Thursday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
The story that Luke’s Gospel puts in front of us today seems to me to be the Gospel in a nutshell. If we can get this story, then we’ve pretty much got what Jesus is about. Not only that, we also know who he wants us to be.
The story begins with Simon, the Pharisee, who is one very lucky man as he has the great privilege of dining with Jesus! What’s interesting about Simon is that he knows stuff. For instance, he knows all about this woman who is kissing Jesus’ feet. She is a sinner. And she is not something like your garden-variety sinner. She is a big-time sinner. Whatever her sins are (Luke leaves that to our imagination) they are serious and very well known. He also knows that anyone who is deeply committed to God—a.k.a., a real prophet—would not only know this about her, but would also know not to allow her to soil him with her sin by touching him.
And then there is the woman. Of course, the woman also knows what Simon knows. That is, she is very aware that everyone knows about her terrible sins and how bad she is. And she definitely knows that her touch soils and, thus, puts any holy man in danger. And despite all that knowledge, she doesn’t just touch Jesus; she bathes his feet in her precious ointment and pain-filled tears and wipes them with her hair. She pours out for Jesus all that she has and all that she is.
It turns out that the horrible, sinful, dangerous woman understood that Jesus isn’t about being clean. Jesus isn’t about making sure that he is not soiled by the many and well-known and not-so-well-known sins of human beings. Jesus isn’t about being righteous.
Jesus is about being with—being with sinners, the broken, the hurting, the dangerous, the despised. And Jesus is about forgiveness. The greater our sins, Jesus tells Simon, the greater God’s forgiveness.
To his credit, when Jesus tells Simon “I have something to say to you,” Simon replies, “Tell me, teacher.” Simon thinks he knows a lot when he doesn’t know anything—about the Kingdom, at least. But he at least knows well enough to listen to Jesus.
May we also listen and take to heart the point of this story that Jesus came not to be righteous or dine with the righteous but to be with, even touched by, sinners, and to give them gift of forgiveness and new life. May we, like the woman in this story, pour out our gratitude to Jesus by showing his beloved—other sinners just like us—the love and grace he so generously showers upon us. Whenever we do that, I believe, we make his Kingdom visible right here and right now. Amen.
- Sue Trollinger