Galatians 2: 15 – 21 Luke 7: 36 – 8.3
We have today a very interesting and, indeed, very moving pair of readings. The letter to the Galatians is the first letter we possess from the hand of Paul, full of personal detail and autobiography. But in the passage set for today he throws himself into furious theological debate about the place of the Jewish ritual law in the newly born Christian faith. His conclusion could hardly be clearer – it has no place at all in helping us to please God. He concludes: “If righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing.”
His argument won the day, which is why we don’t attempt to please God by observing Jewish law and practice. His arguments in this particular passage will appear somewhat complicated to the untutored eye, but in the Gospel passage from Luke 7, which I have just read, we see it beautifully illustrated. It is the story of a Jewish holy man, named Simon, who (as a Pharisee) keeps all the rules and regulations, and believes he is living a life pleasing to God; and a woman who (it seems) is not too good at keeping any of them, but demonstrates other qualities. By the end we are in no doubt as to which one pleases God and gains a place in his kingdom through her relationship with Jesus. It’s a deeply moving story, told with masterful detail and simplicity. It teaches us so much about what pleases God and gains us a place in his kingdom.
To put yourself in the picture, you have to forget your average Camberley dinner party! It obviously wasn’t exactly a private dinner at all, or the woman would hardly have managed to gate-crash. Jesus wasn’t welcomed into some inner sanctum with all the normal greeting, washing and kissing. This meal was served in the courtyard of Simon’s house, and it was an accepted practice for passers by to wander in and out.
As in Roman practice, they were reclining on low couches, supporting themselves on their left elbow and eating with their right hand, while their legs were stretched out behind them.
So the woman can approach Jesus from behind without interrupting the meal or the conversation. Clearly she has heard him preach in public and teach about the kingdom of God, where all sinners would be welcome through the forgiveness of sins. She is so moved by what she has heard, and that even she might be accepted into God’s kingdom and her sins forgiven – (and undoubtedly not only by that radical message), but by Jesus’ stature and authority and the godliness of his very presence, that she has come with the plan of kneeling at his feet and anointing them with precious ointment.
But when the moment arrives, she is completely overcome. Instead of a dignified anointing, her tears simply start to flow uncontrollably on to his feet, and to dry them, she commits the huge social blunder of letting down her hair and using her loose hair to wipe his feet dry. That was little less than social scandal. In that society, a woman bound up her hair on her wedding day and would never appear again in public with it loose. Eventually, with her hair down and her tears flowing, she does what she has come for, and anoints his feet with the alabaster.
Simon is the one who really tries to live by God’s law and observes all the ritual rules which have been derived from it over the years. We have basically no reason to think that he is not a good man, a moral man with high standards, and perhaps a pillar of the community. He has every reason to believe that his life and behaviour please God – and no doubt from an ethical point of view – they do. And this is in no way to be derided. Being a Christian through faith in Christ does not mean you can do anything you like, as Paul makes clear again and again.
What, then, is it that differentiates the woman (who will enter God’s kingdom), and Simon, who (in his present state) will not? Jesus gives us the answer in two words – love and faith. These are the two things without which it is impossible to please God, however upright and moral our lives may be.
The woman has seen in Jesus, and heard in his teaching, something which appears to have passed Simon by completely. Simon seems to be conscious of no sin, apart from the odd misdemeanour, and therefore feels he is justified before God by his own life and behaviour. The woman knows herself to be a failure before God with no claim to self-justification, but has
somehow grasped that – through Jesus – she is forgiven and accepted, and therefore has been given the power to change. She can feel her whole life being renewed from within.
And as that realisation sweeps over her consciousness, what pours out of her heart is simply love. Love for the one who has made this possible and changed her life. And God’s heart goes out to her, and hers goes out to Jesus. She has been saved by faith in him, and her sins are all forgiven. There could be no more dramatic or moving illustration of what pleases God and who is welcome in his kingdom.
With that in our minds, back to Paul. He too was a Pharisee, and as he lists in his letter to the church at Philippi, he could tick every single box in the list of practices, rituals and actions which the Jewish religion believed pleased God. And then came the Damascus Road. Suddenly, as Paul was to repeat over and over again, he understood himself to be what he called the ‘chief of sinners’. He came to see himself in just the same light as the woman in Luke’s story. From God’s standpoint he did not have a leg to stand on in terms of self-justification. The only thing in the whole world which made him acceptable to God was his trust in Jesus and that, through Jesus’ death on the cross, he could receive the forgiveness of sins.
And he can be just as emotional about this realisation as the woman in the story. Listen to him as he speaks straight from the heart in verse 20:: “The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
If we ask ourselves, ‘what is it that pleases God?’, there is the only possible answer – faith and love. The great truth Simon needed to learn, and the woman and Paul knew from personal experience, is summed up in the hymn we have just sung:
All I once held dear, built my life upon,
All this world reveres and wars to own,
All I once thought gain, I have counted loss –
Spent and worthless now, compared to this;
Knowing you, Jesus, knowing you,
There is no greater thing;
You’re my all, my righteousness,
And I love you, Lord.
If that woman, or Paul, were here today, they would surely be singing that with all their heart.
Now we are not all people to whom tears flow naturally or find it easy to be emotional. But that doesn’t mean that the essential truth of this story can’t sink deep into our consciousness. No matter how good a life we think we are living, what God is longing for is our personal response. God showed us the depth of his love by the death of Jesus on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. He wants us to accept that – each one personally. What he looks for is an answer that comes from the heart – faith and love – that simply says ‘Thank you, Lord’ – now I am empowered to live a new life in which your love shines through, and by your grace, I enter your kingdom for all eternity.
DISCUSSION
1. If you re-read the passage from Galatians 2, after considering the story in Luke 7, do you find you can understand it better? Are there verses you don’t understand?
2. What strikes you most in the story in Luke 7? Can you explain why?
3. Can you share with the group the most important thing you have learned from these two passages?
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