Lessons From A Sinful Woman | June 12, 2016

June 12, 2016

Have you ever come before Jesus in tears? Have you ever been broken? Have you ever let your hair down and gotten real with the Lord? Have you ever physically reached out to God, just needing to feel him in your life?

Today we learn our lesson from a “sinful woman”. I wish I knew her name because the label of “sinful woman” just doesn’t seem fair to be known as, oh, you know for all eternity! Jesus was dining at the Pharisee named Simon’s house and a woman that everyone in the village knew had been a sinner (one can only imagine the nature of the sins that she was known for…) felt compelled to encounter the man she had heard so much about. It makes me wonder if she was friends with other “sinful women” that told her stories about his compassionate way, his merciful heart, and his tenderness. Was she there the day they tried to stone the woman caught in adultery? Was she next-door neighbors with Mary Magdalene? Whatever it was, moved her so much that she was willing to risk it all by showing up uninvited to a dinner party, and then exposing herself in such a way that could and would be interpreted as scandalous. Raise your hand if you have ever felt so strongly about something that it caused you to recklessly abandon protocol.

Our first lesson from the “sinful woman” is that she showed up. Sometimes all I can do is show up in my prayer and there are no words or fancy things for me to say, and all I can do is be (“still and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10). She was brave enough to show up even though the host and dinner guests did not welcome her. Sometimes Jesus is surrounded by unwelcoming and off-putting people, but he wants us to ignore them and focus on him. Upon showing up, she stood behind him and cried at his feet. This woman was in need of healing and forgiveness and tears are God’s precious way to help us fall down the cheeks of mercy, paving the path to wholeness with the very things that hold us back. Her tears flowed as a sign of surrender.

The “sinful woman’s” next lesson for us is to break ourselves open at the foot of the cross. An alabaster jar filled with perfumed oil would have been an extremely expensive and precious gift and we have to go all in in order to get all out. We need to be willing to give our best and most precious selves in service to Jesus and often times that requires us to be broken so that we can be poured out. Perfumed oil is used to soften the dryness, wash away the dirt, and to freshen the stench in our lives. We all need soft, clean, and fresh hearts in order to surrender ourselves to God.

Once we show up, surrender ourselves, break open our hearts and allow them to soften, then it’s time to let our hair down and be real with God. God already knows us and has counted every hair on our head, so we might as well let it all down, shake out the stiffness, and in that vulnerability, Jesus will meet us where we are at. When we are real before the Lord, we can use that to get rid of or dry off any excess worries from our lives.

Showing up and surrendering, open hearted, and completely real at the feet of Jesus will lead us into an intimate and personal relationship with him where kissing and hand holding and feet washing are a beautiful and mutual exchange between us and our Savior. Jesus uses this intimate and scandalous encounter to teach the judgmental Pharisees about mercy and forgiveness, and the “sinful woman” with no name is used as a model of grace for all of us to learn from.

Her lessons are simple, but powerful:

• Show up
• Surrender
• Break yourself open
• Get real
• Receive him and thank him with your lips

These are the signs that your faith is bigger than your fear. Have a blessed day.

Reading 1 2 SM 12:7-10, 13

Nathan said to David: 
“Thus says the LORD God of Israel: 
‘I anointed you king of Israel.
I rescued you from the hand of Saul.
I gave you your lord’s house and your lord’s wives for your own.
I gave you the house of Israel and of Judah.
And if this were not enough, I could count up for you still more.
Why have you rejected the LORD and done evil in his sight?
You have cut down Uriah the Hittite with the sword;
you took his wife as your own,
and him you killed with the sword of the Ammonites.
Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house,
because you have looked down on me
and have taken the wife of Uriah to be your wife.’”

Then David said to Nathan,
“I have sinned against the LORD.”
Nathan answered David:
“The LORD on his part has forgiven your sin:
you shall not die.”

Responsorial Psalm PS 32:1-2, 5, 7, 11

R. (cf. 5c) Lord, forgive the wrong I have done.
Blessed is the one whose fault is taken away,
whose sin is covered.
Blessed the man to whom the LORD imputes not guilt,
in whose spirit there is no guile.
R. Lord, forgive the wrong I have done.
I acknowledged my sin to you,
my guilt I covered not.
I said, "I confess my faults to the LORD,"
and you took away the guilt of my sin.
R. Lord, forgive the wrong I have done.
You are my shelter; from distress you will preserve me;
with glad cries of freedom you will ring me round.
R. Lord, forgive the wrong I have done.
Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you just;
exult, all you upright of heart.
R. Lord, forgive the wrong I have done.

Reading 2 GAL 2:16, 19-21

Brothers and sisters:
We who know that a person is not justified by works of the law
but through faith in Jesus Christ,
even we have believed in Christ Jesus
that we may be justified by faith in Christ
and not by works of the law,
because by works of the law no one will be justified.
For through the law I died to the law,
that I might live for God.
I have been crucified with Christ;
yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me;
insofar as I now live in the flesh,
I live by faith in the Son of God
who has loved me and given himself up for me.
I do not nullify the grace of God;
for if justification comes through the law,
then Christ died for nothing.

Alleluia 1 JN 4:10B

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
God loved us and sent his Son
as expiation for our sins.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel LK 7:36—8:3

A Pharisee invited Jesus to dine with him,
and he entered the Pharisee's house and reclined at table.
Now there was a sinful woman in the city
who learned that he was at table in the house of the Pharisee.
Bringing an alabaster flask of ointment,
she stood behind him at his feet weeping
and began to bathe his feet with her tears.
Then she wiped them with her hair,
kissed them, and anointed them with the ointment.
When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this he said to himself,
"If this man were a prophet,
he would know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him,
that she is a sinner."
Jesus said to him in reply,
"Simon, I have something to say to you."
"Tell me, teacher," he said.
"Two people were in debt to a certain creditor;
one owed five hundred days' wages and the other owed fifty.
Since they were unable to repay the debt, he forgave it for both.
Which of them will love him more?"
Simon said in reply,
"The one, I suppose, whose larger debt was forgiven."
He said to him, "You have judged rightly."

Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon,
"Do you see this woman?
When I entered your house, you did not give me water for my feet,
but she has bathed them with her tears
and wiped them with her hair.
You did not give me a kiss,
but she has not ceased kissing my feet since the time I entered.
You did not anoint my head with oil,
but she anointed my feet with ointment.
So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven
because she has shown great love.
But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little."
He said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."
The others at table said to themselves,
"Who is this who even forgives sins?"
But he said to the woman,
"Your faith has saved you; go in peace."

Afterward he journeyed from one town and village to another,
preaching and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God.
Accompanying him were the Twelve
and some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities,
Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out,
Joanna, the wife of Herod's steward Chuza,
Susanna, and many others who provided for them
out of their resources.