“Forgiven at Jesus’s Feet” Luke 7: 36-50

 If I asked you to tell me the Christmas story, what would you say? Probably you would tell the story of Mary and Joseph traveling to Bethlehem. Mary gave birth in a stable to the Christ child. There were angels. Shepherds. Wise Men from afar. But if I asked you to tell me which parts of the story you just recalled were from the Gospel of Matthew and which were from the Gospel of Luke, would you be able to do it? 

The truth is, that we take Biblical accounts that appear in the different gospels and we weave them together in our mind to the point where we can’t tell one part from the other. But sometimes its important to step back and examine the particularities in a Gospel’s account of a story to see what the Spirit may speaking into our hearts.

Another example. If I asked you to tell me the story of the woman who anointed Jesus’s feet what would you say? Probably something about the woman who washed Jesus’s feet with her tears, who dried them with her hair, and used a very expensive perfume to anoint them all pointing to Jesus’s death. The only problem is that this weaves together all four Gospels. Today let’s step back and simply look at Luke’s telling. 

Simon was one of the pharisees. For an unknown reason he invited Jesus to be a guest at his table. But once he arrived there he was shocked to find that what people had been murmuring about Jesus - that he was a friend to tax collectors and sinners - came true right in his very home. A woman who was known to be a sinner around the city came right into his home and started to perform this ritual for Jesus.

She was crying, using her tears to wet Jesus’s feet and then she dried them with her hair. She kissed his feet and put ointment that she brought with her on them. 

All the while, Simon is looking on and says within his own heart and mind that there is no way that Jesus is really a prophet like everyone was saying. Because if he was a prophet he would surely know what type of woman was touching him and he would flee the other way, just like anyone else of good moral standing. 

Only Jesus surprised Simon by able to spot and name what he was saying in the secret places of his heart. He posed this question about who would be more grateful for being forgiven a debt - someone who owed a lot or someone who owed a little. Then Jesus connected that debt with the sin of those before him and the forgiveness that God offers, before telling the woman to go, for her faith had saved her.

The week after Christmas we heard of Mary and Joseph’s encounter with Simeon and Anna at the temple. Simeon, an older man who had been promised that he would see the Messiah before he died, had this profound prophecy to offer to Mary. Part of what he said about Jesus was, “be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed”. Now here in Luke, chapter 7, we see his statement coming to pass - as Jesus looked into the hearts of those around him. 

As I was reading and re-reading this text the question that kept coming to my mind was, what would Jesus see if he looked into my heart today? Into your heart? Into the hearts of those around you?

We live in a world that likes to put things into neat categories. You are either a sinner or a saint. Good or bad. But that’s not quite how it works in reality. In the everydayness, we all do good things and bad things. And even if we are forgiven by Jesus, and would be considered part of the Saints, we still struggle with sin. 

But Simon, he wants to do what every one of us wants to do, and put people into boxes. He wants to use his own lens and the words of others to help him define exactly who people are. And in his day and time, as in ours, those categories are often determined by morals. So here is this woman whom he would never invite into his home because of how he judged her and labeled her, and she comes right on in following Jesus. Simon is astounded. But his good manners keep him from saying any of that out loud. So he just judged her (and Jesus) in the quietness of his mind and heart.

Only Jesus could see right on in there. He could tell what Simon was thinking and feeling and he called him out on it. In fact, he does more than that - he says, see this woman who you think is immoral, she is a better host then you have been. 

Ouch! That was an insult that would truly hurt during this day and time. People prided themselves on being a good host. On appearing to others to be the best type of host - who provided water to wash the dust off your feet, a kiss of welcome, and oil for the head. Only Simon didn’t give any of those things. He was so caught up in making the table perfect and how he looked to everyone else that he was a poor host at best.

But here is this woman who lavished upon Jesus all that Simon lacked. And Jesus was able to see in her heart, too. To see her desperation and desire for forgiveness. To see that there was something in Jesus’s life and ministry that touched her deeply. 

This woman lived out the words that we sing in Come Thou Fount of Every Blessings, “O to grace how great a debtor, daily I'm constrained to be! Let that grace now like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to Thee.” She knew all about judgement and hadn’t had much pardon in her life, yet here is this man, this teacher, this prophet, offering her forgiveness. And it changed her life.

Simon would have said that he had it all figured out. That he was morally pure. But in his heart of hearts, he didn’t really know anything about this type of forgiveness. Life changing forgiveness. Forgiveness that even can change the most bitter of our hearts. 

Because this woman was offered forgiveness, she showed great love. Because Simon was caught all up in outward appearances, he neglected his heart. 

The truth is we all have this woman and Simon inside of us. We are both sinner and saint. That’s one of the reasons we come together each week and pray the prayer of confession. Because we all need help. We all fall short. And if we truly see our hearts as Jesus sees them, it brings us to our knees. 

But we are also people who are changed by the love and forgiveness of our Savior. There is a deep connection between God’s love for us and the forgiveness we are offered, and the love we show to God in return. The adoration we offer to God alone. The way that we treat other people with the love that we have been shown.

Friends, I don’t know your heart. That’s between you and Jesus. But I do want to take time this day to ask Jesus to examine our hearts. To point out to us those places that we think we have kept hidden from everyone else and offer them to him, to forgive and to transform, so we can go out to love and love abundantly. Let us pray….