“Forgiveness”

(1 Kings 21:1-21a, Luke 7:36-8:3)

                  I find it odd that I spend a fair amount of time in my preaching defending the Pharisees.  I grew up believing the standard idea that the term “Pharisee” is pretty much synonymous with the word “hypocrite”- that the Pharisees said one thing, but did another – that they paraded around as all pious and holy, thinking they were better than everybody else.

            Not really all that many years ago, and still among many today, that’s pretty much what folks believed about Pharisees.  From Sunday school lessons, to Bible commentaries, to seminary classrooms, to a whole lot of preaching in the church, the basic idea was that Pharisees were just self-righteous jerks.

            But the reality is actually something quite different, something much more interesting really and much more important for our reading of the Bible and our faith today.  The truth is that the Pharisees were not bad people.  They were the leaders of a movement within Judaism that sought to make the ancient faith alive and vibrant among the people.  They sought to lessen the centralized power of the priests and the whole power base in Jerusalem, and make the faith more accessible to the people.  It was a courageous, worthy goal, and even Jesus himself said to do whatever the Pharisees teach and follow it.

            What the Pharisees were really all about was giving everyday people a chance to be righteous, to connect with God.  For most of my life I thought of Pharisees along the lines of Greek Orthodox priests – with big bushy beards and fancy hats – but as a social faction within the faith goes, the Pharisees and their followers were more like Heartland than anything else, a popular movement connecting people to God.

            So if they were against the power base in Jerusalem, and sought to connect everyday people with God, then why the bad name?  Why the very real conflict with Jesus?  Well, let’s move now from information to story, and see if we can’t figure it out.

            So, by this point in Luke’s story of Jesus it is already obvious that something unusual is going on in Jesus – he had already been giving amazing signs of God’s power, and his teaching seemed strangely compelling.  He had already met with some resistance from the Pharisees because he seemed far too casual about his Sabbath observance, and in his talk of forgiveness.  The Pharisees thought forgiveness was great, but forgiveness was God’s business, not the plaything of mortals.

One day, one of the Pharisees, a man named Simon (not to be confused of course with Simon Peter the disciple) asks Jesus into his home.  Simon was interested in figuring out whether this Jesus really was a prophet from God, a man God had sent to bring the people back to God.  If Jesus really is a prophet, as there is some hint he may be, it would be a wonderful thing for the people, for a prophet could lead the people back to God.  So Simon follows the normal practice of inviting Jesus to eat with him, although, as we will soon learn, perhaps Simon was a little short on the customary hospitality.  As the meal progresses, a woman comes in and begins to devote herself to Jesus’ comfort.  We know next to nothing about the woman, not even her name, as with so many women in Bible, but we know the one thing we need to know: that is that in the view of all present at that meal, she is a sinner.

To be a sinner in this sense didn’t really mean that she was morally bankrupt.  It didn’t mean that she worked hard to violate each of the Ten Commandments at least twice a week.  But it did mean that she was at least perceived as someone who had given up on God.  She was probably on her own, not married for whatever reason, and thus completely without any social honor.  She probably had given up on much of the Jewish law, including making sacrifices in the temple.  Having no access to all the normal ways people were supposed to connect with God, she probably didn’t bother with a lot of social convention – and with all of that, was dubbed by the observant religious community as a sinner.

Now, Simon, the Pharisee, the host of this meal, remember is trying to figure out whether this Jesus is a prophet from God.  And we get to hear the conversation going on in his mind: “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.”  The implication being, of course, that if Jesus was a truly a prophet from God, he would have special, divine knowledge, would know that it was outrageous that this woman was publicly adoring him, and he would cast her off.  After all, by being at the table, even at Jesus feet, Jesus was in effect welcoming this woman into table fellowship with him – Jesus was giving her the same honor that he had given Simon by coming to sit at Simon’s table.  Jesus was, in other words, in the view of Simon, and probably just about everybody else present, violating all the same standards of faith that the woman was violating.  Welcoming her at the table meant welcoming her, accepting her, and yes, forgiving her – for what?  Forgiving her for being who she was.

But let’s not fall into that old trap about the Pharisees here.  Simon wasn’t into callous rejection of the poor, the outcast, the sinners.  The whole point of the Pharisee movement was to make it possible for such people to get back into the fold.  He could well have cared about this woman and others in her position – but to Simon, the way to care for her, is to be sure she knows that she is unacceptable to God, and to upright people, so that she will come around to repent and change her ways, come to follow the path to God that the Pharisees worked so hard to lay out for the people.  So you see, Simon wants to care for her, while remaining separated from her.  He wants to care for her, to bring her back to God, while remaining separated from her.

With all of that dynamic filling this scene with significance – the question comes back: so is this man a prophet, is this man from God, is this man perhaps even the Messiah?  It is the question on the mind of everyone who has at that dinner in Simon’s house.  And here at this table they get their answer: impossible.  This Jesus can’t be a prophet, can’t be the Messiah, can’t be the one to lead us back to God, for he is willing to welcome her, accept her, willing to forgive this sinner.  And if we have more of Luke’s story in mind, we could say it even more strongly.  Here is someone who by his table fellowship, by his welcome, by his acceptance, puts himself on the same level as the very poor, the outcast, the diseased, the dead for that matter, the sinners who don’t even bother with God any longer: one who puts himself on this same level as these can’t be the Messiah.

And there you have it: the reason Jesus offended so many people, so many Pharisees, Sadducees, religious and other leaders of all types, Presbyterians, Catholics, Evangelicals, and yes, Congregationalists.  We too want to care for people, minister to people, maybe even bring people to God - but do while remaining separated from them.  That is nice.  That leads to good works.  That often leads to praise and warm fuzzies.  But it’s not Christianity.  Christ-ianity.  It’s not the way of Jesus.

Jesus welcomes her, accepts her, forgives her.  Jesus welcomes us, accepts us, forgives us.  Jesus is with us.  And as his followers we go from this place to be with the people Jesus would be with.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.