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Lectionary Reflection
Year C, Proper 6
Standard (Episcopal) Lectionary
Revised Common Lectionary
Gospel Lesson
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Luke 7:36-50 (RCL: Luke 7:36-8:3)
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One
of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and he went
into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the
table. And a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having
learned that he was eating in the Pharisee’s house,
brought an alabaster jar of ointment. She stood behind him
at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her
tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she continued
kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment. Now
when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to
himself, ‘If this man were a prophet, he would have
known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching
him—that she is a sinner.’ Jesus spoke up and
said to him, ‘Simon, I have something to say to you.’
‘Teacher,’ he replied, ‘speak.’ ‘A
certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred
denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he
cancelled the debts for both of them. Now which of them
will love him more?’ Simon answered, ‘I suppose
the one for whom he cancelled the greater debt.’ And
Jesus said to him, ‘You have judged rightly.’
Then turning towards the woman, he said to Simon, ‘Do
you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no
water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears
and dried them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from
the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet.
You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed
my feet with ointment. Therefore, I tell you, her sins,
which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown
great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves
little.’ Then he said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’
But those who were at the table with him began to say among
themselves, ‘Who is this who even forgives sins?’
And he said to the woman, ‘Your faith has saved you;
go in peace.’
(RCL
Addition)
Soon afterwards he went on through cities and villages,
proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of
God. The twelve were with him, as well as some women who
had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called
Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna,
the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, and Susanna, and
many others, who provided for them out of their resources.
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Reflection on Luke
7:36-50
by John
Gibbs, PhD
Jesus has chosen the Twelve (5:11, 28; 6:12-16), but he has not
yet sent them to become apostles (9:1-6). Between those
events Luke is intent to show the inclusive future-oriented nature
of Jesus’ ministry.
Not past purity, but purpose that creates and moves into God’s
future is first priority. That is clear in the sermon on
the plain (6:17-49), which portrays the grain of the universe,
and how we may work out our lives in accord with it rather than
against it. It is clear again when Jew Jesus’ word reaches
out to a Gentile centurion whom he never met, and heals his slave
(7:1-10).
When the widow at Nain loses her only son, and it appeared
that her future was foreclosed, Jesus reverses expectations, a
resurrection occurs, and the future opens up for her again (7:11-17).
Future expectation is the issue for John the Baptist in his relations
with Jesus (7:18-35): “Are you the one who is to come, or are
we to wait for another?” (7:19). The answer contrasts “the
people of this generation,” who reject both the Baptist and Jesus
for nonconformity to their backward-bound standards, with on the
other hand, the proactive forward-leaning creativity of Jesus,
“a friend of tax collectors and sinners” (7:34).
Jesus’ ministry does not uphold dividing walls of purity.
It breaks through them to include women (8:1-3), to appeal to
“anyone with ears to hear” (8:8), to heal someone among Gentile
tenders of pigs (8:26-39), to help fellow Jews who, however, were
excluded from their own people by ceremonial laws (8:40-56, Jairus’
daughter and the woman with a hemorrhage).
All these events prepare the way for the apostolic mission of
“bringing the good news and curing diseases everywhere” (9:6).
So also does another event that we saved for now. That is
Jesus’ understanding of “a woman in the city, who was a sinner,”
when she anointed him (7:36-50). Luke highlights Jesus’
response to her by contrasting it with his host Simon’s reaction.
Simon reacts against her sinfulness, her impurity, her unrighteousness.
Jesus, on the other hand, responds to her “great love” (7:47)
by bringing to her the righteousness of forgiveness.
Simon’s cynicism, some might say, could be justified on the basis
of how that woman had been living, for she could not be called
a “righteous woman.” Over against that closed-minded rigidity,
Jesus’ creativity opens up a new future for that woman and for
those present who caught from Jesus a glimpse of hope: for her,
for themselves, and for the human race.
Simon, who thinks he is upholding the “righteous” way of life,
has not seen through the practical mundane and material actions
of this woman to the “great love” that was the engine of her actions.
If he had done so, he could have seen with Jesus that even this
impure person could “go in peace” (7:50) as a forgiven person
to whom a new future has been given.
This unknown woman had intuitively understood the spiritual uses
of material things. More than that, she had acted on that
intuition. Perhaps that is why, after commending her great
love, Jesus concluded: “Your faith has saved you” (7:50).
The leap of faith, as William Sloane Coffin has said, “is not
so much a leap of thought as of action.” That is, “first
we must do then we will know, first we will be and then we will
see.” [Coffin, Credo (Louisville: WJKP, 2004), p. 7]
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Reflections
on other Readings
[Standard (Episcopal) and Revised Common Lectionary]
for Year C, Proper 6
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Revised Common Lectionary
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Standard (Episcopal) Lectionary
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| Old Testament (Hebrew Scripture) Reading: |
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1 Kings 21:1-10 (11-14) 15-21a
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no reflection available
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2 Samuel 11:26 – 12:10,13-15
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no reflection available
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2 Samuel 11:26 – 12:10,13-15
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no reflection available
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| Psalm |
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New Testament
Lesson |
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| Gospel |
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Additional
Reflections:
Revised
Common
Lectionary |
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Episcopal Standard
Lectionary |
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John
Gibbs, PhD, a retired theologian, attended Trinity Episcopal
Church, Park Rapids, MN, when he originally wrote this reflection
in 2004. He and we welcome your comments. Please address your
comments or additional reflections to John
Gibbs or any MEESC
member, or mail them to:
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MEESC
c/o C. Morello
4451 Lakeside Drive
Eveleth, MN 55743-4400 USA |
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The MEESC assumes
that all correspondence received is for publication on this
web site. If your comments are not for publication, please so
note on your correspondence. The MEESC reserves the right to
decide which items are included on the website.
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This page last updated 2007-06-06.
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