Xchange - Discussion Notes

Mealtimes in Luke's Gospel (2)
Jesus Wearing a Prostitute’s Perfume
Luke 7.36-50

“You want forgiveness? Get religion.” So says Spiderman! And in so doing he represents a popular but non-biblical sentiment expressed by many if not most Christians. Forgiveness in the Gospels did not mean the same as forgiveness has come to mean for modern Christians. For us, we have a mechanical notion of transactions: I sin against God, I need God to forgive me, then all will be well and I will be on my way to heaven. The reality of personal forgiveness is an important consequence of the ministry of Jesus, but it is not the central point!

In Jesus’ day, the people of God were living under pagan rule. Six centuries earlier, as a result of Israel’s disobedience, the nation had been defeated by the Babylonian Empire and many of its people led away into captivity – what we call ‘the exile’. After seventy years, the Babylonians were defeated by the Persians, whose benevolent emperor allowed the Jews to return to their home-land: the ‘return from exile’. During those seventy years, the people mourned their rebellion, and longed to be forgiven that they might return to Jerusalem. The Forgiveness of sins for them, meant the return from exile. The two belong together in first century Judaism (see Lam 4:22; Jer 31:31-34; Jer 33:4-11; Ezek 36:24-6, 33; Ezek 37:21-3; Isa 40:1-2 etc, etc). To Jesus’ contemporaries, living under pagan rule, although they had long since returned from Exile, they still felt as though their hearts remained captive. They longed for the age when the nation as a whole would enjoy full restoration, and the forgiveness of sins was one major way of expressing this hope. Sure, there is an important personal dimension, but for a Jew in Jesus’ day it was a matter for the state of the nation as a whole.

The controversy surrounding the prostitute (the text only refers to her as a sinner, but her prostitution is certainly implied), has nothing to do with Jesus mixing with the wrong crowd. It is rather that the forgiveness of sins as a present reality, is a claim that the Kingdom of God has come – but, horror of horrors, it contains the wrong people! The authority to forgive sins, is the authority of the Messiah, who is bringing in the kingdom. And the return from exile is experienced by this sinful woman – her faith in Jesus has saved her – it has made her whole, and she is sent away in peace.

The parable then, draws attention to the reality that the very people who need this forgiveness of sins, are … sinners. It may seem blatantly obvious to those of us for whom forgiveness is primarily individual. But for Jesus’ first listeners, forgiveness of sins was about the restoration of the nation in the first place, and the restored and whole nation of God was hardly going to be made up of sinners! The thrust of this story, as of the meal considered last week, is that it is not the healthy that need a doctor but the sick.

Jesus has replaced the two main pillars of Jewish faith – the law and the temple – with himself. It is devotion to him that defines who is in and who is out of the Kingdom. Those who were offended were upset not because sinners were finding forgiveness (this was a current part of the religious practices – they were not without compassion). They were upset because Jesus was displacing the temple and the law! In the home of a Pharisee (who is obviously not downright hostile to Jesus), the significance of the meal is that Jesus is shown the devotion of one who has understood who he is, what the Kingdom of God is, and what forgiveness means.

Questions for discussion

1: If the traditional view of ‘forgiveness of sins’ is the heart of Christianity – as it usually is in the modern west – in what ways does this lead us towards individualistic faith?

2: Some Christians with nasty backgrounds are often thought to have more powerful ‘testimonies’ because they have been forgiven more. What do you think?

3: What are the consequences of being forgiven? For Israel? For us?

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