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Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Luke 7
36 When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37 A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. 38 As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.
39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”
40 Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”
“Tell me, teacher,” he said.
41 “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii,[c] and the other fifty. 42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”
43 Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”
“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.
44 Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”
48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
49 The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”
50 Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”


It was perhaps the greatest collection of European art ever assembled in Britain.

The collection was acquired by Sir Peter Walpole, first Prime Minister of Great Britain, and proudly displayed at Houghton Hall, a house—it is said—that was purpose built to show the collection. If you can picture Buckingham Palace, Houghton Hall is a smaller version, built 120 years earlier.

The problem with great houses, of course, is they need to be maintained. And since the wealthy American heiress had yet to be invented (sorry Downton Abbey fans), Sir Peter’s grandson came up with another idea. He offered the collection—paintings by Van Dyck, Rubins, Rembrandt—to the nation, in a effort to save the house. The nation refused, and in stepped Catherine the Great, Czarina of Russia, with £40,550.

206 works traveled to the St. Petersburg, never to return. Catherine’s bid to make Russia more European got a handy boost, and the Walpole’s bought themselves a few more years at home. Briatain’s loss was Russia’s gain.

I share this sorry tale because among the paintings was one entitled “Feast in the House of Simon the Pharisee” by Peter Paul Rubins. Painted around 1620, it shows a table surrounded by various characters—the woman at Jesus’ feet in the foreground, Jesus and three disciples at the right, and a number of Pharisees at the left, with servers and others behind. There is a strange central figure who seems to have traveled into the painting from 17th century Flanders, maybe the painter or someone he knows. The Hermitage describes the scene thus:

“the left side of the composition, occupied by Simon the Pharisee, is full of swirling movement and is marked by the uneven rhythm of small, broken forms; the right side, dominated by the figure of Christ, is composed of calm lines and large areas of colour.”

Seems an apt description, with Jesus gesturing toward to young woman, clearing pronouncing the lesson of the passage: “Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”

Now, curators in large Russian museums are not expected to be theologians, but that didn’t stop the author of the painting’s summary from trying to explain the meaning behind the painting. Just after describing the structure of the composition we get this:

“Rubens conceives the painting as a dramatic conflict between the Pharisees and Christ. The Pharisees' world of material values and religious dogmatism is opposed to the Christian world of sublime ideas and noble acts, a world of sympathy, charity and goodness.”*

Well, we’ll give them an E for effort. The painting does give us a snapshot of Jesus confronting “religious dogmatism,” an abiding passion of Jesus, but I’m going to draw the line at “sublime ideas and noble acts” and I’ll tell you why: the parable.

A parable, as told by Jesus, is always about life in the Kingdom. The unspoken (or sometimes spoken) lesson is ‘the Kingdom of God is like...” But there is more. Parables describe a small fictional world created for the sake of the parable—which then sours—and a new world is described. Sometimes the lesson is self-evident, and sometimes—like this parable—it’s resolve in dialogue.

So Jesus creates a world, usually one that we can relate to easily. In this case, really easily: “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.” Think Cash Money and their stupid payday loan mascot seemingly named Cash-a-Roo. But we know payday loans are evil and not at all cute and friendly.

So the parable creates a world, which then sours: “Neither of them had the money to pay him back.” We think we know this will end badly, until the twist: “so he forgave the debts of both.”

Now this is one of those parables resolved in dialogue, so Jesus poses a question: “Now which of them will love him more?”

Simon [the Pharisee] replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”

“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.

And then we get the lengthy contrast between the woman and Simon the Pharisee.

Now, the tricky thing about parables is they are for us, and our job is locate ourselves in the story. Are you the older brother, the prodigal or the father who forgives? When we hear it, we are supposed to enter the story and find our character, and it’s most often an “ouch.”

So with the Parable of the Two Debtors we need to locate ourselves in the parable. Are we the ones with more to forgive, or less? I’m gonna give you a minute. Of course, as good church folk, we are the ones with less debt to forgive—after all, we’re good church folk. So do we love less, having been forgiven less? But wait, it gets worse.

In the stock characters found in the Bible, we can usually find ourselves. So when the disciples are being foolish, say arguing about who is the greatest, we see ourselves. When the disciples are being passive, and Jesus is taking on religious elites such as the Pharisees, we see ourselves. Don’t think you’re not the religious elite, because you’re good church folk.

Loving God less because we have less to forgive. Hey, Jesus, that hurts. We love you God, we truly do, but you seem to think the broken and the sad and the sinful love you more.

“Now which of them will love him more?”
“I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”

“Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet.”

Christianity is less about “sublime ideas and noble acts” and more about redeemed sinners. It is about locating ourselves in the parables and then accepting the forgiveness we need. It is about overcoming our desire to be ‘good church folk’ and recognizing that we are in need of forgiveness as much as that remarkable woman at Jesus’ feet. It is about being convicted at the very moment we are released.

Soon we will gather near the table, where the bigger debt is forgiven, and the love we feel is shown. We gather in mutual need, where bread is broken and wine is poured, and we are reconciled to the God who never stops loving, amen.

*https://www.hermitagemuseum.org/wps/portal/hermitage/digital-collection/01.+Paintings/48168/?lng=

posted by michael jacob kooiman @ 5:55 AM