Devotional 6-11-10

Luke 7:36-50

I attended high school graduation a couple of weeks ago. If you have ever been to a graduation, you may have noticed then when some students walk across the stage, there is a burst of applause from the student’s family, but all in all, the response is rather calm and sedate. Dignified. Then another student will walk across the stage, and the response is huge. There’s cheering and clapping, stomping of feet and a short lived, but lively celebration. I wonder if those students whose family and friends respond in what Steve and my boys would call a “ginormous” way are graduating after a long, hard battle. Does the battle serve to make them more grateful for the hard-won result?

The passage from Luke describes Jesus having dinner in the home of Simon the Pharisee. Picture for a moment what the scene was like. Homes of wealthy people at the time were built in a U-shape with a courtyard in the middle with a garden and maybe a fountain. William Barclay tells us that the garden area was open, and when a rabbi came to teach, people were welcome to come in and to listen. It was in this way that a “bad woman” – and that’s the word from the scripture – a “bad” woman – came to be near Jesus. She finds that Simon hasn’t provided basic hospitality for Jesus, so she strives to do it. She’s wearing what is called an alabaster around her neck – a common practice for the day – full of costly perfuse. She washes Jesus feet with her tears and dries them with her hair, anointing him with the perfume.

Now, Simon the Pharisee was an expert in detecting “bad” people. He knew one when he saw her, and he tells Jesus so. Jesus, who loves the Pharisee as much as he loves the woman, tries to explain it to him. Jesus asks the Pharisee who would be more grateful – a person forgiven a debt of 500 denarii or one forgiven a debt of 50 denarii. The one who is forgiven more will be more grateful. Jesus makes this incredible link – the one who is forgiven more will love God more.

This woman reacts to Jesus in a way that demonstrates her incredible love for him. No one can mistake it, this love is so obvious. Jesus is telling us that her incredible love arises from her awareness of how much she has been forgiven. Simon, on the other hand, believes that he is “good” – that he is in no need of forgiveness.



The person who is forgiven a debt of 500 denarii has a whole lot for which to be grateful. The woman in Jesus’ story who is forgiven much has many reasons to love her Lord.



But in comparison, the Pharisee in the gospel scripture, firmly believes he is “good” and he stands not only in judgment of the woman who is “bad,” but also in judgment of Jesus. Because of where he is standing, he is blocking his own view of how much he is in need of God – of how much God has done and will do in his life.



Are we like the woman who has been forgiven much or are we more like the Pharisee?

There is a prayer often used on an Emmaus walk – Dear God, help the person who needs you the most, and help the person who believes she doesn’t need you at all. So I ask you today – which one are you? Are you the person who needs God the most? Or are you the person who doesn’t believe you need God at all?



Kim Matthews