When I
was first married we used to have time for dinner parties at weekends. One of
our friends seemed to have it all down to a fine art, children asleep upon
arrival, immaculate house, delicious food and carefully chosen guests.
Introductions
always bore this out, ‘Blogs the teacher meet Smith who’s just completing her
PhD or Jones the architect meet Patel the interior designer.’
Thoughtfully
organised events in a private setting where everything felt as if it were under
control.
It
wasn’t until I started reading up on today’s gospel that I realised how far
from such a setting Jesus visit to Simon the Pharisee’s house was. Forget any
ideas of a cosy meal in your dining room with carefully chosen guests.
It is
far more likely that the meal took place in the open courtyard of Simon’s home.
It was common place for doors to remain open allowing friends to join later but
also beggars and passers-by would join from time to time.
The
woman who seeks forgiveness is an uninvited guest. In a Jewish context, the
description of her as a ‘sinner’ would indicate someone who was not faithful to
God’s law, commentators commonly assume that she is a prostitute though this is
far from certain.
We
should question Simon’s motives for inviting Jesus to his house. Perhaps he was
genuinely interested to hear what Jesus was all about. Perhaps he wanted the
many people around his table to see that he dined with controversial and
topical figures, that he was important enough to mix with such people even if
he didn’t share their views.
Possibly
this backfired on him as the actions of the uninvited woman not only
highlighted Simon’s lack of hospitality as he failed to observe common customs
of cool water for hot dusty feet, a welcoming kiss of peace and some sweet smelling
oil but also demoted him in terms of importance as her actions made her centre
stage. It’s typical of the apparently topsy-turvy way that Jesus has come to
teach where those considered lowest are shown to have great value.
Simon
is too obsessed with the sins of the woman to consider that he may also need
forgiveness, something we can all be guilty of at times. It’s so easy to be
outraged by some wrong doing and focus our anger on that person that we fail to
consider that we also need to change our ways.
Just to
make Simon even angrier Jesus forgives the woman’s sins, at Simon's house in
front of many people, invited and uninvited. Those guests that shared Simon’s
view asked something like ‘who does he think he is declaring forgiveness of
sins.’
There’s
a sense in much of what Jesus was doing that he was called to be what the
temple should have been to the people. Tom Wright describes ‘his offer of
forgiveness, with no prior condition of temple worship or sacrifice, as the
equivalent of someone in our world offering, as a private individual, to issue
someone else with a passport or driving licence. His actions undermined the
established system and offered a new way forward based on incredibly generous standards
of love and forgiveness.
The
events challenge us in many ways.
Do we
dehumanise other individuals by focussing only on the aspect of their lives we
disagree with, judging them and lacking compassion rather than caring about the
person as a whole? In doing so we could be revealing our own limits on the
amount of forgiveness we believe is available from God.
Do we
only focus on sin which is public and visible without acknowledging private
weaknesses and shortcomings which contradict God’s kingdom? In doing so we fall
into the same trap as Simon the Pharisee.
Yet in
judging Simon we perpetuate events so we need to remind ourselves that we are
all sinners who need God’s forgiveness and that Jesus also wants us to spread
compassion and forgiveness among our communities.
In
Galatians Paul reminds us that righteousness is not something we are capable of
by our own efforts we can only edge close when we put Christ centre stage and
make his glory our motivation. Of course we will fail at times but that’s when
we need to have faith in the depth of God’s extraordinarily generous forgiveness
which frees us to say sorry and start all over again.
Amen
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