sent our children to Sunday school - those of us who support the church financially - those of us who serve on PCCs and other committees - those of us who read our bibles and pray. We all need God's mercy.
This story speaks to us when we see people that don't come up to the standard we consider to be normal, right and proper - don't attend church, in trouble with the police, pubbing it every night. God loves them, and he asks us to reach out to them as agents of God's mercy. So we all need to look at the story and the characters in it and try to see who we are like, how we would treat the woman.
Are we, as an individual, judgemental - someone who magnifies the sins of family, friends, people at work, people who have different points of view? When we recognise this in ourselves, there is held out the chance to change and become different, just like the woman in the story. Nobody who opens themselves to Jesus is rejected; everybody is offered the opportunity to go away a changed person. Amen.