Cliff Loesch June 17, 2007 Luke 7:36-50 All I Wanted Was a Nice Dinner Party There is one idea about leadership that if you want to bring about change in your particular setting, you make a plan to intentionally stress the system just a little so that everything is out of balance.  Then you step in and help manage the change as it occurs.  I've never really bought into that theory of leadership.  To me it seems like there are enough problems that occur naturally in life and in organizations that it doesn't make sense to me to actually try to create more stress-even if it is supposedly stress with a purpose.  Frankly, it seems like giving a toddler a push just to help them learn to catch themselves and keep from falling down, or like sending a teenager into heavy rush-hour traffic before they've mastered the very basics of driving.  Not only is it unnecessary-certainly toddlers learn how to balance without getting shoved, and teenagers become comfortable in traffic as they gain experience-but it also seems too risky.  And to me, it's simply counter-intuitive to create trouble in order to try to bring about harmonious change. But when we look at Luke 7, it appears that Jesus, himself, may have been using this approach to bring about some change.  And I have to say, "This poor Pharisee."  I know what you're thinking.  Very rarely would I feel sorry for the Pharisees.  Usually I have some issues with the things the Pharisees say and do.  And today is really no exception.  But this poor Pharisee.  You can't help but feel sorry for the guy.  Uncomfortable things were coming at him from all sides. I do need to say a word about this passage.  There are passages that are similar to this one in all four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  But there are some differences in the accounts, and if you are not aware of these differences it is easy to get them all a little mixed up.  This passage in Luke, actually, stands apart from the other three.  This story in Luke is set in Galilee, early in Jesus' ministry, whereas the other three gospels report an incident that happened in Bethany, near Jerusalem, toward the end of Jesus' earthly ministry.  In the three gospels (Matthew, Mark, and John) the incident happens at the home of Simon the Leper, whereas in Luke the setting is the home of a Pharisee, who is also called Simon.  In the three gospels, the woman in question seems to be Mary, the sister of Lazarus and Martha and she is not described as a sinner.  But in Luke, the woman's name is never given, but she is referred to as a sinner.  In Bethany, Mary broke a flask of extremely expensive perfume worth more than a year's wages and two of the gospels report that she poured it on his head, not his feet.  But in Luke, the perfume in question was likely more ordinary and not so costly and was poured on Jesus' feet.  Only Luke reports tears that were used to wash Jesus' feet.  It's pretty much impossible to harmonize all four of these accounts into one event.  Very likely, two events are reported-one in Bethany, and one in Galilee.  I give this background information to simply say that for today we are looking at Luke alone.  So we'll try to keep from mingling details from the other gospels to simply focus on what this text tells us. All this Pharisee wanted to do was have a nice dinner.  It was a gracious invitation.  He invited Jesus over for a meal.  He was probably curious.  He wanted to get to know this unusual man.  Was Jesus for real?  How did he know so much?  Could he really do the things people claimed?  Was he a threat?  Was he a fraud?  I imagine he just wanted to know.  And the invitation to dinner was likely intended as a gracious gesture.  But some unsettling things happened at this dinner party; things that were probably embarrassing to the host at first.  But then Jesus said some things that might actually have been insulting.  Everything started off ok.  But then this woman appeared and crashed the party.  As you may know, at dinners like this in Jesus' day, people did not sit in chairs at tables to eat but rather reclined on the floor.  For us it might seem like an indoor picnic, I suppose, where a cloth is spread on the floor and people might use a pillow to lean on.  They would lean on one arm with the other arm free and their feet would be behind them or off to the side.  One commentary I read said that it would not be unusual for a crowd of curious people to be outside the perimeter of the home of a prominent Pharisee when he was giving a private party.  And certainly, people followed Jesus most everywhere he went.  And the way the houses were constructed, the commentator said, it would not be difficult for the woman to enter.  [The New Interpreter's Bible, vol. IX, Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995, see pp. 168-173]  But it was not accepted behavior.  It was entirely inappropriate for this woman to barge into this private dinner party.  And the fact that the Pharisee considered her a sinner made it even worse.  He was scandalized by this woman's very presence inside his house.  Furthermore, the weeping was more than a distraction.  He had this nice dinner planned and wanted to have an intelligent theological discussion with Jesus.  And here was this unacceptable woman interrupting his dinner party with her loud weeping--and then--she let her hair down.  This was also highly inappropriate behavior.  And this Pharisee saw things going from bad to worse at his nice dinner party.  Then she started drying Jesus' feet with her hair.  Of course we know that washing feet was a normal practice.  People wore sandals; the streets were dusty.  Water and towels were often available for people to wash their feet, and sometimes servants would wash the feet of guests.  But this business of drying someone's feet with your hair was not some Middle Eastern custom.  This was strange behavior.  And I'm sure the Pharisee was sitting there in shock and disbelief that it was all happening right there in his house at his dinner party.  And just at the moment he was ready to throw up his hands and say, "What next?!" the woman started kissing Jesus' feet.  Then out came an alabaster jar of perfume and that was all poured on his feet, too.  I can well imagine thoughts that might have been rushing through the Pharisee's mind.  "Why didn't I just have her thrown out right when she barged in here?  But how would that look-to have a distraught woman dragged out of here during dinner?"  It all just happened so fast.  But then some other thoughts started to form.  Why wasn't Jesus bothered by all this?  And furthermore, if he is supposed to be such a prophet wouldn't he know what kind of woman this is?  But Jesus knew the man's thoughts and spoke directly to him, telling a beautiful story about forgiveness and then sharing that he accepted the woman's treatment for what it was: overflowing gratitude for grace that had been shown to her.  But Jesus didn't stop here.  He began to contrast the demonstrative woman with the Pharisee.  "You gave me no water for my feet," he pointed out to the Pharisee, and there was no kiss of greeting, nor was there an anointing for my head-but this woman has not stopped showering me with these things.  And with this contrast, not only was the Pharisee scandalized by the woman-now he also likely felt insulted by his honored guest.  And this is the point where I am saying that Jesus might have been creating some stress in order to bring about some positive change.  But even this wasn't the end of it all.  Jesus then went a step further and told the woman, "Your sins are forgiven."  To the Pharisee, this was a totally outrageous statement.  How could Jesus say he forgives sins?  Alan Culpepper makes the point that many people thought of Jesus as a prophet-perhaps even this Pharisee thought Jesus might be a prophet.  But forgiving sins is beyond what any prophet would have ever done.  By forgiving sins, Culpepper points out that Jesus was showing them (and us) that he was more than a prophet. (ibid.) Scandalized, insulted, and now outraged.  No, this dinner party was not at all turning out the way the Pharisee had hoped.  In defense of the Pharisee, anyone should have a right to host a nice dinner party without interruption from strangers barging in and disrupting everything.  I think I would have to agree that the woman's intrusion was inappropriate and certainly her behavior was unusual.  Yet I think that all of us to one degree or another have to put ourselves in the Pharisee's place and face the many issues that come forward in this text: issues of acceptance and hospitality and love and forgiveness and gratitude and how we show our gratitude.  And perhaps others.  It's a very rich passage full of important themes.  Can we learn to be more like Jesus: accepting of others and comfortable around anyone-and forgiving?  I think Jesus even showed a kind of acceptance toward the Pharisee.  Jesus came to his home.  And though he was more confrontational than I would have been-surely the confrontation was intended to help this Pharisee become more open and accepting and caring and forgiving.  And can we put ourselves in the woman's place and ask ourselves whether our hearts overflow with gratitude for the grace and forgiveness that we have received?  And how can we best express our gratitude to God?