Sermon for Pentecost 4 Year C 2013 Forgiveness, Judgment and the Look of Love When Disney came out with a live-action movie version of its popular animated film, 101 Dalmatians, it was a box-office success. What you may not know is that many viewers fell in love with the cute spotted puppies on the big screen and decided to get one for themselves. When they brought those adorable little puppies home, however, they found that living with a Dalmatian is an entirely different experience from watching one on the movie screen. Soon, according to the Associated Press, all over the US dog shelters saw a dramatic increase in the number of Dalmatians being abandoned by their owners. In Florida, an organization called Dalmatian Rescue took in 130 dalmatians in the first nine months of 1997; usually they get that many dogs in two and a half years. Dalmatians can be a challenge to own for several reasons. From cute spotted puppies they grow to be big dogs, weighing as much as 70 lbs. They are rambunctious and require a lot of exercise. They can also be moody, becoming restless and even destructive if they don t get enough activity. They shed year-round and 10% of Dalmatians are born deaf. A spokesperson for the Wisconsin Humane Society says, Although Dalmatians are beautiful puppies, and can be wonderful dogs, you have to know what you re getting into. Whether with pets or with people infatuation with what we see on the outside is a poor foundation for a relationship. It matters how we look at things not just puppies. You could say that all the texts for this morning want us to ask ourselves how we look at others. Certainly King David learned that after his infatuation with, his looking at Bathsheba which lead to a series of terrible choices and even worse events and consequences, but Simon the host of the meal in our gospel lesson also seems to have a problem with how he looks at people. It seems that when we look at people in one-dimensional ways, 1
ways that do not take into consideration anything more than our own limited perspective, it is not only a poor foundation for a relationship in fact, no relationship can form and sometimes terrible things happen. You could say that what is needed is the look of love. You have to wonder what kind of buzz Simon s dinner party was generating. Luke tells us that Jesus was attracting attention across the countryside, especially after he raised a widow s son from death to life. Now Jesus the healer and prophet is in town and Simon the Pharisee has snagged him for dinner. Simon has the food prepared, the setting elegant, the invited influential and important guests arrive as uninvited townspeople crowd around to see the Pharisee and his guests. In Simon s eyes, all is going according to plan until one of the onlookers pushes through the crowd and clings to Jesus feet. As she begins to anoint his feet, her tears bathe his toes and she wipes their moisture away with her hair. Simon is scandalized by such a display. We also get a clue that this woman is known by Simon known to be immoral a sinner unclean by the Pharisee s conventions. Simon thinks to himself, If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman is touching him. She s a sinner! And suddenly Simon s smooth and elegant dinner party comes to a screeching and embarrassing halt. Because Jesus has done nothing to stop this woman and her embarrassing display. Simon concludes Jesus must not know who she is and therefore he cannot be the rising star prophet Simon thought he d netted. Simon s social capital is plummeting before his eyes. But contrary to Simon s assumptions, Jesus is not naïve. He knows the woman who is washing his feet with her tears. Jesus sees a woman grateful for mercy, so caught up in her act of love that she is free from worrying about what people think of the propriety of her actions. Instead of seeing sin, Jesus sees love. 2
Jesus wants Simon to see the gift of love unfolding before his very eyes so he launches into a story of two debtors. One who is forgiven 10 times what the other owes. Who loves the most? Jesus asks his host. And Simon says somewhat reluctantly, I suppose the one whose canceled debt was greater. (Simon you suppose?!) Simon can see the woman s failings are so great, but he is blind to his own. It s not that the woman was a worse sinner than Simon, but emptied of self-importance and more deeply aware of her need, she had so much more room to receive forgiveness. Simon s capacity for love is stunted because he is still full of himself. So Jesus invites Simon to see his own need and experience the outpouring of forgiveness and love that this woman has so lavishly demonstrated. Simon, Jesus says, when I came to your home you did not offer me water to wash the dust from my feet you did not greet me with a kiss you neglected the courtesy of olive oil to anoint my head The obvious analogy of the parable is to the woman bathing Jesus feet with her tears. She apparently has been forgiven much, perhaps ten times what others have been forgiven. Which explains why she is devoting herself to Jesus, weeping as she does. She is overcome by gratitude, the kind of gratitude understood only by someone who has been given everything. But is forgiveness really everything? Can it possibly be worth that much? Consider: forgiveness at heart is the restoration of relationship. It is releasing any claim on someone else for some past injury or offense. That s why the analogy to a debt works so well. Forgiveness cancels relational debt and opens up the future. Which is why it s so important, so valuable. But it s also something more. Forgiveness also gives you back yourself. You see, after a while, being indebted, owing others, knowing yourself first and foremost as a sinner these realities come to dominate and define you. 3
You are no more and no less than what you ve done, the mistakes you ve made, the debt you owe. When you are forgiven, all those limitations disappear and you are restored, renewed, set free. So, yes, forgiveness is everything. After his exchange with Simon, Jesus turns and addresses the woman directly, saying that, your sins are forgiven. I think we typically take such pronouncements in a present-tense kind of way, assuming that Jesus is offering forgiveness right in that moment, as a response to the woman s devotion and, perhaps, supplication. But in this case I don t think that s how it played out. I think Jesus had already met this woman, already forgiven her sins, and that she is now demonstrating her extreme gratitude, unable to hold back, unaware or uncaring of the surprise and stares and even disapproval of everyone else. And, just to make sure she realizes that this new reality that has broken her heart with its beauty is real, Jesus says again, your sins are forgiven. Some things, you see, are so good it s hard to believe they re true. And so Jesus repeats the words of forgiveness so they may sink deep into her broken and reborn heart. Yet Simon is silent. There is no happy ending like the story of Zaccheus who repents and makes restitution. But neither do we hear that Simon turned away like the rich young ruler. It is as though, by leaving us on this cliffhanger, Luke has invited us to take up and respond to Simon s story as our own. As we sit with Jesus and he begins to name our transgressions of the last hour, day or week 4
do we empty ourselves of our excuses and self-righteousness and allow his forgiveness to fill us? Does the reality of our need and the abundance of his grace flow out of our lives in gratitude and love? Simon s response remains a mystery, but his dinner guests miss the invitation completely. They move from one offense to another, turning their attention to Jesus assurance of pardon. Who is this man, that he goes around forgiving sins? The ironic answer to their question is that this Jesus is not only the prophet Simon had hoped he was, but in fact Jesus is more than a prophet. Jesus is One who has the authority to forgive as the Father forgives. He is the anticipated Messiah; the hope of Israel and the world. And the scorned, disgraced, unnamed woman at his feet is the only one in the room who knows it. Your faith has saved you; go in peace. Jesus bids her to walk in the peace of her new identity. A forgiven, beloved and precious one of God. Her debt has been canceled. Her humiliation has been erased in His acceptance. Notice one thing more about the exchange between Jesus and Simon. When Simon answers Jesus question about which one of the debtors loves more, Jesus says to him You have judged rightly. Note that Jesus uses that word judge. Remember that Simon had just been judging Jesus because of this woman touching him. But Jesus turns around and asks, Do you see this woman? And this is the question before us today. What do we see? I recall an exchange between two characters in an episode of the television series Thirtysomething. It was an episode dealing with forgiveness and the reconciliation of a husband and wife who had been divorced. Hope says to Nancy the woman who has forgiven her unfaithful and somewhat irresponsible husband, Eliot: I think I m going to have to find a new way of looking at him. I was just getting comfortable with the judgmental approach. Nancy reminds Hope in another conversation about forgiveness that we are all capable of doing something, saying something or revealing something about our selves that will deeply hurt someone even the ones we say we love. 5
In her own way, Nancy is trying to share the same truth to Hope as Jesus parable to Simon. We are all in need of forgiveness. And judgment distorts not only how we look at others, but also how we see our selves. So this story is about forgiveness. And it s about the gratitude that forgiveness creates. And it s about the extravagant acts of love and devotion that gratitude prompts. But it s also about something else: it s about hardness of heart as opposed to love, about judgment instead of forgiveness, and about a sense of entitlement instead of gratitude. Can we allow ourselves to be broken in order to be healed, to believe that in our pouring out we will be gathered into the Body of Christ and by our faith be set free? Can we catch a glimmer of grace, hang on to a hint of hope, and empty ourselves of, well, ourselves? In Christ, all things are possible. It is God s grace that meets us in our act of confession as we gather in worship. Grateful for the outpouring of forgiveness, our capacity to love grows and Jesus bids us go into the world in peace where we can look at others in a new way through the eyes of forgiveness and love. 6