“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;
hence, 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.”
This has always been one of my favorite passages from Luke's Gospel. It tells us so many things about faith, love, and acceptance. The most striking thing in it for me today, is that the woman is saved, because she puts her faith into action. Without fear, and fully knowing what could happen to her as a sinful woman, she comes to Jesus and proceeds to honor Him and show Him her complete devotion. While the others would have cast her out, Jesus accepts her gift and rewards her faith with forgiveness and salvation.
How often are we the the others who want to turn her away? How often do we, in our pride and arrogance, assume to know what it is God wants or expects of someone? How often do we completely fail to put our faith into action simply because it's easier to sit back and let others be the ones to risk it all?
Most of the time, I think we forget that our faith is meant to be a lifestyle, and that all of our choices are to be guided by our desire to do God's will. This reading reminds me that we are to step out boldly and put our fear aside to act on our faith. It's not a "if we feel like it" sort of option. It's a necessity to continue to grow in our faith, and to work toward our salvation.
We need to get out of our safety net, and reach out to those who need us. They probably aren't sitting beside us in church (sometimes they are), but they are out there and it is our job to find them. Someone said to me recently, "We shouldn't be asking ourselves what would Jesus do, we should be asking what did Jesus do?"
