Folks Like Us Series

“Folks Like Us”

Luke 7:36 – 8:3

A sermon for 7/25/21

Who remembers the old Jerry Springer Show? He would get the craziest of the crazy folks together on stage in front of an audience that would yell, “Fight, fight, fight!” They would cuss and kick. They would cry and throw chairs. The amazing thing was lots and lots of normal folks (that is – just a little crazy) watched that show. It gave rise to something called “The Jerry Springer Effect.” In basic terms – The Jerry Springer Effect was when folks watched the show and felt better about themselves. They thought, “I may have problems, but at least I’m not like those folks!”

This brings me to a more modern-day example that’s a bit of a “hot potato” or more like a land mine that I have to tiptoe around. There is a phrase we use today in the discussion of race relations that we need to reject all together. People talk about the need for us to be “color blind.” Let me ask you a question – as a white person, if I put you in a room of 25 people and you are the only white person, will you notice? Absolutely! I could do the same thing with a person of any race and that person would notice. The proponents of “color blindness” often point to little children that will play with kids of different races. I know something about kids – they will notice what is different – they just don’t care. I notice race – the goal for me is to never place a value judgement on race or skin color.

This week, in Luke’s Gospel, we enter into the back and forth between Jesus and the religious leaders… again. He is at the home of Simon, a Pharisee, eating dinner. Into this setting comes what the Bible describes as “a sinful woman.” We are not told what sin she has committed but her way of living causes Simon to think she has no business with Jesus the Prophet.

Luke 7 “36 Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat. 37 And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, 38 and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil. 39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, “This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.”

40 And Jesus answered and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.”

So he said, “Teacher, say it.”

41 “There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?”

43 Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.”

And He said to him, “You have rightly judged.”

We are all the debtor

Jesus often uses the example of one who owes money, a debtor, when teaching on forgiveness:

• In Matthew 18, Peter asks Jesus how many times he should forgive. Jesus tells the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant who owes a debt that is far to big to ever repay, but the Master forgives the whole debt. Unfortunately, that servant can’t forgive the small debt of his fellow servant.

• In Luke 15, Jesus tells the Parable of the Prodigal Son. That son becomes a debtor, in his eyes, to the father after wasting 1/3 of his wealth. He comes back seeking forgiveness.

Let’s talk about a basic of the Christian Faith – we are all born into sin. It’s called “Original Sin” and I could give you a big, fancy explanation of how the Church came to understand this OR I can talk to you about 2 year-olds. If you have every had a 2 year-old in your house, you can verify that they do not have to be taught defiance and disrespect and selfishness – all these are hard-wired into the child from birth. We teach them cooperation and respect and sharing which works pretty well until they become teenagers😊

What about us adults? We are pretty good at being nice and keeping the smile on our faces even when we are confronted with the “sinful woman” of this day and this culture. You see, there is a little bit of Pharisee hard-wired into everyone of us, even the preacher, but sin is the great equalizer. We are all tempted. Your temptation is different than mine and my sin is different than yours, but we all come to God to have our debt forgiven. Amen?