Who is worthy?

It's an odd little story that comes from the Gospel of Luke and it asks many questions.  Here is where I want to start:  Who is worthy of Jesus?  Who is worthy of Jesus' life giving forgiveness?  Who is worthy of the transformation that comes from the love of Jesus?  [I know, that comes to 3 questions, but they are all really just versions of one another.]


She is a known sinner.  No one ever explains that because it seems to everyone who reads the story (I'm talking really knowledgeable biblical scholars here) that what she does to make her a 'sinner' is fairly obvious.  She is a woman who sells herself: she is her own commodity.  Sex for money.

Now I think it is important to point out that women who take this path  have few if any other options open to them.  They need money in order to survive.  There is no man: husband, son, even father, who will take her into their household and protect and provide for her.  She has few options for making the money she needs to survive.  You need to understand her cultural context before you go making assumptions.

She functions in a culture which values her for her fertility.  Without the ability to bear children, she has no value.  She may be able to give pleasure, but she is not valued as a person.  If she is lucky/blessed, she has given several children to a husband before she grows old.  If she is really blessed she has given her husband a son.  If God is looking favorably upon her, her husband has actual affection for her.  If all the stars align right, she will die before her husband so she isn't faced with the possibility of having no son who will include her in their family.  Daughters don't count.

So, on about 6 different counts, this anonymous woman has no value; she is a known sinner.

Is she worthy of Jesus' attention?  forgiveness?  love?  inclusion into his social circle?  By the standard rules of society, Jesus owes her nothing.  Nothing.  At. All.

Yet, there she is, touching !!!!! him in a gathering of important men (for who else would the Pharisee have invited to a dinner that had Jesus as a guest?)  She is making a regular spectacle of herself, crying and washing his feet and anointing him and kissing !!!! his feet.  Too much drama by half.

Then the story gets itself all twisted up.  She has shown great love because she has received great forgiveness.........that's what Jesus says.  But then Jesus says, "Your sins are forgiven.  Your faith has saved you."  So were her sins forgiven before she began this dinner outing or did she anticipate the forgiveness of sins or did she bring the ointment so that Jesus would forgive her?  What exactly is the sequence here?

What if I said the answer to all those questions is "Yes?"  She was forgiven before she arrived whether she had seen or heard Jesus or not.  She was forgiven as she anointed Jesus.  She was forgiven after she anointed Jesus.

Here's the key:  she was forgiven.  A child of God.  Worthy of Jesus' love, attention, and life giving forgiveness.  She was worthy: with or without the ointment and the tears and the uncertain Pharisee.  She was forgiven because Jesus was/ is in the forgiveness business.  She is forgiven because Jesus is forgiveness, and at some moment she knew this to be true.  It moved her to tears.  

I'm not surprised.