Calvary Episcopal Church
Memphis, Tennessee
June 13, 2004
The Second Sunday After Pentecost

Business as Usual for Jesus
The Rev. George Yandell

Gospel:Luke 7:36- 8:3
(This sermon is also available in audio)

Within the inner circle of Jesus disciples were a number of devoted women. Some are known by name to us, others left unnamed. Today’s gospel reading includes a fascinating story about Jesus forgiving a woman widely known as a sinner, plus a postscript telling how women provided for the followers of Jesus out of their own resources.

First: Jesus was at dinner with a Pharisee named Simon, in the Pharisee’s house. This kind of meal was exclusively a male dinner- kind of like a men’s club gathering. But a woman intruded, bringing an alabaster jar of ointment (read expensive), then stood behind Jesus, bathing his feet with her tears, drying them with her hair. Then she kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. What was she thinking? It’s an extravagant set of actions. Some authors say the woman was a prophet, because she acted out prophetic actions to draw attention to God’s intent - to show God’s love through the care Jesus lavished on God’s most needy people.

Simon and his guests were undone, and murmured to themselves about Jesus. Jesus allowed the sinful woman to invade their comfy club, to make over Jesus, touch him, kiss his feet and anoint his feet with costly ointment. Scandalous! Simon poses this question to himself: “Is this man a prophet? If he were, he’d know about this woman who is making over him, touching him.” But the Pharisee missed the point - the Woman was the prophet. “She had received insight into who Jesus was, and she felt compelled to give a public witness to his identity. She didn’t choose words for her prophetic revelation- she chose silent but portentous action.”
From Karen Jo Torjesen, When Women Were Priests (New York: Harper Collins, 1993) 27.

So the implied message is that certainly not the woman, but neither can Jesus be a prophet for Pharisees. But Jesus speaks to the unspoken question, not about himself, his status as prophet, but the actions and graciousness of the woman. He recognizes her spiritual insight, her sense of calling, her humility, and her determination. In fact Jesus upbraids and corrects his host’s poor manners with her positive examples. With the woman still present, Jesus says, “I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one who is forgiven little, loves little.” Then Jesus speaks directly to her, saying, “Your sins are forgiven. Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

This whole engagement turned a dinner party inside out. It was a collision of the private world of prestige and power with the public witness of God’s justice. Jesus was a controversial figure the law-loving Pharisees wanted to understand. But in this instance, Jesus was not the controversial figure, at first. It was the woman. The men must have been horrified at the woman’s entrance. Just for a male Pharisee to be in the presence of a “sinful woman” risked violating purity laws. They must have been undone when the Rabbi Jesus allowed such a one to touch him repeatedly. Then Jesus interpreted her prophetic actions: since her sins had been forgiven, she showed great love. Jesus concludes this encounter with his own prophetic action: He states for all to hear, “Your sins are forgiven, go in peace.” For Jesus to forgive her sins was blasphemy to the Pharisees-only God could forgive sins. Yet Jesus kept his attention directed toward her, saying how she acted in perfect charity, showing loving kindness.

The Pharisee Simon completely missed the prophecy contained within her actions. You can be sure that anyone who heard this story was galvanized by it, regardless of his/her regard for the Pharisee’s strict interpretation of the law.

But it seems Jesus was not just bent on violating custom or shocking the Pharisees. For him, the scene is a normal situation. The woman’s presence and attention were not unusual to him. He opened his table fellowship to all: men, women, pure and impure, servants and slave-owners. What was a prophetic, confrontive action for others was business as usual for Jesus. That normalcy must have agitated the Pharisees more than anything else he did. His open fellowship with sinners, women, and other peasant, unclean folk was itself the central prophetic action of his ministry: Jesus said repeatedly that such fellowship moved folk into God’s domain now. “Such open fellowship profoundly negates distinctions and hierarchies between male and female, poor and rich, Gentile and Jew. It does so at a level that would offend the ritual laws of any civilized society.”
From John D. Crossan, The Historical Jesus (New York: Harper Collins, 1993) 263.

For the Pharisees, Jesus was looking more and more like a pesky prophet. To the Romans, he looked more and more like a peasant revolutionary. Many think his organizing of peasant Jews with the hope and promise of God’s love led the Romans to execute him.

Can’t you feel a little empathy with Simon the Pharisee? Such is the nature of prophets and prophecies - they always unnerve us, especially if we detect God’s hand moving the prophet forward.

And can’t you imagine the force this story would have if you were a woman follower of Jesus? Is it any wonder that the postscript follows? To be a Jewish peasant woman in Jesus’ day meant you did not inherit property, you were pledged to your mate at an early age, and if you couldn’t bear children, you were put away, dishonored. So to speak of women who were married or unmarried, but women of means, suggests they had found ways to make livings and had resources of their own. They discovered that Jesus stirred their passions and their hope for knowing God now, personally, with no barriers between them and God- and a chance to know God and talk of God’s actions in an intimate way with men disciples, a privilege unknown to most Jewish women.

What do these women followers of Jesus teach us? The forgiven sinner is love-driven. Our witness starts in God’s unconditional loving and accepting of us. Those women witness to us that prophetic action is the church’s vocation. We must bear witness to what we know about Jesus. We can’t stand still when we know something so precious, so life-changing, so rapturous. Patronage of the Jesus movement is an extension of prophetic witness- when we live from our passion for Jesus, our response to Jesus’ love is joyful out-pouring of our substance. We give because we can’t not give, even from meager livings. We have been forgiven much, so we love much.

We are, in short, called to the prophetic Body of Jesus today. As a congregation, Calvary has often risen to witness profoundly to the love of Jesus in our past. That calling is incumbent on us now as wel--live as prophets of the love of God and act it out in all the places where Jesus moves us today. Live as prophets of love until all are challenged by and brought face to face with the God of love.

Copyright 2004 Calvary Episcopal Church

Gospel: Luke 7:36- 8:3
One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and took his place at the table. And a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having learned that he waseating in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment. She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him--that she is a sinner." Jesus spoke up and said to him, "Simon, I have something to say to you." "Teacher," he replied, "Speak." "A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he canceled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?" Simon answered, "I suppose the one for whom he canceled the greater debt." And Jesus said to him, "You have judged rightly."
Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore, I tell
you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little." Then he said to her, "Your sins are forgiven." But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?" And he said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace." Soon afterwards he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him, as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom
seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Herod's steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their resources. NRSV

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