"Your sins are forgiven"
Luke 7: 36-50
Sin and forgiveness are the heart of the Christian Gospel. This Thursday's beautiful Gospel story by the wonderful story teller Luke the Evangelist (author of Gospel of Luke), reveals a beautifully human and divine presence of Jesus' the healer of souls.
Picture the scene: beyond all social and religious convention Jesus once again breaks the barriers of prejudice and social order. Though a respected rabbi, he breaks down the barrier between himself and a woman. She is not only a woman but a "sinful" woman. It is not explained what sort of sin is referred to but it is popularly understood likely a prostitute, and a well known one. That in itself would be scandalous enough. This was the home of a "certain Pharisee." How and why did she get in there unnoticed?
So, she approaches Jesus not seeking another "client" but rather with a heart full of repentance. Whether it was his teaching she heard or was somehow moved to this profound moment, she offers Jesus the customs of hospitality that were denied him by his own hosts. She washes his feet, dries them, she touches him. Yet, she does so with her tears and anoints his feet with olive oil in respect for his position and continually kisses his feet as a sign of her sorrow.
All of this might be seen as seductive play yet Jesus well knows her desire is far more personal and based in an acknowledgement of her"many sins. She is moved to tears with repentance and without words seeks forgiveness of God and conversion. Our Lord uses this moment for two purposes: to illustrate the higher moral code of mercy to his guests and to extend forgiveness and a new life to the woman.
Where would we be if Jesus had simply dismissed the woman outright? Or given in to the social prejudices of his time and brushed off the woman's advances? Yet, to show that the heart of the Gospel is Mercy, he extends such to the woman because of her great love expressed to him. A love that is not acted out in lust but rather a love that comes humbly before Our Lord in both deep respect and self loathing. She does not despair, however, but recognizes how her life of "many sins" was leading her to a dead end and her only way to hope was in and through God's mercy. She actively sought out the one who could extend such mercy to her and clearly wanted to receive it.
The words of Jesus are compelling for all of us: "So I tell you her many sins are forgiven; hence, she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, love little. He said to her, 'your sins are forgiven.'" The one who loves the Lord much will in turn receive abundant mercy.
The heart of the Christian Gospel and the heart of God himself is to seek hi mercy above all else. To say that God is otherwise or to despair of our sin or to stubbornly refuse to seek forgiveness and to persist in sin in a kind of blasphemy against the Lord. He wants to forgive us; he wants to offer conversion and he seeks to have us with him for eternity. What more could we possibly want for ourselves than God's love?
Was this the last Jesus saw of this woman? I would suspect not. Tradition tags her as Mary Magdalene, the first to witness the risen Christ and become the apostle to the Apostles as she announced to them that "he is risen!"
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