Be Aware or Beware!
a sermon based on Luke 7:36-8:3
by Rev. William O. Porter III.

            In most newspapers one can find a list of recent arrests and warrants.  It is a regular public list of shame.  Proper names are invoked accompanying a list of various crimes purported to have been committed.  Crimes ranging from criminal trespassing, drinking and driving, to grand theft and murder.  We may glance at this list from time to time out of morbid curiosity.  Do we know any of these people?  Do any of them work with us?  Live near us?  Go to our church?  Surely not.  Aren’t we better than these people?  We’ve never been in that kind of trouble.  Thank God our children have never been in that kind of trouble.  Kind of puts juniors C in algebra into perspective doesn’t it?

  Don’t we often think ourselves better than these criminals?  Wouldn’t we be ashamed to read a name on this arrest list from our social circle?  If you identify with this analysis be very careful because you may find yourself in league with the notorious Pharisee mentality found in the scriptures.  We exalt ourselves thinking that we are better than these people.  Jesus would gaze upon such a list quite differently.  After all, he came to serve and love such people as these.  Today’s scripture in Luke highlights this point quite vividly.  Jesus did not come for the righteous, but for the unrighteous.  Especially those people that we in society tend to write off as being too bad—to far gone to be redeemed.

  
            Just look at the cast of characters we have to examine in today’s Scripture.  Most prominently, of course, is Jesus.  He has accepted a dinner invitation at the home of Simon the Pharisee.  Now we know that most of the Pharisees were not avid supporters of Jesus.  We may marvel that Jesus would accept such an invitation which might possibly have hostile intentions toward him.  Then again, we know of the character of Jesus that he gladly comes into the lives of anyone who would invite him.  His posture is not that of one who is ‘guarded’.  He is reclined at the table.  He is relaxed. 

            Simon, a Pharisee had the privilege of entertaining Christ himself in his home.   To be a Pharisee was to hold a certain status in the community.  He was a religious leader who was well educated in the Jewish scriptures.  It can be assumed that he had the sacred words and laws in his head at least.  Whether or not he also possessed them in his heart is not certain.  No one can be sure what his motives might have been when he invited Jesus to dine with him.  It is just possible that he was a sympathizer and an admirer of Jesus.  However, the whole atmosphere of discourtesy makes that unlikely.  “You did not give me any water for my feet…You did not give me a kiss …You did not put oil on my head…(Luke 7:44-46)—these acts were considered proper etiquette toward an honored guest in their culture.  Maybe Simon had invited Jesus with the deliberate intention of enticing him into some word or action that could be used to form the basis of a charge against him.  Again it is not likely, because in verse 40 Simon gives Jesus the title ‘Rabbi’.  Perhaps Simon was a collector of celebrities.  Maybe with a half patronizing contempt he had invited this ‘prophet’ to have a meal with him.  I think that would explain the strange combination of a certain respect with the omission of the usual courtesies. 

                What of this uninvited guest who interrupts this supper?  What is her status quo?  She was a woman.  In this culture and time, to be a woman already put you on the bottom section of the social totem poll.  To be known as a sinful woman consequently put one at the very bottom of the social totem poll.   To enter the home of a Pharisee would have been challenging enough, but her actions upon entering are quite remarkable.  She had to know that the Pharisee would have been horrified that she would dare enter.  After all, she was a branded sinful woman.  To touch her would make him unclean.  However she is a woman on a mission.  Undeterred, she rushes in and throws herself at Jesus’ feet.  In her own way, she exercises the proper etiquette that Simon has nonchalantly omitted.  “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.  45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet.  46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet (Luke 7:44-46).  While she is doing all this, we are told that Simon is thinking that if Jesus was really a prophet he would not allow her to touch him.

            This story demonstrates a contrast between two attitudes of mind and heart.  Simon was conscious of no need and therefore felt no love toward Jesus.  The woman on the other hand, was conscious of nothing else than a clement need, and therefore was overwhelmed with love for Jesus, who could and would supply forgiveness.  Therefore, she received forgiveness (Luke 7:47). 

            If our lives have been changed by an experience of God’s grace we can never get over the fact that we have been forgiven.  God’s love, experienced in forgiveness, becomes the controlling force in our lives.  The gratitude of the forgiven is also the source of new life.  Ultimately that is what salvation is all about.  Such gratitude however, can not be forced or faked.  It requires absolute, transparent humility before God.  Simon remains emotionally controlled and guarded, yet this woman emerges before Jesus emotionally naked.  She bears her soul’s sorrow for her sins--for all the bad choices she has made.  She bears her shame boldly before Jesus and empties herself before him in faith.  Jesus sees…no Jesus feels the sincerity of her penitent heart and he answers her not with stern words of condemnation but with mercy, love, and forgiveness.

            I think sometimes we identify more with Simon the Pharisee than we might admit even to ourselves.  We live our lives mostly in compliance with the expectations of our society.  We haven’t done anything that bad, we may reason with ourselves.  We go to church, we go to work, we take care of our responsibilities.  I’m ok.  You’re ok.  Right?  Friends, let us not deceive ourselves.  We all fall short of Christian perfection.  For we all have sinned and we all must find our hope in Christ the crucified and risen Lord.  One of the deadliest spiritual traps we can fall into is self love.  When we take too much pride in our own accomplishments and social status--when we are so wrapped up in our own needs that we are blind to the needs of others.  When we begin to think that we are some how better than someone else…watch out!  Jesus says that whoever has been forgiven little, loves little.  When we regard ourselves too highly, we fail to see the need for our own forgiveness.  We inoculate ourselves from experiencing the grace that is there to be given if only we first recognize our own need for it, and then humble ourselves before Christ and ask for it.

            The one thing that shuts a person off from God is self-sufficiency.  And the strange thing is that the better a person is, the more he or she feels one’s own sin.  Could it be that the greatest of sins is to be oblivious to our own sin?  For if you are not conscious of your own sin, you feel no need to seek God’s saving grace.  That saving grace is our spiritual life force.  We can deceive ourselves, we can deceive other people, but God knows our sin and it is important that we know that we are sinners.  To know our sin and own our responsibility for our sin is crucial.  Such self honesty awakens the need within us for reconciliation with a loving merciful God.  Our sense of need will open the door to the forgiveness of God, because God is love, and love’s greatest glory is to be needed! 

            We all need the Lord.  We all must accept that our sin is just as ugly and repulsive as anyone else’s before our God.  Be aware that we all need forgiveness just as much as anyone else does.  The good news is that if we truly humble ourselves in sincere heart felt repentance, like this woman did in today’s passage, then we can receive forgiveness, mercy, and new life just like she did.  Recognize your sin.  Offer it to Jesus Christ who wants to cleanse your heart and soul and give you peace.  As I said before, the gratitude of the forgiven is also the source of new life.  That is what salvation is all about.  So let us bask in the free gift of love that is available to all people for the asking.  Let us consider ourselves no better than anyone else, that we might accept that we are all children of God and precious in God’s sight.  Amen.