Luke 7:36-50 (NIV) When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.” Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said. “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?” Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.” “You have judged correctly,” Jesus said. Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.” Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet.
Jesus directed His message and ministry toward the poor and the sinners, speaking an announcement about God’s love, of the Good News of God. The word Biblical writers use most often to describe this attitude of love toward the poor and sinners is compassion. The word speaks of sympathy for people and also a commitment to them.
Compassion was at the heart of Jesus’ teaching about God. Simon was a decent, respectable, educated man, but somewhere something got lost – a sense of indebtedness, or an awareness of being love. Something had been lost that closed his heart to the compassion of Jesus for the woman. Jesus names the key that the woman had discovered and that Simon had lost, the key that opened the door to God’s compassion. Her faith was believing that God cared enough about her to make her life different. Life could be better, so that even the home of a Pharisee was no longer off limits for her. Forgiveness was not a mere overlooking of sins as if they were not important, but a release from the stranglehold that sin had on her life. God cares enough about us to make our life different. Do you believe that? If you believe it, what are you doing about it?
From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope March 7, 1993
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles
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