LUKE 7:36-8:3
Gordon E. Ellis
June 13, 2004
LOVE MAKES US BETTER
Our scripture lesson today is the story of a woman, who was KNOWN to be a SINNER, a PROSTITUTE, and HERE, she’s accosting Jesus at a banquet. She washes His FEET with her tears, DRIES them with her hair, KISSES His feet and ANOINTS them with perfume. NOW, let me ask you MEN out there: HOW would you FEEL if a woman – and particularly a woman with a reputation like HERS, a prostitute -- came UP to you at an important BUSINESS luncheon and accosted YOU like that -- invading your personal space -- TOUCHING you -- weeping – and just plain making a public SPECTACLE of herself -- AND of YOU. HOW would you FEEL? And HOW would you RESPOND to this woman? WHAT would you DO?
Let me ALSO ask you WOMEN out there how YOU would feel if you learned that such a thing had HAPPENED to your husband? What would you THINK? How would YOU respond? OR, what if YOU had planned a very important DINNER party, ONLY to have it INTERRUPTED by such an OUTRAGEOUS scene as THIS? HOW would you FEEL?
Furthermore, please be AWARE that EVERYTHING that this woman DOES in our Scripture Lesson has SEXUAL overtones to it. Letting down her hair in order to wipe her tears from the FEET of Jesus is CLEARLY sexual. In THAT time and place, a woman NEVER let down her hair in the presence of a man -- ANY man -- EXCEPT her husband, and only THEN as a form of SEDUCTION. And then, there’s the KISSING of Jesus’ FEET, and the PERFUME! I mean: there are DEFINITELY sexual overtones here. And I’m SURE that ALL of the MEN around the table are wondering what this SCENE is all about. And very possibly, SOME of them might have KNOWN this woman professionally, so to speak. And so, they’re sitting LOW, trying to be INVISIBLE, just in case she might target THEM next.
Now Simon, the host of the dinner, is a PHARISEE. In OTHER words, HE’S one of the most RELIGIOUS men in town! And he’s a PARAGON of VIRTUE. He observes HIGH moral standards for HIMSELF, and he expects OTHERS to live by HIGH standards as well. And He has INVITED Jesus to dinner because of the growing REPUTATION of Jesus as a PROPHET. For SURE, he has many DOUBTS about this young man, but an evening of dinner conversation will tell him ALL that he needs to know, AND whether or not Jesus DESERVES His growing reputation. But NOW, all of a sudden, this WOMAN appears on the scene -- at Simon’s OWN table -- with her outrageous behavior and OVERT sexuality. And how EMBARRASSING it IS! The entire EVENING is just RUINED! On the OTHER hand, it DOES give Simon an chance to see Jesus in ACTION, and to see HOW Jesus will HANDLE such a MESSY circumstance. Jesus, of course, has a REPUTATION for always finding JUST the right WORDS to turn a bad situation to His OWN favor. And SO, it will be INTERESTING to see HOW Jesus gets Himself out of THIS one. Well, SURPRISING, Jesus responds by doing NOTHING! HE doesn’t say a thing. He doesn’t SHOO the woman away. He doesn’t leave, saying: Excuse me, I’ll be right back! He just ACTS as if this woman’s BEHAVIOR is perfectly NORMAL.
Well NOW, of course, Simon knows EVERYTHING that he needs to KNOW about Jesus! He doesn’t SAY anything to Jesus, but to HIMSELF, he says: IF this man were REALLY a PROPHET, He would KNOW who, and what KIND of woman, this IS who is touching Him! He would KNOW that this woman is a SINNER! And of course, you didn’t need to be a PROPHET to figure THAT out. But the POINT is that JESUS does NOTHING to STOP her.
However, Jesus IS a prophet, and He PROVES it by knowing what SIMON is thinking. And Jesus tells a PARABLE, which is really a RIDDLE. A creditor has two debtors, one who owes a FAIR amount of money and the other, who owes a HUGE amount of money. And the creditor forgives BOTH debts. Well, Jesus asks Simon, WHICH of them will love the creditor MORE? And Simon replies: I SUPPOSE the one for whom the creditor cancelled the greater debt. That’s CORRECT, says Jesus. And Jesus goes ON to remind Simon that HE, as the HOST of this dinner, has shown Jesus NONE of the EXPECTED courtesies. But THAT, of course, just shows Simon’s AMBIVALENCE about Jesus. He DOESN’T love Jesus. He DOESN’T respect Jesus. He’s ONLY invited Jesus to his table in order to get a better LOOK at Jesus, and CHECK Him out. This WOMAN, on the other hand, DOES know Jesus. Jesus has seen her before, but THAT encounter was NOT what Simon THOUGHT it was. Jesus had NOT taken advantage of her, but instead, had helped her to turn her life around. He had given her a NEW sense of WHO she could BE. He had given her HOPE! He had FORGIVEN her, and HELPED her to forgive herself. And SO, she loves Jesus, just as WE would love someone who had SAVED our life.
This story reminds me of the musical, Man of La Mancha. In that musical, Don Quixote is a CRAZY old man, who thinks himself a KNIGHT. And one day, when he and his squire stop at a roadside INN, Don Quixote meets Aldonza, a coarse woman who makes her living by serving men food and warming their beds. But when Don Quixote LOOKS at her, he doesn’t SEE her coarseness. HE sees the woman of his DREAMS. SO, he calls her DULCINEA, which means sweet, and he TELLS her that she is WONDERFUL, and that she will be his LADY.
Aldonza protests: I am NOT your lady! she says. I am not ANY kind of a LADY. I am the most CASUAL BRIDE of the murdering scum of the earth. BUT, Don Quixote REFUSES to accept HER estimation of herself, and INVITES her to DREAM an IMPOSSIBLE dream. And little by little, straining against EVERY instinct, Aldonza CATCHES herself DREAMING. She CATCHES herself SEEING the vision, HOPING the hope, and WANTING to hold ON to the AFFECTION that Don Quixote has SHOWN to her. And little by little, ALDONZA fades away, and DULCINEA begins to take her place. Well, toward the END of Man of La Mancha, Don Quixote DIES. And when Don Quixote’s squire calls her ALDONZA, she TURNS to him and says, MY name is DULCINEA! You see: she HAS, in the end, BECOME what Don Quixote SAW in her. And her life has been REDEEMED, proving that LOVE can transform us, that love can make us BETTER people. Now of course, Dulcinea’s story is FICTITIOUS, but it’s BASED on a TRUE story! It’s based on a THOUSAND true stories! It’s based on a MILLION true stories! In fact, I can’t TELL you how MANY times I have witnessed this SAME story playing itself out in REAL life. And EVERY time, it’s just BEAUTIFUL to see!
Furthermore, I have experienced this story in my OWN life. There was a time in my life, as an early TEEN, when I didn’t have a very good self-image. In fact, I think I could have gone BAD at that point. I could have REBELLED and made some VERY poor choices. BUT, I had a great grandmother, a very POOR woman, who was one-half Native American, and SHE loved me like NOBODY else, and had such great FAITH in me. And she just KNEW, and TOLD me over and over, that I was SPECIAL, and that I was CHOSEN for something special in life. And I believe that I have spent a good deal of my life trying to live UP to her VERY optimistic ESTIMATATION of me. SO, I have SOME sense of how DULCINEA felt.
Yes friends: LOVE has the power to make us BETTER! Love has the power to TRANSFORM us! And when someone ACCEPTS us for WHO we are, and sees WITHIN us something even BETTER -- when someone FORGIVES our SINS and helps us become LESS of a sinner -- we can’t HELP but to LOVE and appreciate that person VERY deeply.
You know: when I read our Gospel lesson for today, I was SURPRISED at first to see that the first 3 verses of chapter 8 had been tacked ON to the story in chapter 7. But then, I saw the CONNECTION. After leaving Simon’s house, Jesus goes on a PREACHING mission, and Luke says: The 12 were WITH Him, as well as some WOMEN, who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward, Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who PROVIDED for them out of THEIR resources. Now, did you HEAR the connection? Jesus, you see, has TRANSFORMED these women’s LIVES, JUST as he had transformed the life of the woman who comes to Him at the dinner table. Now, we know very LITTLE about these women, EXCEPT that Jesus had made a DIFFERENCE in their lives, and that they are RESPONDING by trying to make a difference in OTHER people’s lives. As Luke says, they were providing for them (providing for Jesus’ ministry) OUT of their OWN resources. And that’s a NORMAL response, isn’t it? CHRIST’S love has made them better people, and SO, they are MOVED by gratitude to RESPOND, just like the woman who comes to Him at the dinner table. And JUST like ME as well…. You see, Jesus FORGAVE the sinful woman, and changed her life. And Jesus CURED these women, who supported His ministry, and changed THEIR lives. And Christ, through an OLD, poor woman, HALF Native American, changed MY life as well, and MY image of myself. And that’s PART of why I do what I do, because we respond TO love WITH love.
Well, friends: I believe that CHRIST comes to ALL of us. OFTEN He comes in DISGUISE in and through other people. And He offers to ALL of us this LIFE-CHANGING love, HOPING that it will, indeed, make us BETTER people than we ever thought POSSIBLE. You see: Christ, and the LOVE of Christ, is POWERFUL enough to make a DULCINEA out of EVERY Aldonza. It doesn’t matter whether we’re male or female, rich or poor, seven or seventy. In the hands of Christ, ANYTHING is possible. And therefore, WE just need to let ourselves FEEL His love WHENEVER and HOWEVER it COMES to us. SO, watch for HIS love coming into your life, my friends, MAYBE in DISGUISE. And SEE what will RESULT from it. Remember: love DOES make us BETTER. Thanks be to God! Amen.