Sermon from 4th March 2007
Sermon by one of our Lay Readers, Trevor Tayleur, based on the reading from Luke 7: 36-50
Jesus’ Bad Table Manners How would we feel if we were visiting someone for dinner, and in the middle of the meal, completely out of the blue, a prostitute unexpectedly gate-crashed the gathering, and then went on to make a complete spectacle of herself? I suspect that I would find it a shock to the system, and difficult to handle. My reaction might well be a bit like that of Simon the Pharisee when his party was gate-crashed by a prostitute. Apart from Jesus, there are two main characters in our passage, the unnamed woman and Simon the Pharisee, and we’ll look at them in turn. While many Pharisees were totally opposed to Jesus, some, such as Simon, were willing to give him a fair hearing. He had probably heard rumours that Jesus was a prophet, as Jesus had been making a huge impact with all the preaching and healing he had been doing. So Simon wanted to see Jesus for himself and find out whether or not Jesus was a prophet. And when the woman appeared on the scene, he thought he had discovered the answer. Jesus couldn’t be a prophet because he hadn’t realised what sort of woman she was. But Simon was wrong, doubly wrong. Jesus did know what she had been, but he also knew what she had become – a forgiven sinner. And what’s more, Jesus knew what Simon had been thinking! And so Jesus corrected Simon’s wrong understanding of the position. He told a parable, a short story about two men who owed money, one 500 denarii, the other 50. (A denarius was worth about a day’s wages.) Neither of them could pay back their debts, and so the money-lender let them off. You don’t need to be a genius to work out that the one who had been let off the most would love the most. But Simon rather grudgingly replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt cancelled.” Jesus agreed with Simon and then went on to apply the parable. He turned to the woman and asked Simon, “Do you see this woman?” At one level the answer seems obvious; of course Simon could see her. But at a deeper level I don’t think that Simon saw the woman. He looked at her and saw a sinner, a prostitute who had no place in respectable society. Jesus saw a person, a person who loved God and who had received forgiveness for her sins. Simon was an upright citizen, a pillar of society who knew how to behave properly. As for the woman, she was beyond the pale. But by the time Jesus had finished, it was clear that it was Simon who had behaved poorly, and it was the woman who had set an example for us to follow. It must have been an amazing scene. The woman had burst into Simon’s house intending, it seems, to anoint Jesus with some very expensive perfume. Perhaps her original plan had been to anoint Jesus’ head. But when she stood before Jesus she was so overcome with emotion that she cried, and Jesus’ feet were wet with her tears before she had even been able to open the jar. So what did she do? In the eyes of Simon, she made an even greater spectacle of herself. She let down her hair, something no decent woman would do in public, and wiped his feet with her hair, kissing them before she poured the perfume on. I think we would have found this behaviour extraordinary and totally over the top, let alone Simon; yet Jesus found it completely acceptable. So what had Simon done wrong? Why was it the woman who had got things right? We discover that Simon had been a poor host, and had committed a number of social errors. He had neglected to wash Jesus’ feet, a common courtesy to guests because sandaled feet could get very dusty. But the woman had washed Jesus’ feet with her tears. It was also a common courtesy to offer guests a kiss of greeting, and Simon hadn’t done so. But the woman had kissed his feet again and again. And thirdly Simon had provided no oil for Jesus’ head, another social error. Now oil was cheap, and Simon hadn’t even bothered with it. In contrast the woman had lavished Jesus’ feet with perfume which was very expensive! Back to the question Jesus asked at the end of his parable. Who loved the most? The one who was forgiven the most. And that is why the woman showed her love for Jesus in such an extravagant manner. Because she knew that she had received forgiveness, and Simon probably had never even realised that he needed forgiveness. The woman loved Jesus because she had faced up to her own sin and her need for forgiveness. Love for Jesus begins with a sense of sin. And this is a point that the passage clearly makes. Verses 37 and 39 tell us that she lived a “sinful life”. And the clear implication of this is that she had been a prostitute. In verse 47 Jesus said that “her many sins have been forgiven”. There’s no attempt to water down the fact that she was a sinful woman. And this is something which quite clearly she was conscious of. Her whole behaviour was marked by a deep conviction of sin, and a very real repentance. When she stood in front of Jesus, she wept. We don’t know how she came to this position of repentance; the passage doesn’t tell us. Perhaps she had met Jesus on another occasion, or heard him preach, and in repentance she decided to lead a new life. We can’t be sure how it happened, but we do know what happened, that she repented of her past life and responded in the way she did out of love for Jesus. Now I must admit that I do struggle a bit with this story. I’ve led a very conventional sort of life, and don’t have a dramatic conversion story. And for those of us who have lived outwardly respectable lives, I suspect it is sometimes harder to repent than for someone like the woman in our passage. Some of us may say, “If I’d been a prostitute, a violent criminal or drug dealer, then I would have a deep conviction of sin. But I haven’t behaved like that, and it’s hard to have that sense of sin.” But it’s not the case that the woman needed to be forgiven more than anyone else. Simon the Pharisee was equally in need of forgiveness, but his outward respectability blinded him to that need. I expect that he would have admitted that he wasn’t perfect; after all, nobody’s perfect. He would have admitted that he had committed some small sins, so he would have needed a little bit of forgiveness. But, in the words of Jesus, “…he who has been forgiven little loves little.” Our lives may have been more like Simon the Pharisee’s than the woman’s, but we need forgiveness just as much as the woman did. The woman didn’t need to be forgiven any more than Simon needed to be forgiven. But she realised she needed forgiveness, and Simon did not. In some ways, then, respectability can be a barrier, because we can delude ourselves that we are better than others, the prostitutes, the drug dealers and the armed criminals. There are some people who say that they don’t believe in Jesus as the Son of God, but try to live by his moral teaching, in particular the Sermon on the Mount. I rather suspect they haven’t taken in the full impact of the Sermon on the Mount, because it sets an impossibly high standard. To give you an example, I’ll quote just two verses from it, Luke 6:27-28; “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” We all fall short of that standard, and if we look inside ourselves, we’ll find pride, greed, selfishness, envy and a whole multitude of dark feelings. It’s not only outward behaviour that counts, but also what goes on inside us. This passage warns us that if our outward behaviour has appeared to be respectable, then we are less likely to see our need for God. On the other hand, it tells us that once we’ve realised our need for forgiveness and repentance, it doesn’t matter how bad our outward behaviour may have been. It doesn’t matter that society may totally condemn our actions. Whatever we may have done in the past, we can find forgiveness. Love for Jesus begins with an understanding and realisation of a sense of sin. But there’s a second aspect to the woman’s love for Jesus. Love for Jesus also flows from a sense of forgiveness. Otherwise we would have a massive guilt complex, and Christians would be depressed, morose and gloomy. In verse 47, Jesus said, “I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven – for she loved much.” Her love for Jesus came from a realisation of a great sense of forgiveness of her sins. Some of us may suffer from a sense of guilt. In the psychological world there are those who say that guilt has been overplayed and we must forget about it. But guilt is a very real thing, and the wonder of the Christian message is that there can be total and complete forgiveness. And that’s wonderful for the person who has a sense of sin. But for the person who doesn’t have a sense of sin, that doesn’t mean very much. The problem for some of us is that we are rather unmoved about this. We agree that the prostitute, drug dealer and gangster need forgiveness, but we think we’ve only done a few things wrong. It doesn’t mean that much to us, so we don't love Jesus that much. Our love for him is lukewarm. But the woman’s love for Jesus wasn’t lukewarm; it was extravagant and costly. Amongst the Jews it was considered a disgrace to undo her hair in public, but the woman couldn’t have cared less for what people thought. Yet so many of us are inhibited. We don’t want our friends or colleagues at work to think we’re fanatics, so we tone down our faith. But for the woman it was a costly thing. She bought expensive perfume, not cheap oil, to put on Jesus. She was willing to make a fool of herself in public to express her love. And love for Jesus will express itself in costliness, maybe in terms of vulnerability, or in terms of career, money, or where we live. Jesus turned the tables on Simon the Pharisee. He was a respectable, upright religious figure, but he didn’t appreciate God’s forgiving and generous love, even when it sat at his own table in the person of Jesus. He never realised his need for God’s love and forgiveness. In contrast, there’s the woman. She realised her need; she had a deep awareness and conviction of her sin, and this led to genuine repentance. This flowed over into wonder and joy at the forgiveness she received, and an extravagant love which expressed itself in costly sacrifice. Whose example are we going to follow? Let’s pray: Father, it’s very easy to think that we’re OK compared to other people, and that we only need a little bit of forgiveness. Help us fully to realise our need to repent and receive forgiveness, so that we can love you with our hearts and souls. Amen. [i] Sunday 4th March 2007
Jesus’ Bad Table Manners How would we feel if we were visiting someone for dinner, and in the middle of the meal, completely out of the blue, a prostitute unexpectedly gate-crashed the gathering, and then went on to make a complete spectacle of herself? I suspect that I would find it a shock to the system, and difficult to handle. My reaction might well be a bit like that of Simon the Pharisee when his party was gate-crashed by a prostitute. Apart from Jesus, there are two main characters in our passage, the unnamed woman and Simon the Pharisee, and we’ll look at them in turn. While many Pharisees were totally opposed to Jesus, some, such as Simon, were willing to give him a fair hearing. He had probably heard rumours that Jesus was a prophet, as Jesus had been making a huge impact with all the preaching and healing he had been doing. So Simon wanted to see Jesus for himself and find out whether or not Jesus was a prophet. And when the woman appeared on the scene, he thought he had discovered the answer. Jesus couldn’t be a prophet because he hadn’t realised what sort of woman she was. But Simon was wrong, doubly wrong. Jesus did know what she had been, but he also knew what she had become – a forgiven sinner. And what’s more, Jesus knew what Simon had been thinking! And so Jesus corrected Simon’s wrong understanding of the position. He told a parable, a short story about two men who owed money, one 500 denarii, the other 50. (A denarius was worth about a day’s wages.) Neither of them could pay back their debts, and so the money-lender let them off. You don’t need to be a genius to work out that the one who had been let off the most would love the most. But Simon rather grudgingly replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt cancelled.” Jesus agreed with Simon and then went on to apply the parable. He turned to the woman and asked Simon, “Do you see this woman?” At one level the answer seems obvious; of course Simon could see her. But at a deeper level I don’t think that Simon saw the woman. He looked at her and saw a sinner, a prostitute who had no place in respectable society. Jesus saw a person, a person who loved God and who had received forgiveness for her sins. Simon was an upright citizen, a pillar of society who knew how to behave properly. As for the woman, she was beyond the pale. But by the time Jesus had finished, it was clear that it was Simon who had behaved poorly, and it was the woman who had set an example for us to follow. It must have been an amazing scene. The woman had burst into Simon’s house intending, it seems, to anoint Jesus with some very expensive perfume. Perhaps her original plan had been to anoint Jesus’ head. But when she stood before Jesus she was so overcome with emotion that she cried, and Jesus’ feet were wet with her tears before she had even been able to open the jar. So what did she do? In the eyes of Simon, she made an even greater spectacle of herself. She let down her hair, something no decent woman would do in public, and wiped his feet with her hair, kissing them before she poured the perfume on. I think we would have found this behaviour extraordinary and totally over the top, let alone Simon; yet Jesus found it completely acceptable. So what had Simon done wrong? Why was it the woman who had got things right? We discover that Simon had been a poor host, and had committed a number of social errors. He had neglected to wash Jesus’ feet, a common courtesy to guests because sandaled feet could get very dusty. But the woman had washed Jesus’ feet with her tears. It was also a common courtesy to offer guests a kiss of greeting, and Simon hadn’t done so. But the woman had kissed his feet again and again. And thirdly Simon had provided no oil for Jesus’ head, another social error. Now oil was cheap, and Simon hadn’t even bothered with it. In contrast the woman had lavished Jesus’ feet with perfume which was very expensive! Back to the question Jesus asked at the end of his parable. Who loved the most? The one who was forgiven the most. And that is why the woman showed her love for Jesus in such an extravagant manner. Because she knew that she had received forgiveness, and Simon probably had never even realised that he needed forgiveness. The woman loved Jesus because she had faced up to her own sin and her need for forgiveness. Love for Jesus begins with a sense of sin. And this is a point that the passage clearly makes. Verses 37 and 39 tell us that she lived a “sinful life”. And the clear implication of this is that she had been a prostitute. In verse 47 Jesus said that “her many sins have been forgiven”. There’s no attempt to water down the fact that she was a sinful woman. And this is something which quite clearly she was conscious of. Her whole behaviour was marked by a deep conviction of sin, and a very real repentance. When she stood in front of Jesus, she wept. We don’t know how she came to this position of repentance; the passage doesn’t tell us. Perhaps she had met Jesus on another occasion, or heard him preach, and in repentance she decided to lead a new life. We can’t be sure how it happened, but we do know what happened, that she repented of her past life and responded in the way she did out of love for Jesus. Now I must admit that I do struggle a bit with this story. I’ve led a very conventional sort of life, and don’t have a dramatic conversion story. And for those of us who have lived outwardly respectable lives, I suspect it is sometimes harder to repent than for someone like the woman in our passage. Some of us may say, “If I’d been a prostitute, a violent criminal or drug dealer, then I would have a deep conviction of sin. But I haven’t behaved like that, and it’s hard to have that sense of sin.” But it’s not the case that the woman needed to be forgiven more than anyone else. Simon the Pharisee was equally in need of forgiveness, but his outward respectability blinded him to that need. I expect that he would have admitted that he wasn’t perfect; after all, nobody’s perfect. He would have admitted that he had committed some small sins, so he would have needed a little bit of forgiveness. But, in the words of Jesus, “…he who has been forgiven little loves little.” Our lives may have been more like Simon the Pharisee’s than the woman’s, but we need forgiveness just as much as the woman did. The woman didn’t need to be forgiven any more than Simon needed to be forgiven. But she realised she needed forgiveness, and Simon did not. In some ways, then, respectability can be a barrier, because we can delude ourselves that we are better than others, the prostitutes, the drug dealers and the armed criminals. There are some people who say that they don’t believe in Jesus as the Son of God, but try to live by his moral teaching, in particular the Sermon on the Mount. I rather suspect they haven’t taken in the full impact of the Sermon on the Mount, because it sets an impossibly high standard. To give you an example, I’ll quote just two verses from it, Luke 6:27-28; “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” We all fall short of that standard, and if we look inside ourselves, we’ll find pride, greed, selfishness, envy and a whole multitude of dark feelings. It’s not only outward behaviour that counts, but also what goes on inside us. This passage warns us that if our outward behaviour has appeared to be respectable, then we are less likely to see our need for God. On the other hand, it tells us that once we’ve realised our need for forgiveness and repentance, it doesn’t matter how bad our outward behaviour may have been. It doesn’t matter that society may totally condemn our actions. Whatever we may have done in the past, we can find forgiveness. Love for Jesus begins with an understanding and realisation of a sense of sin. But there’s a second aspect to the woman’s love for Jesus. Love for Jesus also flows from a sense of forgiveness. Otherwise we would have a massive guilt complex, and Christians would be depressed, morose and gloomy. In verse 47, Jesus said, “I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven – for she loved much.” Her love for Jesus came from a realisation of a great sense of forgiveness of her sins. Some of us may suffer from a sense of guilt. In the psychological world there are those who say that guilt has been overplayed and we must forget about it. But guilt is a very real thing, and the wonder of the Christian message is that there can be total and complete forgiveness. And that’s wonderful for the person who has a sense of sin. But for the person who doesn’t have a sense of sin, that doesn’t mean very much. The problem for some of us is that we are rather unmoved about this. We agree that the prostitute, drug dealer and gangster need forgiveness, but we think we’ve only done a few things wrong. It doesn’t mean that much to us, so we don't love Jesus that much. Our love for him is lukewarm. But the woman’s love for Jesus wasn’t lukewarm; it was extravagant and costly. Amongst the Jews it was considered a disgrace to undo her hair in public, but the woman couldn’t have cared less for what people thought. Yet so many of us are inhibited. We don’t want our friends or colleagues at work to think we’re fanatics, so we tone down our faith. But for the woman it was a costly thing. She bought expensive perfume, not cheap oil, to put on Jesus. She was willing to make a fool of herself in public to express her love. And love for Jesus will express itself in costliness, maybe in terms of vulnerability, or in terms of career, money, or where we live. Jesus turned the tables on Simon the Pharisee. He was a respectable, upright religious figure, but he didn’t appreciate God’s forgiving and generous love, even when it sat at his own table in the person of Jesus. He never realised his need for God’s love and forgiveness. In contrast, there’s the woman. She realised her need; she had a deep awareness and conviction of her sin, and this led to genuine repentance. This flowed over into wonder and joy at the forgiveness she received, and an extravagant love which expressed itself in costly sacrifice. Whose example are we going to follow? Let’s pray: Father, it’s very easy to think that we’re OK compared to other people, and that we only need a little bit of forgiveness. Help us fully to realise our need to repent and receive forgiveness, so that we can love you with our hearts and souls. Amen. [i] Sunday 4th March 2007
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