Sermon preached at St. Alban's, Spirit Lake, on June 16 & 17, 2007
(Proper 6, Third Sunday after Pentecost, Year C, BCP Lectionary)
by the Rev. Carl D. Mann

Texts:   2 Samuel 11:26-12:10,13-15
Psalm 32
Galatians 2:11-21
Luke 7:36-50

It would be very easy to misinterpret today’s Gospel much as did one of its primary characters, Simon the Pharisee. And if we did then we would take away the wrong message.

As we have just read, Jesus has been invited into the house of Simon the Pharisee, to share a meal to which Jesus accepts. For trivia buffs, this is the first of three times in the Gospel of Luke that he eats with Pharisees. Now they didn’t have formal dining rooms such as we know them today. Guests gathered in an inner courtyard where it was cooler so one was inside of the structure but still out doors. There were no chairs or dining table but rather they gathered around the outside of a low table, what we would consider a coffee table. They would recline either on small couches or stacks of pillows, with their heads and arms toward the table and their feet trailing out behind them. The table was either round with a cutout section or U-shaped so that the servants could bring the food into the center without disturbing the guests. It was quite common that if an important guest was invited, such as an honored Rabbi, people off the street would come into the courtyard uninvited, not trying to eat but to hear what the important guest had to say. This is why it is no surprise that the woman with the alabaster jar happens into the scene.

What is surprising is that it is this particular woman. She is “a known sinner,” possibly a woman of ill repute. That being the case, by virtue of her lack of virtue, whomever she touches would be rendered ritually unclean. And in this instance, not only does she touch Jesus but she actually washes his feet with the tears streaming from her eyes, and then horror of horrors, she dries them with her hair. And when she is done, she begins to massage ointment into the cracks and calluses of his feet, kissing them as she proceeds. Now in Jesus’ day, it was most inappropriate for a woman to even show her hair in public let alone have it flowing loosely about. This type of behavior was very sexual in nature thus giving credence that she was a woman of loose morals.

Well this is too much for Simon the Pharisee. We can almost imagine his face scrunching up as he frowns, barely able to disguise his disdain for this woman or for his guest. He thinks to himself, “Well, this Jesus must not be such a big deal after all, and he surely isn’t a prophet because if he were then he would know what kind of woman it is that is performing all of these distasteful acts upon him.”

But Jesus, ever smooth and unaffected, having caught the look on Simon’s face, casually says, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And Simon, still recognizing the stature of his guest replies, “Rabbi, speak.” And then Jesus tells him a parable much like Nathan told King David after his adulterous affair with Bathsheeba and subsequent murder of her husband, Uriah. And the result is much the same, too, as Simon is convicted of his own sinfulness. In short, Simon was as guilty of breaking the laws of hospitality as the sinful woman was of breaking the laws of public impropriety.

However…and here’s where it pays to read the Scripture very carefully…in verse 47, Jesus says to Simon, “I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love.” “Her sins, which were many, have been forgiven.” The word “were” implies that she is no longer sinning. The phrase, “have been forgiven” is grammatically in the perfect tense, which implies a past action with continuing effect in the present. She is no longer the same person that Simon believed her to be.

Well, when did that happen? When were her sins forgiven? We don’t know for sure but it is obvious that this woman has had a previous encounter with Jesus that we haven’t read about and Simon hasn’t heard about it either. Or perhaps she is the woman that was caught in adultery and brought before Jesus by the Scribes and Pharisees. We just don’t know and it doesn’t matter. What matters is that when it did happen, she came to believe in Jesus’ message of repentance, her sins were forgiven and she is now in the process of amending her life. And the first action that she is doing is giving thanks and praise to her Lord and Master who has given her a second chance. Granted she is still a little rough around the edges judging by her alleged inappropriate pubic display of affection but is it really inappropriate under the circumstances? Wouldn’t we be equally exuberant in our adoration and praise for the person who just saved our lives? But it’s even more than that because Jesus didn’t just save her life; he radically transformed it. This transformation is just as radical as when Paul met the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus. Remember last week how God took Paul’s zeal for murdering Christians and transformed it into evangelizing Christians? It is the same thing here. This woman’s encounter with Jesus has allowed for her promiscuous behavior, that behavior which had previously separated her from God, to be transformed into loving and adoring gratitude, thus reconciling her with God. So when Jesus goes on to tell her in verse 48 that her sins are forgiven he is not forgiving her right then for the first time. He is not forgiving her again. Rather he is giving her assurance that her sins were indeed forgiven previously. If he were forgiving her right there at the table, he would have said, “You are forgiven” or “I forgive you” but no, he said, “Your sins are forgiven.”

When Jesus affirmed the woman’s forgiveness in the third person plural he was speaking to Simon the Pharisee. Simon was not yet aware of her new status as a forgiven sinner; he still regarded her as a sinner with whom a man of God ought not to associate. But Jesus affirms her new status for Simon’s sake so that he might realize her transformed condition and embrace her in the community of God’s people.

This is where it is easy to misinterpret this passage. On the surface, it appears that the woman is committing this marvelous work of love by washing Jesus feet, and as a result of this marvelous work of love, Jesus forgives her of her sins. But if we were to interpret the passage in this way it would imply that she had earned her forgiveness, and that would be a false teaching. There is absolutely nothing that we can do to earn God’s forgiveness. Our salvation is initiated by God not the other way around. Paul’s letter to the Romans tells us, “…God shows his love for us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” We were still doing the wrong thing when God decided that enough was enough. If we were to be reconciled to God then God was going to have to start the process and accomplish it, which he did through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Again Romans tells us, “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.”

At some point in time previous to this encounter, Jesus, the Incarnate Word of God, had forgiven this woman of her sins and by that God-initiated action, her life was transformed and she was now capable of expressing love in a God-given manner. And since her sins were in excess so now is her loving devotion.

And so it is with us. Without the knowledge and assurance of our salvation, our actions, no matter how well intentioned, are just empty motions. But when rooted in the Source of all that is good, our efforts take on a life of their own becoming good works…Godly works that witness to the Good News of God’s love and saving grace for each and every one of us who choose to believe in Jesus Christ as Lord. And it is through God’s steadfast faith and love that we are able to proclaim His truth with boldness and minister His justice with compassion to our community and beyond.

Gloria Patri