Anyone who complains that the church’s worship is too heady
and needs to be more sensuous and emotional ought to be invited to come this
day. What could be more intimate than bathing and kissing feet? What could be
more emotional than a confrontation between a self-righteous religious leader
and a woman who knows her place as a shunned human being with Jesus defending
her in the presence of a meal with a bunch of men?
Luke 7:36 – 8:3
As with the Old Testament reading
for today, this reading also confronts us with matters of justice and truth as
being matters of the heart. Our word can free us and our word can convict us. A
meal in the house of Simon the Pharisee turns into a lesson about grace and
forgiveness as opposed to Law and tradition. Hypocrisy is noted especially, as
we see the irony in a Pharisee who is well-versed in Law and tradition pointing
out the sins of the woman anointing Jesus, yet risking his own reputation in
poor hospitality—which Jesus brings to his attention.
From the Pharisee's point of view,
he encounters an interruption at a meal, a breach of propriety, and the
opportunity to discredit Jesus as a prophet. Jesus comes invited, while the
woman sinner does not. However, she has heard of Jesus' deeds and wishes to
honor him, which the Pharisee views with disdain; her actions of letting her
hair down and anointing his bare feet could have been interpreted as sexual
advances. While he is thinking that Jesus is no saint, much less a prophet,
Jesus challenges Simon on his own lack of hospitality. From Jesus' point of
view, the woman has been loving and is forgiven, and her faith—not the Law—has
saved her. – Sky McCracken
2 Samuel 11:26 –
12:10, 13-15
Looking at the Old Testament and Gospel stories with
an eye to seeing what is common in them, we find different parallels. Both
David, in this story, and the woman with the alabaster jar, in the Luke story,
are judged by others – whether rightly or wrongly. Nathan charges David with the
sin of having Uriah killed so that David could have Bathsheba to himself. Simon
the Pharisee calls the woman who honors Jesus a sinner.
Both repent of their sin. David repents in words; the
woman, by her costly gift and obvious care for Jesus, even though we have no
idea whether Simon’s condemnation of the woman is fair. Nameless as she and so
many women are in scripture, we know only her honor for Jesus, not her story.
Another similarity in the stories: David dismisses
Uriah and fails to “see” Bathsheba just as Simon dismisses and doesn’t “see”
the woman with the ointment. David assumes that Bathsheba can be used as a tool
for his purposes. Simon and friends judge the woman as unworthy to be in their
presence.
In both stories, the women do not factor as human
agents equal to the men. This is a portrait of the relationship between men and
women even in our time in which the roles of women are determined in many
cultures (including our own) by the so-called “religious” convictions of men.
The dismissal and failure to “see” others can be
extended quite easily to include all those, as an old prayer puts it, we “can
easily forget.” Name the people in your community who are dismissed, believed
to be unworthy, and generally unseen. Those are the people Nathan and Jesus
defend.
Galatians 2:15-21
The Epistle echoes the readings in Luke and 2 Samuel with
regard to debates in the church over who is acceptable and who is not.
Paul and Peter find themselves at
odds with each other over distinctions regarding righteousness, faithfulness,
and cultural background (in this case, Jews vs. gentiles). Are Jews and
gentiles going to have to sit at different tables when dining? Are there going
to be circumcised and uncircumcised Christians? Paul addresses this gracefully
and logically: it is not the works of the law that justify us, it is our faith
in Christ that justifies us.
Verse 19 reminds us of our baptism
and of being crucified with Christ, and this is perhaps the key to
understanding this pericope exegetically and sacramentally: when we die to
self, we put on Christ and by doing so we fulfill the law and put it to death
instead of becoming slaves to it. To be a slave to the law is to nullify the
grace of God. – Sky McCracken
Considering Paul’s theology in light of the story in Luke,
we are given a question to ponder:
Justification by faith rather than
works is one of the pillars of Paul's theology. While Jesus is visiting the
house of a Pharisee, a woman described as a sinner brings a jar of ointment and
“began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she
continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment.” Jesus
forgives her for her sin and explains that her love is an expression of her
gratitude. How is Paul's teaching about justification by faith a paraphrase of
Jesus' own words? – Ian A. Curran
Sky McCracken
is a United Methodist Church pastor and District Superintendent in Paducah,
Kentucky. His blog is at revdsky.blogspot.com.
Ian A. Curran, PhD,
teaches World Religions at George Gwinnett College, Lawrenceville, Georgia.
Homily Service 43, no. 3 (2010): 23-31.
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