A Matter of Perspective

A sermon based on Luke 7: 36-50

Dr. Charles J. Tomlin

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

June 13^th, 2010

It’s a well-worn story, but worth repeating again.

A family had twin boys whose only resemblance to each other was their looks. If one felt it was too hot, the other thought it was too cold. If one said the T.V. was too loud, the other claimed the volume needed to be turned up.  Opposite in every way, one was an eternal optimist, the other a doom & gloom pessimist.  Just to see what would happen, on the twins’ birthday their father loaded the pessimist’s room with every imaginable toy and game. The optimist’s room he loaded with horse manure.    That night the father passed by the pessimist’s room and found him sitting amid his new gifts crying bitterly.

                “Why are you crying?” the father asked.

                “Because my friends will be jealous, I’ll have to read all of these instructions before I can do anything with this stuff, I’ll constantly need batteries, and my toys will eventually get broken,” answered the pessimist twin.

                Passing the optimist twin’s room, the father found him dancing for joy in the pile of manure.   
       “What are you so happy about?” he asked.

         To which his optimist twin replied, “With all this manure, there’s got to be a pony in here somewhere!”   (http://lifelessons4u.wordpress.com).  


“Optimist are right.  So are pessimists.   It’s up to us to choose which we will be.”  It’s all a matter of perspective  (Harvey Mackey).

If perspective is everything, it certainly means something in our Bible text for today.  Simon the Pharisee invited Jesus into his home to eat with him.  Just as the dinner gets started, they watch the same surprising event unfold.   A woman, probably what we might call a “street-walker”, barges in and washes Jesus’ feet with her tears.   Both Jesus and Simon are surprised by the situation.  Both know the social rules declaring such a deed to be ethically “out-of-bounds”, yet their perspectives are very different. Jesus accepts this woman’s deed as an act of repentance and gives her grace, love and forgiveness.   But Simon thinks to himself: “If this guy were really a prophet, he’d realize the kind of woman this is, and he’d know she is a sinner” (vs. 39).   Why doesn’t Simon realize how much this woman needs God’s grace and forgiveness?    How has Simon lost the divine perspective?

SALVATION IS THE KNOWLEDGE OF GRACE

What matters most to God?   This is really the heart of issue in Luke chapter 7 and the entire gospel. 

Our knowledge of Jesus Christ is a saving knowledge (1 Tim 4:2) because through Jesus Christ, we come to know God’s saving grace.   As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “God has “shown light out of darkness” to give (to our hearts) the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:6).    But not all knowledge of Jesus is saving grace.  Listen to these words Paul gave Timothy concerning the “knowledge of truth’ he has addressed in his letter and now returns to in his conclusion: “²⁰ Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you. Avoid the profane chatter and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge; ²¹ by professing it some have missed the mark as regards the faith. Grace be with you. (1Ti 6:20-21 NRS).

Don’t miss Paul’s final word, because it is more than just a final greeting.  “Grace be with you” is what can go missing even among the faithful.   “Grace” is what saving knowledge in Jesus is about, but some were still missing it in Paul’s day, just as Simon missed it.   Is God’s grace the kind of knowledge that is foremost on our minds?

  

Now that school is out, it’s time for VBS in our churches.  It’s time when we have just a few precious days to tell our children and other children in our community what matters most to God.  Most of us, as insiders, have some wonderful memories of VBS and we cherish them.   It’s a time when we talk about God’s love, mercy and grace, but sometimes, especially as a youth, I can remember getting sidetracked. 

Brent Younger tells one something that happened as the pastor was explaining the plan of salvation to the children his final 6^th grade VBS.   On the last day, he says, “we skipped the high tech missionary slide show, because it was decision day.  At the close of the assembly the pastor explained how to choose our eternal destination. The four points were: God loves us; sin pushes us away from God; Jesus died for our sins; and if we think this is true, then we are saved.   He then said, "Raise your hand if you believe this." Most years about half of us got saved.  Some of the sixth graders raised their hands every year just to be sure.”

It was the last year as a student in Vacation Bible School that a smart aleck child asked: "What about the Indians who were here before Columbus?  Did they go to heaven?"  The pastor said, "The Bible says that you have to believe in Jesus to go to heaven."   The sixth grader replied: "But the Indians never even heard of Jesus. That’s not fair. "The pastor, a bit defensive, said, "We have to believe what the Bible says."  The sixth grader protested, "But the Indians didn’t have a Bible."   Finally my father said, "Brett, we’ll talk about this when we get home." (“Salvation” by Bret Younger, in Lectionary Homiletics, June, 2010.)

This “pastor’s son” was causing problems, but some version of the question "What about the Indians (nor natives of Africa)?" has been around a long time, challenging everyone who takes God’s saving grace seriously.  The question goes to the heart of our faith.  It goes to the heart of the issue as to whether we believe in saving knowledge or do we believe in saving grace? I remember that once when a student asked a professor, “What about the people who have never heard the gospel, what will happen to them?, the professor answered rather bluntly, “It’s none of your business!”

 

What is your business, my business, and what should have been the business of Simon the Pharisee was to see how much this woman needed God’s grace.   But unfortunately, this was the one kind of knowledge Simon was not looking for.   He wanted answers for his questions, but he did not want the answers God was giving in Jesus.   By missing what Jesus was about, the question became, not whether not this “sinner” could be saved, but could Simon be saved?   It makes sense, doesn’t it?  If you don’t know what grace is, how can you be saved by it?      

SALVATION IS ABOUT OUR BELIEF IN GOD’S LOVE

There is something else Simon the Pharisee missed.   Simon the Pharisee not only failed to put the right emphasis on “saving grace”, but he also mistakenly put more emphasis on what he “believed” (and probably was true) about the woman rather than the unconditional “love” and compassion he needed to show to her, even as a sinner.  

What happened to Simon the Pharisee can also happen to us, especially when we look at the world around us, and get so taken by how bad things are, or how lost, sinful people have become.   We can becomes so “captured” by what is wrong by our own “beliefs” (even when they are right, as Simon’s was), that we fail to show the sinful world how much greater God’s love is than their sin.  The skill of putting the focus on grace and love means that we learn to love the sinner, even though we hate the sin.   This evangelistic skill is what the church needs now, more than ever, even more than the ability to defend our beliefs.  For, you see, what happened at Simon’s house can also happen here at God’s house----the church.   We never know when or what kind of “sinner” is going to come through that door and ask Jesus for help.   If they do, are we ready to respond with grace and with love?      

If we becoming are more demanding about our beliefs than compassionately showing Christ’s love, it could tear us apart, just as it tore Simon apart.   As our story displays,  Simon needed to understand that she was not the only sinner in the room.  Simon needed to realize what kind of sinner he was, and what kind of religious leader he was going to be. 

For you see, Jesus came to challenge our views of righteousness just as much or more than he did our views of sin.   Don’t you recall him saying, “Unless your “righteousness” exceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom…”(Matt. 5: 20)?    If that’s not enough, in the gospel of Christ Paul preached said “there is none righteousness, no not one” (Romans 3:10), or as Jesus himself said, “we must not judge, unless we want to be judged (Matt.7:1).”   

So here is the difficulty Simon had, and we still have as “insiders” to God’s grace.   How, in a world where there is so much sin, and even confusion over what is and isn’t sin; how can we keep from falling into Simon’s trap---of getting stuck on defending what we think is right or wrong----rather than engaging in God’s priority: showing God’s unconditional love to sinners?  How can we keep God’s perspective and our evangelistic focus in this morally confused world?

The first we need to see is how Simon got it wrong.   It was wrong for Simon to label this woman a “sinner” when he did not realize that he was also a sinner.   The church will always lose its ability to love when it tries to label or name one kind of “sin” or a certain person as worse or better than another kind of ‘sin” or person.   When it comes to being in the presence of Jesus, we’re all sinners.   We all fall short of the glory of God.  Both those who are “good” people can be bad, and the so called “bad” people can be good.   Sin is much more complicated than what a religion can get rid of, or any of us can dispose of in our own lives.   Remember to powerful biblical words to be our constant guide to grace and love: “There is none one who is righteous, no not one” and there is “no one who is good but God.”  Because we are all sinners, there are no insiders because we are come to God as “outsiders” who desperately need God’s grace and love.  The ground is completely level at the foot of the cross.    

The second thing we need to see in this text is moment is how Jesus got it right.   Jesus does not condone the sin of this woman, but he receives the sinner who comes to him, just the way they are.  Jesus does not screen this woman nor does he preach to her or put any kinds of religious requirements or rules for her.   The only rule Jesus imposes are the rules of grace and love---“whosoever will may come, and drink from the waters of life freely.”

But when we say and preach “whosoever will, may come” and “drink freely of the water of life”, we must also remember that though God’s grace is free, but it’s still not cheap.   The “free pardon of sin” we preach still requires the “willing and humble admission” and the true “repentance of sin” which this woman displays in her complete submission to Jesus.    And when this woman came to Jesus, Jesus does not say to her, “You’re OK, I’m OK.”   Jesus told her that, “her sins were man”, and that “her sins were forgiven,” (verse 48) because of her “great love” (for Jesus).  Forgiveness is only real, when sin is understood to be sin.  For you see, the problem with Simon was not how he saw this woman as a sinner.   She was.  But problem is, as Jesus made clear, that Simon failed to see himself as a sinner also, and God’s forgiveness only comes to sinners, not to “Simons” who already think they are righteous and are in need of nothing.   Jesus can only offer his grace and forgiveness to those see their sin and are ready to submit to his the perfect judgment of his love.   

What I think is most reveling in this text, is while Simon did all the talking about what was wrong and who was the “sinner”, it was Jesus who did all the loving, all the forgiving, and very little talking.   If Jesus did any talking, it was more to Simon who did not love the sinner.   I believe that Jesus is our model for being church in this morally confused world and Simon is our model of what not to do.   We must be a church that is known by how much we love and showing mercy and grace to sinners, than being known for what or who we hate.   This is not easy, especially when sin becomes open and blatant and we feel the need to “take control” and “challenge” or try to “change” things on our own.   But the great truth of this text, is that it is not “perfect religion” that changes people, but it is God’s perfect love, as Jesus models for us in this text.  

How this can work in our world, where sin, even sexual sins, are so visible and controversial?  As prostitution might have been the “hot button” sin in that day, we might say that “homosexuality” is the “hot button” issue today.   On this issue, the church must be careful not to become a “Simon” when we must continue to follow Jesus.    We must keep our priorities and perspective clear, because having such a “sinner” come into our church can tear us apart, just like Simon was “torn up” over this “sinner” who came to his house.     

Recently in Charlotte, a group of pastors, many of them Baptist, attended a conference on the subject of homosexuality.   It was observed, that as the pastors came to their conference, most of had “preaching” on their mind, not understanding and compassion.   But then the first speaker stood up.   She was highly respected by the pastors, because she was a counselor running a ministry working to help gays change their lifestyle with the good news of the gospel.  

She started her speech with a testimony no one expected.   She told how she had grown up in a home that went to church, but was void of love and full of abuse.   When she was 16, she went looking for love and got pregnant.  Her family shunned her, and unfortunately, so did her church.   The first place she felt unconditionally loved, was not in her home, not at her church, nor with a boy, but at a “gay bar”, she had wandered into in complete desperation.   She said, her first experience of “unconditional” love was intoxicating.    But then, after several years of this lifestyle, after she had grown up enough to get a better grip on her life, one day she realize that this was not who she was, and she left that lifestyle.   Now, with the call of God on her life, she has begun a ministry to help others find love and the grace to change their lifestyle (As told to me by Pastor Ande Myers who attended the conference in Charlotte).

As this woman concluded her speech, the room of preachers, who once were all ready to pounce on sin, fell silent and felt ashamed.   What this woman and so many struggling people need to find most at church, is not what they often experience.   She found a lot of Simon’s at her church, but it took far too long for her to find Jesus, or a church that followed Jesus as the example---a church that  shared with sinners the same kind of unconditional, forgiving love and grace, we all need to save us from our sins.   And you can clearly see in this text, Jesus has a lot more trouble with “Simon’s” kind of (hate) sin than he did with this woman’s “love” sin.   It wasn’t because the sin was more or less, but because she brought her sin and her brokenness to Jesus and Simon only brought his fear and hate. 

What I think is so powerfully obvious in this text today, and what is most overlooked, is how Jesus didn’t even say a word to this woman about her sin.   The burden of her sin and her brokenness was already so heavy upon on her that Jesus did the right thing, not by preaching to or at her, but by showing her God’s love, grace and forgiveness.   Jesus did not condone her sin, (and that is the problem some churches fall into confusion about) but neither did he reject her (which is what other churches fall into confusion about).  Jesus welcomed her in repentance, even though he did not affirm her sin.  It might be amazing what would happen when a church learns again to hate the sin, but love the sinner, and to make church a place that welcomes sinners, even while they are still struggling and in need of Jesus and God’s forgiveness.   

 Richard Hayes, a professor at Duke, in his book “The Moral Vision of the New Testament” has a clear-cut strategy for dealing with homosexuality as a sin or any sin, for that matter:  People who come to Jesus or to church, must first admit their sin and confess it to God and not accept it as normal, or as God’s will.  When any person acknowledges their sin to God and admits their own need for God’s grace, asking for Jesus’ forgiveness and willing to let God’s power help them in their struggle with sin (through recovery or celibacy, he maintains), then the church must also trust God’s power to save, and stay with God’s perspective and priority of showing grace, love and forgiveness in this broken world.   This is what Jesus did, and it is exactly what Simon did not do.

GOD SAVES US THROUGH FORGIVENESS NOT PERFECTION 

But here where we must remind ourselves of one more thing.    This is why the word of “forgiveness” is the final word of Jesus to both kinds of sinners in this story: the woman who realizes her sin and comes to Jesus, and to Simon, the one who needs to see or admit his sin of self-righteousness and his failure to love.   More than anything else, it is not “perfection” or “goodness” that brings any of us to God, but it is our sin and failures that normally brings us here.   More than anything else, Jesus wants to show Simon and us that it is “the one who is forgiven most, who will love the most.”      

Fred Craddock tells of visiting a small church and being surprised at the appearance of a large pastor—6’4" and 300 pounds.  The pastor’s most noticeable feature was his stumbling, lumbering gait. He was awkward, almost falling, with long, useless arms at his sides, like they were awaiting further instruction. His head was misshapen. His hair was askew. He stumbled up the steps to get to the pulpit. "When he turned to face us, " Craddock says, "I saw the thick glasses, and through them I could see milky film over his eyes, one of his eyes going out, nothing coming in to the other. When he read, he held the book near his nose. When he spoke, the muscles in his neck worked with such vigor as he pushed out the words, as if he had learned to speak as an adult.

But I lost all consciousness of that after a while. He read 1 Corinthians 13 and spoke on the greatness of love. He wasn’t poetic or prophetic, but was warm and affectionate. The relationship between those people, the love that he extended as he preached, and the love that came back from those people who sat quietly, leaning forward, was captivating and I was captured. How could this grotesque creature be so full of love? I didn’t understand. I started remembering those stories about how people who have grotesque features are sometimes granted a special quality of affection, Beauty and the Beast or The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I thought of children with Down’s syndrome, how they have the capacity to grab you and hug you and kiss you, when other children stand at a distance. Is this what I’m seeing? Is this the providence of God that grants people who lack attractiveness on the outside to have that quality on the inside?"

"After the service, I lingered at the door and listened to the greetings and little words of pastoral care and comfort between him and the members. One woman I would guess to be seventy shook his hand at the door. She said, ‘I wish I could know your mother.’ She was having the same trouble I was. She didn’t understand the source of this love and thought maybe, ‘I wish I knew your mother.’ He said, ‘My mother’s name is Grace.’"

                A few minutes later, Craddock remarked: "That was an unusual response you gave to that woman, ‘My mother’s name is Grace.’"

                The pastor explained: "When I was born I was put up for adoption at the Department of Family Services. As you can guess, nobody wanted to adopt me. So I went from foster home to foster home, and when I was about seventeen, I saw some young people going into a church. I so wanted some friends, so I went in, and there I met grace—the grace of God."  She is my true mother. (Fred Craddock, Craddock Stories, St. Louis: Chalice, 2001, 49-502).

The great theologian Paul Tillich wrote: "Sometimes a wave of light breaks into our darkness, and it as though a voice were saying: ‘You are accepted. You are accepted, accepted by that which is greater than you.  Do not seek for anything; do not intend anything.  Simply accept the fact that you are accepted.’"

At the close of this story, the surprise is that this ‘religious’ Simon the Pharisee needs the knowledge of grace and forgiveness more than this “sinful” woman.   “The one to whom little is forgiven, forgives little”, Jesus explains.  But the opposite is also true:  “The one who is forgiven much, forgives much.”   We still don’t  know whether or not Simon gets this, but the question is, do we still have it?   The saving perspective of God is something we can never afford to lose.   Amen.    

© 2010 All rights reserved Charles J. Tomlin, B.A., M.Div. D.Min