Hosting Jesus, The Vip (Luke 7:36-50) Series

So up to this point, we've had three people pictured in this outdoor patio-- the Pharisee, the woman, and Jesus. And the conversation has been between Pharisee and Jesus. Now, that changes. Jesus , instead of speaking about the woman, speakers to her, verse 48:

(48) Now, he (=Jesus) said to her,

"Your sins have been forgiven,"

Jesus lets the woman know that she's in a different position now-- one of forgiveness. I don't think (following basically everyone, even my two Catholic commentators) she's forgiven because she showed this love to Jesus. I think she's already been forgiven, probably when she was baptized by John. But now she hears, from Jesus, that this is her new identity. So the Pharisee is wrong. She's not a sinner. She's forgiven. And Luke, who baited us in verse 37 into thinking of her this way, pulls the rug out from under us as well (I needed this reminder that it's biblical to mess with the people you are teaching).

So who the woman was, and the type of person she used to be, no longer matters. She's not bound by her past. She's not stuck in it. And when you see the woman, you shouldn't see the sin. She's something new, because God has "visited" her, and shown her mercy. And Jesus lets this woman know all of this. Jesus assures her of "the certainty of forgiveness" (Franc¸ois Bovon and Helmut Koester, Luke 1: A Commentary on the Gospel of Luke 1:1–9:50, Hermeneia—a Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2002, pg. 297).

In verse 49, for the first time, we hear the voices of the other dinner guests:

(49) and the ones reclining with him began to say among themselves,

"Who is this one,

who, even/also sins, he forgives? ["even sins" is focused, and here the word is "forgive"]

Everyone around the table leaves this story with a question in their minds: Who is this one? Simon the Pharisee had decided that Jesus couldn't be a prophet after all. Did Jesus manage to persuade him otherwise? Did Jesus keep him from tripping? We aren't told. We are just left with this open question. If Jesus can pronounce people forgiven, what does that make him? Who is Jesus?

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I'm going to pass over my struggles with this verse, but I'll be open about it in my notes at least-- this verse gave me fits. Everything up to this point assumes that God at some point in her past, probably through John, has shown her "grace" and forgiveness. But here, the dinner guests make it sound like Jesus did in fact just forgive her.

It's a little messy. But I think the words point forward to the time of the church, and to the time beyond John the Baptist. Jesus forgives sins, in an ongoing (present tense) way today. And Jesus gives people the certainty that their sins have been forgiven, and that they have been restored to the community of God's people.