Sunday Inspiration: Sunday, September 15, 2024
(I am not preaching this weekend. Below is a sermon I preached in 2021)
A Scandalous Grace and a Rude Host
Feet, tears, perfume, hair, scandalous gratitude, and righteous rudeness. It is early in Jesus’ ministry, and he has been invited to dinner in the home of a pharisee named Simon.
The guests have arrived and taken their places. Jesus is reclining at his assigned place at the table as a guest. Unnamed and unwelcomed, a woman enters with a jar of alabaster. She is “a woman from the city, a sinner” (Luke 7:37).
Jesus doesn’t speak. And as far as we know, neither does the woman. But their actions speak volumes.
She approaches the table. Kneels behind Jesus. Let’s down her hair. Her tears rain down on his feet. She caresses them dry with her hair and kisses his feet. She opens her alabaster jar and pours the substance over his salty skin.
Simon, the host, is disgusted. He loathes not only the woman but Jesus, who tolerates her. “If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman is touching him. He would know that she is a sinner,” he says to himself (Luke 7:39).
Jesus knew her story. He describes her experience in the past tense. Jesus says, “Her many sins have been forgiven; so she has shown great love” (Luke 7:47). He had already forgiven her.
She comes to the table as forgiven, but Simon still holds her sins against her.
Do you want to know how big God’s love is? It’s bigger than you are comfortable with.
In her latest book, Grace (Eventually), Anne Lamott describes learning forgiveness lessons at the carpet store. She teaches Sunday School in her small church and one day bought a fifty-dollar carpet square for her classroom. She took the carpet home and unrolled it, only to discover it had a large patch of mold in the center.
When she returned the carpet, the bookkeeper was not at work, but she was promised that she would be refunded the money when she returned. When she returned the next day, the carpet store owner said that someone else had already picked up the money. Anne insisted that it was impossible. But the store owner replied, “Someone picked it up an hour ago.” She called her friends at the church, and no one had picked up the money.
So, Anne, in her Sunday School teacher’s voice, said, “I don’t want to make trouble. But no one picked up the money. I would like it. Now!”
The carpet store owner tapped his finger on the ledger and pointed to the one that said, “Fifty dollars.” Anne insisted, “That means nothing! I demand my money back!”
Things escalated. Voices got loud. Foul language was used. Finally, the owner wrote a check for fifty dollars. Feeling vindicated and self-righteous, Anne went to the bank to cash the check, only to discover that the account had insufficient funds.
“Now, what am I supposed to do?” she asked God. After a few minutes, she knew. She took the carpet guy some flowers, the bounced check, and a note that read: “I am so very sorry for how I behaved.”
Reflecting on the moment, she writes, “You want to know how big God’s love is? It’s bigger than you are comfortable with.”
Simon and his guest are discovering that truth for themselves. Simon, the pharisee, and Jesus, the religious teacher, are suddenly in the presence of a sinful woman. Fred Craddock writes, “One has an understanding of righteousness that causes him to distance himself from her; the other understands righteousness to mean moving toward her with forgiveness and a blessing of peace.”
With Jesus in the middle, the contrast is really between Simon and the sinful woman. We learn that Simon wasn’t very welcoming. Jesus says, “When I entered your home, you didn’t give me water for my feet…… You didn’t greet me with a kiss…… You didn’t anoint my head with oil.”
We aren't sure if Simon is a friend or a foe. Does he genuinely want to hear more of Jesus’ teaching? Or was he trying to trick Jesus? Regardless, he wasn’t a good host.
And then again, it is hard to be gracious when you don’t believe you need to be forgiven. Love is shallow, where grace is ignored.
Rev. Tom Long, a retired professor of preaching, tells about his experience with his brush with the law. He was pulling out of a gas station and had to cross four lanes of traffic to get into the left-turn lane. Before he could get across, the traffic stopped, and he was stuck between two lanes. The nose of his car was in one lane, and the tail of the car was in another lane. Suddenly, he saw blue lights in his rearview mirror. The policeman wrote him a ticket and said he had violated section 62.130 of the state code. “What is that?” Long asked. “Look it up,” said the police officer. So, Tom looked it up. And what he discovered was that he hadn’t broken any laws. He challenged the ticket and went to court.
As he walked into the courtroom with a two-inch-thick folder filled with papers, the judge called him to the bench to say, “The county no longer employs the officer who wrote your ticket. There is no one here to bear witness against you. You are free to go.”
Rev. Long says that he did not jump for joy. He showed no gratitude. Why? Because something inside of him wanted to scream: Wait! You can’t dismiss my case! I have a file folder that proves I am right.” Suddenly, Rev. Long had a revelation. What he saw clearly at that moment was that there was something inside of him that would “rather win the fight than be blessed by grace.”
Simon the Pharisee would rather be right and win his fight than be blessed by grace.
I don’t like Simon. He is arrogant, rude, self-righteous, and judgmental.
I like watching Jesus make Simon squirm and put his judgmental self in his place. “The one who is forgiven little loves little,” Jesus says (Luke 7: 47).
I like watching Simon’s face go red and seeing him embarrassed and humiliated until I realize that Jesus has gotten me. I am no better than Simon.
It doesn’t take me very long to realize that my judgmental and critical spirit has kept a person like the sinful woman away from the institution that has the resources to restore her. What she needs is a community of forgiven and forgiving sinners.
“Do you see this woman?” (Luke 7:44). There is a cost to seeing. It will force us to realize things about ourselves that we would rather not see.
Of course, Simon sees her. He has been judging the woman since she walked in. She is an embarrassment to his dinner party.
He isn’t blind. He’s filled with judgment. And yet, the judgment is making him blind. He doesn’t see her humanity, her extravagant generosity, and her capacity to show love. He doesn’t see her as forgiven. He only sees her as an object of his judgment.
Do you want to know how big God’s love is? It’s bigger than you are comfortable with. It is especially true when you would rather win the fight than be blessed by grace.
The woman walks away, hearing the words, “Your sins are forgiven….Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”
We don’t know what Simon walks away hearing. He drops out of the story. Has he changed? We don’t know.
There is a little Simon in all of us. So, you tell me, how do you see the woman?
The one who is forgiven little loves little.
What if we spent as much time being filled with grace like the sinful woman as we do judging like Simon? Imagine the difference our world would be.
There will be a time in your life when a woman like the one in our story comes along and simply says no to those who try to keep her away. She will say no to those who try to pull her back when she walks in the room, refuse to give her a seat at the table, and judge her instead of loving her.
She will say no because she has already heard Jesus say yes to her. She has heard the words of forgiveness; they have empowered her and given her back her identity and self-esteem.
And now she is ready to say, “Thank you!” She is prepared to show her gratitude.
What if we were the community where the forgiven gather to say, “Thank you,” and the ones longing for forgiveness hear the words, “You are forgiven?” Imagine being a church—not just any church, but one where grace has replaced judgment.
Imagine a church where Jesus was our guest, and we welcomed as his guests all whom he invited.
An old rabbi was once asked by his students how they could tell when the night had ended and the day had begun. “Could it be,” asked one of his students, “when you see an animal in the distance and can tell whether it is a sheep or a dog?” “No,” said the rabbi.
Another asked, “Is it when you can look at a tree in the distance and tell whether it’s a fig tree or a peach tree?” “No,” replied the rabbi.
“Then when is it,” the students insisted. “It is when you can look on the face of any man or woman and see that it is your brother or your sister. Because if you cannot see this, it is still night.”
The one who is forgiven little loves little. Let us love deeply because we have been forgiven wide. Amen.
Pastor Jamey
(Click Here to Watch the Worship Service from Gainesville First United Methodist Church, Gainesville, Georgia)
Questions to Consider:
How do you see the woman in the story? Can you see her humanity, generosity, and deep love for Jesus, or do you, like Simon, only see her past mistakes?
How does this story challenge your understanding of forgiveness and love?
How does judgment blind us from seeing others as God sees them?
Prayer:
Gracious God, may our hearts be filled with the extravagant gratitude that drove the woman to honor Jesus. Let us be a people of grace, welcoming all You have invited to Your table, knowing that we all need Your mercy. Help us be a community where the forgiven gather to say “Thank You” and those longing for forgiveness can hear the words, “You are forgiven.” Amen.
Benediction:
As you have been forgiven much, may you go and love much, sharing the peace and grace of Christ with all you encounter. Amen.
