Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and
our Lord Jesus Christ,
Jesus
met a lot of people during his three-year ministry, and you and I would think
of many of them as exceptional cases. He healed a man born blind, for example,
and raised Lazarus from the dead. He cast out demons – a much different
affliction, by the way, than mental illness – and then there was the woman in
this morning’s gospel, who expressed her gratitude and her love for Jesus in a
dramatic and emotional way. She’d lived a hard life, full of sin. Her neighbors
held her at a distance; a guilty conscience tormented her. She expected her
life to be an everlasting round of sin, guilt, and shame – though she might not
have used those words to describe her plight – until she met Jesus. Maybe she
heard him speak that very day. He taught her about the joys that would come to
her if she repented of her sins and accepted God’s pardon. She followed his
command and welcomed him into her heart. He freed her from the low opinion she
had of herself; her mind and soul were no longer tortured. Jesus brought her
into his kingdom and she knew that he was her friend. He encouraged her to keep
on trusting him and to hope for a better life – of forgiveness, love, and
faith.
Martin
Luther once pointed out that the Pharisee was wrong to have called her a
sinner. It would have been more accurate to say that she once lived an openly
sinful life, but now she is a believer, a Christian, someone who loves God and
other people and who know looks ahead to blessedness and well-being in her
present life and in eternity. Jesus has given her a new understanding. She has
moved from the realm of sin and death into Christ’s kingdom of life.
Her
case is extreme, as we said, but it is an illustration of the way God works to
build up faith and love. The Holy Spirit uses God’s laws to make us aware of
our failings and some of the ways we have displeased him. We are sorry for our
misdeeds. The Spirit uses our understanding of our weakness and error to awake
in us a desire for rescue, a craving for a savior. God then leads us to trust
in the Savior that he sent. He invites us to cling to Jesus for the salvation
we need. Then by a movement of our souls that God creates and that he alone
understands, we receive Christ and his offer of deliverance. We welcome Jesus
as our friend and Savior. We rejoice that forgiveness, faith, and love have
come to us. We are new people, born again. We don’t hunger for the world but
want what God wants for us. We become faithful and loving, eager to perform
works of love.
This
process can take place in a very short space of time, as was the case with the
woman in this morning’s gospel. She saw Jesus; she was filled with sorrow for
her sins; she understood that she needed a Savior and that Jesus offered her
salvation. She accepted him joyfully, with tears of gratitude. She looked ahead
to a life of loving relationships, beginning with the Lord, that would last
forever.
Luke’s
account of this brief episode in her life holds our attention. There aren’t
many people in her situation, with her past. We’re all sinners, though, and the
point is that Jesus offers everyone the kind of relationship he offered her,
one of forgiveness, faith, and love. St. Peter’s people accept the Lord’s
offer. We believe in him and welcome his love and return it and spread it. We’re
not perfect, of course, but we do bring Christian love to other people – in our
families, in the community, and in the church. We forgive our neighbors; we
encourage them; we help them carry their burdens. Jesus has built up among us
the kind of love that John described in his first letter: “We love and believe
the love God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God,
and God abides in him...this commandment we have from God – that he who loves
God should love his brother also.” So
God has given us the kind of community that others want to be part of.
The
church is different from the set-up the Pharisees in this morning’s gospel had
in mind. The Pharisees were among the spiritual leaders of Jesus’ time – admirable
people in many ways, pious and devout, who worked as hard as they could to live
within the framework of their many laws. As far as conduct and behavior went,
the Pharisees were far above other people of their day. What’s more, they made
their guidelines available to others so that they, too, could escape,
supposedly, the corruption of the world. In the Pharisee’s opinion, the woman
who came to Jesus should be avoided, because she hadn’t done her best to lift
herself out of the corruption of the world. She was – according to him – a
sinner. He judged her because he believed in a religion of works, which teaches
that we win God’s favor by trying to live by laws, and the better we do, the
more favor we receive. One outcome of this kind of religion is not repentance
and faith and joy in the Lord and loving relationships with others but
self-righteousness: “I’m better than you are.” This sort of attitude turns
people off and turns God off, too. Even Jesus, who had a right to, never spoke
like that. He came as a servant, who wanted to heal, to deliver lost people
from the clutches of sin, death, and the devil, and to make the kingdom of
God’s love available to everyone. “Come unto me all you who labor and are
heavy-laden,” he said, “and I will give you rest.” So he forgave the woman’s
sins and praised her behavior toward him because it proved she’d received him
in her heart. She’s full of enthusiasm for her Savior and rightly so. It was a
high point in her life.
But
what about her situation a few a few years later? Was she still on fire for the
Lord? The Bible doesn’t tell us but we can use our imaginations.
Let’s
say she faced many challenges and temptations, like everyone else, and that she
endured moments of anguish, but because Jesus offered her the healing of
pardon, and because she welcomed him as her friend, she never sank back into
the hopelessness that was once the hall- mark of her life. Jesus claimed her;
he rescued her; he set his seal on her. He made it possible for her to move
ahead boldly and confidently and take up the works of love that he had planned
for her.
The
same is true for us. Jesus strengthens us to cope with life. We have our
challenges and temptations, and some of them may have the potential to
discourage us – illness, unemployment, losses of various kinds. Jesus doesn’t
expect us to repeat again a process that we have already passed through. He
asks us instead to call on his help and build on the gifts of pardon and
friendship he has already given us. And as we call on him, he helps us overcome
the obstacles that get in our. We don’t slip back. We move forward. We run with
confidence, as Paul says, the race that is put before us. Whatever happens, we
have the assurance that God has called us, that we are his chosen people, his
elect.
We
turn to Jesus again and again for guidance, for building up, and for
absolution. There are moments when we struggle with temptation; we sometimes
wrestle with God in prayer. All the while we trust that he’s building us up,
that he uses our trials and tribulations for our good and his glory and that he
will answer our prayers and meet our needs. We don’t let discouragement get the
best of us for long.
The
woman in this morning’s gospel sets an example. Forgiven and uplifted, she
ignores everything that works to discourage her and lead her to sin and focuses
entirely on Jesus. The eagerness that springs from single-hearted faithfulness
shows us that she is born again to new life. As we keep hold of forgiveness and
eternal life in Jesus, we ourselves will have our share of eagerness. We pray,
then, that the Lord keep on lifting us up with his never failing gospel so that
the our zest for Jesus won’t stay still but flourish and grow. AMEN.
The
peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the
knowledge of Christ Jesus. AMEN.
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