One of the things we've talked about several times in the gospel of Luke, is the idea of God "visiting" his people. That's a big part of today's message, so let's read Luke 1:68, to get us off on the right foot:
I'll read from the RSV (and here, the translation absolutely matters):
“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he has "visited" and redeemed his people,
69 and has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David,
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On "visiting":
?p?s??pt?µa?
BDAG:
? to go to see a pers. with helpful intent, visit t??? someone (Demosth. 9, 12; PLille 6, 5 [III B.C.] d?aß??t?? µ?? … ?p?s???as?a? t. ?de?f??; Judg 15:1) ???ß? ?p? t?? ?a?d?a? a?t?? ?p?s???as?a? t??? ?de?f??? a?t?? (Moses) felt strongly about visiting his people Ac 7:23 (for the note of solicitude cp. X., Mem. 3, 11, 10 f???t?st????); 15:36. ???????? Hv 3, 9, 2. Esp. of visiting the sick (X., Mem. 3, 11, 10; Plut., Mor. 129c; Lucian, Philops. 6; Herodian 4, 2, 4; Sir 7, 35; TestJob 28:2; Jos., Ant. 9, 178) Mt 25:36, 43; Pol 6:1. W. special suggestion in the context on care to be bestowed: look after widows and orphans ?? t? ????e? a?t?? in their distress Js 1:27; cp. Hs 1:8. ??fa???? ?a? ?ste???µ????? Hm 8:10.
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So the idea here-- and really, one of the key themes in this book-- is that God has visited his people through two people: John the Baptist (Luke 1:76), and Messiah Jesus. Picture a really important person coming to town-- Donald Trump, or Ed Sheeran, or Kirk Cousins. This VIP shows up, wanting to do good to the community, and it's a great honor to have this person come to town. Now, there's also a practical question that arises from this "visitation." Who gets to host this VIP? Who has the privilege of inviting him over for supper, serving him a nice meal, maybe, even, giving him a place to sleep that night on your very best sheets, in your own bed. Being a good host to a person like this is a privilege, and it's a matter of honor.
Now, when we turn back to Luke, we see that it's a little more complicated than the picture I tried to paint. God is the Very Important Person, and when God sends John and Jesus to visit, the kind of welcome you give his "sent ones" ("apostles"), is also the kind of welcome you give God. So if you are the perfect host to John and Jesus, in part because you recognize The One Who Sent them, you are also acting as the perfect host to God. And if you fail John or Jesus, you are also failing God.
Now, in our culture, we struggle with the idea of hospitality. It's foreign to us, really. We tend to meet people in neutral settings like coffee shops, or in church buildings. Maybe, it's because we have the classic "man" view of our home. Our home is our castle. Our lawn is our moat, and those pesky neighbor kids need to stay off our grass. And our front door is our drawbridge, carefully secured by two locks. Trespassers will be shot. Survivors will be shot again. Our home is the place where we keep our family safe from a wicked world, trusting in God and guns.
Or, maybe the reason we meet people in coffee shops is because our lives are a chaotic mess, and that chaotic mess spills over very naturally into our houses. We go through life just barely hanging in there, just scraping by. We have enough energy to make it through the day, because we have to. But we sure don't have enough energy to clean up the day's mess, and organize all of the clutter that we really thought we needed to buy off Amazon to be happy. Meeting in coffee shops is a way to keep a wall between us and other people, as a way to protect ourselves maybe from embarrassment, or shame, or just from getting quite so close to people. It's a place to meet people, where you don't have to feel like you should lose half a day to organizing and cleaning. Coffee shops are great. I mean that sincerely. They are a nice place to meet. They are a nice way to put less strain on my marriage when I want to hang out with people. But, at the same time, they are not a home. So coffee shops are an imperfect compromise.
But in the first century, and (more importantly) in the gospel of Luke/Acts, this idea of hospitality turns out to be a core (gospel) value. What kind of a welcome do you give God, and Jesus? What kind of a welcome do you give to outsiders? What kind of welcome do you give to one another?
So very close to the start of Luke, Zechariah, filled with the Holy Spirit, announces that God is "visiting" his people through John the Baptist, and through Jesus. God And one of the questions that Luke spends a lot of time answering, is this: "What kind of a welcome do these visitors receive?"
And what we are starting to see, at this point in Luke, is something surprising. The people who we expect to be most excited about Jesus, and most eager to become his disciples, are the ones who struggle with Jesus the most. The Bible scholars who love God-- people we call Pharisees and "experts of the Torah"-- are really struggling with John and Jesus. There is something about each of them, that the Pharisees trip on. And the people we expect nothing of-- people who we "know" are hopelessly lost, far from God, living outside of God's covenant with Israel-- people like tax collectors and "sinners"-- those people are thrilled about Jesus.
To remind ourselves of this, and ease our way into today's passage, let's pick back up at Luke 7:28-35. Jesus is talking to the crowd about John the Baptist, and what John accomplished (NRSV updated no reason).
28 “I tell you, among those born of women no one is greater than John, yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” 29 (And all the people who heard this, including the tax collectors, acknowledged the justice of God,[h] having been baptized with John’s baptism. 30 But the Pharisees and the experts in the law, not having been baptized by him, rejected God’s purpose for themselves.)
31 “To what, then, will I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? 32 They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another,
‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
we wailed, and you did not weep.’
33 “For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon’; 34 the Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ 35 Nevertheless, wisdom is vindicated by all her children.”
So in verse 30, we see that John the Baptist was rejected by two groups, the Pharisees and religious experts. And Jesus says that rejection happened "because" they refused to humble themselves and get baptized. What does John's baptism do? Let's turn to Luke 1:76-79 (NIV, and here it matters, NIV does a nice job translating "en" as "through" in verse 77):
76 And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,
77 to give his people the knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
79 to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
John's baptism was designed, first of all, to be how God offered forgiveness of sins. You'd go to John, to confess, and repent, and be baptized. And if you did that, God forgave you.
Now, verse 77 tells us that this forgiveness also did something else to people. It gave them "knowledge of salvation." God has this plan to save lots of people through Jesus. And those who were baptized by John, cleansed of their sin, are put in a position of spiritual enlightenment, where they find themselves understanding what God is doing. In the gospel of Luke it's through John, that God first visits his people, and offers them mercy. And John makes God's visiting his people through Jesus more effective.
But the problem we saw in last week's verses, is that the Pharisees reject God's plan. They reject God's mercy, offered through John. They reject God's forgiveness. And perhaps most damaging of all, verse 34, they've rejected God's gift of enlightenment. They can't understand-- they can't accept-- God's plan. They want God to show mercy to this narrow circle of God's faithful people. They don't want God to show mercy to people outside of that circle. They don't want God to make the circle bigger. They don't want Jesus, or God, to be a friend to tax collectors and sinners.
And so, there are things about Jesus that make them think Jesus is, at minimum, a prophet, sent by God. Undeniably, God is doing great things through Jesus. But, at the same time, Jesus is not the kind of person they expected. He's defying expectations. Even John the Baptist finds himself struggling with Jesus. Everyone's drawn to Jesus, but they are also off balance, tripping on Jesus.
With this, we are almost ready for today's verses. But first look at verse 35. "Wisdom is vindicated by all her children."
You can tell that God is wise, and that God's plan is wise, by looking at the results. Through John and Jesus, tax collectors and sinners are entering God's kingdom. They are being forgiven. They are embracing God's plan. They are following Jesus. They are being guided into God's family.
All of this maybe sounds a little theoretical, and a little complicated. I think Luke knows his readers, after all of that, could really a story to simplify it, and unpack it. So that what Luke gives us. Starting in Luke 7:36, Luke tells us a story about three people-- a Pharisee, a woman sinner, and Jesus.
Verse 36:
(36) Now, one of the Pharisees asked him (=Jesus) to eat with him,
and entering into the house of the Pharisee, he reclined at the table,
So the Pharisees are kind of in this awkward place, of being drawn to Jesus, and at the same time, tripping on Jesus. But Jesus has not given up on the Pharisees. He's still accepting invitations into a Pharisee's house. He still wants the Pharisees to repent, and embrace God's plan. And this Pharisee, by welcoming Jesus, and showing hospitality to him, has taken a giant step in the right direction. He's welcoming the one who God sent.
Verse 37:
(37) and LOOK! A woman who was in the city-- a sinner--
and [she], discovering that he is reclining in the house of the Pharisee, bringing an alabaster vase of perfume, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, with her tears she began to wet his feet, and with the hair of her head she was wiping them, and she was kissing his feet, and she was anointing them with the perfume.
In first century Israel, apparently, dinner parties were done a little differently than today. Imagine inviting someone over for a backyard BBQ, and eating outside on the patio. Obviously, not in January. Back then, it was okay for people you hadn't invited to kind of hang out at the edges, and listen to the conversation (not sure if this is Brendan Byrne or R. Alan Culpepper). And houses in general were less like castles, without the drawbridges and dead bolts, and more like a public space.
So there's this woman, who is a "sinner." And this doesn't mean someone who sins, once in a while. We shouldn't tell ourselves, "everyone is a sinner." A "sinner" is someone who is living outside of the covenant, who has embraced a different God, or who deliberately, willfully, embraces an anti-God life. She's a rebel, in a way that the Pharisee is not. [So we need to resist the urge to read all the nasty things into "Pharisee"].
So this woman hears that a very special person, Jesus, is visiting. And so she hatches this plan to show him hospitality. She doesn't stand at the edges, listening to the conversation, smelling the BBQ. That was never her plan. She brings this jar of perfume, and she uses that jar, and her hair, and her tears, to do this really messy thing to Jesus. The tears are flowing, and she's wiping this mixture of tears and perfume on his feet, probably with snot, because she's obviously a messy cryer, while she kisses them.
Can you picture this woman? It's really important for Luke, that you see her. This woman has created this big, messy scene, at someone else's dinner party. What do you think of her?
In verse 39, we find out what the Pharisee sees, and what he thinks:
(39) Now, the Pharisee-- the one inviting him-- seeing this, he spoke to himself, saying,
"This man, if he was a prophet, would have known who and of what type of person this woman [is] who is
touching him--
that a sinner, she is ["a sinner" is focused],
The Pharisee sees this woman, and he thinks to himself that Jesus must be a fraud. Jesus isn't really a prophet, sent by God, because a prophet would know that this woman is a sinner. And a true prophet would never let this woman touch him. So the Pharisee makes the same decision about Jesus, that lots of other Pharisees make. And what we are seeing here, is an illustration of how the Pharisees trip on Jesus.
Verse 40-47:
(40) and responding, Jesus said to him,
"Simon, I have to you something to say."
Now, he said,
"Teacher, speak!"
(41) "Two debtors, they were, to a certain money-lender.
The one owed 500 denarii.
Now, the other, 50.
(42) Not being able to repay him, to both of them he showed grace (charidzomai; it's "showed grace," not "forgave" here).
And so then, which of them, more, will love him? ["more" is focused]
(43) Simon, responding, said,
"I think that to the one, more, he showed grace to. (charidzomai)
Now, he said to him,
"Rightly you judged,"
(44) and, turning toward the woman, to Simon he said,
"You see this one-- the woman?"
I came into your house.
Water, for my feet, you didn't give.
Now, this one-- with her tears, she wet me feet,
and with her hair, she wiped them.
(45) A kiss, you didn't give me.
Now, this one-- she, from when I entered, hasn't stopped my kissing my feet.
(46) With olive oil, my head you didn't anoint.
Now, this one-- she with perfume, anointed my feet.
(47) This is why I'm telling you [that] her many sins have been forgiven:
because she loved much.
The Pharisee had decided that Jesus couldn't be a prophet, because he didn't know who the woman was, or what sort of person she was. But look at Jesus, verse 40. Jesus proves that he's a prophet, because he knows Simon's thoughts. That inside voice you have, that you are careful to not tell people-- that's a voice Jesus hears.
When my sister-in-law was quite pregnant-- "quite" pregnant-- one of my little nieces was astonished at what that little baby was doing to her aunt's tummy. And so she went up to my sister-in-law, and told her, "You're not fat." Then she walked away, and very quietly told herself, "Mommy says that [name] isn't fat."
Kids aren't very good at keeping that quiet inside voice, quiet or inside. It all comes out. And what we see in Luke, is that Jesus hears that quiet inside voice. He knows the Pharisee has just made a huge, flawed, decision about who he is. And so Jesus responds to Simon's not-so-quiet internal voice by trying to help him. Jesus does this by pointing to the woman.
So this woman gave Jesus the perfect welcome. She was the perfect host, showing perfect hospitality. She gave Jesus the welcome he deserved. And the Pharisee, did not. You can tell the Pharisee struggles with Jesus by the welcome he gave Jesus. He didn't go to much effort. He didn't act like Jesus was a very important person, sent by a very important person, because he wasn't sure.
But the woman is not like the Pharisee. She knows who Jesus is, and she gives him the welcome he deserves. Why does the woman sinner have better insight into this Jewish Messiah, Jesus, than the Bible scholar?
I think we are supposed to read last week's verses into this. The woman has already welcomed John the Baptist. Her sins have been forgiven, and her eyes have been opened to God's plan. She knows that salvation comes through Jesus.
And so notice, what does Jesus tell the Pharisee, in verse 47? The Greek here is tricky. But the sense of what Jesus says, is that "you" should be able to tell that this woman is no longer in the category of "sinner." She's been forgiven. And you can tell that this is the case, even if you're not a prophet, by how she loves Jesus. Obviously, God has done something amazing for her, shown her incredible grace (Luke 7:42-43), because she loves Jesus in a way that puts me, at least, to shame. Those tears, are tears of joy. She's thrilled at what God has done for her. She's thrilled at the chance to show hospitality to the VIP.
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.
Bovon recognizes this issue, and says this: "Luke is not interested in the exact moment that the forgiveness occurs."
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), 297.
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Our story ends, verse 50, with Jesus and the woman:
(50) Now, he said to the woman,
"Your faith has saved you.
Go in peace."
If we read verse 50 as Reformed Calvinists, working with a Reformation understanding of words like "faith" and "salvation," we're going to be a "bit" bothered by this verse.
Does faith save you?
Or does Jesus save you, by faith?
People reading these verses with strong interpretive filters find themselves wanting to give Jesus a little help here.
But I think what Jesus (and Luke) means by salvation here, is different from the way we use it. What does it mean to be "saved" in the gospel of Luke?
The easiest way to teach this is by cheating ahead to Luke 19:9, the conclusion to the story of the wee little man Zacchaeus.
(9) Now, Jesus said to him that
"Today, salvation to this house has come, ["salvation" is focused]
inasmuch as he too, a son of Abraham, he is." ["a son of Abraham" is focused]
To be saved, is to move from being outsider, outside of God's covenant community, to being welcomed, and forgiven, and accepted by God. When you welcome Jesus, God welcomes you, and invites you into this people. "Salvation" includes the hope of life after death, but the focus in Luke is on what you gain right now. Let's turn back to our story, Luke 7:50:
(50) Now, he said to the woman,
"Your faith has saved you.
Go in peace."
"Go in peace." That's another way to think about salvation. You are free to go in "shalom," peace. God brings you into a place of wholeness, and prosperity, of restored relationship with God and others. You become full members of the covenant community. You aren't defined by your past, by the terrible things you used to do. Jesus doesn't hold that against you. He forgives that.
I think this is a word that many Christians need to hear today. Jesus has forgiven you. You may remember your sinful past. You may know who you used to be, and everyone around you might remember that as well. There will always be a Pharisee who remembers your sin, and holds it against you.
But Jesus has forgiven you. You are clean, and forgiven. You don't need to go through life feeling dirty. You don't need to view yourself, the way the Pharisee views you.
And if you've received that forgiveness, and really value it, what should the end result be?
Astonishing love. If you've really received the grace God gives, you will love Jesus in a messy, teary-eyed way. People won't know what to make of you. They will look at you, and see the tears, and the snot, and the hair everywhere. But all the woman focuses on is Jesus.
If we struggle with our love for God, and for each other, maybe this is our problem. We've lost sight of God's grace, and forgiveness. Or maybe we've never really let ourselves fully receive it. It's like we have a Pharisee on one shoulder, and Jesus on the other, and we never really trust Jesus' words.
May this be a community of disciples who welcome Jesus' presence, who welcome him as Savior, Lord and King, who have received the forgiveness that Jesus offers. May this be a community that genuinely loves God and people, and which views each other the way Jesus does. We look around the room, and we remember the sinful ways some of us have acted in the past. We've seen each other's dirty laundry, to some degree. But Jesus says that our past doesn't define us. Jesus sees us differently. And so we welcome each other, and we welcome every new disciple that walks through these doors, reassuring them of these truths. We aren't like the Pharisee. We rejoice, every time someone new receives God's mercy, and forgiveness, and entrance into God's covenant community. We are happy to share the bread and the wine with them. We are happy to save a chair for them at our potlucks, and in our homes.
[and every time this happens, God's wisdom is vindicated by her new children; Luke 7:35]. And we are thankful for them, in part, because it's the new people, usually, who remind us best how amazing God's love, and forgiveness, and grace truly are.
Translation:
(36) Now, one of the Pharisees asked him (=Jesus) to eat with him,
and entering into the house of the Pharisee, he reclined at the table,
(37) and LOOK! A woman who was in the city-- a sinner--
and [she], discovering that he is reclining in the house of the Pharisee, bringing an alabaster vase of perfume, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, with her tears she began to wet his feet, and with the hair of her head she was wiping them, and she was kissing his feet, and she was anointing them with the perfume.
(39) Now, the Pharisee-- the one inviting him-- seeing this, he spoke to himself, saying,
"This man, if he was a prophet, would have known who and of what type of person this woman [is] who is touching him--
that a sinner, she is ["a sinner" is focused],
(40) and responding, Jesus said to him,
"Simon, I have to you something to say."
Now, he said,
"Teacher, speak!"
(41) "Two debtors, they were, to a certain money-lender.
The one owed 500 denarii.
Now, the other, 50.
(42) Not being able to repay him, to both of them he showed grace (charidzomai).
And so then, which of them, more, will love him? ["more" is focused]
(43) Simon, responding, said,
"I think that to the one, more, he showed grace to.
Now, he said to him,
"Rightly you judged,"
(44) and, turning toward the woman, to Simon he said,
"You see this one-- the woman?"
I came into your house.
Water, for my feet, you didn't give.
Now, this one-- with her tears, she wet me feet,
and with her hair, she wiped them.
(45) A kiss, you didn't give me.
Now, this one-- she, from when I entered, hasn't stopped my kissing my feet.
(46) With olive oil, my head you didn't anoint.
Now, this one-- she with perfume, anointed my feet.
(47) This is why I'm telling you [that] her many sins have been forgiven:
because she loved much.
(48) Now, he (=Jesus) said to her,
"Your sins have been forgiven,"
(49) and the ones reclining with him began to say among themselves,
"Who is this one,
who, even sins, he forgives?
(50) Now, he said to the woman,
"Your faith has saved you.
Go in peace."
