It was an audacious act on her part, wasn’t it? Imagine an uninvited guest crashing a dinner party, throwing herself at the feet of the guest of honor, and washing his feet with her tears, drying them with her hair, and anointing them with precious ointment. Not only that, she was a woman with a reputation; everybody knew that she was a "sinner." But that knowledge didn’t stop her from entering Simon’s home uninvited and unannounced; rather her self-knowledge - her awareness of her sinful estate and her desire to gain forgiveness - compelled her to do what she did. It was a case when actions speak louder than words; she doesn’t say a single word in this episode, but her intentions were perceived by Jesus, and he responded with recognition and respect. Suddenly, she had the possibility of a new life.

She Washed Jesus’ Feet at the Dinner Table

When the woman washed Jesus’ feet with her tears, it was obvious to Jesus that this was an act of repentance and faith. She had come to him and had done what she did simply because she wanted to get rid of her past and begin a new life. When Heywood Broun, the newsman, was asked why he had joined the church - was it out of intellectual inquiry or failure of nerve? - he said, "I wanted to get rid of my sins." The weeping woman knew that she needed God’s forgiveness for the way that she had been living if the rest of her life was to have any meaning.

Repentance is always turning one’s back on the past as well as turning toward God and new dimensions of living. Loren Eiseley tells about a scientist who was instrumental in the development of the atomic bomb. He was walking in the woods near his farm with a couple of young scientists. The scientist came upon a turtle in a clearing, thought that it would make a nice pet for his children, picked it up and continued to walk toward his farmhouse. All of a sudden, and without a word, he stopped, turned around, went back to the clearing where he found the turtle and put it down in the exact spot where he had located it. When he rejoined his young companions who were obviously wondering about his strange action, he said to them, "It suddenly dawned on me that I have interfered with nature too much for one man." It was a scientist’s way of saying, "Mea culpa," "I have sinned," by his actions before he ever said a single word to his young colleagues. And that man, if the story is accurate, turned toward new life as the headlines in a newspaper reveal: "Inventor of the Bomb Says Energy Should Be Solar Not Nuclear." The story said that he and other scientists had opened a "nuclear can of worms" when they invented the Bomb and opened the way for the development of nuclear energy for the future. He believes that nuclear energy is dangerous and potentially destructive; it could possibly mean the end of all life on earth as we know it now.

The woman who washed Jesus’ feet committed an act of contrition, not simply an act of worship and wonder. Behind what she did was a sense of awe; she knew Jesus had the power to forgive sins, but she was so aware of the enormity of her sins that she dared to approach the Christ and seek his forgiveness by weeping and washing his feet. How is it, then, that our confession is so peremptory and superficial sometimes?

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

We can face our sins with a promise, the very promise of God:

But if we confess our sins, God who is faithful and just will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Our prayer follows the minister’s admonition and invitation:

Most merciful God, we confess that we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves. We have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone ... For the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us. Forgive us, renew us, and lead us, so that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways, to the glory of your holy name. Amen.

And God says to us - through the pastor - "Your sins are forgiven ... Your faith has made you whole. Go in peace." When the woman washed Jesus’ feet, she cleared away all the hindrances and barriers that prevented people from approaching God personally and asking him to forgive their sins. She was one of those who initiated what has been called "the priesthood of all believers." She tested its validity, and Jesus blessed her action and its implications for all people.

Good Works Do Not Earn Forgiveness

It would be easy to reach the conclusion that Christ forgave the woman because she had done a good and meritorious work in washing his feet and anointing them with precious ointment, but the truth of the matter is that she did what she did because the Lord had accepted her presence as an unspoken plea for forgiveness. The Christ obviously knew who she was and how people regarded her

- a sinner and an outcast from polite society. After all, what was her action compared with that of Simon? Hadn’t he invited Jesus to dine in his home? He was a righteous man who kept the law scrupulously in every detail, but he was gracious enough to invite this itinerant preacher-teacher-healer to be his guest. That must have been worth something to the Christ, don’t you think? Surely he deserved commendation for his righteousness and his graciousness in serving as host for Jesus that day.

Perhaps it was the Pharisees - even Simon, specifically - who prompted Soren Kierkegaard to write his parable about the danger of becoming merely a "satisfied customer" in the faith and not doing much about it. Kierkegaard imagined:

that near the cross of christ a man had stood who beheld the terrible scene, and then became a professor of what he saw. He explained it. Later he witnessed the persecution and imprisonment of the apostles and became a professor of what he had witnessed. He studied the drama of the cross, but he was never crucified with Christ in his own life. He sudied apostolic history, but he did not live apostolically. He was an observer and a talker about Christianity, but not a doer.

Now, it may be pushing things a bit too far by claiming that Simon fits the description developed by Kierkegaard. It just may be that we mirror his accusations more than Simon does. The Pharisees were "doers" in a very legalistic and literalistic sense; they were scrupulous in their observation of God’s law. They believed that they earned God’s grace by their obedience and keeping of the commandments. With us, we know - or say we know - that our good deeds gain nothing for us from God; forgiveness comes as a free gift from God. There’s no way to earn it or merit it. God gives it to those who, in faith, ask for it in Christ.

Maybe that’s our problem. Since forgiveness is simply given to us by God, and since we can’t earn it, perhaps we don’t really have to do anything more than accept it, offer thanks, and go on our way rejoicing. But the gift is life - new life - and that means that we must live it and use it in the service of God and our fellowhuman beings. For some reason or other, we get grace and good works confused so that grace eliminates good works rather than initiating them in the form of a loving response to the goodness of God in Christ Jesus. Instead of being in a position as Christians where we may do less than Simon and the Pharisees, grace and forgiveness mean that more is expected of the faithful followers of Jesus whO have received his grace than of those who are still attempting to earn it. And so, the woman’s extravagant action - weeping and washing Jesus’ feet with her tears, wiping them with her hair, and anointing them with precious ointment - is an example for us to emulate in our lives.

To Be Forgiven Is to Forgive

One of the most interesting details about this incident is that Simon recognized the woman but had no time for her; he didn’t want her in his house, and so he condemned her for what she was. The difference between Simon and Christ, at this point, was that there was no forgiveness in the heart of Simon. He didn’t have a chance with Christ. That’s why our Lord said to him, "Do you see this woman? I entered your house, and you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but ... she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment ... I tell you, her sins, which are many are forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little." Simon didn’t love people very much. At least he had no time for the strange woman because he had little or no need for forgiveness. He thought of himself as a righteous individual; all was well between him and God. He fell victim to the plague that preys on religious people - the propensity for judging other people instead of loving, forgiving, and serving them. A sense of selfrighteousness deceives us into thinking that we are God instead of his forgiven children. And that cuts us off from the fullness of life God offers us in Christ.

It was one of those things that happened on the spur of the moment. Two neighbors met in one’s backyard; they didn’t know each other very well but they exchanged niceties and small talk. All of a sudden, one woman threw her arms around the other woman and began to sob. She blurted out a story of heartbreak; her husband was involved in an affair of some months’ duration. She had just learned about it, had confronted him, and he had admitted his involvement but had no sense of remorse or intention of breaking it off. She said, "What should I do? Should I tell my sons? Or what?" And so began a saga that lasted for a couple of years. They went to a marriage counselor, but her husband broke off that arrangement. She engaged an attorney and was on the verge of divorcing her husband. She even contemplated suicide, saying "Perhaps that would be best. I have nothing - except my sons - to live for." But she didn’t and she wouldn’t give him up. She said, painfully, "I love him too much to leave him, no matter what he has done to me." She suffered through the situation for almost three years before a change came. Her husband returned, sought forgiveness and reconciliation, and she was ready and able to say, "I forgive you" and mean it. Their marriage has never been better; they are happier than they ever were.

At the same time, another couple who lived close by was also having marital difficulties. In this case, it was the woman who had been unfaithful. They travelled a parallel route to the first couple - marriage counselors, attorneys and a possible divorce. Finally, after a couple of years, the man divorced his wife and the relationship was legally at an end. But he couldn’t give her up; he continued to see her and, in a way, wooed her again. It appeared that they might reconcile and be married again, but the man could never forgive his wife for what "she had done to him." The woman who forgave her husband learned about the situation, and when she heard the tragic story, she said, "He has to learn to forgive. I would like to teach him how to forgive. Not to forgive makes you sick." Oddly enough, the woman who was able to forgive never goes to church; she and her husband are nominally Christian. But the other people attended worship regularly; the man, in particular, counted himself to be a very religious - perhaps, a self-righteous person. The non-religious woman loved and forgave the way God does, and her husband knows very well how much her forgiveness cost her. He has been forgiven much and loves much in return. But the second couple never reconciled, each went a separate way, and each is now attempting to build a new life.

"Now," said Jesus to Simon, "which of them (the two debtors who were forgiven by their creditor) will love him more?" And Simon answered, "The one, I suppose, to whom he forgave more." Jesus replied, "You have judged rightly." To the woman he said, "your sins are forgiven" and "go in peace." The principle of Jesus’ parable and the drama that took place in Simon’s house is still valid today - in our relationships with one another and with God. Amen.