The Word Made Fresh
1When Jesus finished teaching the people, he returned to Capernaum. 2There was a centurion in the town whose servant, whom he highly valued, was sick and close to dying. 3When he heard about Jesus he sent some Jewish elders to him to ask him to come and heal his servant. 4When they approached Jesus, they begged him to come. They said, “He is worthy of your help. 5He loves the people here; he even built the synagogue for us.”
6Jesus went with them, but before they reached the house, the centurion sent friends to tell him not to trouble himself. “I am not worthy to have you enter my home,” he said, 7“and I didn’t think myself worthy to come directly to you. But if you will say the word, my servant will be healed. 8Like you, I am a man under authority, and I have others under me. I can tell one to go, and he goes. And I can tell another to come, and he comes. I can tell my servant to do something, and he does it.”
9Jesus was amazed at what the centurion had said. He turned to the people following him and said, “I’ll tell you this, I haven’t found such faith even in Israel.” 10And when the centurion’s friends returned to his house, they found his servant in good health.
11Not long after this, he went to a town called Nain. His disciples went with him, and a crowd followed. 12When he came to the town’s gate, a man who had died was being carried out. He was an only son, and his mother was a widow. A large crowd from the town had accompanied her. 13When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her.
He said, “Don’t weep.” 14Then he went over and put his hand on the stretcher and the bearers stood still. Jesus said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!”
15The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus presented him to his mother. 16Then the people were terrified, but they gave the glory to God and said, “A great prophet has come to us!” and “God has looked upon us with favor today!” 17Word about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding country.
18John’s disciples reported this to him, and John summoned two of them, 19and sent them to ask the LORD, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”
20His men went to Jesus and said, “John the baptizer has sent us to ask if you are the one to come, or should we expect someone else?”
21Jesus had just cured many people of their diseases and plagues and evil spirits and had healed many who were blind. 22He answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind can see, the lame can walk, the lepers are made clean, the deaf can hear, the dead have been raised, and the poor have heard good news. 23And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”
24When they had gone, Jesus spoke to the crowds about John. He said, “What did you go into the wilderness to see? A reed swaying in the wind? 25No? Then what were you looking for? A man dressed in rich garments? Of course not! Those who dress in finery and live in luxury are in fancy palaces. 26So, what then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than that – 27this is the one that was written about:
‘Look! I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
and he will prepare the way for you.’
28“I’ll tell you this – of all those born of women there is no one greater than John. Even so, the least one in God’s kingdom is as great as he.”
29All the people who heard this, tax collectors included, praised the LORD because they had been baptized with John’s baptism. 30The Pharisees and the legal scholars, though, had refused to be baptized by John and therefore had rejected God’s purpose for them.
31Jesus continued, “To what will I compare this generation? What kind of people are they? 32They are like children sitting in the marketplace calling out to each other,
‘We played the flute, and you didn’t dance!
We wept, but you did not!’
33“John the baptizer came eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say he has a demon. 34But the Son of Man has come eating and drinking and you say, ‘Oh look! He is a glutton and a drunkard and a friend of tax collectors and other sinners!’ 35Even so, wisdom is confirmed by her children.”
36One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to come and dine with him, and Jesus went to his house and took his place at the table. 37A woman in the city, who was known as a sinner, had heard that he was there, and she came with an alabaster jar of ointment. 38As she stood, weeping, behind Jesus’ feet, she began to wash his feet with her tears and dry them with her hair. She kissed his feet and poured the ointment over them.
39The Pharisee, the one who had invited Jesus, saw this and thought to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman is touching him. He would have known that she is a sinner.”
40Jesus spoke to him and said, “Simon, I want to tell you something.”
“Please do, Teacher,” Simon replied.
41Jesus said, “A certain lender had two people in debt to him; one owed him five hundred days’ wages and the other owed him fifty. 42When they couldn’t pay him back, he simply wrote off the debts for them both. Which of them, do you think, will love him the most?”
43“I suppose the one who had the larger debt cancelled,” Simon said.
Jesus responded, “You suppose correctly,” Jesus said.
44Then Jesus turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? When I entered your house you didn’t provide water for my feet to be washed, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45You didn’t welcome me with a kiss, but she hasn’t stopped kissing my feet since the time I got here. 46You didn’t anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet! 47So, I say that her many sins have been forgiven; that is how she is able to show such great love. But the one who has been forgiven of little loves only a little.” 48Then he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
49The men at the table with him whispered to one another, “Who is this who thinks he can even forgive sins?”
50Then Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”
Commentary
1-17: Having delivered his sermon Jesus returns to his home base, Capernaum. Chapter 7 begins with two miracle stories which provide an example of the careful balance Luke tries to present. Both stories have Jesus restoring someone to health at the request of a third party — a servant for a Roman officer; a young man who has died for his grieving, widowed mother. The first is done for a man; the second for a woman. The first is done for a foreigner, the second for a native. The first is a sterling example of faith while faith is not mentioned in the second. In the first story Jesus’ authority is recognized before the miracle occurs; in the second, his authority is recognized only after the miracle has taken place. In the first story Jesus does not even see the person he heals; in the second he sees and speaks to the one who is restored. The first is the healing of an illness; the second a resuscitation from death. The first is done for a relatively important government official; the second for a widow. The juxtaposition of these two stories is not accidental but carefully contrived to illustrate Luke’s emphasis on Jesus being the savior of the whole world, not just Israel. Note as well that another of Luke’s themes is represented here: it’s the foreigner who has faith.
18-35: If you walk up to a dead man’s body in the middle of a public funeral procession and bring him back to life, you’re likely to draw attention. We haven’t heard anything about John the baptizer since chapter 4, but while Jesus was traveling around Galilee, John was still baptizing in the Jordan. He hears about the miracle and sends some folks to find out if Jesus is “the one who is to come,” clearly a reference to the Messiah. Jesus, as always, refuses to answer that question directly. He never claims to be the Messiah; that is a decision we have to make. He simply tells them to report what they’ve seen. When they leave he asks the crowd who they think John is, and verifies that John is the one prophesied to come to prepare the Messiah’s way. Most of the crowd accepts this because they had been baptized by John and they want to hear that John is a genuine messenger of God. The Pharisees and scribes have not been baptized, though, not being willing to recognize anybody’s authority but their own. Jesus likens them to children refusing to go along with the rules of a game; the Pharisees just wouldn’t dance with him. Or weep, either.
36-50: But a lone Pharisee named Simon decides that he will try to dance with Jesus. He invites Jesus to his house; so far, so good. But Simon just isn’t ready to dance. He is the one who sets the time and place, provides the meal and chooses the guests – except for one woman who comes in uninvited. So, it turns out to be not much of a dance. Read the story again: There is no conversation at the table. Simon and his guests are eating silently. They’re just doing their duty, you see — have Jesus for dinner and get it over with as quickly and painlessly as possible (sort of like a lot of worship services). That is okay, of course, because it isn’t a time to dance. It is a time to weep. The Pharisees have not been to the river, have not repented and been baptized for their forgiveness. They haven’t wept, so they have no reason to dance yet.
The woman who crashes the party shows them what to do. Weep! Let your aching soul pour out of your eyes! Kiss Jesus’ feet, because you’re not worthy to sit at a table with him! Pour sweet ointment on his feet because those feet brought him to your house and that’s the best thing that’s ever happened to you!
That woman makes my soul ache. She must have been thinking, “I have to kiss those feet. I have to wash the dust from them and rub sweet ointment over them. I need to cry away every hurt, every pain, every shame, every sin, and every sorrow onto those precious feet and let Jesus dance those things out of my life forever!”
Simon doesn’t understand, of course. He has done his duty and thinks it’s dancing. He makes the minimal gesture of hospitality toward Jesus; a house, a table, food. No kiss. No embrace. No refreshing water to wash his dusty feet. Simon thinks he can dance without having to cry first. He doesn’t understand that you have to pour the darkness out of your soul before you’re light enough to join the dance divine. He hasn’t repented, hasn’t wept, and obviously doesn’t know how to love.
She does. She knows how to love. Her tears are a lot more loving than Simon’s boring dinner party, and if she can love like that — make a fool of herself in a room full of fools — it seems only right that she should be forgiven of everything else. And that’s just what Jesus tells her.
But my guess is that she will wait until she is well away from that house before she starts dancing.
Takeaway
If you are not filled with joy, in spite of any circumstance you may find yourself in, you cannot take part in the dance. “Dance, then, wherever you may be; I am the LORD of the dance, said he. And I’ll lead you all wherever you may be, and I’ll lead you all in the dance, said he” (from Michael Perry’s song, “Lord of the Dance”, 1982).