"SIMON AND THE SINFUL WOMAN"
Rev. Jim Petersen
First Congregational UCC  - Great Falls, Montana      
3-18-07
                     
Text:  Luke 7:36-50

Jesus is dining, again.  My apologies to those of you who are keeping a Lenten fast, I don't mean to keep putting it in your face, but Jesus is dining again, as he does frequently in the Gospels, and ever since long a tradition of preachers in search of a free meal.

Actually we are fine this Sunday, for this is the 4^th or middle Sunday of Lent, also known as, "Refreshment Sunday," where even the most disciplined is allowed to take a break and pig out.  So go ahead, double up on the cookies at coffee.

Jesus is dining, again.  This story is told in each of the four gospels, only with variations.  In Matthew and Mark's version, Jesus is dining with Simon the Leper in Bethany and the woman is unidentified.  In John's telling, this story takes place in Lazarus' home, also in Bethany, and the woman is identified, as Lazarus' sister, Mary.

But we are in Luke this morning, and, therefore, in the home of Simon the Pharisee in Galilee, and the woman, we are told, is a sinful woman, though not identified by name.  Needless to say, you are getting the "r" rated version today, as I shamelessly try to pump attendance.

So here we go. As Luke tells us..."One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and Jesus went into the Pharisees house and took his place at the table."

As mentioned, the Pharisee's name is Simon.  You might wonder why Jesus would dine with Simon. The fact is, Jesus often dined with Pharisees.  He came that all might have life, and have life abundantly, including Pharisees.

The better question is, why would the Pharisees dine with Jesus, for Jesus also ate with outcasts and sinners, thereby making himself unclean and therefore bad table company?  Well, I can tell you their purpose was not to serve Jesus a "happy meal." 

No, their purpose is not altruistic.  The setting is similar to our text of last week, the Parable of the Great Banquet, where the Pharisees sought to trick Jesus. Simon seeks to trap Jesus, that Jesus might be discredited in the eyes of those who are being attracted to him.  For this reason he is invited to Simon's, where we are told, "he takes his place at the table."

We can imagine the scene.  We are at a table in the center of an open courtyard.  The table is low, surrounded by couches, upon which the diners would recline, propping themselves up on their left elbow and eating with their right hand.  This was banquet style in Jesus' day.

It wasn't until later that the table and chair were introduced by the Hebrews into this Greek culture.  You might remember the one cute part in Mel's movie, The Passion, and the only cute part, where Mel has Jesus as a young carpenter inventing the table and chair, with Mary laughing at her son that it will never catch on.  Trust me, Jesus did not invent the table and chair.  It comes later.  Jesus is reclining with the Pharisees.

Jesus had been preaching that day in Simon's hometown of Nain, a few miles southwest of Nazareth in Galilee.  It would have been the custom of the day for the local religious leaders, Pharisees like Simon, to invite the visiting preacher to join them for a meal, that they might share in some spirited theological dialogue.

The banquet would have been a public affair.  Not that everyone would be invited to recline and eat, but everyone in the small town would know about this uptown banquet.  The gate to the courtyard would stand open, and lesser town folk would be permitted to enter in and stand at the periphery that they might overhear the scholarly conversation.  All the better to trick Jesus.

Enter a sinful woman, "having heard that Jesus was eating in the Pharisee's house..." And now we move to the edge of our seats.  We know what her sin is.  But the courtyard gate is open and she enters in with "an alabaster jar of ointment."  Where, instead of remaining at the outskirts of the circle, as was the custom for low-level lurkers, she comes forward and "stands behind Jesus at his feet."

Which, by the way, is the clue that Jesus is reclining.  He is not sitting on a chair, but reclining on a couch with his head toward the table and his feet exposed to the outside of the circle. Therefore the woman is standing "behind Jesus at his feet."

There the sinful woman weeps over Jesus, bathing his feet with her tears, wiping them dry with her hair, and anointing his feet with ointment.

Pray tell, what is going on here?  This sounds sort of gross to me, but then I'm not much of a foot guy.  Neither were they then.  In Biblical culture feet were considered unclean.  Which is why one dined reclined with one's head toward the table and one's feet as far from the table as possible.  Didn't want to contaminate the food with dirty feet.

However, something has gone on here in Simon's house that has set up our sinful woman's action.  You see, Simon has slighted his guest, we can guess not unintentionally.  The sinful woman is saving the day, or, better yet, showing the way.

Here's what's up.  The climate is hot.  The soil is dusty.  The footwear is sandals.  It was the elementary courtesy of the day that when you had a guest for dinner, your servant would meet them at the door, invite them to remove their dusty sandals, and bathe their hot, cracked, dirty feet with cool waters, both cleaning them and refreshing them for their meal.

Apparently this has not happened. Simon is not being polite to his guest.  This is not all.  Upon entering his home Simon should have greeted Jesus with a kiss. A humble kiss on the hand if he considered Jesus an honored guest, a rabbi to whom he extended deference.  But if not, Jesus should have at least received a back-slapping kiss on both cheeks.

Apparently this has not happened either.  Simon is not only being discourteous, he is being downright indecent to his guest.  Which follows therefore that he would not have extended the extra mile courtesy of anointing his guest's head with oil, really more of a cologne, as one would do if their guest was truly honored, anointing them as a king.

Simon, and the other Pharisees, do not greet Jesus as a king.  More to the point, even though they have invited him to be their guest, in a culture that is steeped with rules governing social courtesies and hospitality, they are rude to Jesus, rebuking and rebuffing him.

Nobody present, inner circle select or outer circle rejects, would miss this.  They all knew the rules, for they all had Jewish mothers.

Quite to the contrary is the "sinful woman."  She, too, has heard Jesus preach that day.  "Love your neighbor as yourself."  "Forgive your enemy."  "Whatsoever you do until the least of these you do unto me."  "Go, and sin no more."

She, too, has heard Jesus preach, and she has been touched, nay, transformed.  No longer an outcast, but a child of God.  No longer a sinner, but forgiven.  No longer trapped in prostitution, but blessed to new and abundant life.

Yes, you can bet she shows up amongst the back crowd at the banquet.  She is wearing an alabaster jar of ointment around her neck, a flask of perfume really, as women did in those day, especially women like her, to sweeten the scent and blossom the body. 

So the sinful woman steps forward, stands at the feet of Jesus, and greets Jesus in every way Simon did not.

First, she washes Jesus' feet.  Not in a basin of cool water, she doesn't have that, but with her tears.  Tears of penitence, and tears of joy, and perhaps tears of sorrow for the way Jesus is being treated in Simon the Pharisee's house.  She bathes and soothes Jesus' feet.

Having no towel either, she loosens his hair and dries his feet.  By the way, this scene would be sure to be included in the previews, for a woman to "let down her hair" was an intimate gesture.  In the Talmud, the Jewish interpretive book of law, it is written a man can divorce his wife if she lets down her hair in the presence of another man.  Proper women kept their hair up in public.  You can still see this today in some of the "bun people" religious sects.

The sinful woman "lets down her hair" in order to dry the feet of Jesus she has moistened with her tears.  This would not have gone unnoticed.  And you would not allow your children to watch this part of the movie.

Second, she kisses Jesus' feet.  Actually the Greek verb used here means she kissed Jesus feet "again and again." In other words, she smothers Jesus' feet with kisses.  The greeting Simon refused to offer.  Only in this case it is not a kiss on the hand or the cheek, both of which were up at the other end toward the table, but a kiss upon that unclean part of the anatomy, the sinful woman expressing her unworthiness and humility before the Lord.

And finally, the woman takes the precious perfume she wears around her neck and pours it upon Jesus' feet.  Anointing him, not upon his head that she would not presume to do, but again upon his feet, in a reverential gesture of homage.    We also presume she no longer has need of the perfume.

So it is the sinful woman greets Jesus in every way Simon has not. 

She greets him with reverence, not rudeness. 

She greets him with penitence, not piety. 

She greets him with humility, not haughtiness.

She greets him with generosity, not jealousy.

She greets him with devotion, not deception.

What is Simon, the host, to do?

Let's go back to the story.

"When the Pharisee saw this, he said to himself, ?If this man really were a prophet, he would know who this woman is who is touching him; he would know what kind of sinful life she lives."

I ask you, how is it Simon knows what kind of sinful life she lives?  Of course, Nain is a small town, I suppose everyone would know.  The point here is, Simon does not know who Jesus is.  Simon wants Jesus to be an appropriate holy man.  A righteous man did not allow the touch of a sinful woman.  She was sinful and shall be forever more, to be outcast and excluded from society.  There was no room for redeeming grace in the keeping of Simon's Law.  How sad.  Simon doesn't get it.

So Jesus tells simple Simon a parable, or that is, Jesus tells Simon a simple parable.  "There were two men who owed money to a lender.  One owed 500 silver coins, the other 50 silver coins.  Neither of them could pay him back, so the moneylender forgave the debt of both.  Which one, Simon, will love the lender more?"

Jesus, using the Socratic method of teaching, invites Simon to reason the parable out for himself.  Simon, a bit deficient in the human touch category, is more able with logic and rules, and answers,  "I suppose it would be the one who is forgiven more." Bingo!  The teaching moment Jesus is looking for.

So he turns to the woman and says to Simon, "Do you see this woman?  I came into your home, and you gave me no water for my feet, but she washed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. I came into your home, and you did not welcome me with a kiss, but she has not stopped kissing my feet since I first came in.  I came into your home and you provided no oil for my head, but she covered my feet with perfume.

I tell you, Simon, the great love she has shown proves that her sins, which were many, have been forgiven.  But whoever has been forgiven little shows little love, Simon."

A couple more cultural asides here and then I will wrap it up.  For Jesus, as a guest, to speak to his host in such a manner was unheard of.  No matter the host's hospitality, or lack thereof, it was unwritten law the guest would always be grateful for whatever he got, and never bring embarrassment to the host.  Jesus' saucy sermon here is way out of line.  I just thought you might like to know.

Second, Jesus is comparing Simon to a woman.  One never compared men to women in this patriarchal society, let alone a Pharisee to a sinful woman, where the point is she is the right one - and therefore forgiven - and he is the wrong one, and therefore not.  I tell you, the Pharisees at the table are speechless.  The crowd around the periphery is stunned.

As the Pharisees come to, they are heard to dither at the table, "Who is this who even forgives sins?"  The crowd, we presume, overhears Jesus say to the sinful woman, "Your faith has saved you, go in peace."  We presume the crowd overheard him for they continue to follow Jesus, while the Pharisees plot against him.

What of our Lenten lesson for today?

Seven points, one for each day of this next week.

1) Jesus reached out to everyone, both the sinners who stood outside the Law, and the Pharisees who stood at the center of the Law.  Jesus cared about them all.  How about you? 

2) That in a man's world our Lord would set forth a despised woman as a model of the faith, is to underscore the inherent worth not only of women but of all despised persons, who coincidentally are often the ones who really are forced to live by faith.  We should listen to them, and learn from them.

3) It really is faith by which we are saved.  Forgiveness is an unearned gift from God.  It is by faith we accept the gift, not our good works. 

4) That we do good works is our response to having first been loved    by God.  Doing good is the way we express our thanks to God for God having first graced us.  We do it joyfully, not out of debt.

5) That our acts of love can be extravagant, as in costly perfume poured out, and that our acts of love can be sacrificial, is to celebrate life in relationship to God, who, after all, poured out His Son for us.

6) When the love of God enters our life, there is no middle ground.  We either respond to God's love and commit ourselves to Christ's way, and in this way usher in the reign of God, or we do not respond to God's love and thereby we deny Christ's way, and we usher in darkness.  Either way, the world reflects our response.

7) All of which can be summed up in: One Great Hour of Sharing.

AMEN.