Welcomed and Loved - Criticized and Rejected
Simon, you did not offer me the traditional gesture of hospitality - water to wash my feet.
She has bathed my feet with her tears and has not ceased kissing my feet since I got here.
Luke 7:36-8:3
The gospel of Luke is my very favorite because it is the gospel which most presents marginalized people as heroes - women, children, the unchurched and the diseased. It is the gospel of the despised, rejected, discounted and the left out. It is the gospel, I believe, that most inspires Pope Francis. It's all about mercy and forgiveness, all about going to the margins, all about God's unconditional love for all people.
All kinds of messed up stuff is going on in this story. The whole thing would have freaked out any upstanding synagogue-going religious observer. People would expect good people to put up a wall between themselves and bad people to protect themselves from contagion, but in this story Jesus once again tears down those walls and embraces those walled out! He not only does it, but shows us that God does the same thing. This story has to be one of the most shocking stories in all of the gospels.
First of all, a Pharisee invited Jesus to dinner. In the first place, that would have been a nervy thing for a Pharisee, a meticulous religious rule keeper, to do because Jesus and the Pharisees were on a collision course over Jesus and his routine of not observing many of their sacred religious customs - and teaching others to do the same. To the establishment, Jesus was a religious pariah. What would have been Simon the Pharisee's motive for his invitation? It certainly wasn't out of respect and love because he disrespects Jesus by failing to offer him the customary water to wash his feet that any guest in a Jewish home would have offered. Maybe he was a "collector of famous people" who wanted to be admired by the community for his ability to snag such a controversial guest as entertainment of the other guests. Maybe he knew that it had the making of one exciting party - with fireworks to boot!
Second, what was Jesus' motive for accepting such an invitation? Certainly, it was an opportunity model his love for all people, even the religious establishment. Did he not say, "I did not come to destroy the Law, but to fulfill it?" Certainly, he knew that it would probably be an occasion to teach the religious establishment about God's love for all human beings, even the despised, rejected and left out.
News travels fast! A woman, known for her sinfulness in the community, hears about this dinner party and crashes the party. As Bob Dylan used to sing, "Freedom is just another words for nothing left to lose." She makes a scene. She shocks the guests and freaks out the host. She gushes with shocking, illegal, enthusiastic gestures of love. Women were meant to be scene, but not heard! She walks right into the room of men, gets down on the floor, lets down her hair, cries profusely all over his feet instead of pouring water over them, dries them, not with a towel, but with her hair, opens up a bottle of expensive perfumed oil and anoints them. A decent woman back then would never have crashed a men's group, never have touched another man other than her husband, never have let her hair down in public.
With this, the theological fireworks that Simon had, no doubt hoped for, broke out! Surely, Simon the Pharisee knew that his golden moment had come - that his party would be talked about for years to come! Surely, Jesus knew that his golden moment had come - to teach people about God's unconditional love.
The story ends with the woman being grateful and the Pharisees critical. The woman was extravagant with her love. The Pharisees were stingy with theirs. This dramatic story ends with Jesus delivering his pithy, yet profound, teaching, "Little is forgiven the one whose love is small!"
One of the biggest challenges I have faced as a priest is to convince people of God’s unconditional love for them. Why is it that so many of us have been trained by people who have dismissed these intimate stories of God’s love and have combed through the Scriptures, piecing together condemning, judging, and damning messages that they turn into a religion? Why did they, and why do we, find those negative messages more believable? I have received more letters questioning my “too lenient notions of God’s love” than any other critical letters since I became a priest.
Jesus revealed the “true God,” not this “false mean god” that people have created since Adam and Eve. Even in that story, God says to Adam and Eve, “Who told you that you were naked?” (Genesis 3:11). In other words, “Who told you that you were bad, separated from me, and defective? I certainly didn’t!” Jesus came to talk us out of the mean God we keep creating in our own minds. I can’t imagine trying to live my religion without being in love with God! I can’t imagine practicing a religion based on fear and dread!
All kinds of messed up stuff is going on in this story. The whole thing would have freaked out any upstanding synagogue-going religious observer. People would expect good people to put up a wall between themselves and bad people to protect themselves from contagion, but in this story Jesus once again tears down those walls and embraces those walled out! He not only does it, but shows us that God does the same thing. This story has to be one of the most shocking stories in all of the gospels.
First of all, a Pharisee invited Jesus to dinner. In the first place, that would have been a nervy thing for a Pharisee, a meticulous religious rule keeper, to do because Jesus and the Pharisees were on a collision course over Jesus and his routine of not observing many of their sacred religious customs - and teaching others to do the same. To the establishment, Jesus was a religious pariah. What would have been Simon the Pharisee's motive for his invitation? It certainly wasn't out of respect and love because he disrespects Jesus by failing to offer him the customary water to wash his feet that any guest in a Jewish home would have offered. Maybe he was a "collector of famous people" who wanted to be admired by the community for his ability to snag such a controversial guest as entertainment of the other guests. Maybe he knew that it had the making of one exciting party - with fireworks to boot!
Second, what was Jesus' motive for accepting such an invitation? Certainly, it was an opportunity model his love for all people, even the religious establishment. Did he not say, "I did not come to destroy the Law, but to fulfill it?" Certainly, he knew that it would probably be an occasion to teach the religious establishment about God's love for all human beings, even the despised, rejected and left out.
News travels fast! A woman, known for her sinfulness in the community, hears about this dinner party and crashes the party. As Bob Dylan used to sing, "Freedom is just another words for nothing left to lose." She makes a scene. She shocks the guests and freaks out the host. She gushes with shocking, illegal, enthusiastic gestures of love. Women were meant to be scene, but not heard! She walks right into the room of men, gets down on the floor, lets down her hair, cries profusely all over his feet instead of pouring water over them, dries them, not with a towel, but with her hair, opens up a bottle of expensive perfumed oil and anoints them. A decent woman back then would never have crashed a men's group, never have touched another man other than her husband, never have let her hair down in public.
With this, the theological fireworks that Simon had, no doubt hoped for, broke out! Surely, Simon the Pharisee knew that his golden moment had come - that his party would be talked about for years to come! Surely, Jesus knew that his golden moment had come - to teach people about God's unconditional love.
The story ends with the woman being grateful and the Pharisees critical. The woman was extravagant with her love. The Pharisees were stingy with theirs. This dramatic story ends with Jesus delivering his pithy, yet profound, teaching, "Little is forgiven the one whose love is small!"
One of the biggest challenges I have faced as a priest is to convince people of God’s unconditional love for them. Why is it that so many of us have been trained by people who have dismissed these intimate stories of God’s love and have combed through the Scriptures, piecing together condemning, judging, and damning messages that they turn into a religion? Why did they, and why do we, find those negative messages more believable? I have received more letters questioning my “too lenient notions of God’s love” than any other critical letters since I became a priest.
Jesus revealed the “true God,” not this “false mean god” that people have created since Adam and Eve. Even in that story, God says to Adam and Eve, “Who told you that you were naked?” (Genesis 3:11). In other words, “Who told you that you were bad, separated from me, and defective? I certainly didn’t!” Jesus came to talk us out of the mean God we keep creating in our own minds. I can’t imagine trying to live my religion without being in love with God! I can’t imagine practicing a religion based on fear and dread!
Over the years, I have had the awesome
privilege of talking to some very conscious people getting ready to die:
especially those with AIDS and with cancer. Some were not pious people, but
most were deeply spiritual. Some were able to tell me that they accepted their
approaching deaths and they wanted to “do it well.” Some were extremely
thankful for the “eternal life” they had experienced in this world. Some looked
with “joyful hope” for the “eternal life” ahead of them. You know, if you’re
facing death, it doesn’t get any better than that! I hope I can do half as
well. I pray for the ability to be conscious, filled with gratitude and ready
to go when the time comes! Yes, I want to be conscious! I want to choose to let
go and leap into that great unknown, to leap into the arms of God!
This is what I believe and what I have tried to teach as a priest for the last forty-six years! At the end of the day, when all is said and done, when all the religious laws are boiled down, it comes to this, "Little is forgiven the one whose love is small!"
This is what I believe and what I have tried to teach as a priest for the last forty-six years! At the end of the day, when all is said and done, when all the religious laws are boiled down, it comes to this, "Little is forgiven the one whose love is small!"
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