1 Kings 21:1-10, 15-21
Psalm 5:1-8
Galatians 2:15-21
Luke 7:36-8:3
May the words of my mouth and the mediations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
Rules, I have been thinking a lot about rules lately. Two weeks ago in Sunday School I said that according to Genesis (by my reckoning at least), humanity began with one simple rule: “Don’t eat that.” Sure, there were chores; we were to tend the garden. We had responsibilities too; we were called to worship and be in community with God. But really, there was only one rule, “Don’t eat that.” So, how’d that work out for us?
Gradually, the number of rules increased. From one, we went to the Ten Commandments. Eventually those weren’t enough for an increasingly complex society. In the 3rd Century Rabbi Simlai, compiled a list of Mosaic Laws from the Torah. According to Rabbi Simlai there are 613 commandments or mitzvot, the Taryag Mitzvot.
The Taryag Mitzvot are separated into two categories, there are 248 mitzvot aseh, or positive commands, the things we are called to do. There are also 365 mitzvot lo taaseh, or negative commands, the things we are called never to do. As it happens, these numbers have cultural significance. According to Jewish tradition 248 corresponds to the number of bones and significant organs in the human body and 365 corresponds to the number of days in the year.[i]
Some of these rules make perfect sense to us today, things like, “Know there is a God,” “Know God is One,” and “Entertain thoughts of no other god except for the One True God.” We’re familiar with these rules. These are lessons Jesus teaches in the gospels. Then again, there are others we do not follow. For example, the Taryag Mitzvot includes the prohibition against eating non-kosher fish. Sorry, but I enjoy catfish and shrimp. Neither is kosher, but both are tasty. In fact, if someone brings either of these wrapped with bacon for your next potluck, I will make it my purpose in life to make sure you don’t have to worry about leftovers. Let’s face it, bacon isn’t kosher either, but my mouth is watering anyway.
Closer to home, the constitution of the United States of America is just over 4,600 words long. That is about the same number of words that we will hear in this worship service including everything except the announcements and the music. It may seem long, but as the foundation of a nation over 225 years old it’s relatively brief. In comparison, the current tax code, just one element of what is made allowable by the constitution, is between 55,000 and 60,000 pages long depending on who you ask. I saw those numbers and thought, “Really, there’s 5,000 pages of wiggle room?” There are more pages of wiggle room than there are words in the document that authorizes the code’s very existence.
Truly how can anybody really say they know the entire tax code when there is so much of it? The commentary and the compendium of case law increases the size of tax code beyond my imagination. This truth leads us to another: If you looked deeply enough into the tax code and into anybody’s taxes then you would be able to find a violation. There are just so many small and arcane laws that the slightest thing could slip you up. I don’t say this to scare you; I say this to prove a point. With enough law there is something to convict everyone.
How many laws does it take to reach this critical mass? I don’t know, but according to the Apostle Paul it’s below 613.
Paul told the Galatians “We who are Jews by birth know that a person is not justified by the works of the law.” Other translations say “a person is not justified through the faithfulness of the law.” Paul knows and tells all with ears to hear that there is no way the law can justify us. Hiding in those 613 Taryag Mitzvot, and of course the commentaries and the compendium of case law, hiding in there is something to trip us all. There is always something in the law to convict us all. Literally, if you try to be justified, found worthy in the eyes of God through the law, you will fail.
If you try to be worthy in the eyes of God through the law, you will fail. In the law we are all unworthy.
Seeking legal justification is a loser’s game. That’s why we need something different, something better. Something that does what the law can’t. So, as we transition to our reading from Luke let me ask you, who placed their faith in the Law of Moses and their ability to fulfill that law? That’s right, the Pharisees!
You can’t blame the Pharisees of any time and place for trying to justify themselves in the law. Few knew the law better. They knew what it took to be justified in the law and it worked well enough for them. They had the best seats in the synagogue. They were served first at banquets. Life was good and you can’t blame them if they are satisfied with the life society offers them.
So Simon the Pharisee knew there was a new rabbi in town and knew he was responsible for some pretty heady stuff. Having him over for dinner was an absolute coup!
In our reading Jesus came to Simon’s home for dinner. Dinners of this sort were held in semi-public areas of the home, so it was more like a banquet held at a street fair than in someone’s dining room. This public access allowed people who were not invited to come and go and scope out the host and the guests.
Between who was invited, who wasn’t invited, and the seating arrangements; folks would be able to see who’s who and what’s what without buying this week’s People magazine.
But this one particular woman did not fit in with Simon’s dinner plans. She was a woman of the city, a sinner to boot. Luke does not give us any indication of what her “sin” is, but the one thing we can tell is that the wages of sin must have paid pretty well. She was able to afford an alabaster jar of costly ointment. These items were not cheap, so whatever her sin was, it wasn’t mismanaging money.
While anyone would be able to drop in on the dinner party, she was not welcome. It is obvious by Simon’s reaction to her that she was a gate crasher, a woman flying solo who was not welcome at the party. Since she was not being accompanied by either a husband or male relative, that added another cultural no-no.
As the old saying goes, “In for a penny, in for a pound.” As long as her behavior was so scandalous, she went all the way. She wept so much that she was able to wash Jesus’ feet with her tears. Having no towel she washed his feet with her hair, then she anointed them with the costly perfume. The laundry list of cultural taboos she was breaking now included touching a man she is not related to and letting her hair down in public. Simon had enough of her appalling behavior. This was his party, and this sinner was not about to upstage the host.
Simon first says to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him—that she is a sinner.” If this Jesus was worth half of what everyone said about him, he would not allow himself to be defiled like this by this woman. This personal aside doesn’t get past Jesus though.
So Jesus tells Simon and the guests the one about the moneylender and the debtors. He begins, “A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he canceled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?”
Something everyone then would have known that we may not is that the normal living daily wage in that time was one denarius. If we lived in that time we also would have known that both of these debts would have been nearly impossible for a common worker to repay. The lesser debt would take two months of wages to repay and the greater about twenty.
Simon answers Jesus rightly: “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the greater debt will love him more.” It’s not that both won’t love the lender for forgiving their unrepayable debts, but the one with the greater debt will love more.
Jesus takes Simon’s words and declares, “Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven.” Then he says to the woman, “Your sins are forgiven.”
Jesus tells her that her sins are forgiven, but not because of what she’s done. The way we often see it, sinful people perform a great act of penance and generosity and then Jesus says “you are forgiven.” But that’s not what Jesus says. The key is found in the word hence.
Look at verse 47 again: “Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven.” Jesus says her sins are forgiven without any accounting of her actions at the banquet. She has sinned and her sins have been forgiven. Her actions at the banquet have nothing to do with gaining forgiveness. It is then that Jesus says, “Hence she has shown great love.”
Know this; Jesus demonstrates that her forgiveness does not lie in holy acts, but her virtue does. It is not virtue that leads to forgiveness, not at all. She anoints and kisses his feet not to receive forgiveness of sins but because she has received this glorious gracious gift. Jesus shares this truth with everyone at the banquet.
After the story, Jesus returns us to Simon’s internal narrative about the woman and against Jesus. Yes, I said that correctly, about the woman—against Jesus. Simon is no fan of the little gate crasher, but his thoughts accuse Jesus. Simon asks himself “What kind of prophet can this man be? I have heard such wondrous things about the great Jesus of Nazareth, but he allows himself to be handled by a sinful woman.”
In true Jesus’ style, he turns the table on his host. As important as table manners and banquet etiquette were in ancient Israel, hospitality codes older than Abraham were infinitely more important. Providing hospitality to his guests was Simon’s first responsibility.
Jesus reminds Simon when a guest is invited into the home, it is traditional to offer water to wash the feet. In a time and place where people wore sandals and shared the roads horses and livestock, washing the feet became a ritual. It was also proper to offer oil. In a time when Ivory soap was still more than1850 years on the horizon[ii] oil was used like soap. And the welcoming kiss was as ordinary as a handshake is to us today. Simon was not bothered to offer Jesus any of these things.
For a guy who knew how to live according to the Law, Simon the Pharisee wasn’t doing a very good job. He was fundamentally lacking in his responsibilities as a host and that was not right in the eyes of the law.
Jesus accuses Simon. Yes her sins are many, and his sins are also so vast than he could never hope to repay them by his own works. Just like the monetary debts, his sins are too abundant to repay. Just like the monetary debt, our sins are too abundant to repay too.
What Paul taught is so very important for us to remember: We are saved by grace through faith, not by any work that we could ever do. We are called to know that even if we are “good” by whatever measure, our sin is a debt too great to ever repay on our own. The Law will never justify, it will only convict. Yet through Jesus Christ we are forgiven. The law convicts, grace through faith in Christ redeems.
There are times in our lives when someone will say each of us is unworthy. One way or another we are found lacking, just not good enough. In the eyes of the law and in the eyes of those who use their own little metrics to measure us, we are deemed unworthy.
But let us remember, nothing the sinful woman could do earned her forgiveness. She is made worthy by Jesus alone. By Christ’s own nature she was made worthy. In forgiveness, in God’s grace accepted through faith, she responded by doing what the hoity-toity Pharisee would not. She responded to the forgiveness she received. She responded by serving the Lord God, Jesus the Christ. The Pharisee didn’t respond at all.
Let’s face it, Simon the Pharisee probably thought the sinful woman in the story was the “debtor of 200 denarii”. In the final analysis, he might well have been wrong about that too. The good news is that in Christ, by grace alone, that doesn’t matter anymore.
