Eating Food in the House of a Critic ...

The best meal can so quickly be ruined by the conversation that comes with it.  Imagine being invited to Gordon Ramsay’s home for Thanksgiving dinner this year.  For those vegetarians or vegans among us, hang on to your hats, Gordon is not much on this kind of cuisine.  For those of us who prefer to eat a kosher diet, avoiding the unclean, and sticking with only the clean meats as outlined in scripture; we better hold on to our hats as well – Gordon makes no such discrimination in his menus, or in my guess, his home.  Which leaves the rest of America that pretty much eats anything, and only avoids foods that just sound ugly, or gross.  But even with the dietary restrictions outlined previously, I would still bet we could find food on Gordon’s table that would not only fit the restriction, but would burst out in taste, flavor, enough to make your mouth water, and your stomach dance with delight.  Hard to imagine getting a better thanksgiving invite from the world’s top chef, if not its top critic, than this one all things considered.

But then continue to use your imagination, and picture yourself at Gordon’s home, only to find he invited other guests, and the one who sits next to you, is perhaps the biggest racist you ever heard of in your life.  A secret member of the Nazi party, who up until this meal, had kept his beliefs secret from everyone including Gordon who had no idea this was who he invited for this wonderful meal.  Now comes the question; is it possible for you to eat if the words that spew from this racist Nazi mouth continue throughout the duration of the meal?  Does it even matter how good the food might have been?  Could you stand it?  Sometimes we just want a meal in peace.  It is the peace that makes the meal even better.  It is the fellowship that truly makes us thankful.  And even though most of us will not be eating at Gordon’s home this year (or any other due to a lack of invitation 😊), eating at home with someone next to you, who espouses hate in the name of our God, under the claims of Christianity, is almost as bad as discovering a secret member of the Nazi party, whose message is ironically not much different.

This sounds like a problem of the twentieth century.  But if you could put yourself in the place of Jesus back in His day, to be filled with so much love, and find those you came to save, filled only with so much pride and hateful speech; do you wonder how Jesus was able to put up with it?  I wonder how He was able to eat any food at all, given the conversations He must have had to endure.  Perhaps one of the bigger differences between Jesus and me, was that He was able to take each situation and turn it into a learning moment.  I go crazy and just want to run away before I feel something I should not feel, or worse, say something I should never have said.  And the Love of Jesus was so great, He never seemed to turn down any invitation, even when He knew what was coming.  Luke offers us a few examples of Jesus in just such socially difficult situations and how He handled them.  We pick up in the seventh chapter of Luke’s letter to his friend about what we believe and why.

The story begins in verse 36 saying … “And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee's house, and sat down to meat.”  If ever there were a story that proves Jesus came to save everyone, and He would embrace any who dared to embrace Him, this was it.  Jesus came to save church leadership from itself, as much as He came to save the poor from themselves, and me from me.  Keep in mind the Pharisees were constantly trying to trap Jesus in some wrong word or deed, in order to shame Him in front of the people and prove He was a false Messiah.  But that does not deter Jesus one minute.  Jesus was invited in, and so in He went.  This should also serve as a lesson to us.  Jesus was sure to be invited in this case into the home of someone who believed radically different than Himself.  But Jesus is not afraid to be stained by this encounter.  He does not seek isolation from those who may believe differently.  Instead He jumps right in and has dinner with them.  Jesus does not take this opportunity to go and condemn the stupid or ignorant of how salvation works.  He uses it to demonstrate in love how salvation actually does work.

But before Jesus has any chance to speak a single word, a sinful woman interrupts the festivities to demonstrate what the Love of Jesus means to her.  Luke continues in verse 37 saying … “And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, [verse 38] And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.”  OK, our conservative brethren are not going to like this part of the story much, but facts are annoying because they tend not to go away.  First there is no mention of this woman’s husband.  She could have been a widow, who inherited a bit of wealth.  But then the tag “sinner” would hardly have been needed for Luke’s story.  So if we rule out widow, then perhaps she was a tech billionaire with an aspiring career with an ever upward trend.  But no, women did not have careers back in these days.  They worked in the home to keep it, or on a farm to keep it, or both.  They did not get paid for that, they survived by it, with little if any to spare. So … that leaves the world’s oldest profession so to speak.  A woman of the night would have had time and opportunity to collect the wealth needed to fund an alabaster box of ointment.  Men paid for it, many men, no mention of their sin or role in this, only a subtle way of identifying what kind of woman she was, without actually providing her name to get her stoned by angry self-righteous patrons of her services.

Then there are the tears.  A Hollywood camera shot of the single tear welling up in the eye of the actress will simply not due here.  It takes many many more than that to wash the Saviors feet and get them clean.  And this sinful woman is not moved so much by the love of Jesus that her heart breaks only a little, it is decimated, as should our own be when we contemplate how much Jesus has given and gone through for us.  Yet most of us fain a little gratitude, say a quick prayer over meals, attend church, and call it a day.  Our hearts remaining as much made of stone as they have always been.  But when we truly contemplate His love for us, there is no heart that can stand it.  What was stone breaks, and tears flow.  Whether alone when we realize it, or as witness to the acts of another’s love, or no matter the audience as what is around us is no longer a constraint to the weeping we will not be embarrassed too much to offer.  This woman knows what she is and who she is, and what she has done.  But she also knows how great His love is for her still.  And it breaks her.  She has no pride left.  She cares not for the condemnation that is sure to accompany her for the public display of her gratitude.  Men grow uncomfortable in the company of one they have been partner in sin with.  But despite it all, her tears flow like a faucet left on.  Having no towel and daring not to ask for one, she uses her hair to dry His feet.  And to seal her love she kisses His feet no matter what dung they may have walked through on His journey to this place.  Dusty, arid, deserts are not kind to feet especially in sandals which offer little protection.  But to her, their beauty is unmatched and far more than she is worthy of.

And what we say is now shattered by example.  For it is clear that Jesus did hang out with hookers after all, and not just this one, and not just at this time.  Jesus did not fear their company.  Jesus did not feel guilt when they entered His presence.  He was glad of it.  For the love that saves this woman, is the same love we – His church – should be showing all those who work in the night, performing acts which destroy the soul.  We are not to shun them or avoid them.  We are to embrace them, and let our demonstration of His love, give them perhaps the ONLY reason they may decide they want to change.  How can we point them to Christ, if we never dare to be in their company?  And not only the hookers of our world, but the drug addicts, and thieves, and homosexuals and adulterers.  Our pews are already filled with those in secret sin, who above all else wish not to be exposed.  But instead of being broken upon the anvil of His love, we remain stone, and claim we should never put ourselves in a position to be in contact with those in public sins of this world; lest those sins rub off on us.  But our words are hollow, and they are shattered upon the example of our Lord.  And in irony of ironies, the hooker was not found the in brothel this time, but in the home of the Pharisee.  I get it that she did not live there, or work there as best we know.  But how many more might come to know Jesus, if we – His Church – were finally willing to go to them and love them right where they are, meeting their needs as best we know how.  Letting our love be our sermon.

But all too many of us worry too much about reputation.  You can imagine the Pharisee cared more for this than he did this woman who somehow knew where he lived, and somehow had gained entry into his home in the first place.  Luke continues in verse 39 saying … “Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner.”  And there it is.  Condemnation and complete lack of concern for the woman.  Reputations matter way more than she ever will.  Followed by a shaken belief in Jesus because He did not act likewise.  Hey think about it, if I can deduce from Luke’s account what kind of woman she was, and I am but a bear-of-little-brain [Winnie-the-pooh reference] – why couldn’t Jesus easily see just what kind of diseased tears were falling on His feet at the moment.  And further, why not make her stop and throw her out before it gets worse.  Who wants a meal with a weeping hooker in the room anyway?  Let her find God in church like everybody else is supposed to.  But how many of us actually find God in church?  I would bet we find Him way more often outside of church walls, and in the company of church believers who truly know how to love, and choose to love, in situations far more messy than the conditions our pristine pews offer.

Jesus does not flee in righteous anger.  He does not have a near heart attack from the elevated levels of frustration I would have succumbed to; unable to figure out how to resolve such a situation without verbally destroying at least someone in the process (and I would have been leaning at the Pharisee, as I do all too often).  Instead Jesus uses this meal and this moment and these conditions to make them all become a learning moment designed to offend no one and embrace everyone.  Luke continues in verse 40 saying … “And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith, Master, say on. [verse 41] There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. [verse 42] And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most? [verse 43] Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged.”  Jesus does NOT condemn the hooker, and He does NOT condemn Simon the Pharisee.  He forgives both.  The hooker who knows how much she needs it, for she needs much forgiveness.  And Simon even though he does not know he needs any forgiveness at all, but in point of fact, may need it more than the hooker on display.  This is not about replacing the “righteous” in the pews with street hookers to fill the place.  It is about embracing both.  This is about healing both, some from secret sin they fear will be exposed, and some from public sin that already has.

Jesus continues in verse 44 saying … “And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. [verse 45] Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. [verse 46] My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. [verse 47] Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.”  And here is the lesson … for Simon the Pharisee, and for us.  This lesson is not for the hooker, she already gets it, she already loves so much, she would do all of this with a heart broken by love.  By contrast this lesson is for the Pharisee, for the church leader, and for you and I.  We don’t get it.  Simon did nothing for Jesus upon entering his home.  He didn’t think to.  Neither do we.  We are not that thankful yet, because we still keep holding on to that private sin, we live in fear of exposure of.  We refuse to let it go.  We cling to it, and it hardens our hearts against His love, turning us into stone from the inside out.  When we let Jesus transform us, He takes our sin from us.  Not just in forgiveness which we need, but our desire to continue to sin in the future.  He remakes us in harmony with His Laws of Love.

Luke continues in verse 48 saying … “And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven. [verse 49] And they that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins also? [verse 50] And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.”  I ask you, what does this woman have need to be saved from?  Not the condemnation she endures in the home of the church leader, she knew that would come, and she does not shy from it.  Not the entrance into the pearly gates when time shall be no more and resurrection will abound.  That promise is secure, but it is not the thing that is plaguing her in the here and now.  No.  She needs to be saved from … herself.  She needs to want a different life a better life, a life where she is not held captive to the whims of sexual desire and expression.  But she has for her lifetime always lost that battle.  So what changes when she leaves without the blessing of Jesus?  Jesus does not just forgive her (note the first part of the texts), He saves her from herself.  He frees her from the desires that put her in front of Him, broken by the magnitude of His love.  The people in attendance in this meal only question the ability of Jesus to forgive sins – but miss entirely the ability of Jesus to change the heart of the sinner bound in chains.  And so do we.

In the home of Simon the Pharisee, or the home of Gordon Ramsay, or our own home – it is time to seek more than just the forgiveness of Jesus for what we have done, but the salvation of Jesus for what our hearts of stone are captive to today.  Instead of spewing ideas about the gospel that make us sound more like the Nazi in ears of His angel’s than we might imagine, let us hold our tongue and let our love speak our sermons in plain and simple ways.  Let us use our words to point others to Jesus for the removal of slavery to sin in the here and now, as being the place we go to find it too.  It is the place where the pain ends, and a better life begins.  Let us not keep ourselves in isolation from the world, but go to meet need where we find it, sometimes in places of great discomfort, sometimes away from those same pews.  If we are to be truly thankful, let us measure it in our tears, and find the brokenness of our hearts a welcome change to what has so long been in its place.