Simon was nervous already, having invited Jesus, a known sabbath-breaker (and yet a possible prophet?) to his home for a meal. Simon knew that Jesus was performing miracles but he was also bothered that Jesus so easily mingled with the uneducated and unclean people who were beneath the status of he and his Pharisee brethren. He was deeply conflicted. God was obviously with this man but how could that be when he regularly contaminated himself, mingling with the rabble and working on the sabbath? Simon’s entire life, in fact that of his nation’s right standing with God had been maintained in large part through their meticulous attendance to the Law which this Jesus seemed to pay so little attention.
The room was already filled with awkward social tension when the town prostitute, the most defiled person in their city, found her way into their gathering. No one escorted her back outside. She was far too unclean to even be approached by men of Simon’s stature and purity. Besides, she was crying uncontrollably. The only thing that brought the noise level down where people could once again hear was when the woman’s eyes met those of Jesus. She then rushed to him, falling to her knees and with convulsive sobs drenched his feet with her tears. She added perfume to the pool that was forming there and used her hair to mop up the mixture. With that concoction which she was continually diluting with her tears, she washed Jesus’ feet.
Jesus, knowing Simon’s fragile condition as a Pharisee and a dinner host jump starts the conversation. He said, “Simon, I would like to say something to you.” Simon, relieved beyond the telling (thinking things could not possibly get worse), said, “Please. By all means say it.”
Jesus then makes his dinner speech using The Parable of the Two Debtors. We know the story which Jesus used to make his point and especially its punch line….
She (this weeping prostitute) was forgiven many, many sins, and so she is very, very grateful. If the forgiveness is minimal, the gratitude is minimal. (MSG)
Simon realized that Jesus (with his defiled accomplice) had just exposed him and most of his guests as the ungrateful minimalists in the parable. What Simon didn’t know yet was that while this seemed to easily be the worst day of his life, it was also potentially the best. Jesus said, astonishingly to Simon, that this woman’s sins had been forgiven on the basis of her profuse gratitude. It was quite clear, Jesus was implying that his sins (and those of the other Pharisees present) were not forgiven because they had, as yet, no thankfulness working in their hearts.
In God’s sight, whose sin is actually greater? Is it a woman who repeatedly sells her body for the money to survive or is it that of those further up the social ladder who repeatedly pass judgement on others like this woman, who they perceive to be beneath them morally and socially? In the sight of God, blessed are the poor in spirit, those who have come to see their spiritual bankruptcy before a holy God. And also…. how hard it is for the rich to enter into the kingdom of God. This explains why tears flowed in one lace and not the other.
In some circles today, a heart broken by God is way down the list in terms of its worth as a spiritual experience. A story containing a healing, deliverance, a blessing or an answered prayer would be the preference. In some circles it would be unthinkable that God might coordinate the circumstances, as he did for Simon, to expose in us some impoverishment of heart. We are told that our hearts are not impoverished. They are brand new, intrinsically good and above such old-time religion. I actually agree with this theology but I have a problem; I believe God has broken into my new heart on at least three occasions since first coming to know Him 37 years ago. I would not trade those encounters for anything. They were answers to my deepest and most heartfelt prayers…..
Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way. Ps 139: 23-24
Had it not been for these break-ins (and the accompanying gifts of repentance), I could have never wept over my heart (however new it may have theologically been) for the hurtful and anxious ways it had learned to live independent of God, while making, I might add, quite a showing (religiously speaking). I read about Simon the Pharisee and I have hope for him because I recall Rob-the pharisee. It is just like Jesus, in his kindness, to step into a party (or a human heart) and disrupt the false and fragile equilibrium of the status quo.
I know from experience that this process of brokenness is a rare and precious thing. Without having passed this way a few times I would never have arrived at the place of my present declaration…
….that God is able to keep me from stumbling, and to make me stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy (from Jude 24)
Having experienced this kind of blessedness, I can only pray to Him who is the fulfillment of the Law for all those who have and will believe….
Father, would you cleanse us from every pharisaic attitude operating in our hearts. Please help us to see where, in any way, we are carrying around judgements toward those you have bled and died for. Grant us the same compassion You have for the oppressed and discarded. Break our hearts where they need broken and let us rise cleansed – free and joyful, ready to proclaim your name in word and deed before a world that is lost and rightly skeptical about religion. Through us show them Your Life Father! Now to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.